I noticed something was happening. The first time I saw it, I just softly “hmm”ed and moved on. The next time, I made sure to make a mental note.
We’re seeing old ads on TV. As in, pulled out of the vault, dusted-off 1980s ads.
I wish I could remember the first example of it happening but my brain mostly likely got rid of that memory in order to process the FreeCreditReport.com new band search. The most striking example that proves I’m not seeing things is a wonderfully nostalgic Era spot.
Note! IT’S NOT THIS SPOT. I googled endlessly but couldn’t find it. It’s a lot like this ad, except with this song.
Pretend you can envision this ad. It has a gravy boat overturning. It has wine glasses spilling. It has a Laura Ingalls Wilder-esque floor-length dress on a woman (no heads of people are ever visible). Then, like a beam of light breaking through the clouds, comes Era — spelled out for the viewer directly on the stain, E-R-A, the one thing that can save the clumsy, stain-prone population. Then two water jets criss-cross over one another, showing Era’s impressive spot-removing ability.
Part of what I love about this ad is that EVEN THE VERSION RUNNING NOW is unabashedly dated. The dress’ collar. The fuzzy graphics. The corny, frenzied orchestra piece it’s set to. There was little to no attempt to bring this ad up to modern speed.
And yet here it plays in 2010, when a middle-schooler with a MacBook and his iPhone could probably replicate the ad AND place it on Youtube in under a day.
My first reaction to this ad is, “Hey- I remember this!” which almost leads me to wonder if that’s what the Era team had in mind when they unfroze it from its cryogenic chamber. Were they banking on the fact that we may get a cheap thrill from recognizing an old ad? Or were they trying to remind us about how they’ve been around for a while, always helping us with our stubborn stains?
Maybe they’re running this ad because we’re in a tough economy and there are still many elements to this ad that ring true about the brand. I always particularly liked how they spell out the brand name in the detergent and a magic “E-R-A” is spray-washed clean through the built-up stains. It’s memorable and does, in a weird way, make me believe that Era can get the job done. Not to mention, if they’re saving money in the creation of the ad, they can focus more on placement.
In some ways, this is what Coca Cola does when it annually unpacks the polar bears and lovingly restores them to our TV screens. And there’s always that Christmas M&Ms commercial that I can recite by heart. “He really does exist!” “They really do exist!” THUD! Maybe Era is simply mimicking these brands. Unfortunately, these spots are perfectly paired holidays, when nostalgia is not only at a premium, but particularly effective. This Era spot has no season in the editorial calendar helping it out.
It’s interesting to see old spots run. I hope to see a few more trickle through so that I can yell “AHA!” at my screen, while feeling as if I just ran into an old friend on the street.
It happens almost every morning. Right as I’m dreaming of Hogwarts and/or my latest crush, Hugh Laurie, it goes off. The blackberry sitting on my dresser. Not to be mistaken with the old flip phone that still serves as my alarm clock. No, it’s the blackberry’s -BING- letting me know someone has emailed me. I throw a heavy arm over to get it to check for the name I know I’m going to see.
Thrillist. Delivered promptly at 4:50 with everything I should be doing if I was a cool little socialite.
I don’t know what these things are. Because I’m never actually fully awake. Most of their emails come before 6 AM. Several have come before 5 AM. I may see one mention of a resturant I should check out, but usually at this point in the morning I’m so tired that I’m struggling to believe that my bed isn’t the plane seat I was just on in my dream. Usually I slump back into my pillows and fall asleep, phone still in hand. Email opened on the screen. Until the other phone goes off telling me that I have to get up.
Thrillist is banking pretty hard on the primacy effect, and although I’m losing sleep over it, I have to say it’s working. Theirs is one of the few magazine-ish emails that I open during the day. And I know their name. I can tell you what they do even if I can’t recite their chosen hotspots. I know they’re funny. I vaguely remember thinking something was witty (without actually laughing, mind you, because it was 4 something in the morning) before passing out again.
So it’s interesting to see when people send emails. A company has many options. Pull a Thrillist and hit them before they’re awake enough to ignore you. And be consistant with it. Or pull an Ad Age and pepper someone’s email with so many varaitions of your publications that a person can’t scroll without seeing something you’ve written recently. Or wait until later, hoping that recency effect is correct and that people remember things at the end of the list more. And by list, I mean an exhausting inbox.
