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johnny be good: insights, condoms and comedy

22 Dec

I love the Condom08 campaign – the perfect marriage of real insight, a creative idea and seamless cross platform execution driven by data and user stories. And it’s about sex, and everyone loves talking about sex. Particularly Swedish people having sex.

I’ve been having a bit of discussion about this with perennial provocateur Mister Corbett. His view is that it’s a great idea but it’s not founded on an insight.

“The only disappointment for me is that only 4 out of 10 people felt more positive about condoms. The campaign deserved better than that I think. However the truth is though that, while it is great, it actually doesn’t in anyway actually address the real issues with condoms – that being that they interrupt the experience. It is wonderful creative thinking – but not based around any true insight.  I love the campaign – I just don’t think it is based on an insight, I think it is based on a great idea. That’s not a crime – far from it, it’s fucking great”

I disagree – I think it’s genuinely insightful; it comes from the idea that yes, condom use is interruptive, but if you flip it,  make that moment of interruption positive (you stop to put on a condom and load the app, perhaps while boasting about how great your graphs are going to look, baby) you change it from being an awkward moment to a fun and possibly sexy one.

That, coupled with the insight that people are desperately curious to know what other people get up to in bed – for all we have access to more porn and sex blogs than can possibly be consumed in a lifetime, there’s a little part of every adult that still wonders on some level  ”am I normal...?”* And nothing tells you what’s normal like some mathmatically vague graphs and stats.

(*FYI: you’re a freak. Embrace it. Life is short.) 

So is using the disruption of putting a condom on to feed our prurient interest in what other people do in bed – and secret desire to brag about our own prowess – genuinely insightful?

Is that truly an insight, or is it rather just an observation?

I think a handy way of checking if what you’ve got your hands on is an insight, or rather, a glibly stated fact is to imagine you’re a stand up comedian.

Will what you’re saying make people gasp, turn to their friend and say sotto voce with a delighted squeal   “I do that!”, or “my mum always…”, or are you more like that awkward stand-up whose set is a series of banal observations prefaced with “Have you ever noticed the way that…?”

An insight is the “oh em gee, that’s so me!” moment, the prod to the solar plexus, not the intellectually driven head nod. As Simon Law says,

An insight is a revelation that produces great work
(there should be a degree of “Fuck me. I never thought of it like that!”)

Peter Kay is a fine example. If you’re from the UK and have seen him talking about “the big light”, you’ll know what I mean. He presents the everyday in a way that feels like you’ve never seen it before, but with that telling jolt of recognition.

I’m here all week. Try the veal.

Telling Lies to Idiots? Advertising, ethics and corporate responsibility

7 Jun

This week, I’m curating a session at day two of Mumbrella 360. When I proposed the topic for inclusion in the crowd sourced part of the conference, I expected a couple of votes, but apparently it had a flood of response. So even us jaded industry types seem to feel that it’s an issue we all face – how to behave ethically in an industry generally regarded as having the worst reputation for trustworthiness after used car salesmen.

I’m delighted to have a panel of some of the industry’s finest minds who have, it’s fair to say, very different approaches to ethics.

  • Joe Talcott, Chairman, AANA
  • Peter Biggs, MD, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
  • Max Markson, Markson Sparks
  • Andrew Varasdi, managing partner, Banjo Advertising

I’ll be asking them for their responses to a series of hypothetical scenarios.

We’ll be examining issues that might include: advertising to children, online privacy and transparency, green or pink washing, planting phony stories in the media, the treatment of staff in agencies, what responsibility bosses have to their teams, whether there’s a difference between ethics and the law as far as advertising is concerned…

Is there a single critical ethical issue in marketing you think must be addressed, or a dilemma you’d like to hear a response to?

Is the business of causing people to want things they arguably don’t need fundamentally unethical? Is seeking to manipulate behaviour to increase product sales in effect treating consumers like idiots..?

I hope to see you on Wednesday, where you can ask the question in person, or alternatively, leave your comments here.

accentuate the positive: constructive criticism in Adland

24 Feb

Sitting in the audience at yesterday’s Battle of Big Thinking, one of the most extraordinary things was the accompanying conversation on Twitter. It was free from the usual slights, snarky remarks and bitching – people responded to new ideas with enthusiasm, and a desire to share them. But sadly that’s not how the industry usually is.

A criticism levelled at Australian advertising is that it often lacks creativity. There are, of course, significant exceptions to this, but I think it’s fair to say we produce more than our share of “safe” work.

