Advertising / Morts 'n' All

Choice simulation

2011-09-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a general consensus these days that there is a potential downside to the incredible choice in the modern world. That having 75 different crisp flavours to choose from just makes it harder for us to choose and that when we do finally pick, we're left more anxious about whether we made the right decision. After all, what are the chances we picked the best one out of all those 75 options?

It's been suggested that people who have grown up with this find it harder to make choices, so either pick without conviction, or fail to make a decision at all.

What's interesting for me is that there seems to be a new craze in computer games, that potentially reflects this. Games that allow you to make a choice and live out those consequences - sometimes even across multiple games.

Now this is partly about games doing what they do best. Making choices is just another way of giving the player power within the virtual world, and helping them to make their own interactive story.

But games are also often about being able to do the things you can't in real life. Fight in a war, compete in an extreme sport, leap across rooftops. So is the recent popularity of games that show the consequences of your decisions actually about giving people a virtual environment, in which they can make a decision and go along with the result, in a way they simply couldn't handle in the real world. Are these games just a reflection of a generation unable to make big decisions and stick with them?

When we are so aware of all the potential jobs out there, the potential partners out there, that we can never be totally happy with the choices we've made - maybe it's nice to have a Sim live a life of conviction. You can live it all the way through, happy in the knowledge that you can always play again and try out those other options.

Maybe it's just a matter of time before we get Walker's Crisps Flavour Picker: The Game.

The un-canine valley

2011-07-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

So there's an Andrex advert now with dogs playing instruments.

There's a lot to be said for the range of messages you can deliver and memorable situations you can set up with a CGI dog. Why I find it a strange route for Andrex, is that one of the only things that fake dogs will struggle to do, is look as soft and cuddly as the real thing. When that was the whole point of the dog's existence, it seems like a strange move.

This brings me on to one of my favourite crazy psychological topics. The uncanny valley.

The theory goes that we like to see human elements in animals, cartoons, robots etc. The more big and human a dog's eyes, the cuter it looks. However, there is a point where things start to look so human, that instead of focusing on the bits that make them look like us, we start to focus on the inhuman elements. This tipping point turns our love into repulsion, thus Terminator = scary.

Potentially this is an evolutionary tactic to help us stay alive. If we see someone looking particularly diseased, we'll be repulsed by them and keep a healthy disease free distance.

Pixar, who have successfully monetised cuteness, have long known about the uncanny valley. This is why their backgrounds look as good as lifelike, but the humans are odd, smooth skinned caricatures.

Our CGI skills are good, but not good enough to create something realistically human that doesn't make us want to be sick. There are plenty examples of this rule being ignored with horrific results - such as the cold dead eyes of the kid from Polar Express.

Amazingly, even monkeys seem to suffer from this. If shown 3 pictures - One a photo of a monkey, one a cartoon monkey, and one a realistic CGI monkey, they will like the photo and the cartoon, but be repulsed by the CGI.

Exactly how far this works cross-species I don't know, but I think it's safe to say that taking a dog who was designed to be a metaphor for softness and playing with the uncanny valley is a dangerous move.

Just look at how lovable the real thing is!

What a tool

2011-05-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Brands spend an incredible amount of time, money and effort turning their products into a story they think consumers will want to engage with, to learn about, to share. Often the messages are few and really quite simple. So why does nobody bother to investigate?

Of course everyone is busy, there are all these new types of media etc. These are all very valid and old points, but I think often consumers just aren't given a credible reason and the motivation to follow what brands want to say.

As my old friend Shigsy (the creator of Super Mario) once said about computer game story telling - you don't write a story and tell people to follow it. You create a world (product) and give people the tools they need to explore it and understand it themselves.

The other day some clever people from the BBC came in to work to talk about their 'History of the World in 100 objects' series. Brands find it hard to get people to contemplate their single new feature - imagine trying to get people motivated enough to want to investigate the entire history of the world.

The answer for them was deceptively simple. Make it about objects.

Everyone has an object that tells a story. About them, about others, about places, about the history of the world. By using objects as the tool through which the BBC could tell the story, it gave everyone the tools to relate to the stories, to tell their own and get involved in the series.

I think what's key is how closely this fitted with the series (product), but still gave room for the tool to be taken out into the wider world, to explore other issues. This is when things can ingrain themselves in culture.

In the same meeting, Marmite was mentioned. Again, the Love/Hate thing is undoubtedly linked to the product, but as a tool it can be used outside of the campaign, giving Marmite the kind of cultural power that still gets it mentioned on Britain's Got Talent all these years later. People are using the Love/Hate tool, but every single time, it is linked back to the product. Magic.

Even things like Carlsberg - Probably the best lager. The sheer quantity of fake Carlsberg ads online is a testament to the tool they created of 'making dream versions of every day things'.

I pick these two examples in particular as, being a massive geek, I naturally see apps and online as a way of creating tools for people to interact with and explore brand stories. However, I think it's important to know that traditional advertising can still achieve this - it just needs to recognise that consumers need a way in to their story. A tool which makes exploring the brand fun, which brings to life the story, but has the legs to be used outside of what are usually quite boring and irrelevant product categories.

The danger is if you make your tool purely about your product. Then you end up with Alan Hansen talking to you about the HOT TOPIC of whether you can look professional while chewing gum. I'd personally have liked to have seen this Good side / Bad side idea stretched further, with gum merely the way into it. As Marmite has shown, this wider focus can improve the product link, not necessarily come at the expense of it.

Having said that, I'm sure the people who made those ads know more about the gum world than me. I'm too professional to chew.

Everything is interesting, including pencils

2011-03-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

A really good way to look intelligent is to know the Latin origin of words, so that you can express the deeper meaning of a name. Unfortunately, 'pencil' is based on the Latin word for 'little tail'. So, instead of looking like Stephen Fry, I get to share the insight that you can make a pencil look like a small tail if you hold it near your buttocks. Excellent.
Apparently pencils were invented when a big pile of graphite was found in England and we decided to do stuff with it. It seems such pure graphite was rare, so we cunningly flooded the mine so no one could steal it. This is a wonderful defensive move and one which really should be used more often. Why don't we flood our offices at night to protect our computers? A quick drain before 9am and we're good to go.

