LaughlinOutLoud

The CMO of Coca-Cola was recently quoted in the New York Times on his approach to the down economy. “Donʼt let the urgent overwhelm the important.” I jotted it down, thinking it made a pretty great job description for any planner at any time. From time to time, Iʼd like to use this space to explore exactly what “the important” is.

I was greeted by the following in my Monday morning email: “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world,” John le Carre. (courtesy of the 4Aʼs Smart Brief)

Manitowoc, WI. Just north of the University of Wisconsin- Manitowoc. 7:40 A.M.

It seemed an apropos way to start the week after Iʼd completed The Scenic Shore, a 150-mile bike ride from Milwaukee to Sturgeon Bay. I spent most of my ride marveling at all the things Iʼd missed by taking the expressway north for the past few decades.

Iʼve noticed that the explosion of information in my world seems to be even a little more exponential than usual lately. Statistics are more readily available than ever. RSS feeds are staying stuffed, there are simply too many tweets to read. No getting around that. But a friendly reminder (and a big note to self): Get out from behind your desk. Cycling is different than driving. County highways are different than the interstate. And actually talking to consumers is different than reading trend reports and statistics.

New inspiration is just waiting to be discovered.

Famous creative people have fewer ideas than the generic creative people. The Coen brothers walk in with a story idea and the first words out of your mouth aren’t, “what else have you got?”  So you ask yourself, what would their track record be like if they had to pitch concepts by the dozens and then go through a vetting process with focus groups?  Fargo becomes Mayberry.

You can’t run an organization without process.  But, procedure is the enemy of originality.

Most companies have a department dedicated to idea killing. Ironically, it’s called marketing. Now these bright, enthusiastic people don’t want to kill ideas, because they were put on this earth to bring ideas to life that will engage consumers and increase profits. Yet they are miscast in the role of professional filters eliminating anything that might embarrass the CEO or activate the legal department and public affairs. No wonder CMOs have such a short tenure. Their marching orders are to help win the war, but don’t get anyone shot at.

So if the corporate objective is to avoid risk first and get attention second, ideas get killed.

A healthier mind-set would be to treat every creative person as the next incarnation of Lee Clow, Alex Bogusky, or Jeff Goodby.  Looking for the brilliance in an idea is a much healthier orientation than the mental metal detector scanning for the flaw. There should be a universal no idea left behind rule. After all, a little combustibility might be just what a brand needs most.

So am I actually suggesting companies should lead with their chins and embrace controversy?

No. What is needed, though, is a little more aggression and a little less caution. Self-confident companies take bolder positions and defy conventions.

Years ago when Mastadons walked the earth and young people drank wine coolers, Hal Riney had the audacity to use geezers playing the roles of Bartels and Jaymes to sell cocktails to twenty somethings. These guys were seriously old, wore plaid shirts and suspenders and completely defied conventional wisdom. All they did was sell so much product that no one can remember any other wine cooler brand.

Today in Australia, Kotex brand is running a campaign with a beaver. Yeah, you read it right, a beaver.  It’s controversial to be sure. But no one’s getting hurt and a lot of women are buying Kotex.

I can’t know for sure that this idea didn’t come out of a stack of thirty storyboards. But wherever it started, there’s a famous creative person and famous client attached to it now. Somehow their process didn’t kill their profits.

If one thing is certain in this moment in history, Barack Obama won the branding battle.  When we see the now familiar new age patriotic symbol of a round blue circle enclosing an earth of red and white stripes, we immediately fill in a sense of hopefulness and change, a new political order.  Criticized for lacking specifics, Obama won the broader, more emotional war of themes.  He seemed on message all of the time forcing McCain to constantly react.  McCain’s message became of litany of don’t rather than do, of can’t rather than can, won’t rather than will.

There’s no question the financial market crisis that is unsparing in its carnage has put perhaps only one person into a better place.  Barack  Obama.  The economy has even turned Joe Biden into the “other Joe” in the campaign as Joe the Plumber has come to symbolize our rude awakening from the American Dream.  I hope this Alpha Joe has a good agent.