My time as a publicist made me paranoid about email scheduling and sending emails in general. Forget Fridays, forget Monday mornings. Make it early, but not too early. You don’t want to compete with emails sent late the night before. Make the subject line snappy. Bullet or number if you don’t think they’ll read it. I’ve read Chris Brogan’s blog posts about it as many of us have. Handling a full inbox is pencil-gnawed-like-a-corncob stressful. So what’s right when it comes to timing?
I’m completely ignoring the people who don’t check email on their phones. In which case, Thrillist would be buried. But that’s not their audience. I’m their audience. They go after people who sign up for things like email magazines. The active and young. Excluding my friend Jamie who is so tech resistant that she doesn’t have texting, and my friend Alex who jokingly scoffs at people with “fancy” phones, everyone I know is armed with a blackberry, iPhone or something similar.
Thrillist might be on to something with primacy effect. I must say- it’s surprising that I don’t hate them. They wake me up and I’m not a morning person. And I’m an irrational brand-hater. I refuses to eat at Thundercloud Subs because I hate that damn jingle so much. And yet, I kinda like Thrillist. It’s part of my morning routine now.
So there it is. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a rendezvous with Hugh in the Gryffindor common room.
I’m sorry I haven’t blogged. I know it’s maybe weird that I’m apologizing, but there’s a level of guilt attached to walking away from something that you connected with people about. Or through. I feel the same way when I haven’t tweeted. I know in both cases, it’s by no means severe. My ego is not so inflated that I think that I have dozens of readers who hang on my every word. I’ve been blessed to have friends, aquaintances and the occasional web-wanderer stop by, and I feel that it’s a shame to not give this conversation the effort it’s deserved. In my defense, I have two shocking revelations that may help you see why it’s been a challenge for me to blog.
1. I started a new job.
2. I *just* got internet at my house.
I just finished week three at my new job- a marketing specialist position at an anti-domestic violence nonprofit. So far I LOVE it. I get to do all sorts of things like run the teen dating twitter/facebook/website (which includes a blog), write articles for newsletters, proofread, brainstorm different ad campaigns, etc. Best part, I’m so proud to say I work there. These people (aka my coworkers) are doing such meaningful work. And they’re hella smart.
As for the internet, I feel like this is similar to a magician saying that he never actually owned a white rabbit. Or an Aztec Tomb (if you catch that reference, you get 10 points and we’ll most likely be friends). How could I, Ms. Millenial, wanna-be-blogger and Twitteress, not have internet in my own home? How can a fish survive without water?
Well, by constantly swimming in coffee cups at various cafes.
It was actually kind of horrible. I don’t recommend vagabonding it in search of wifi. Also, don’t trust Flightpath. Their internet will go out at the exact moment you have to send something every time.
Anyways, I’m rambling. I’ll wrap it up with this. A lot of people talk about social media fatigue. We’ve all heard people compare Twitter to an addiction. What about the sense of obligation that is attached to social media? I know I’ve said it to my friends in advertising, “Seriously- you’re not on Twitter?!” or “You should really start a blog.” Which of course is my reiteration of what people have told me.
-Which, by the way, I’m really very thankful for. I should be writing. I like to write. I love Twitter. I have a community there.-
But sometimes I think things like- what about work/life balance? Isn’t everyone saying that these days, with flex hours and whatnot, that we were actually almost starting to move towards a European, healthy understanding of when to work and when to shut the laptop? It doesn’t really seem like it anymore, with people using Twitter/blogs/Facebook not only for self-expression but also to advance their careers. What about the fact that everybody has some lack of resources–be it time, lack of internet, etc–that prevents them from engaging in social media sometimes? It’s tricky. What do we sacrifice in order to develop “a strong online platform” ? (I’m starting to gag when I hear those words these days btw)
Who knows. All I’d like to know is how you crazy bloggers/professionals pull it off. I know @TWalk blogs in chunks. I know other people who designate a time to crank a blog post or two out. You writers out there- when you’re already writing/editing/blogging all day, how do you find the energy to then blog for yourself? And still have time and energy to go to the gym, cook yourself dinner, have friends, go out, do laundry, wash the car, etc.?
Give the newbie tips. You know I love hearing from you.
Well folks, I have a new blog post ready to go except I can’t find the video I’m looking for. Also, I’m ridiculously pressed for time today. Apologies all around, but know that an upcoming post (maybe tomorrow?) will be about old ads playing on TV now. Particularly a very 80s laundry detergent ad that I keep seeing.