Because of this brilliant move to protect our glorious graphite, England briefly had a monopoly on pencils. How this has never been made into a film, or long-running TV series I'll never know. Bastard pencil barons going to extreme measures to save their resources, while mocking the rest of the world for their lack of pencils. I'd watch it.

Questionable Wikipedia Fact Alert: Pencils are covered in wood to protect the weak and pathetic graphite inside. But at one point, the wood they used was in such short supply that pencil sharpeners were made illegal, to stop illegitimate and wasteful sharpenings. We sure do some extreme things to protect our pencils...

The colours coating the wood vary across the world. The market leader in each country picked a colour and then the lesser pencil producers copied it to look good. It's nice to know that cheap knock-offs have always been around. This is also why most pencils on TV are yellow, as this was America's classiest colour.

Pencils are also notable for using my least favourite system of categorisation.

Pencils are graded in terms of their hardness, or H. Also, their blackness, or B. Also there's a single rogue F for some reason. Why can't they pick a single unit of measurement and stick with it!

Unfortunately, most of my best pencil wielding years are behind me. They were of course used as training pens in schools, probably because they're mildly less dangerous (ignoring the common rumours that they were poisonous killers) and easier to erase than pens. When I think about it, there really is no need for pens. It's like we got overly cocky about our writing ability and decided we would do it without the safety of erasability. Like when kids don't want to wear a helmet while riding a bike.

Because of this test-pen status, I always think someone must be a bit childish and stupid when using a pencil. Like if they turned up to work with a Fireman Sam lunchbox. What have we done to the poor pencil! It was our oil. And now we've made it look pathetic.

There's still some love for pencils though. A quick Twitter sentiment test shows 61% of posts were positive. The rest were seemingly about losing pencils or jabbing themselves/someone else in the eye/thigh with one.

One advantage of being around so long is that they've worked their way into many a common phrase. So they don't just allow us to create beautiful things, they inspire it. For instance, just today there are two examples of people saying "Life without you would be like a broken pencil...pointless" to a loved one.

The sad thing of course, is that they sent that message over Twitter, so they don't actually need a pencil. In many respects, they are merely telling their dearest sweetheart that life is pointless with or without them.

Without pencils, there can be no romance!

Yes, the golden age of pencils are over. Replaced by a keyboard that no one would flood a mine, or make outrageous laws to protect. Pencils are now only to be used by artists, who look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle loving idiots while doing so. Research does not lie!

Everything is interesting, including sweater vests

2011-02-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

The good thing about working on one account, is being able to really get under the skin of every area of the business. However, I do quite miss the joy of researching completely new industries/companies/products. It's like there's no need for Google any more.

So, as some kind of brilliant (not stolen) cross between what Northern Planner is doing and Wikipedia, I'm going to research random things and hope that they're actually interesting. This really will be entertainment at its best.

To start off, I'll write about something very dear to my heart; the sweater vest.

Let's start by saying, yes, it is technically a tank top. However, I've always prefered the American name for it myself, especially as the name tank top has its origins in women's swimsuits (swimming tank). It just doesn't sit right with what is the most manly item of clothing ever produced.

So, what is it that makes a sweater with the sleaves cut off so spectacularly cool? Well, according to a slightly suspicious looking Wikipedia article, the answer is Afghan rap superstar Akbar Zaki.

I have my own theories.

The first is based on the experience of going to interviews for advertising jobs. Interviewers' styles can range anywhere between the t-shirted hobo look and the well suited, silently judging my shoes look. The magic of the sweater vest is that it can fill a position anywhere between 'semi formal' and 'formal', with a brief stop off at 'sports casual'.

Secondly, the sweater vest has a moderate success rate at hiding poorly ironed shirts.

Thirdly, Chandler Bing wore one.

Now, while my fashion sense has been described as Primarkable. It appears the hip kids of today also enjoy a spot of sweater vesting. For example, Urban Dictionary defines a sweater vest as "An article of clothing often worn by 'ridiculously' good looking teachers that make them somehow even better looking."

A quick sentiment analysis of Twitter also shows that 74% of posts about sweater vests are positive. The other 26% are wrong.

What are people saying about them though? Well, someone called Caroline made this announcement; "My boyfriend has a sweater vest. I love life."

Unfortunately, not all of the posts are about sweater vests single handedly saving relationships. One lovely young gentleman named Anthony states: "nice sweater vest faggot". Now putting aside the fact this post was listed as 'positive', Anthony seems to have misread the situation, like only a person who describes things as 'sick' can.

Does a man wanting to look quite formal, but not too formal make him a faggot? No. It makes him a sexy, wisecracking, Afghan rap star. Research does not lie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp3Txy0dA6Y

When computer game design enters the real world

2011-01-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

A long rooftop followed by a ramp to nowhere? I felt like I was in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2.

This is by far the nerdiest thing I've ever written. And I make nerdiness a criteria for all my posts.

She was a candle in the wind. Unreliable

2010-10-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

I always thought Channel 4 was the most digital savvy of all the channels. But apparently this doesn't stop them from making a mistake so short sighted that I'm shocked it still happens after all these years.

A little example of their latest initiative involves Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. A great, original, but criminally under-watched show that I love to share with anyone who'll listen. Or at least look like they're listening.

To help share this show, and encourage people to buy the DVD, I show people two clips. One is of the intro, which brilliant sums up the faux-80s TV show appeal and the other is a user made 3 minute version of a song from the series called 'One Track Lover'.

None of these are a replacement for buying the DVD, but crucially, they are great tools for selling the DVD. So why Channel 4 has decided to remove them from Youtube I simply do not know. The content works better than any viral campaign an agency could come up with.

At this point I should make it clear that I don't think this post is making any points that haven't been made a hundred times before (I probably should have opened with that and saved everyone some time). However, it's the very obvious nature of this thinking that makes me wonder how great creative companies can take this kind of action.