My small idea, inspired by the day, is that the industry should make a conscious commitment to become an environment that cherishes ideas and responds positively to creativity. Perhaps the reason for the lack of courage in creative is that the Australian industry is so hostile, quicker to tear down than build up.

Read the whole shebang on Mumbrella

 

 

o still small voice of calm: meditation and ideation

3 Feb catherine wheel

I have begun to practice meditation. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m a complete novice, and most of the time I’m frankly rubbish, although my teachers are opposed to this sort of talk. There’s no judgment here, they say. More on that another day.

What’s been interesting is the fact it’s changing my thinking in catherine wheelother ways. I was concerned that daily practice would in some way affect my ability to do my job.
I’ve discovered that my mind is like a kitten in a barn full of mice. It scampers and pounces on every flickering, corner-of-the-eye thought. Each rustle and twitch captures its attention and off it darts.
At work, my mind is a Catherine wheel in continual revolution, firing sparks in all directions. Generating ideas is central to what I do, and the notion of trying to make that frenetic creative energy slow down, even for a moment, has been frightening. Anyone who has ever suffered from writer’s block will understand what I mean.  What if, once the engine stopped, I couldn’t start it up again?

What I’ve realised is that you can apply the framework of meditation to the creative process. I like to call this practice
the Double Drop.
Essentially, you meditate twice. Once to clear your mind, and a second time to let the ideas come swimming up from the darkness. I’m finding it’s a shortcut to ideation: somehow, by slowing down and emptying your mind, only the strongest ideas persist. And you don’t have to struggle and search for them, they’re tugging insistently at your hem like a hungry toddler.

the double drop meditation
Sit in a quiet space, in lotus pose if you can, or with your feet flat on the floor, straight backed. Let your shoulders relax. Close your eyes. Start to observe your breath. Don’t regulate it, just watch as it enters and leaves your nostrils. When thoughts arise, try to return your attention to your breath. Each inhalation and exhalation contains your whole focus. When your mind drifts, simply redirect it to your breath. Begin to enjoy the feeling of peace. The more you do this, the easier it should be to think only of the breath. Apparently.
Do this for ten or so minutes.
Then take a moment or two. Consider the challenge or problem you’re working on. If you’re like me, it won’t have been too far from your mind during the first practice.
Then assume the position once again, clear your mind and focus on your breath. This time, visualise yourself sitting in a silent dark space. Imagine you are sitting in a small circle of light. Inhale. Exhale. At each exchange of breath, imagine that the circle gets a little larger. At last, when you’re sitting in a large clearlit space, notice that feeling of calm, enjoy the clarity and let the ideas come. They’ll come towards you, shyly or boisterously, like woodland creatures, beautiful and fragile, stepping into the light.

Now all you have to do is make them at least ten per cent less good and you’re ready to take them to the client.*

*Of course I jest.

I really have become such a hippie. I blame Australia. Must work harder on retaining my rapier sharp citykid edge.

(if you’re interested in meditation, I  recommend having a chat to the lovely people at the Mahasiddha Kadampa centre).

meditate in sydney

it’s the little things…

12 Jan

We talk a lot about the big idea. I think 2011 might just be about the small stuff, and here are some of the small things that will make a big difference this year.
I copped some flak, reasonably enough, for not having articulated the importance of microfinance as a key trend for 2011.
This is a small way of making it up to you…

microvolunteering This may sound a little like the way that you never meet a fisherman who’s only caught small fish, and gaols are full of the innocent, but I had an idea a couple of years ago to create an online portal to connect marketing and advertising professionals with charity projects in need of their expertise.

How could I
resist…?

Luckily I never got around to doing anything to develop it, because The Extraordinaries have taken my big idea and made it…smaller, leaner and much cleverer.
Sparked combines two of the big motivators for marketing, techie and creative types: showing off, and showing off on our iPhones. Whenever you have a spare moment, contribute your brain power, offer advice, strategy, and micro-consultancy, as well as commenting on other people’s work – all this from the palm of your hand. The morning commute might just leave you feeling good for once. At present the database is largely US not-for-profits, but I am sure the net will widen as word spreads across the world.

micropayment for creators I heard about Flattr about six months ago, and I think I’m right in saying that the reason I’d entirely forgotten about it until Beaney reminded me today is because, like various other ventures with the utopian dream of paying people for the things they create and we enjoy, it hasn’t really taken off yet.