To tie you over, I laughed when a friend drew my attention to this case of an intern manning a corporate FB account:
http://www.facebook.com/TGIFridays
No, this doesn’t help my case that interns are trustworthy w/a company’s social media campaign. Just know that while not all interns are capable, not all professionals are either.
Maybe we should initial everything we do, like CJ here. It would be like we’re artists, claiming our work.
Hello, hello. I’ve been on vacation and incapable of thinking about much more than sun, sand and my next meal, but now I’m back to reality and ultimately, this blog.
Let me start by saying that I understand where the author is going. I understand what the chapter in this book that the post is referencing is saying.
But what a way to say it.
In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I have not read this book, which means I haven’t read this chapter. My response is based on what is presented in this blog post. Which, in all honesty, may not even be enough to even HAVE a response to. I get it- you can call me out on that and I acknowledge it completely.
But I still thoughts on this one.
Allow me to quote (aka copy and paste) Richard Meyer paraphrasing Liana Evan’s chapter:
In the chapter on “Interns make coffee not social media strategy” Ms. Evans says:
* Interns don’t really know your brand
* Interns don’t know your ethics of brand philosophies
* The have no real vested interest in your brand
* They might know Facebook but do they really understand and know marketing?
* Can they relate to your target market?
Sigh. Ok, let’s dissect.
“Interns don’t really know your brand/Interns don’t know your ethics of brand philosophies”
What? Yes, I recognize that interns come in all shapes and sizes and with various mental capacities, but your intern is probably educated. Your intern is probably even a marketing/advertising/PR major. If your intern- or anyone writing for your brand- doesn’t know your brand, it’s your fault.
Provide a proper education. Did you give them a brand breakdown of any kind (perhaps my personal favorite, the brand doughnut)? Did you give them a style guide? Did you select interns who displayed knowledge of your brand’s core values?
I was a copywriter intern for an ad agency. Did it take a few tries to get the right tone for the different brands I worked for? Yes. Did I eventually get there? Yes.
“They have no real vested interest in your brand”
Another headshake-inducing statement. I believe interns do have a vested interest in your brand, just as much as the other employees. Why? Because they have the most to gain. They probably want to get hired by you. They probably want to use this work in their portfolios. They probably want to actually learn.
Salaried employees care about a brand because it will help their career progression. Why do you think people intern? Same reason.
I like this one- “They know Facebook but do they know marketing?”
Who’s to say your seasoned account manager really knows marketing? Not to mention someone with more experience might not understand the vernacular of Facebook enough to get the brand’s message out there appropriately. You need someone who understands both the strategy and the medium. Who’s to say a bright up-and-coming intern couldn’t see the thought process behind the message?
Also, schools are teaching new media now. Not only could your intern know Facebook, they could know some of the psychological pulls behind social media that are responsible for people’s usage of these sites in the first place. So not only could they know Facebook, but they could have studied it to an extent unparalleled by your more senior employees.
“Can they relate to your target market?”
This is particularly rich since this could go for anyone, regardless of age and experience level. How well can a 35 year-old man write for a denture cream user? How well can an atheist pen copy for a Bible manufacturer? There are a thousand different combinations of mismatched experience types with brands- a good writer makes it work.
Also, an intern can research a brand just as easily as anyone else can. Maybe better- they’re probably a digital native.
This all being said, I side with these authors at the core of what is being said- don’t give your social media strategy to someone who doesn’t fully get social media. Fair enough. I know brands will sometimes seemingly pawn off social media on an intern. My point is that it’s not necessarily the handing the job to an intern that’s distressing. It’s the idea that the brand is pawning off social media, and so, not recognizing its importance. That’s where someone wiser can intervene, hand them a copy of Liana Evan’s new book, and educate them on why they should care about it more.
It may seem strange that my response to this post is an impassioned defense of the abilities of interns. It’s partially because I’ve been an intern, and not too long ago. It’s also partially because I’ve had interns, and to say they’re incapable of wrapping their minds around social media strategy is a disservice to them. And finally, it’s because I have really smart friends who, because of the economy, are still stuck in internship situations even though they are capable of doing more.
After all, aren’t interns just potential future employees? Their early involvement in social media could be profitable to the company that eventually hires them.
