A rock’n’roll way to smashing away stress

Sounds like there is a more fun way to relieving the pressure of life’s trials and tribulations beyond squeezing a boring old stress ball.

Out in San Diego, comes news of ‘Sarah’s Smash Shack’ where stressed out customers pay to smash plates and even whole rooms. As their website states ‘because sometimes...you just need to break something!’

Their goal is to allow people to let go, let loose and go home with a smile on their face. The inspiration for the Smash Shack came when co-founder Sarah Lavely was at an especially low point in her life. She literally woke up one day and thought "I wish I could just go somewhere and break some things. I should open a shop where people can come and break stuff!" And, so the Smash Shack was born.

So perhaps rather than wanton vandalism, those old rock’n’roll stars might just having been smashing up hotel rooms as a means of helping blow away life’s shit storms.

Finally, (slight tongue in cheek thought) could there be a Web Shack version of the Smash Shack? Possibly a brand sponsored area where online users get to erase their frustration through the destruction rather than construction of a website?

Slogans of the Century

Following on from my last posting, a strong slogan can help strengthen a brand's positioning and presence in the mind of consumers. In fact the word 'slogan' derives from the Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm (pronounced slua-gherum) meaning 'battle cry'.

In line with the above, I discovered an Adage poll of the top 10 brand slogans of the century that puts De Beers 'Diamonds are forever' introduced in 1947 at No1.

The Top 10 list is as follows:

1) Diamonds are forever - De Beers
2) Just do it - Nike
3) The pause that refreshes - Coca Cola
4) Tastes great, less filling - Miller Lite
5) We try harder - Avis
6) Good to the last drop - Maxwell House
7) Breakfast of champions - Wheaties
8) Does she...or doesn't she? - Clairol
9) When it rains it pours - Morton Salt
10) Where's the beef - Wendy's

Some of these are surprising from a UK perspective which makes me think the audience polled was most probably from the States.

Within the UK you'd definately expect to see Tescos 'Every little helps'. What makes this slogan extremely powerful is the fact it acts as a brand promise in highlighting the company's ethos and alignment of efforts to deliver against this. And especially given the current credit crunch times we are now embroiled in it provides a timely and pertinent reminder of Tesco's focus to deliver consumer value.

Now, lets hear it for your personal favourite...

Power of the ad slogan ;)

It’s interesting to note in these times of increasing consumer resistance to broadcast advertising messages a news snippet (Metro 08-12-08) suggesting that the powers of a good ad slogan can pay dividends.

The slogan in question is the famous and enduring Dogs Trust’s ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’ which is just turning 30.

It claims to have helped reduce the tradition of giving puppies as presents from 1 in 5 present in 1978 to 1 in 50 today (though that’s still a yapping 130,000 puppies facing this fate).

The anniversary celebration offers the opportunity to remind people that dogs are not disposable items to be upgraded or discarded after a few months.

What’s strong about this slogan is that it isn’t a bland shout-at type message without depth or credibility. Whilst being hard-hitting there is also a rich tapestry of meaning within this that draws people to conjure up their own vivid interpretation – and make some of those people think twice.

Or course for every great slogan, there are 1000’s that, ahem, fall well below the gold standard. Such as a certain automotive manufacturer…

The Death of the Destination Website?

I’ve recently been involved in a debate about 'The Death of the Destination Website'.

This was sparked by the fact that more and more internet users are pulling content of interest from sites via RSS feeds, widgets, podcasts and the likes so reducing the need to visit specific websites. Such tools are in effect acting as filters. In addition to which we are also seeing more and more people subscribing to the curated behaviour, views and opinions of other people – in effect trusted ‘tribe’ leaders. So it’s not just tools that are acting as filters but also people themselves.

So let’s get back to the debating point about destination websites. Do brands need them? Or is it better to focus marketing spend and efforts on being in the flow of consumer conversation thereby negating the need for a website presence – or at the very least a ‘front-of-house’ version of this?

If portable content enables brands to meaningfully engage consumers without ‘forcing’ them to visit a destination website, perhaps it’s more profitable for brands to invest more of their marketing £££s on ‘fishing where the fish’ are.

However there are still many people who prefer, want or need the total brand experience (perhaps akin to say the different consumer shopping experience of buying the latest iPod product from Curry’s versus the Apple store).

So what if the construction of a brand’s website became truly ‘modular’ beyond the current RSS et al capabilities? Within this concept all content would still exist holistically within the website (giving the full brand experience) but it would also thin-slice into a variety of consumer driven content typologies that exist outside of the website. In addition, this portable content could have intelligence built into it (semantic web apps) to help anticipate and meet peoples’ needs in being really interesting, relevant or useful. This could be further strengthened through brands adopting an ‘open’ philosophy of encouraging consumer content collaboration and making it easy for them to pass on to others.

Take for example someone that exhibits search and browse behaviour particular to booking a holiday. Just think of the possible benefit to both consumer and brand if British Airways could serve an ad within the browsing site that gives this person the choice, in situ, to either purchase tickets; request further specific details; set up a mobile phone price alert; IM friends with the details; as well as visit the website for fuller information.

So to end, I believe it is both simplistic and folly to sound the death knell of the destination website. Instead it is better to suggest that the concept of the monolithic website is dying out. Perhaps this will lead in the not too distant future to the evolvement of the modular website – where consumers engage with content in its assembled or disassembled states according to their individual needs.