There’s no more powerful change agent than a bad economy, but that aside Obama’s ascension is a case study in the market dynamics of new brand versus old.  Positive versus negative.  Simple and direct versus detailed and pedantic.  Emotional versus rational.

Being new doesn’t hurt.  Many of today’s most familiar brands were unknown ten years ago.  Amazon, Prius, Yahoo, iPod, Starbucks, Ikea, Jet Blue, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Red Bull, Ultimate Fighting Championship, even Al Qaeda.  In spite of McCain’s try to make more, pardon the expression, liberal use of the word “change,” Brand Obama came to represent it.  The newer face has advantages here.  If Sarah Palin supporters are about to raise their hands in protest, let’s not ignore that new also represents risk.  That offsetting position was McCain’s advantage and biggest counterpoint.  Whatever he gained from choosing Palin as a running mate was certainly compromised in the lost opportunity to position Obama’s newness against him.

That being said, here are four things all brands should do in their message strategy, that Obama simply did better:

1. Avoid the past.   That’s where brands go to die.
2. Don’t be negative, be comparative.  There’s an art to pointing out the deficiencies in your opponent using tact rather than venom.  Think Mac versus PC here.
3. Take a position your opponent can’t.  Or, better yet out flank your opponent by taking their best position away from them.  Obama anticipated a historic weakness in the Democratic brand perception of tax and spend, so he got out in front of the issue early by offering the entire middle class a tax break.  McCain was trumped on his best issue.
4. Keep it simple.

It’s not likely that great brand strategies alone can make great presidents.  But they can make one brand win over the other.  Which can put the winner in a position to let all the other tests determine his or her greatness.

One of Harley-Davidson’s mantras is, “It’s the journey, not the destination.” And those journeys create numerous stories. Having just helped launch the Motor Company’s first Museum, I experienced first-hand another journey with one of America’s top brands.

Since I’d lived, worked and traveled in Europe and Seattle many years earlier, I was cognizant of just how far away the motorcycle company’s consumer base extended and the connections that people had with the brand. In conversations with new acquaintances, I often shared that I had grown up west of Milwaukee and the common response was, “Oh! Harley-Davidson!” And the stories would begin.

By working with the Museum team, I had the opportunity to learn so much more about the Motor Company and enjoyed hearing many personal stories of those that have experienced or been touched by Harley-Davidson. It’s made me reflect on how Harley-Davidson has built its brand over the past 105 years.

As marketing professionals, we need to factor in numerous details when creating our campaigns. The Harley-Davidson brand showcases the benefit and importance of keeping in mind that at the heart of every brand is the consumer and the consumer’s personal connection to the brand. How does it make you feel? What memory does the brand conjure up for you? What memory should you help create? What memories, stories or feelings can we use to connect the brand with the targeted media or consumers?

Shortly after the Harley-Davidson Museum opened, I had lunch with a colleague at Motor, the restaurant at the Museum. During that time we reflected on some of our memorable moments that we shared in our journey in helping launch the Museum. And for those of you that think PR is glamorous, I’ll share one of our journeys… After months of pitching an early morning national TV show producer, I got a green light on the day before Grand Opening that they would cover the Museum on Grand Opening day. At 3 a.m. on Grand Opening day, we drove to the Museum in a severe thunderstorm to meet our clients, a group of devoted Harley-Davidson riders and the morning show crew. We waited out of the rain until the last possible moment before staging the bikes, and then literally just before the shot, we had to frantically run to get rags to dry off the bikes since the producer in New York didn’t want the motorcycles to be wet…But believe me, all of the work was well worth the 50 seconds of coverage on one of the top morning shows.

As my colleague and I continued to share our stories, I took note of the lunch crowd. It was a good representation of those that we were trying to reach – an older couple, international travelers, male and female motorcyclists from MI who had taken the ferry over and rode to the Museum, and young professionals. I wish that I could’ve taken a longer lunch and joined their tables to hear their stories from their journeys and their connection to one of the best-known American brands.

