from the…”Department of Blue”

2 07 2013

We focus on doing one thing, that is, we play in one space. Food and Spirits. We like to think we do a good job for our clients, provide meaningful, engaging content and at the end of the day, make some meaningful connections between our clients (restaurants, wineries, food purveyors, breweries, distilleries) and their audience….their potential clients.

SLO Down Wines (not one of our clients) put together a suite of 3 spots as noted below….go ahead and click thru and watch the spots. Go ahead….you know you want to!

slo down screen shot

…..and that’s what they’re playing on.

So, when you’ve named your wine “Sexual Chocolate”, it’s made to 14.5% ABV and your website doesn’t have age gates, it’s safe to say that being salacious is not a concern for you. They seem to have their target demo right in their sights, are aiming at it and may or may not be scoring. It seems to be a theme, well, actually, THE theme with the brand.

Salacious takes some cohones, but, let’s face it, it’s easy.

We’re not in favor of easy. We’re in favor of honesty. Sure, we like the irreverence that they bring to the table here, and it certainly is going to get them some noise, but is all noise good noise?

Easy is trite. It’s temporary. It’s a one hit wonder.

Creating is where the talent lies. Clever is clever. Real connections come not from how raunchy you can make your campaign…that’s just self-righteous.  They come from how interested you can make your audience WITHOUT resorting to a journey down “the easy road.”

Let us show you how we can CREATE, be CLEVER and in so, CONNECT you with your audience. Genuinely!

cjm

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New Meets Old Meets Trust

27 06 2013

hyatt-hed-2013We love this idea!!

Hyatt hotels engaged with Postagram on Facebook and is encouraging their guests to use the Postagram app or site to “send a postagram on us”. The company’s spotting two postagrams per guest (that’s >$1.00) in an old school direct marketing “campaign.”

It’s very interesting to us on two fronts:

1) It engages guests and encourages them to spread the “novelty” of a postcard sent by snail mail with the Hyatt brand prominently placed. The current novelty of a postcard is key to this working.

2) It places the theme of the campaign in the hands of the guests, thusly making the theme of the campaign really the guests and their thoughts/experiences.

…and these two things provide distinct advantages. They do something completely different by connecting with a guest and then providing them a conduit to connecting with another. This indirect connection is significant in that the conduit is trusted. By using a trusted conduit, their connection is validated and is very difficult to dilute. The greater the connection between the conduit and the connection, then more cemented this 3rd party connection is.

Additionally, the content that’s being presented is crafted by the conduit and likely has nothing to do with the hotel, but rather the experience of the conduit. “Having a great time, wish you were here”, “Really miss you, wish you could have come”, “We’ll have to come here together sometime soon.” The connection is being addressed emotionally by the conduit and not by the brand. The brand has the luxury of being the delivery vehicle and associated with the emotion, but with a trust level that’s equal with a known person, not an empty corporation.

We applaud this and think it will be very successful for Hyatt. Check more out about it here:

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/hyatt-hotels-combines-facebook-snail-mail-150791?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=06-27-2013&utm_campaign=technology_today

note: we think the stock table set photo in the flyer pic is sanitary and should have been something more warm, comfortable, friendly, but that’s just us…and what we do.

cjm


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Leaders Don’t Belittle….They Inspire!

5 06 2013

This Microsoft ad from Crispin Porter + Bogusky went viral and it struck an odd note here at the studios. Take a peek at it…it’s entertaining and on the surface, cute and funny.

So, what does it say? We’re lead to believe that the tablet running Microsoft is a superior product for a myriad of reasons and then we’re led to believe that the iPad is only capable of, or is best suited, for those who’s skill level is that of playing chopsticks, parodying the recent iPad mini ad.

What rubbed us the wrong way, and it took a bit of digesting to get it right is that this ad does a few things that are VERBOTEN the way we look at it.

First, it belittles the competition with the chopsticks reference and then, as a consequence, it isolates future customers.  Additionally, it cedes its stance and genuflects to the iPad. We all know that the iPad is the leader, but we don’t ever want our customers to appear to be chasing from behind as the Windows tablet does here with the comparison to the iPad.  It looks like they’re wishing or floundering or begging….all things inferring that they’re not capable of being the leader.

Two more things: First, people aren’t looking for the most productive tablet, or phone or any other PED. They’re looking to fit in, looking to be cool and looking to be recognized as the kind of person worthy of a product like the iPad. They’d like you to believe that they’re cool by having cool PEDs.  Does the PED have to fit the need? Yes. Does it have to be productive? Sure., but you’re not going to make converts by saying that you can out PowerPoint the iPad.  Microsoft continues down this path for the Nth year. Apple took a different path many years ago as well.

  • Cool is cool, productivity is not cool
  • Don’t cede your position to your competition…regardless of where you are in rank. You’re already on your way to failure if you have.
  • Don’t belittle. Leaders inspire, they don’t belittle. People may not remember what you say, but they will always remember the way you make them feel. In the future, you need the people you are currently belittling if you want to be a leader. What are you asking of them?

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