Now if I want to tell people about the show, I have to link them to videos that might actually act as a replacement to buying the DVD http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4073600336827045127#docid=5549328067719771845

Find out what this post is about by reading it

2010-10-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

I saw a lot of adverts for that Seven Days programme on Channel 4 recently. A lot of adverts.

I saw posters that stated it was a new kind of reality show. However, it didn't tell me what it actually was. A teaser poster you could say.

I then saw a TV advert for that Seven Days programme on Channel 4. A lot of TV adverts. They said it was a new kind of reality show. However, it didn't tell me what it actually was.

When it came to the show starting, I watched an episode of Friends. A lot of episodes of Friends

What kind of freak has a default state of being interested in anything they see or read or hear in an ad? Yet I've seen quite a few examples recently of teaser style ads that have made no attempt to get me interested in what they have to say, they just assume I'm going to take time out of my busy day (of watching that episode where David Schwimmer says 'pivot' a lot) to research their campaign.

I would give examples of these other ads, but I cant remember who or what they were for... if indeed I ever knew.

Sir Sell-a-lot

2010-08-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

The other day I bought some shoes. True story.

As I was trying them on, a shop assistant edged their way over to me, like some kind of professionally uniformed crab. Normally I don't like shop assistants coming up to me and distracting me from a good browsing, but I like it even less when they hover around, waiting for the moment I look remotely confused.

I have found this much worse since I've moved to London, with all these empty brand heavy stores. Assistants are part of the brand, so they leap at you, and there's no place to hide!

So, the ultimate brand store should look a little like this:

Yes, the Robot Wars arena.

Notice the Corner Patrol Zones (CPZs). If you enter one, the House Robots are allowed to attack.

Truly this is the ultimate shoe buying layout. Staff don't need to stare at customers to check if they look confused, and shoppers can browse freely!

Thank you Sgt. Bash, for showing us the light.

FTEW

2010-07-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for the Epic Win app for many years. Pretty much since the original 'Sims' came out actually. Something that rewards the dull and fruitless things in life with pointless experience points and irrelevant rewards!

It always seemed strange to me that people would get a computer character to read a book, in the hope that they would learn enough to get a new job, yet they wouldn't read a book themselves.

Unfortunately most things in life take a lot of time and effort to achieve, so a visual way of showing how every step makes you better is actually a potentially powerful tool.

Of course, this is only likely to be the case when you set the app to reward things with a clear goal at the end, but as FarmVille and World of Warcraft have shown, some people will do anything for a virtual reward.

So I look forward to seeing how successful this becomes. I think there's a slight lack of enthusiasm for interactive experiences that reward users in advertising, but if this app manages to make people happy about doing the washing up, why can't an app make them change their brand of washing up liquid?

Super Marmite World

2010-07-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here is legendary computer game designer Shigeru Miyamoto talking about how he creates worlds for players to experiment in. I often talk about how this should be the basis of interactive advertising campaigns, but unfortunately he has managed to put it into words far better than I could with my previous 72 posts...

"If they have a natural acceptance of the rules and of what's happening in this world that's been created, then that bond between creator and player becomes that much stronger and that much more important."

"And then what happens is as the player begins to understand the world that they're playing in, then they're going to begin to think about ways that they can play within that world; they use their own creativity and their own imagination to tell the story or to come up with their own parts of the story, and at the same time they come up with new ways to play in this world that has been created for them."

"As a developer then, we have to try to predict some of the ways that players will try to play in that world, and give them reactions or responses or rewards for using their own creativity for finding new ways to interact within that environment."

Why did Mario cross the road/bridge of death?

2010-06-06T16:10:00.001-07:00

I've just read this interesting article about new feedback loops in game design http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/feedback-loop-article

It's funny how much it all sounds like using Google Analytics on a website, and I'd be quite interested to have a gander at data for something like Super Mario World. Did everyone else die on that damn cheese bridge level?

Anyway, with this stuff standard behaviour for websites designers, and now games going at it, I wonder how long until we start seeing widespread tweaking of TV ads based on people ranting online.

Don't think "There's method in the Magners?", well we think you'll love "How do you get to Magners? Practice!"

Navigate-gate

2010-05-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

There's a funny thing in the computer game world, where a trailer for a game looks completely different before and after you play the actual product. (Yes it's a post that vaguely links computer games to advertising - I've found my niche gosh darn it)

Before you play the game, a video of it looks amazing. Characters running around, performing outrageous actions - leaping, diving, shooting - you have complete control of a relentless killing machine.

The strange thing is, when you come back to a video after playing it (which admittedly rarely happens), you suddenly see those movements differently. He's no longer leaping, but some one's pressing 'X'. He's no longer diving, but initialising pre-set diving animation 1. Suddenly you see the strings and you're snapped right out of the moment.

Sometimes this can be how it feels with campaign sites. They can be wrapped in the most creative skin, but it still looks and feels like an average website. You still navigate and move around in the same way you would on a news site, or a site about lovely socks.

I think this is why the digital campaigns that I really remember fondly are those that weren't set up in the usual way. Cloverfield for instance - spreading bits of an introduction to the story across several sites and social media. People certainly got lost and couldn't find all the story, but I bet they felt more involved than they would have reading a full and thorough 'About' section.

Of course, this can't work for 99% of campaigns and usability is quite rightly regarded very highly. But sometimes, for certain brands, helping a user navigate is good, but helping them get lost is better.

Russian Standard

2010-05-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

When you're trying to come up with new ideas for digital campaigns, it's easy to look for the latest technology, or the latest social network and try to be the first to take advantage of their sparkly new features.

So it's nice to have recently found two interesting twists on an old idea, from an old peice of technology. The first one looks at it from a new angle, while the second just makes it evil.

The internet's broken pottery

2010-04-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Visiting MySpace these days is a surreal experience. I bit like walking around in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Exactly like that.

