MARK BLAYLOCK

New logo, new strapline, brand guidelines and advertising. 

HAVE PREMIUM AND ULTRA-PREMIUM BRANDS LOST THEIR WAY? 

There used to be a time when premium and ultra-premium brands set the agenda.  They knew what they stood for. They knew who they appealed to and more importantly, who could afford them. They told you what they had, and if you didn’t like it or wanted it in a different colour, then go to another, lesser brand. They were unapologetic in everything they did. And if you didn’t get it, then you didn’t get it. CHANGE BROUGHT ABOUT BY CONSUMERS But then we saw the rise of content marketing, driven by platforms such as Instagram. Suddenly everyone was seeing where the cognoscenti were spending their evenings, what they were wearing and what they were drinking – and everyone wanted a piece of it. Sure they might not be able to afford it. But if they went without for a while, then they could stretch to it and then, they too, could share the premium brand they’d bought into. And this is where things started to go wrong for premium and ultra-premium brands. Their brand positioning was being skewed by consumers. And rather than reinforcing their positioning, they were enticed by the burgeoning sales – and let their brands be skewed. Then, to compound the problem, they started creating content. After all, it was just content, wasn’t it? So why not give people what they wanted? And this is the point. Because these premium brands, brands who’d always said it’s our way or the highway, were suddenly creating things that people were asking for. 

They didn’t just lose power, they handed it over.

WHY AUTOMOTIVE BRANDS NEED TO START TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR CARS

A GUIDE TO MAKING SURE YOUR ADVERTISING ACTUALLY GETS WATCHED.

There used to be a time when every schoolchild in every school playground could recite the jingles from previous nights’ ads.  There also used to be a time when we only had three and then four channels to choose from on TV. But there’s no point in looking backwards. Today, there are hundreds of channels on TV and there are millions of channels online. What’s more, they’re all vying for our attention. And somewhere, amongst all this, you’re hoping that your 30 or 60 seconds of filmic majesty is going to be the one that grabs everyone’s’ attention and you sell bucket loads of product.  So how do you do it? Well, here are my top tips to ensure success.

NO ONE CARES

No one cares about you or your product. They don’t. Sorry. The sooner that you realise that, the better. Because once you realise that, you can start to find a way to make them care. Either by making them laugh, or surprising them, or educating them but NOT through a groovy new film technique. Sorry again. Humans still connect with humanity. So concentrate on getting a great script first, and then the film will fall into place. A great test is if you can thing of half a dozen different ways that you could film it and they’d all work. That way you know there’s an idea in your script, not a technique.

NO ONE CARES - part two

Just in case there’s a part of you that still thinks there really might be people out there (your Mum excluded) that care about your product, there isn’t.  

ENTERTAIN

You are fighting for peoples’ attention. Apart from the gazillion programmes they’ve got to watch and the multiple devices they’re probably watching them all on simultaneously, everyone has something more important to do in their lives than watching an ad. There’s work, there’s a love-life, or lack of one, there’s the bills, the kids, the noisy neighbour, the list goes on, but you get the idea. So you’ve got to give people a reward for bothering to watch you. If you’re not sure if there’s enough of an incentive in your script, give it the Box Set test. If your ad was a Box Set, would you stay up late into the night to watch it?  If you wouldn’t, then it’s back to the drawing board.  

BE SINGLE-MINDED

Stand for one thing and say it again and again. Don’t be tempted by the glitter of lots of different propositions. More variety doesn’t give you more consumers, it just gives more confusion. You can read about a study carried out in 2000 by the psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper on this very subject here: https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better So take the time to think what’s actually true about your product or your brand, then say it again and again.

SOMEONE WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU

No matter how great your product or your brand, someone, somewhere, will always hate you. But that’s OK. They’ll never be a customer of yours anyway. So just create advertising for those people who you want to talk to. If you’re not sure who they are. Imagine your brand’s a person and they’ve stepped into a party. Now describe the people they’d be drawn to and then think how your brand would talk them.  To continue the party analogy, there are always going to be people at a party you want to avoid like the plague. Likewise, if you’re an extreme sports brand, there’s a very good chance an octogenarian philatelist is never going to be interested in you – ever.

Is it just me, or is every brand now asking you to review their products and their service?

What’s worse than this, these surveys tend to be generic.

Let me give you an example.

I went to a car website the other day (and don’t get me started on how they all assume you want to go straight into the car configurator) and low and behold, a pop-up appears asking if I’d be willing to complete a short survey.

Being the generally lovely guy that I am, I completed the said survey.

I then went to another car manufacturer’s site, and after looking around it, the exact same survey pop-up appeared.

