Something to still be learned from High School?

We LOVE creative solutions and strategies so it was a simple e-mail from a high school, not a Guru's Blog Post that got us thinking .....It's clear government entities are spending far more money than we citizens and small business are able to keep giving them. It's also quite clear that the concept of cutting spending is an impossibility within the current "system" So, it's time for all levels of government to start learning to get more creative and "out-of the-box" to raise money than "Let's tax the (fill in the blank) ........"

Here's a simple but dynamic creative solution from Miramonte High School. Fund-raising meet e-bay
ONLINE AUCTION OF GRADUATION PARKING AND RESERVED VIP SEATING
Note: Minimum bid $250, increase in $50 increments
Winning bids are tax deductible!
Bid today and be one of the 10 lucky winners of:
A prime parking spot and
5 reserved stadium seats on the 50 yard line at
Miramonte's 2010 Graduation
Bid by clicking GRAD 2010 PRIME PARKING/SEATING and listing your offer.

Now what if the President/Members of Congress/ Governors/Mayors started charging for their dinners, speeches, press conferences? Each having a mandatory fund-raising requirement as part of their offices, not for a party but for the people?

Come to think about it, what about monthly bidding for "President for a day" seems like that would be a creative fund-raiser and their would be a line of "bidders" ......... How much would say, Sarah Palin pay?

Things are now CRYSTAL CLEAR at CLEAR CHANNEL

Go to the Clear Channel website and you’ll see a statement from Lowry Mays the founder “We believe Clear Channel's people are our most important asset. Our teams make the critical difference in how we perform and their skills, talents and determination separate us from our competitors”

Clear Channel Radio’s “last round” of layoffs resulted in the elimination of more local radio personalities. A move that left many of their major market stations with only a local morning show and in many cases not even that.

I called one of their Sales Managers to inform him that it would be difficult for my advertising agency to continue to justify investing advertising funds with a company that clearly no longer understands the core business they are in, LOCAL RADIO.

Never mind the minor detail that Local Terrestrial Radio is licensed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to “serve a local market”.

John Hogan Clear Channel Radio President and CEO is famous for his statement “Radio is no longer tall antennas in big fields” He is right! It’s satellite dishes on the top of buildings and voice tracks recorded from other markets.

Clear Channel has lost sight of their core business and I hope that other media agencies who add terrestrial radio to a media plan will join our position and invest the money with companies who understand their core business. Invest your advertising dollars with a company that invests those hard to get dollars in their core product.

Don’t just ask questions about ratings and prices but more critical questions which shows are Live and Local? If you are a competing media who still invests in Live, Local people in control rooms then challenge anyone investing in Clear Channels non live products.

After I delivered the news to the sales manager on how I was struggling investing any more dollars with his properties his arguments were:

“Technology has changed everything”

My reply was “everything and nothing. Everything, in that Pandora reaches more people during midday’s in certain areas than you do. Nothing, because people still tune in to hear a local voice in a globalized world”

He said, “let me get you on the phone with our Program Director who can help you understand”.

To which I replied, “Your Local Program Director …..who works out of Los Angeles”?

He said “BUT we still have this Big Name Local Morning show ”

I said, “we don’t buy one daypart”

He said “our listeners don’t care about hearing voice tracking they just Love Big name syndicated TV personality Mr X”

I said, “really? What happens when his run is over? The TV shows ratings are already slipping”

“This is Great for superstar content, we’re now a content provider ” he said,

My reply “your listeners need to listen to terrestrial radio to get big name national star interviews?

WHAT ABOUT real time local conversation Like ……who’s going to cover the Earthquake?

He said “but”

I said “STOP! The reality is we wouldn’t be having this conversation if your company wasn’t 21 Billion dollars in debt, would we?

21 Billion in debt due to a failed plan to take the company private. A plan that the financial institutions who are recipients of federal bailout money had to be forced by a judge to fund.
The resulting outcome according to a recent New York Times story "Clear Channel must pay 1.3 BILLION a year just on their debt". I doubt when you take their current “stock price” and number of shares they are even worth their debt.

The sad part is that some extremely talented individuals remain in the increasingly empty Clear Channel hallways. Unfortunately those that lead them are in many cases “good ol’ boys” devoid of vision and leadership. They tell the remaining troops on conference calls “they are the chosen ones” at least one Market President actually said there will be no more cuts.

Maybe the solution isn’t the elimination of local personalities ….. maybe someone should be looking at the Clear Channel Board, Executives, Regional and Market Presidents.

One thing is CLEAR John Hogan is right “Clear Channel is no longer a business of tall towers in big fields”

Updated Tweets follow: ceebeesf

BUT ... Advertising IS Brain Surgery

Maybe in years past advertising wasn’t brain surgery, fact is, today it is. You need to break through Media ADHD and get into someone's brain.

Are your customers "fans" ? Do they interact with your advertising (widgets), laugh and enjoy your creative (radio, you tube, Pandora) get turned on by seeing new fashions and styles that are relevant to them like club wear on hump days, (online behaviorally targeted and day parted rich media).