Having been right in MySpace's target market during its golden age and then the target of Facebook's early push in the UK, I always thought it was a slow shift of people to the latter, with conversations gradually moving over.

Looking at all the profiles now though, It's like a bomb went off in 2007 and killed everything dead. In social media world, a month seems like a ridiculous amount of time to go without an update, and yet there I am on MySpace, apparently in the first year of university. As are most of the friends I have on there.

The thing is, I don't want to update it now. Mostly because I probably won't venture back on there until 2013, but also because it kind of feels like a Time Team excavation, with everything preserved as it was three or four years ago.

All the conversations, the stories, the fads. What feels like an entire eco-system just stopped, while the rest of the internet kept on, and keeps on updating. So much about being a Planner seems to be investigating the hidden stories behind actions and a social network frozen in time is a gold mine of interesting tales.

And there I was, an idiot, being an idiot. It's reassuring to know that the working life hasn't changed me.

I think I counted five, maybe six logos

2010-04-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Lovely short film called Logorama http://vimeo.com/10149605

You know what was awesome? The Recession

2010-03-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

The recession was a glorious time. Businesses loved us! They were good friends who would always tell us how much they felt our pain and cut prices to help us.

Supermarkets for instance. They cared about the environment and they cared about our difficult financial situations. They said NO to But One Get One Free offers, as they encouraged waste and over spending. In their place were simple money off offers like half price McCoys crisps - because supermarkets cared.

Then the recession (apparently) ended. Suddenly supermarkets weren't under pressure to care, so they didn't care. And so McCoys became 3 for £3. In fact, everything in Sainsbury's became 3 for £3. They thought we wouldn't notice, because all is rosy with the economy again. Well I noticed Sainsbury's. I noticed!

To me, the way the supermarkets have acted highlights the worst of brand behaviour. A good brand should have a core set of beliefs that it then applies to each situation to form a point of view. You should be able to look at a brand and be able to guess how it feels about certain subjects. That's how you create brands that people care about and that they can believe in.

What's happened here is that the supermarkets have seen an opportunity, made a big fuss about their 'beliefs' and their 'values', then abandoned them as soon as they feel it's not necessary.

To many it may be 3 loaves of bread for £3, but for me it's Jamie Oliver teaching kids how to order a Big Mac.

Actual product may not include what we're selling you

2010-02-27T09:09:00.000-08:00

Time for one of my favourite subjects - How Mass Effect promotional material annoys me.

I loved the original Mass Effect game. It was all about space adventuring, with a character you designed yourself and whose personality you shaped with the decisions you made.

Mass Effect 2 takes the character you made in the first game and continues to play out the consequences of the decisions you made in the first game, while adding extra levels of story and personality to your character.

So, given the very personal and unique nature of each character, surely the last thing you would want to do is focus all of your marketing and packaging material on a generic version of this character that won't actually appear in anyone's game.

It just seems like a complete waste, considering all that the product has to offer. No thought has gone into what makes games and customisable experiences like this different from film advertising (which this seems to aspire to).

Customisation is becoming such a big part of all products these days, but especially computer games. I understand that from a marketing point of view we're used to working with and selling linear stories, but as more and more games innovate away from this, I can't help but feel that the advertising is holding them back, by clinging on to traditional story telling methods.

Mass Effect is about travelling the universe and changing it with the decisions you make. That's not an easy story to tell, but it's a lot more interesting than being told the story of a man you won't even see in the game.

Go away

2010-02-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

Now the big move to London is over, it's time to kick start some blogging again. I'll start with an exciting story of my time in London.

The other day, I thought I'd purchase some tickets for the Hot Chip gig at Brixton Academy. So off I go to the website and click the "order tickets" button.

What it linked to was this:

Which is awsome.

It laughs in the face of CRM, usabilty, and many other words to do with making me, the all powerful consumer, happy.

In fact, it was such a hilariously bad way of giving bad news, that I found it hard to get angry at them.

So, I hope to continue experiments in treating consumers so badly that they decide it's too funny to get mad about. That's the dream...

No Daves (We're allowed one)

2009-12-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

Brands being able to have conversations with their consumers around the world is brilliant. But far from giving them the power to appear more active towards individual concerns, some companies are using social media to appear more distant than ever.

The fact is, most big brands are only talking to their American fans, and it can feel like those of us in Europe are just rude passers by, listening in with a cup against the door.

I can see why brands would want one world voice, but when they get people to post great deals on social networks for their online store, only for it to be exclusive to American users, that's not good enough.

It creates a kind of second class consumer, who can see great deals and great bonuses, but isn't allowed near them. If you're a fan enough of a company to follow them on Twitter or Facebook, then being treated like this is a massive kick in the teeth.

So lets get some more localised brand voices can we?

It's not the winning, it's the taking part

2009-11-27T04:13:00.000-08:00

I've recently been reading about Goal Theory in education and it's made me ponder some of the recent new media promotions that have been around recently.

It seems people tend to fall into two categories when approaching tasks. There is the Performance group, who want to complete a task to show how talented they are and the Mastery group, who want to gain the skills from completing the task.

What's interesting is how this effects motivation for tasks. The Performance group will be highly motivated for short tasks that they know they'll be good at, but they will quickly lose interest if they struggle, or do not receive praise/recognition.

The Mastery group on the other hand are more motivated by tasks with deeper engagement, that offer them new skills for their hard work.

So here's the advertising bit.

I'm sure I've stated several times before on this blog that I'm not a fan of the 'design a video/ad for our brand' promotions. They look to get people to engage with the brand for a long period of time, but then they only seem to offer any reward for the one winner, who probably already knew they had the skills to win the competition.

Most of them play to the Performance orientated audience, but this leaves the talented winner of the competition happy, while the others gave up long before because they weren't getting a reward.

This doesn't seem like a great way of getting consumers to spend a long period of time engaged with your brand.

I feel the best forms of interactive advertising are those that appeal to both the Mastery and Performance groups, in that they celebrate the best, while offering self improvement to all those who enter. I suppose the best example of this is the Nike + work and I think this kind of work that rewards all who take part is by far the best way of getting genuine long term engagement, not just a few YouTube uploads for the novelty of it.