Different brand, same survey.

A coincidence you say.

Just to be sure I went to two other car brand websites and sure enough, exactly the same survey.

Now there are a few interesting conclusions to be drawn from this experience.

Firstly, most car manufacturer websites look very, very similar.

Even the photography now looks very similar.

So there’s little or no brand differentiation.

Next, they all seem to assume that you’re going to want to find out more about their car by watching a film.

Now, if approximately 50% of the nation are consuming websites on mobile, a huge percentage of this lot will not want to use up their data allowance simply to watch a visual tour of a car.

So they’re instantly excluding a significant number of potential buyers.

Lastly, and this is the crux of this little rant.

If all these surveys look the same, then these brands are saying that they’re just the same as each other.

In which case, buying a new car becomes a price purchase.

The last thing any brand wants to happen because prices will only be pushed down.

Yet this is a situation that’s being brought about by lazy data collection.

So, two things.

Really, really think hard about whether your brand needs a survey. Don’t be tempted into thinking it’s a great way of connecting with customers, it really isn’t.

If people have a complaint, they’ll tell you, if they’re happy, they might even tell their friends and family.

Tips for both client and agency so that you have a long and fruitful relationship together

Every client wants to get the best work for the best price from their agency or agencies. More, they want the process to be smooth and trouble free.

That’s understandable.

The problem is, there isn’t an easy way to do it.

As a result, clients either change agencies in the search for the one that ‘gets’ it, or they persevere and bemoan their lot.

So, what can you do that’ll break this cycle?

Do you spend hours, days or even weeks with your agency, sharing your vision for the brand. Bringing them up to speed with the latest developments?

Do you complete detailed briefs and then give them the space they need to be ‘creative’?

Do you call them up as frequently as possible to point them in the right direction?

What about befriending them so that they put you at the top of their favourite client list and therefore you get the best teams for the best price working on your briefs?

The answer I’m afraid to say is more complex than one of these possible solutions.

Tell your agency what your challenges are

This may seem like an odd thing to do, but tell your agency what the challenges are that you face.  This could be aggressive sales targets, pressures on your marketing budgets, an omnipresent CEO, whatever it is, share. The more your agency knows about the trials that you’re facing the more they can do to help you. And even if they can’t help with a specific problem, it will at least give them a better understanding of why you ‘have to have the work a certain way and completed by a certain time’.

Create together

No one, in the short term, will ever know more about a client’s business than the client.

As the client, you need to realise this.

As the agency, you need to accept this.

Therefore, it’s crucial for the agency to welcome not only a client’s input at the initial stages of creative development, but for them to encourage the client to be a part of the creative process. Note the word, input. If as a client you start defining the creativity and telling your agency what to do, then you’re not making the most of the talented and experienced people at your disposal.

If your agency doesn’t suggest this, tell them it’s something that you’d like to try.

They may be slightly wary to begin with, but once they discover that by allowing you to be a part of the creative process, the work is completed a lot quicker and more often than not, is right first time, I’m sure they’ll come around.

You can only have two of the three

‘I need the work tomorrow, it’s got to be brilliant and it has to be 20 per cent cheaper than last time.’ All agencies have heard this, or something similar to it, at some point. And all clients, have at some point either said it, or have been tempted to say it.

There is an old mantra that still rings true today.

When creating work, it can be quick, cheap or good, but it can only be two of these.

Do please remember this when briefing an agency.

Mutual respect

But for everything that I’ve said, how to get the best from your agency can be boiled down to two key words.

MUTUAL RESPECT.

The Dictionary describes Mutual as: “A feeling or action experienced or done by each of two or more parties towards the other or others.” and “two or more people having the same specified relationship to each other.”

Respect is defined as:” A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” “Due regard for the feelings, wishes, or rights of others.” And finally, “A particular aspect, point, or detail.”

These two words summarise the required relationship between client and agency. Understanding that both parties have a roll to play in the creation of great work. That the responsibility for this lies with both, and you need to trust the other to play their part.

Client and agency also need to fully understand what motivates the other.

What pressures they may be facing and what their day-to-day objectives may be and how these may in turn lead towards longer term objectives.

Mutual respect isn’t a quick win.

It takes time, so don’t expect your agency to be great from the get go, but do give them space and time.

Yes, they are creative types, so they’ll have a tendency to go off at tangents. Annoyingly it may seem that they always leave your work until the last moment.

But remember, they are human, and we all tend to put off today what we can avoid doing tomorrow, so a call every now and again will keep them on their toes.

Do all this and the chances are your agency will impress you.