It’s hard because my perspective is skewed. I live in Austin, which is a very wired city. My friends are bloggers, Yelp elite, SXSW presenters, etc. There are Tweet-Ups every week, Bleet-Ups every season and there’s always an excuse to talk, online or off. So sometimes it’s hard to remember that these online tools aren’t as widespread as they are in our little wifi hub of a town.
One hilarious example of this was when my cousin from St. Louis didn’t know what lolcatz was. * DISCLAIMER: I KNOW THIS WAS ISOLATED- I KNOW MANY WEB-MEME LITERATE STL DWELLERS * But still, she and her boyfriend, ages 23/25 had no clue what a lolcatz was, what it meant to be “Rick-rolled” or even the meaning of “meme.” I had to have looked insane as I described each of these — no cell phone or laptop handy. “You see, they’re pictures of silly cats with grammatically incorrect captions…”
I can haz confusion.
I’m currently experiencing the gap between those who Yelp and those who don’t. I’m in Topsail, NC for vacation (I’m overlooking white-capped waves as we speak) and found myself completely unaided by the internet. TripAdviser has some information, there are some other various websites talking about the small coastal town, but when I turned to Yelp, my faithful guide, there was nothing. This was particularly disappointing when we were trying to locate a place to celebrate my brother’s girlfriend, Molly’s birthday last night.
Sure, Yelp does not a vacation make. But suddenly being without plentiful reviews has reminded me of how accustomed to this information I’ve become.
Topsail is a decently-known vacation destination. They have a tourism board. I’m sitting with Topsail magazine right now with a delightful cover of a sea turtle being rescued (they do love their turtles here) so I know they think about helping visitors. That being said, they haven’t started using Yelp to their advantage.
Yelp is a phenomenal tool for businesses. I’m obviously not the only one who has noticed this, so I will link to the others who have written better articles on the topic.
Here the Get Smart Blog tells you 7 ways to use Yelp for a business.
I know the digital divide is defined as the difference between those who have access to internet and those who don’t. More and more, I see other digital divides. The differences between those who choose to participate and those who don’t, those who know of the tools and those who don’t.
I tend to write my blog posts in Word docs before posting them. I don’t know why, though I guess if WordPress ever goes haywire, I suppose I’ll have backups. Anyway, I wrote a decently wordy blog post was about ready to copy, paste and post when I stopped dead in my tracks.
Wait, it’s Sunday!
In my defense, I’m on vacation. But is that strange that I don’t want to post it on a Sunday? I feel like people won’t really read it. I also feel like we don’t need to talk business until we’re all back in that mindframe, M-F.
Are we only true social media users M-F?
So, in a slightly ironic way, I’m choosing to blog about not blogging on Sundays in order to get your opinion. Do you blog on Sundays? Do you blog on weekends?
I’m curious to see what you say. Also, you’ll get a better blog post tomorrow. Happy weekend!
I had a writing teacher once tell me that the point of therapy was not only to gain understanding but to purposefully gain separation from a particular event. By talking about something, a person changes their relationship to it. If I talk about my dog’s death then when I remember it, I remember not only the death but also how I later talked about it. We remediate an incident so that we can move forward.
Online we are constantly remediating. We’re encouraged to repurpose content by the tools put in front of us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Digg and others. And for good reason. If we see something funny, why shouldn’t we share it? If we want to comment on something, why shouldn’t we be allowed to post it to our blogs?
I worry that in our online world, we remediate too casually and mindlessly. Although I’m all for constant sharing of ideas, I do worry that we are cheapening the original works, which does not encourage producers of content to continue creating.
Consider at a retweet. Who hasn’t had that moral dilemma of whether or not to shorten something someone else wrote in order to retweet it? We all do it. Though it’s relatively acceptable to change someone else’s tweet (granted it’s relatively the same) there’s a problem when we’re changing someone’s perfectly written sentence. Yes, they get more exposure from a RT and their message reaches more people, but they have no say in how you change it. Your altered tweet could have an unwanted implication for its writer.
Consider Youtube. The internet has drastically altered the reception and circulation of film and other media. Sites like YouTube have taken control away from the producers of the original media and have enabled virtually anyone the possibility of redistributing creative work.
I recently watched Sylvia, a movie chronicling the life of Sylvia Plaith on YouTube. It was remediation several times over. Not only was the movie remediating the written work of her poetry, but the person who uploaded the movie onto YouTube was further altering both her poetry and the film. The film’s posting on YouTube did allow more people free exposure to both the movie and her poetry, but at a significant price. Both the poems featured in the film and the film itself were paler versions of their originals.