Perhaps we need to embrace the idea of the blogger as online busker. While Murdoch’s Times paywall may not have solved the issue of how we pay for online content, there are other avenues in need of exploration.
Shakespeare got to get paid, son. *shakes tin*

small kindnesses
A stranger smiles at you without agenda; you pay for the coffee of the person behind you in the queue; a teenager offers his seat on the bus to a shopper laden with bags; a kid takes an old man’s arm as he stumbles: these acts weave together to form community.
Cynics may argue that these are acts of self-interest, a long game of investments in the bank of society to be drawn against in the future, but I’d rather live pseudo-altruistically than the elbow-in-the-face, everyone for himself alternative.
The “social surprise” campaign by KLM is a neat demonstration of the return on investment from random acts of (marketing) kindness.  The campaign reached a million impressions – it’s clear that small gestures can get big results.

(Thanks to the Digital Buzz chaps).

micromeditation
Regular readers will know that I abhor the hackneyed, so please don’t attribute my conversion to the practice of meditation to my recent backpacking trip to a Buddhist country. That’d be a terrible cliché.
But if you consider that three minutes of inner peace might just be the biggest gift you could give yourself (and those poor sods who must endure your company), you might be able to get past it.  Find a quiet space, close your eyes and focus on the ebb and flow of your breath for a few minutes. Thoughts will clamour for your attention like a greedy toddler with ADHD, but try to simply acknowledge their presence and let them be.  Even three minutes of tranquillity can help.
Health warning: I’ve heard a tale of a Buddhist marketing person being counselled for substance abuse after her boss became suspicious of her disappearing to a toilet cubicle at times of intense stress and reappearing moments later radiating zen-like calm.

microfinance for not for profits
Depressingly enough, the dream of microfinancing seems to have lost some of its shine. Muhammad Yunus, one of the originators of the microfinance movement suggested that running these schemes to benefit the investers, rather than as a charity, would inevitably “turn do-gooders into loan-sharks”. Kiva and other NFP funds continue to do good work, but there’s an emerging school of thought that using technology in small ways could help more effectively – Gates’ Foundation is working on making access to banking systems affordable for all; other projects are recycling technical equipment for use in developing businesses, in an attempt to solve both the issue of landfill and deprivation.

It’s what happens at the micro level that shapes the macro, and these are the changes that are easiest to make.  Which is lucky if you’re shiny-eyed and idealistic but pretty bloody busy, actually, and somewhat inclined to laziness on your days off…

It’s a small world, after all.

we could be heroes…just for one day

15 Sep Coventry

I’m neither English nor a patriot. I’m the daughter of a Scottish man who has a genetic memory of rage against the Highland Clearances, and an English woman who lost her father after he suffered shellshock in WWII and “went Doollally,” in the parlance of the time. He abandoned my mother just after she was born and she never saw him again. I’m from Coventry, a forever ruined city which serves to remind anyone how truly Pyrrhic victory can be. Coventry

So it’s hard for me to identify with the patriotism of the English, and the fervent martial pride people often display on the anniversaries of wars.

Working on the 1940 Chronicle with RAFBF has been surprisingly transformative; I love the campaign, and it’s part of my job to promote it. But as we’ve been planning and strategising to help the wonderfully written words reach their audience, I’ve found that the stories have started to seep into my soul as much as the audience have begun to connect with these fictional characters and their very real situations.

The campaign was created around the idea of bringing historical events to life using new technologies, using the contemporary to make the past relevant; the characters blog and tweet the events of this day in 1940 as though they’d had access to iPhones and pcs and the like.

I’m almost ashamed to admit it’s the tech stuff that’s made these stories so real to me; I’ve heard eyewitness accounts from so many sources, but suddenly pieces fell into place. How very connected we are now, how very fortunate we are to live in a time when it’s both physically and culturally possible for us reach out to one another.

It’s helped me think differently about my grandfather, how terrifying he must have found it being tormented by dreams of explosions and screaming, feeling as though he was alone in the world with those horrors. My grandmother, keeping a stiff upper lip, knowing nothing, unable to imagine the things he’d seen. And my great aunt, tirelessly nursing the wounded, keeping cheerful and busy and waiting all the while for a letter delivered by boat, months late, to tell her he wasn’t coming back from the front.

I’m struck by the realisation of how very lonely I would find a life where my only possible human interactions were face to face; as much as I treasure solitude, it’s always a choice.