C-lists' friends lists

2009-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I did quite enjoy seeing the 'Stephen Fry: Tweet Me!' sign from a member of the crowd in the Darts final yesterday, and of course the following shout out from the man himself.

However, I can't help but feel as Twitter gets bigger, all live news and sporting events will collapse in a sea of people trying to get Andi Peters to say their name.

There used to be an art to celebrity stalking...

Accidental Genius

2009-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've seen two great uses of word of mouth and new media by EA recently, but I can't figure out if they were on purpose or not. I guess that's the future of internet promotions really - if they're done well people are sucked in without knowing about it.

Become the enemy of your friends enemy

The first thing they did was attack the dodgy developer Tim Langdell, who was famous only for having copyrighted the word Edge and using it to get money off of loads of real developers. He had recently got a game called Edge taken off the App store and this had lead to the gaming community uncovering his various unpleasant methods of creating court cases, such as pretending he had a game called 'MIRRORS a game by EDGE' in production.

And so this is where EA came in and decided to take Tim to court over the fact that he was forcing real developers to pay him money for no legitimate reason. Thus somehow the lawyers of a big corporation were being hailed as heroes by fans of small indie studios. Just a few short years ago EA's lawyers were a symbol of everything wrong with the games industry to many hardcore gamers, so whether it was on purpose or not, the lawsuit made a real positive impact on the company's image.

A bug in the system

This one I'm fairly certain wasn't on purpose, but it would have been so clever I really hope it was the work of a marketing man.

Last Saturday there was a bug on the EA store which meant putting three specific games in your basket got you them for free. Seems like a terrible thing for a business, but as soon as one customer got the games for free the internet was flooded with people talking about the EA store and stepping over their own mother to sign up and get the games before the bug was fixed.

At a time when EA are desperately trying to create an online digital distribution service which can compete with the likes of Steam, this 'bug' created word of mouth the size and speed of which no ordinary promotion could have managed.

The Pringle Jingle Pickle

2009-10-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

I was disappointed to see the new Pringles advert contained a song about wanting fun - and it wasn't this poetic assault on the senses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eKu2eDgiac

If anyone working for Pringles is currently searching for a song about partying for their next ad, I may have a suggestion for you...

Adverts are like Primark t-shirts

2009-09-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

Two TV adverts seem to be on at every break recently. The googly eyed drug driving campaign and the Derren Brown lottery shenanigans.

The thing is, only one of those ads seems to realise it's being shown all the time. So, while the big eyes are appropriately eye catching the first time you see them, you soon get bored by the traditional naughty-driving storyline.

However, even after Derren's been burnt like a witch for guessing those numbers, I still pay close attention to his ads for all the little messages and tricks in the background.

Now obviously not everyone is trying to sell magic paraphernalia, or Paul Daniels would still be on TV, but it seems like there must be enough material in a good product or idea to keep an advert interesting through the second and third viewing.

It strikes me as strange that we all aim to get the right consumers to see our ad multiple times, and yet very rarely are they ever given anything to make them want to pay attention more than once.

Whether putting hidden detail in an ad, mixing up the same story to give it a new lease of life (see previous Barclays post) or just having an idea so good it's worth seeing twice, there's no doubt that with a bit of skill and talent, consumers can be made to want to see your communication again.

In the land of Sky+, if the big campaigns want to live the dream of being as good as the content it interrupts, then there needs to be acceptance that a design/story/reveal that only engages once, is only worth showing once.

A brief chat with Duffy

2009-08-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

I love Spotify, but I can't stand the adverts. Not the frequency of the adverts, just the adverts themselves.

Sometimes it feels like the people producing the ads have never discovered audio in an advert before. I can't think of any other reason for them to think it was a good idea to get this weeks most popular artists and get them to talk to me about their records with all the excitement of someone selling me a new mobile phone plan.

Of course, maybe it's just them thinking this Spotify is a bit like one of them social networks, so let's pretend we're all friends. Well it doesn't work. There's a reason why TV ads for albums show the songs and the videos, rather than 30 seconds of Bono sitting by a fireplace saying "Oh, hello there! I'd like to take a few minutes to talk to you about our lovely new album".

Even that sounds a bit too natural compared to some of the scripted stuff being read out by artists who clearly aren't selected to talk to me based on the music I listen to. For example: "The guys at Spotify think that everyone loves music, and I think you will too".

Now, unless upon me downloading this woman's song I step outside and the world is holding hands and singing together in peace, I find it hard to see any sense in that line what so ever. It would feel stupidly corporate in a hard sell TV ad, let alone this friendly online chat between musical pals.

So please Spotify, I honestly don't mind how many adverts for albums you put in there, just make sure I can hear the music and not some marketing guys 'friendly' chatter.

Loser Generated

2009-08-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my things vaguely related to both computer games and advertising.

Ever since John Internet invented Web 2.0, there have been competitions based around Youtube videos. They're all good fun and there's usually entertainment in watching the winners, but its not really that inclusive.

The trouble with user generated content as competitions is that there's a lot of people using the internet, and only one of those I would like to win. If people had to create a film each week just to enter the lottery then no-one would do it and this is sometimes how these competitions can feel for me. A lot of effort, for no reward.

So, the question is, how do you get people to take part in a challenge which for most people is far too tough for them to win? Who knows... but there are a few interesting examples of ways computer games have tackled this issue.

The first example is quite simply just breaking the challenge down into chunks. The Xbox does this using achievements - little celebrations that appear periodically to reward you for each major step you make in the game. So if someone never makes it to the big boss on level 10, they still have little medals saying they've conquered the game right up to level 9.

Now achievements are a big success story in gaming, but there's not much point having a level 9 badge if there's no-one to compare it to. This is where rivals come in.