The YouTube version of the film changed my reception of the film and the poetry. Because of YouTube’s time limits, the movie was broken into 11 different segments, each 10 minutes long, causing the film to feel fragmented. Transitions between scenes no longer felt seamless, but rather felt like jarring shifts in time and setting. After each clip ended, YouTube suggestions for similar videos would pop up onto the screen, which was also distracting. I found myself wanting to watch those clips instead of continuing with the film.
I couldn’t ignore the Google toolbar at the top of the screen. I had questions during the movie and so I kept pausing the film to google. Yes, it made the film experience more interactive. But sadly, this diminished the overall creative coherency of the film because it encouraged me to actively question the authenticity or validity of the story.
My point is this. We need to be mindful of remediation. We’re doing these things without thinking of what we’re doing to the original versions. Just like the children’s game of telephone, each time we restate a message there is the potential for mistakes. Not to mention each retelling (or reinterpretation) further separates the person who created it with the people consuming it.
I was exhausted, foodless and starving yesterday so I went to Wendy’s for lunch. Don’t judge. When waiting in line, I saw large signs about salads with glamorized lettuce which is clearly in response to all the flack fast food chains get about the horrible food they serve us. Fair enough. The detail that shocked me most was this. A sign attached to the register that read something like, “Help us fight diabetes. Get 4 small Frosties when you donate $ to our diabetes fund.” To top it off, the image accompanying their plea was of a young, smiling boy.
Huh?
Wait, in order to help this nameless, grinning boy with diabetes, we should buy ourselves— or potentially other children— ice cream?
Well done marketing team. You’ve found a way to remind the consumer how bad this food is for their body just before they order it. You’ve found a way to remind us how fast food chains like Wendy’s is literally feeding an American epidemic of child obesity. Or general obesity for that matter.
I guess in some ways, the fact that companies are now almost mandated to care about the people they serve is a good thing. Sure, Wendy’s money would be dripping with sugarized insincerity, but the money would still be helping people. And to be fair, Wendy’s official charity focuses on adoption, which is far more authentic since it speaks to its founder’s own experience.
I would love to see companies take a hard look at their consumers and better select charities that could help them. Wendy’s, how about focusing on food aid charities to help deliver routine, balanced meals to people?
That would be sweet indeed, and not diabetes-inducing.
Today I want to talk about two ads that are currently running that I adore. Oddly enough, they both have animals in them. I know the running joke that puppies and babies are thrown into every ad for that extra cuteness factor, but these are legitimately good ads, doe-eyed animals or not.
First up, I want to talk about the Dawn ad that has gotten so much positive attention, and for good reason. It is a brilliant (if not eerily prophetic) spot focusing on the work Dawn does with animals in oil spills. According to Brandweek, it aired only 13 before the BP spill.
Not only does the spot pull on the heartstrings, but it’s wonderfully reinforced by the Dawn’s current packaging, which makes for a memorable and effective campaign. I’ll admit, I consider Dawn a lovemark, so it doesn’t take much for me to admire the brand. Not only does their involvement in animal rescue showcase their global responsibility, it drives home a brand attribute- if it can slick oil off of suffering animals, it can surely clean the oil and grime off of your pots and pans.
Other branding magazines/websites have talked warmly about this spot, but have failed to mention what I find to be the key element of the ad- the music. Joe Purdy’s “Wash Away” makes the entire ad in my opinion. It reminds me of what Nick Drake did for that Volkeswagon ad.
Or what Nick Drake does for any ad—I’m looking at you, AT&T.
Yes, it’s blasphemy to exploit the emotional power of these gorgeous songs (and taint them by associating them with consumerism), but in terms of branding, and especially in terms of this Dawn ad, it really, really works.
Next animal ad is one that I desperately wish I wrote. It’s Pedigree’s “Heroes” spot created by TBWA\CHIAT\DAY, Los Angeles.
I think it’s beautiful from the opening line,
Shelter dogs aren’t broken, they’ve simply experienced more life. If they were human, we’d call them wise.
to its simple but poignant close,
Do not pity a shelter dog. Adopt one.
It’s spots like these that make me want to be a copywriter. Not to mention how it’s been incorporated on Pedigree’s website, this time sans voice-over, images and words left to themselves. Still beautiful. Still moving.
It’s spots like these that allow me to call advertising art and still keep a straight face.