Is it that "ADVERTISING DOESN'T WORK"? or that THE ADVERTISING STRATEGIES, CREATIVE AND BUYING DON'T WORK?

We think Advertising is Brain Surgery, in a world without many Brain Surgeons.

Is your Media plan strategic? Your creative relevant? Are you capitalizing on media the way consumers are interacting with it, or just there just because it's there? Something we hear all of the time, "We tried ....(fill in the blank) it didn't work"

Macys needs to become more relevant with Females and the many Marketing Generations down to the iGeneration; The solution? Dump more money into newspaper ads? run the same horrible 60 second radio and :30 TV commercial promoting the 257th One Day Sale of the year on the 258th day of the year?

What if? Macys developed a widget, “The Shoe Diva”? You interacted and could be a 6, 5,4, 3 or 2 inch heel? Are you a a Croc or Birkenstock? Are you a cage-dancer or an urban warrior? What if online there was a series of behaviorally targeted and dayparted virtual fashion shows based on different user groups with rich media online with links to see if your size was in a store near you?

Maybe Advertising is Brain Surgery in a world without Surgeons?

The DEATH of the DEMO

It’s time to put the concept of using Broad Demographics as an upstream strategic tool into the history books. If you don’t, everything downstream is flawed

· Are you looking for strategies and concepts that enable you to be relevant with a consumer who increasingly doesn’t use e-mail as it’s too SLOW, rather prefers text and IM? (and OMG

u r rite she does it in “shorthand”)

Demographics should be DEAD, and Specific User targeting ALIVE. Why? Broad demographics date back to the 1950’s and as such do not reflect media consumption, engagement or simultaneous media usage of specific individuals today.

They do not hold up in an environment that the average consumer is using 10 forms of media a day has a 15 second attention span and that’s IF your message can grab them in the first 4 seconds.

Why are they still a core to existing media plans and strategies? THE INSIDER TRUTH”? they make buying, analyzing and comparing price efficiencies on linear media buys easy. They do not help you build effective strategic advertising plans and in fact, might accomplish the opposite today.

Another truth, agencies aren’t structured to deliver strategic segmented user strategies built on a specific consumer users media consumption. It’s too expensive, time consuming and back end intensive. Case in point, I have personally witnessed the SR Planning teams representing two of the largest US advertisers at a Major ad agency literally roll their eyes at the concept of identifying segmented users and creating media plans, strategies and creative that are relevant to them.

Why consider change?

Advertising is about being relevant and quickly “on-point” with a consumer so they’ll give you another 15 seconds. As an example: think about the Media Consumption behavior of the three female targets that are in the popular 25-54 Demographic.

· A working Mom with an 8 and 10 year old children

· A single clubber female

· A stay at home Mom with a 4 year old child

Oh by the way, all three are 33 years old. Each with entirely different media consumption behavior. Since we are “targeting” a 25-54 year old female, we need to add a 27, 40 and 50 year old female to the mix, then throw in different geographies. Using the media consumption of radio for the three individuals.

· The working Mom? drive time is the worst time to engage her as she is not listening and on the phone during commute times, she streams a “stress relieving station” at work, spends several hours Saturday and Sunday listening to terrestrial radio.

· The single female?, her radio prime time is after 8pm primarily in the car to a

and from, eating out, bars, shopping and clubs.

· The stay at Home Mom? she doesn’t control her radio listening Morning and Afternoon drive, her kids do.

Since the 25-54 Demographic spans 3 decades let’s be more strategic with a demographic “target” spanning only 16 years with the much more targeted 18-34 Female Demographic.

o 18 year old is a high School SR

o 33 year old is a working Mom with 2 kids, one is 4 the other 8.
She’s the 18 year olds Math teacher.

Using Demographics for your online buys? Online site demographics are not as important as the content being consumed. The site demographic may be women 25-54 but based on the selected streams, you could be targeting a gay male with a birth control message.