In the old days a rival was probably a friend playing at your side, but with the internet there can be millions of people you've never met, doing better than you at a game. This is where a music game called Audiosurf has done some great work. First of all it splits scoreboards by songs, so there'll always be one track in your iTunes list that's obscure enough for you to top the leaderboard with.

Secondly, it sends you an email when someone beats your score and knocks off your crown. I recently received one saying someone had beaten my score at 'The Groove' by Muse, and despite having not played the game for several months, I am now wholly focused on crushing my nemesis. A rival, out of nowhere! It's genius and has exactly the same effect it does in sports - it makes you try harder and play more.

Finally, there's Spore, perhaps the most closely related to my Youtube ramble at the start, as it too is essentially a tool for user generated content. For those who don't know, you essentially use the game to build all manner of creatures and then construct your own designs for their houses etc.

This could have quite easily ended in the usual problem of a few superhumans creating work better than everyone one else, so the average Joe's work is forgotten. However, the twist is that it places other people's work into your game at all times, so you will always see new creatures and buildings created by someone, somewhere in the world.

There are still options to pick from the best of the bunch, but by default, the work of anyone in the world can be used to populate your planet. This leads to not only enjoyment at other peoples creations, but also extra work on your own, because you know that far far away someone has just been clawed to death by your incredible Dr Zoidberg look-a-like.

Now for me those first two examples can be put into practice straight away, but I think the final idea opens up an interesting area about how promotions based around user generated content can have people's work integrated right through the experience, and become part of the interaction, not just as something you passively view at the end.

Congratulations, the audience recalled none of the information!

2009-07-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Quick Quid TV advert is surely a work of cunning genius.

It gets the perfect balance of boredom and repetition, so that after viewing it around four times I know the name and a general idea of what the business is.

Now perhaps this isn't the best a company could hope for after four viewings, but I think it's very successful for the fact that at no point after seeing the ad did I scream "Typical 2356% APR".

Typical 2356% APR

Now in fairness, this is a short term loan over perhaps a week or two, but that's one hell of a bombshell to sweep under the carpet.

Like I said, I only found this info on their website so I can't say for certain whether it's hidden in small writing somewhere at the bottom of the ad, or has just been kept away from TV at all costs like an ugly presenter.

Either way, I can't imagine it's a terribly good method of helping people in desperate need of money to make a sensible choice.

Still, I feel it does give us a good way of judging political campaigns. It's not the number of votes the BNP get, it's the number of adverts people can watch before thinking the word 'racist'.

If Charlie and The Chocolate Factory happened today...

2009-07-16T08:27:00.001-07:00

I honestly can't remember the last on-pack competition I've paid any attention to. And this is from someone who has no brand loyalty when it comes to having slim chances of winning stuff.

For a long time now the joy of opening a wrapper to see 'Bad luck, try again next time' has been completely replaced by unique codes you text or type online and ever since then the sparkly gold competition wrappers have had absolutely no impact on me.

I understand this method gives marketers lots of lovely data on consumers, but it just seems like they've made it harder and less enjoyable for consumers without giving anything back to them in return.

I'd love to see a return to good old fashioned competitions, but sadly I think if it did happened, I'd be too used to ignoring them to notice.

The best thing George Lucas ever did...

2009-07-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

No, your thing is wrong! It wasn't Star Wars or that guy who survives nuclear blasts in fridges. No, the best thing George Lucas did was set up LucasArts, the game development studio that made some of the best games of all time (including one that did involve the miracle fridge dweller).

I grew up with the early LucasArts adventures and can thus blame them for everything from my sense of humour, to my inquisitive nature and mild kleptomania. And no game was more important to me than Monkey Island - a game about ridiculously named pirates, health conscious cannibals and the second biggest monkey head you've ever seen.

If you'd like to know more about the story, just watch Pirates of the Caribbean, which is pretty much copied wholesale from this game (apparently the writers were working on a Monkey Island film, but went to Disney when it was cancelled...).

However there is another way to learn more, as after 9 years LucasArts have finally stopped milking Star Wars and bought Monkey Island back, with both a new game AND a remake of the original. You should buy it. You should all buy it!

Anyway, now for a seamless link back to advertising...

Expect The Unexpected

In actual fact I thought of quite a few things my favourite games could tell us about interacting with consumers so this may well become a new regular feature of the blog. But for now, I'd like to talk about how LucasArts rewarded their consumers for playing the games wrong.

For those who don't know, these games were essentially interactive stories (a bit like the old text adventures or choose your own ending books - only less terrible) where the player advances the narrative by saying the right things to the right people and using the collection of objects they have stored in their pocket to overcome a situation.

The inevitable problem is that there is only ever one story and one path to the end, so either the game requires no real interaction from the player, or the poor schmuck at the keyboard is going to spend a lot of there time doing pointless and irrelevant activities in the hope of finding the one that the programmers needed them to do to move the storyline along.

This isn't exactly sounding much fun, but they were! And the reason why is because LucasArts were brilliant at anticipating where the player would ignore the correct path and filled these situations with jokes and hints to keep them entertained and looking for the action that the programmers wanted them to make.

Recently two ad campaigns (I told you it would be seamless) that I've enjoyed most have used a similar technique of anticipating when the consumer would go off their desired path.

An advert for a comparison website needs people to remember the website name and then to type it in online. It's a set path to more visitors and they achieved the first step for the audience by making an advert that confused Compare the Market with Compare the Meerkat.

But if the campaign had stopped there and assumed everyone would take the correct path to the comparison site then those ads wouldn't be half as loved as they are. Instead they anticipated that people might try something different and created a Meerkat website that rewarded people for ignoring what the marketers ultimately wanted. This website entertained while reinforcing the aim of the advert and pushing people towards the action the company really wanted -pure LucasArts magic in action!

Another example is the recent Stephen Merchant Barclay's adverts. In an ideal world the fact that the ads were on every day should have reinforced the messages the marketing department wanted me to know until I was compelled to open the appropriate account. Of course in the real world after the first time I see the ad, I know what happens and my mind goes for a nice wander.