Even I draw the line at the idea of social media bringing about world peace, but maybe it’s not so outrageous. I found myself asking if World War Two could even have happened if there had been the possibility of sharing knowledge so widely and so fast? For example, Wikileaks genuinely seems to be affecting the direction of the war in Afghanistan, and a growing diversity of information sources certainly shifts popular opinion on the subject. Forgive my reducing something so large and complex to a dumb question, but can you remain in ignorance of the humanity of your fellow man when you’re connected to him, when you’ve seen what his house looks like, know you share a love of music or making people laugh? Is it simplistic to think that when we connect with something real and meaningful, constructs like nation and religion will begin to seem irrelevant?*

Language constraints and internet snark aside, could you really go to war with and be instructed to kill someone you follow on Twitter?  Could social technologies make conscientious objectors of us all?

Primo Levi said

Meditate che questo è stato Vi comando queste parole. Scolpitele nel vostro cuore
- Never forget that this has happened. Remember these words. Engrave them in your hearts.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. As part of the Day of Action, we’ve asked people to do one small thing to commemorate those heroes. This post is for everyone whose lives were touched by that war, with deepest gratitude and respect to those men and women who fought and suffered and died so that we could be free. And perhaps being a hero for a day will be the catalyst we need to become heroic every day.

*I know it is. But a girl can dream…

Why FourSquare is anything but…

24 Nov

FourSquare. In the immortal words of Thierry Henry, “let me break it down”.

FourSquare defines itself as “part friend finder, part social city guide, part nightlife game’.

The team claim that they “wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things in and challenges you to explore cities in different ways.”

It’s a geosocial site (and application) which enables you to ‘check in’ at places and share details about your activity. More importantly – and this is what sets it apart from BrightKite et al -  it syncs info about local businesses to enable you to share your favourite places, give people tips about the things and places you love and create a to a to-do list based on the recommendations of friends and neighbours.

The opportunity for business is enormous, allowing brands to reward consumers who are advocates, to monitor, engage with and respond to users and to further cement consumer loyalty, e.g. offering you a free coffee if you check in at your local cafe four days in a row.

The B2C commercial imperative is obvious – can businesses afford not to have a presence on FourSquare?

The reason it’s so addictive – and will, I predict, become massive in Australia – is that it’s framed as a competition, with  just enough hipster credibility not to feel contrived.

You become the Mayor of a certain location by checking in there more frequently than anyone else, are given badges for particular activity (adding new places, spiked activity at night etc.) and user statistics are updated weekly on each city’s leaderboard (currently Likeomg, Warlach and I are amongst Sydney’s biggest hitters) – thus appealing directly to the ego and plugging in to our desire to be seen as influential, in the know, hyperconnected digital douchebags….

Rewarding users by offering them ultimately meaningless and arbitrary trophies demonstrates an extremely sophisticated understanding of the psyche of the early adopter/ digital native on the part of the creators.

It’s been hit by so much activity in Australia since its launch (in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne) on Friday that the servers needed to be upgraded, and I am still finding much of the functionality within the website is limited and buggy. It works like  a charm on iPhone though, which is after all where the heaviest use will occur.

Scoble says FourSquare is the next big thing, suggesting it’s as significant as the Twitter API release:

“It enhances your experience in each location. Check in at the Half Moon Bay Ritz and you’ll see tons of “tips” that people have left for you. Francine Hardaway, for instance, tells you where the best dog beachis. I tell you how to save $40 on smores. Other people tell you that Tres Amigos is the best Mexican place nearby”

This certainly looks like the first site developed for internet on the move that’s actually going to make it to the mainstream – the execution isn’t quite there yet but it seems to be well thought through at a strategic level, cleverly rationalised and with the key component -monetisation – built in from the beginnning.

FourSquare: pressing the “go viral” button any day now….


sexual iconography: so hot since 1400

20 Aug

There’s been a quite a bit of buzz around the new Seafolly ads which are currently gracing bus stops all over Sydney.
While the woman featured is obviously ridiculously buff and beautiful, there are thousands of such exquisite lovelies in ads all over the planet, and the chatter seemed disproportionate to the actual coolness of the swimwear.
I suggest that the one most striking quality of the ad is the amazing gap-toothed smile of the model. It worked for Madonna and it worked for an early feminist icon…the Wife of Bath.
Things change, our fetishes evolve, but it’s interesting to see that this remains a symbolic touchpaper to our collective lust.

Picture 18

Gat-tothed I was, and that bicam me weel;
I hadde the prente of seinte venus seel.
As help me god! I was a lusty oon,
And faire, and riche, and yong, and wel bigon;
And trewely, as myne housbondes tolde me,
I hadde the beste quoniam myghte be.

Chaucer, the Wife of Bath (prologue)

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