REMAKE of the song 4 MINUTES cause all you got is 4 SECONDS

If you believe in the power of Word of Mouth then get in touch with the power of the third voice. The third voice is always firing in your target targets head, especially critical if you are targeting women as unlike Men they use both sides of their brain simultaneously. “hella” important if you are targeting Youth.
Imagine the third voice as your targets monologue to themselves about life, similar to that of the author writing in third person. The third voice can tune you in, or tune you out; it’s active all the time. On dates, with your kids, husbands, wife, Life partners, commercials and even now.
The third voice is where a lot of advertising gets off track quickly regardless of the ad spend (Refer to the previous post GM give us a BREAK from BAD CREATIVE)
Question is, are your creative’s, copywriters and planners in sync with it? If not, campaigns are destined to crash and burn regardless of the amount of money or the number of mediums you throw at it.
This is a virtual exercise to show you the power of your third voice.
4 MINUTES the remake
I want you to think about the Madonna and Justin song 4 minutes. You know the one 4 minutes?
Can you hear it? You got 4 minutes, 4 Minutes………..
If you don’t know it go here first http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Ch5LTJhS0
This is the remake, I (Chris) am going to take the place of Timberland and we are making a small change to the title of the song to 4 seconds. This version is called 4 Seconds BUT it sounds EXACTLY like 4 minutes
Why ? Cause you got just 4 seconds to engage your target or they’re gone. Being gone might be the best thing as it’s also possible to insult the IQ of your target in the first 4 seconds and creating a negative brand position or consumer perception.
(Q the song …….)
(Chris)
What are you gonna do with it ?
(Madonna)
outta time and all you got is 4 seconds
(Madonna & Justin:)you only got 4 seconds, 4 seconds
(Chris)
that’s just 8 words, 8 words(Madonna & Justin:)
8 words Come onYeahBreak downCome on Boy
(Chris)
That’s it, just 4 seconds so just say the 8 words
(Justin)
You only got 4 seconds, 4 seconds to say the magic words
(Chris)
And the aint prices will never be lower
(Madonna)Tick tock tick tock tick tock
(Chris)
8 words(Justin:)Well don't waste timeGive me a sign(Madonna & Justin:)Time is waitingyou only got 4 seconds to get your message to the worldNo hesitatingTime in your targets head IS WASTINGYOU only got 4 seconds
(Madonna & Justin:)Tick tock tick tock tick tock Tick Tock
(Madonna)
Tick tock tick tock tick tock Tick Tock
(Chris)
What are you gonna doing with your 4 seconds ?

GM Give us a BREAK from BAD CREATIVE

General Motors TV, online and print creative for the week of the 4th of July 2008 boasts the copy point..... "Declare your Independence from Interest rates (aka High Prices) " Does the copywriter live in a commune in Topanga Canyon with no connection to the world? Is General Motors not closing down entire plants because consumers can't afford the GAS to fill up their GM SUV's and Pick Ups and Gas guzzling cars?

Ironically, the reason this got on my "Radar" was that the TV creative aired on the CBS morning news which was on in the background as I was getting ready and followed a news story on the closing of GM plants, the laying off of thousands and the worst sales (down 25%) in decades. My "Third Voice" (you know the one we all have in our head) actually thought it was a joke, a Saturday Night Live bit. "Who would possibly use copy for GM that the core message was your "Independence from high prices"?
Then my third voice got a grip and said " Thank god consumers are STUPID they will get totally motivated this weekend to go into the dealers and buy GM products because there is 0% Interest rates! You do know that the average consumers third voice is thinking "WOW auto dealers with 0 % interest (on cars they can't sell) this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I (stupid consumer) will NEVER see 0% interest again (until next month) I'm going to go buy a big ass SUV, Pick up and the other GM Vehicle this weekend.

This could be the worst case of Media Planning in history. Seriously, if you are planning the media for GM do you really think that buying TV NEWS is the best idea? Gas prices (Yahoo!/AP) are impacting 90% of Americans. Crashing automotive sales DOMINATE the NEWS. Airlines have media deals in place that spots must be removed immediately after any air disaster and this isn't a disaster?

Why? LAZY AD People who suffer from "Last Year Itis" This campaign was on a media promotions flowchart in September of last year, just as it has been for decades, the creative has been used for decades probably since wally Cleaver and it's just a recycled Bad Idea which has become a Horrible Idea.

This is why quarterly planning and creative review although time consuming is critical to effective advertising. Is it that Radio, and TV, and online doesn't work ? or, could it be that the creative and media plan suck and are out of touch with the specific person they are targeting?

To speak with someone, anyone enter ......

As Marketing Hipsters we are focused on 365 MEDIA STRATEGIES, Web 2.0, integrating widgets to social networking, harnessing new digital opportunities, the most effective Ad Words and organic search strategies BUT what about that customer trying to call today? what about the consumer, vendors,or your best evangelists, current employees who are just trying to get some help and connect with somebody, TODAY? Are they stuck in Alpha Numeric Hell AHN ? (You heard the acronym here first) Real people just trying to get through to customer service, sales support or YOU! As we look at and ponder breaking the digital divide, there are customers just trying to talk to someone TODAY. Think about it, we wouldn't be caught dead with a web site not updated since the CompuServe days ........ Using 70's technology in o8. Do you have an Alpha Numeric solution anywhere within your company? If so I guarantee you that is costing you business and frustrating customers every day. If you have a mobile phone with a QWERTY key pad interacting with an old school Alpha Numeric system is totally impossible. I had a recent ANH moment and had to text a friend for the correct corresponding buttons to an Alpha Numeric solution with my QWERTY key pad. BECK is 2 3 2 5 impossible to figure out with a QWERTY keypad as Beck is .....well it isn't. The numbers are astounding! Think about every Blackberry, iPHONE,Treo,Q,Blackjack,Sidekick ....... these users can not navigate an Alpha Numeric anything. If you are targeting upscale, professionals my hypothesis is that 80+% have a QWERTY keypad. 14.5 MILLION Smartphone handsets have been sold alone in the last 6 months. So thanks for reading and please enter the last name ...........