This was what happened for several weeks, but then the campaign recaptured my attention and admiration with just one little tweak - "No, it's different this ad". Suddenly I felt like Barclay's knew why I wasn't paying attention to it and, well, it's hard to ignore something that's trying to outsmart you.

LucasArts would spend hours analysing teams of people playing their games before they were released, to make sure they had a comical quip for everything players would attempt that didn't fit into the storyline they were ultimately aiming for. I think when you look at it like that, there's still a lot more advertising campaigns can do to keep their audiences engaged and heading in the right direction.

And so, in the end, I think I can forgive George Lucas for all the prequels and that ridiculous fridge scene.

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No, I can't do it... it was a nuke dammit!

Pixcellent

2009-07-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

This blog has received a new lick of paint to honour the unveiling of the new Mortfolio website (http://www.mortfolio.co.uk/).

Of course this is not just a visual improvement to cover up the old hat and the well travelled shoe, this site will now contain actual UPDATES and THINGS about ADVERTISING and MAYBE MORE.

Try not to cringe, it will be over soon...

2009-07-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for an inventive young Planner with a year of experience working on big brands such as Nissan, BP and EA Games?

Well conveniently you can contact one at davidmortimer [at] mortfolio.co.uk

Ok, that was painful for everyone involved, so let's move on and talk about advertising shall we...

The New Adventures

2009-06-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while.

Having been busy with my first job in advertising I've found it hard to keep writing anything on here. But deep down I knew that one day, something....something BIG would make me update again.

But I didn't expect this event to be as big as it was. I never guessed in my wildest dreams that I would find someone else in the advertising industry with the exact same taste in creative as me.

Someone brave enough to take a risk.

Someone brave enough to look at piles of research suggesting it won't work, stroll up to their client and say "We're hiring Dean Cain!"

Coming Soon...

2008-10-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ch-Ch-Ch-Churches

2008-08-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

There have been some big changes these couple of months (which strangely in the land of blogs means fewer updates).

So, now things have settled down a bit, here is a selection of updates squeezed together into one handy suppository.

There were some good hat flinging times at the start of July, when I graduated from my Advertising and Brand Management course with a First. It was a great day, with some fine Jazz music and the life story of a ferret loving, 15 hour play ad-libbing, Brookside starring ventriloquist actor. I think this official proved that they do indeed give honorary degrees to anyone these days...

Anyway, the very next working day, I was starting another new adventure, with a month long placement at TBWA Manchester. Now obviously TBWA Dronfield would allow me a few hours more sleep everyday, but to my surprise, they haven't thought of it yet.

Fast forward to present day and you'll have gone too far, because two weeks ago I was told that I could stay on as Junior Planner, which was very nice indeed (and probably down to my snappy dress sense more than anything).

So, I'm not quite sure how it's happened but I've managed to get a proper job doing what I enjoy. Now I've just got to work very hard to make sure I keep it...

But what, I hear you politely ask, will become of this fine series of largely mediocre pun based portfolio websites?

Well, now i don't need to shove my work into the face of anyone who comes near me, I hope to carry on the blog in some kind of new form. I'd quite like to find some niche for this thing, so when I think of one, I'll write it down.

And that, in a nutshell, is where I'm at now. It's been an exciting couple of months, which has somehow given me the job I worked so hard through Uni to try and achieve. Hopefully I can do some good work and prove I deserved this chance.

Things with which I have done for breakfast: Kellogg's

2008-07-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

This project was done for my course and required me to radically update a brand of my choice, according to the effect current and future trends may have on their business...

Strategy: Future Thinking

Kellogg’s Proposal

In 5 years time trends, regulations and lifestyle changes will create, destroy or evolve many different brands. This report aims to highlight and solve those problems which may affect the Kellogg’s brand in the UK in 2013.

About the Company

Kellogg’s is an American company which focuses mainly on breakfast cereal. It was founded by W. K. Kellogg in 1906, under the idea that he could keep people healthy by providing them with a better diet.[1]

Kellogg’s are the leaders in the breakfast cereal category, with a total market share of just under 40%, compared to its rivals Nestle and Weetabix with 20% each. However, like most leader brands, they have been slowest to react to changes in the market, allowing Nestle to present a healthier ‘wholegrain’ image of their company and Weetabix to extend its lead as the single best selling cereal product.

The Consumer

Kellogg’s specialises in cold cereal, and this is eaten most amongst the young, with around 87% of 15-24 year olds and 89% of 25-34 year olds enjoying it.[2]

This graph shows the consumption of hot and cold cereals by age group.[3]
Although general penetration of the products is high across all the age groups, it is how often they eat it which really makes a difference to sales.
For Kellogg’s, their current highest users are children, with 10% of them eating more than one bowl of cereal per day.[4]

Trends which could negatively affect Kellogg’s

There will be a number of issues and trends which will affect the success of the Kellogg’s company in the UK in 2013. One example of these is the growing concerns about childhood obesity, and in turn, the pressure this puts on companies selling junk food to children. Recent rulings from Ofcom, to stop products with excessive fat, sugar or salt in them from being advertised in programmes watched by under 16s, have not been considered enough by health bodies.[5] This means the debate and controversy around the issue is likely to continue for years to come.

Kellogg’s have already tried to avoid negative press on this issue by limiting the use of their child-friendly cartoon characters, such as Coco the Monkey. This means that by 2013, there will be a generation of children who are unlikely to recognise these famous icons, who have been a big draw for children in the past.

This could result in a big drop in usage, as children lose interest in cold cereal, and parents are no longer encouraged to sit and eat it along side them. It may therefore soon be down to the parents to have to convince their children to eat breakfast cereal, as apposed to the other way round. This would require a big change in how and who Kellogg’s tries to communicate to.