Maybe it’s just me — but in today’s highly cynical, me first, get outta my way world – I think that Miller Genuine Draft’s new “Search for Genuine” campaign is brilliant.

I love the TV spots featuring people facing simple ethical situations and recording how they respond with hidden cameras. They stand out simply because it seems to be such a rarity for someone today to actually do the right thing. Obviously, there are larger implications for society in general regarding what I just said, but I’m here to talk about PR – which brings me to the ad I found this morning in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This half-page ad asks readers to help identify the “genuine” guy who found a teen’s wallet at Summerfest and returned it to the owner’s home that same night without identifying himself or asking for anything in return.

The ad / PR idea was spurred by Journal Sentinel Columnist Jim Stingl’s recount of that story last week. When they find the guy – and be sure, they will – he’ll get free MGD for a year, compliments of Miller. Oh, and whoever helps Miller identify the guy will also get free MGD for a year. (Which is why I’m SURE they’ll find him. I wish I knew who he is…)

What a fantastic, tangible, dead on execution of a PR extension of the broader ad campaign. It’s timely, it’s local, it’s relevant and resonates deeply with anyone who ever lost their wallet — man, that’s a terrible feeling. It also keenly involves the local dominant media outlet and it will undoubtedly garner significant attention for Miller well beyond the cost of a ½ page ad and 48 cases of beer.

It’s a genuine example that a truly integrated, effective marketing campaign can and should look to include good PR ideas to maximize effectiveness.

In the debate between new or old media, viral or traditional advertising, push or pull
marketing, PR or product placement, one question comes out of the clutter, virtual or real. Is
there an idea in there? What are the words in the word-of-mouth campaign going to say?
What grand design will drive the digital?

You have to admire an industry that keeps finding ways to invade people’s privacy with new
technologies. I’m sure you can’t wait for your phone to start offering you Viagra when you
can’t get it up, or Tums when you can’t keep it down.

Maybe that’s why the best marketing was never an interruption. It was always a discovery.
The message never confused itself with the medium.

If you and the brand you’re working for are going to survive the next technology shift, realize
that it’s your ideas that will get you through. Artificial intelligence suggests that ideas can be
programmed. Well, not to worry, so can you. And yours will be better, or we’re all headed for
CareerBuilder.com.

Ideas occur in four steps. (It’s the third and easiest step that’ll get you down.)

Step one. Know what it is you’re trying to have an idea about. Seems obvious, but it isn’t.
Clever headlines, visuals, or publicity stunts aren’t ideas if they’re just there to get noticed.
Mixing plaids will get you noticed, too. If you can state your brand strategy in one simple,
declarative statement, you’re on your way to having an idea.

Step two. Absorb everything there is to know about the brand. It’s competitors. It’s
consumers. It’s selling channel. This is a good time to read that segmentation study.

Step three. Incubate. This is the secret step few know about, appreciate, or have the patience
to wait through. Your brain needs time to sort the data dump from step two and actually work
on the problem. It can’t produce an idea without some time off. This phenomenon is
commonly known as writer’s block. It’s shortened more careers than Donald Trump. The
antidote is relaxing. Thinking about something else doesn’t just help, it’s required.

Step four. Epiphany. The cliché is that the idea hits you in the middle of the night, or in the
shower when you least expect it. It’s true. And it’s a proven neurological fact.

James Webb Young, a copywriter at J. Walter Thompson in the early 20th century, wrote a great
little book called “A Technique For Producing Ideas.” He makes the idea process simple and
understandable.

Creative people take these steps instinctively, but knowing how ideas get made should give
anyone the confidence to work on them. Anyone except the client’s spouse or children that is.
Years of study have shown that’s where ideas go to die.

The sooner the rest of us get engaged in ideas, the sooner consumers will get engaged with
our brands no matter where they encounter them.