Importantly with the above scenario it’s not really a question of website content versus portable content; but one of developing ubiquitous content that co-exists independently or interdependently to a brand’s website.

Creating brand warmth

Report fromTruemors today: you can enjoy a flickering Yule Log on your Apple gadget without the hassle of tracking down matches. iPhone or iPod Touch users can download the Virtual Yule Log app courtesy of record label EMI from iTunes and enjoy hours of holiday cheer sans any fire risk or Christmas-y aromas.' Makes you feel all warm inside.

Hello - is anyone listening to me?

I saw a blog on http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/index.html entitled: 'Actor Robot Takes Centre Stage in Japan'.

It showcased a robot 'acting' alongside human actors in a Japanese play called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker) premiered at Osaka University.

As one of the few examples of robot-human interaction on stage, the robots were programmed to speak their lines as they moved about on stage. The robot used was the 'Wakamaru' from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, designed primarily to provide care for the disabled and elderly. It runs Linux operating system, has limited speech and speech recognition abilities.

The play is about a young couple with two housekeeping robots. One of the robots complains about its "demeaning" work and that leads to a discussion about the role of robots in human lives.

It made me think about the rise of the semantic web and computers gaining 'human-like' intelligence. Perhaps it's not too far off before we are seeking to converse with our laptops in the same way as the Wakamaru. Of course with the rise in computers chattering amongst themselves, could us 'the consumers' find ourselves in the same situation as brands are today online? In other words, to be in the flow of conversation we need to ensure 'we' meaningfully engage 'them' in a way that adds both relevance and value!

Engaging with Baby Boomers

I came across a recent report from eMarketer stating that baby boomers make up the largest US generation, both online and offline.

They are also big communicators, while trusting recommendations they hear in conversation. A year-long survey found that WOM is a strong influence to buying decisions among boomer women. Some 68% of boomer women rated information they heard in conversations as credible; 56% passed along the information to others; 39% sought additional information; and 55% said they made purchases based on their conversations.

However what really got my attention, was the fact this group are less brand-loyal than younger people. Some 61% agreed that “in today’s marketplace, it doesn’t pay to be loyal to one brand,” according to a 2008 AARP/Focalyst survey.

You’d think WOM media would be an ideal opportunity to engage with and influence these people. However the problem is they aren’t as enthralled with the internet in the same way as younger people who view it as an intrinsic part of their everyday lifestyle. Instead boomers are more likely to see the web as a functional tool to ‘get things done’. So when it comes to social media, many boomers do not see the point. Writing blogs and participating in social networks lead the list of Internet activities that do not interest boomers. Instead, respondents were most interested in e-mail, staying in touch with family and friends, reading articles and researching PR.

So how can loyalty be cultivated amongst this large and important economic group online group?

As all good marketers know, effective marketing begins with the gathering and application of insights across their target audience base. On the back of this, any mass market brand should develop a multi-targeting approach that reflects the diversity of user needs and behaviour across the entirety of this spectrum. Of course in considering this we must ensure the likely payback > the required effort in generating a positive ROI (where I = investment and/or involvement).

At a practical level brands need to become more ‘open’ and less ‘closed’ in terms of their communication points of entry and inclusiveness in seeking to engage with consumers (and facilitating chatter amongst fellow consumers). This starts by respectfully allowing consumers to choose how they wish to interact as an ‘entry point’ (such as RSS, blogs, widgets, email etc) rather than forcing them down the brands preferred route.

To help illustrate the above point…given it takes at least two people to start a dialogue (schizophrenia excepted) then for brands to increase the opportunity of starting a conversation with consumers requires them being at the same party and in the same room. No matter how interesting a brand may be, talking to an empty room won’t get the conversation very far.
Subsequently having achieved a consumer’s initial attention it is then imperative to actively listen and involve consumers to understand their needs in order to deliver ongoing relevance & utility. Sticking with the party scenario, brands ignore this at their peril. After all, nothing vacates a room quicker than a self-serving party bore!

Coming back to baby boomers, by getting the above right brands can not only enrich their relationship with these consumers but may possibly also help evolve over time the nature & level of their digital interactions. Getting back to the party scenario – I’ll drink to that!

Where all digital planners should hang out

A report from Springwise caught my attention.

Adour, a restaurant in New York recently opened an interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available.

The 4-seat wine bar is made from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin with built-in interactive technology. This helps customers to browse and choose a wine from Adour's complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface.

When a customer selects a particular wine, a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes.

I wonder if they’ll be bold enough to allow consumers to rate and post their own reviews and to vote wines on or off the menu. Oh, and also to be able to order wines you like direct from the producer.

As a planner working in a digital agency, I think further field research is required :)

Bytes that give away a dog's bark

In today's The Daily Telegraph was an article loosely relevent to my previous 'Barking Mad' posting:

Scientists have developed a computer program that "translates" dog barks.

The program analysed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations: 'stranger, fight, walk, alone, ball and play'.

Researchers, who describe their findings in the journal Animal Cognition, hope the advance will lead to a computer that could be operated by a dog's bark.

The team from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungry, plans to compare the barks of different breeds to find out what they have in common.