Another problem facing Kellogg’s is the recent increase in the popularity of hot cereals, such as porridge, which is now starting to take sales away from cold cereal. Advances in recipes by their competition and the common ownership of microwaves, mean that hot cereal is now almost as quick to make as cold cereal. This is a problem to Kellogg’s because Ready Brek and Quaker are proving popular with children and older adults respectively, but currently Kellogg’s do not even have a product in the category.[6]

The reason that shorter preparation times for hot cereal has led to increased sales is down to the fact that most adults don’t have enough time to prepare decent food in the morning. Having time to themselves is such a rare thing, that many people are now considering time and space to be the new definition of luxury[7]. Finding the time in their customer’s day for them to eat their favourite Kellogg’s cereal will definitely be a factor in the years to come.

Potentially, the distribution of Kellogg’s products may be an issue by 2013 as well. Currently, 95% of cereal that reaches the consumer is purchased from a supermarket. This is largely due to the smaller local shops that used to stock it dying out under the pressure from major chains such as ASDA and Tesco.[8]

This is not a major problem at the moment, but should the controversy over junk food or general relations with one of the supermarket brands become strained, Kellogg’s could lose much of its shelf space. This would leave them unable to sell their products in the same quantity or number of varieties as before.

Trends which offer opportunities

However, as much as 2013 could hold threats for Kellogg’s, there are also developing trends which will offer opportunities for growth, or at least further ways to hold off the competition and retain their leadership.

One such opportunity is the increasing use of ‘added health’ ingredients in everyday food products[9]. Omega3 has been appearing on the labels of everything from fish fingers to margarine and as science continues to pick out the ingredients that do our bodies good, the demand for them will increase and people will look for the easiest way to obtain them.

This trend goes beyond people picking a product because of a single ingredient though. Today we can see the start of a trend for mass customisation, where people want their products exactly to their specification. This can be seen across a range of stores and cafés, such as Starbucks and Smoothie bars. People are beginning to expect to be able to pick their specific drink, to their own specification, adding or leaving out whatever they choose.[10]

Another factor which may affect Kellogg’s success in 2013 will be the growing concern over the environment. Kellogg’s obviously uses a lot of packaging, so an innovative, thorough recycling scheme could have people looking favourably towards the brand, even if they don’t like the product.

Finally, ‘Pro-active knowledge seeking’ will continue to grow, as the masses of data available over the internet causes consumers to investigate their once trusted brands and demand more information about the food they eat.[11]

People will want to be given all the facts about their products, and become displeased if they feel they have been misled. Recent attempts to provide this have lead to positive feedback for brands, including Sainsbury’s, with their ‘Wheel of health’ diagrams on their packaging.[12]

New Strategies

For Kellogg’s to maintain its position as leader of the breakfast cereal market in 2013, they will need to turn the problems facing the cereal business into innovative solutions, based on the brand values which saw them rise to the top in the first place.

Kellogg’s must start to act like a challenger brand and react to trends sooner rather than later[13], presenting a healthier image, spread over a wider range of product categories, while also providing the customisation, availability and ethics 2013’s customers will demand. They must do all this while still fighting to make breakfast cereal fit into people’s hectic lifestyles, so that new, older, heavier users can take over from the harder to reach children.

New Audience

The target market for their new promotions will be ABC1 young adults, who have children. Currently they will be the generation of University Graduates, who are aimed at by Innocent smoothies, a company which identified a trend for young people that want to get vitamins and minerals as easily as possible[14]. In fact, nearly one in four of them use diet or health food for this purpose, and this is continuing to rise.[15]

By 2013, they will be busy working hard in jobs, trying to get a promotion, while perhaps raising a young family. Research has shown they are the least likely to be able to find time to properly take care of themselves and therefore Kellogg’s is in the perfect position to take the advantages smoothies gave them and apply it to their new lifestyle.[16]

At the moment, this target market eats breakfast only when they can fit it into their hectic day, meaning, although they always buy cereal, they cannot become heavy users.[17] It is instead reserved to being eaten on weekend mornings, or as snacks, when they have the time to sit down and relax with it. On weekday mornings they will simply grab whatever they can eat quickly, or get something at work.

The people in this market are also big users of the internet, as it allows them to do things like bank as quickly as possible. This sums up their lifestyle quite well, with them currently having to settle for speed over experience when it comes to products and services.

The new strategies that will keep Kellogg’s in a leading position in 2013 will all be based around how to solve the key issues which will be affecting this target market of young adults in 5 years time.

Health - W.K Kellogg’s

For Kellogg’s to achieve all it needs to without scaring off their younger customers by removing the fun elements, such as the bright packaging and sugar, Kellogg’s will need to form a sub-brand. This will cover their healthier more natural products and must be capable of providing a health message, in a way their current brand could not believably achieve.

The new brand will play on their history as a Doctor prescribed health food, to add more authenticity to their message, and hopefully, by doing so, add to the perceived image of the original Kellogg’s brand. The new products will also have to command a slightly higher price, again to give weight to a believable healthy image.

For these reasons the new Sub-Brand will be known as W.K. Kellogg’s. This is the name of the founder of Kellogg’s, who invented corn flakes[18]. They were made as part of an experiment to find a tasty food which could make people’s diets healthier. This simple story from the brand’s past can be brought to the forefront of the Kellogg’s identity, by using his name for the healthiest cereals they make.
Early Kellogg’s advert

This sub-brand will be able to reach out to the 25-34 year old consumers who have been so successfully targeted with smoothies by the Innocent brand. These are people who want to eat healthily but feel they are too lazy or too busy to manage it.[19] Therefore, like Innocent, W.K. Kellogg’s could offer a little portion of health, quickly and easily, when they need it.

Hot Cereal Popularity – New Products

There are other opportunities to entice this age group too. They are currently the least likely to consume hot cereal, which is the result of the two biggest brands in this category aiming at the age groups either side of them.[20] Ready Brek are currently a favourite with children and Quaker with the elderly, but there is a big gap in the market for people the age of Kellogg’s new target.

Kellogg’s should therefore release a hot cereal, designed to appeal to these young adults. It is vital however that it is made to taste its best after just a short time in the microwave, to help fit into their busier lives.

This will be a perfect new product to help launch the W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand, as hot cereal such as porridge is well known for its health value.

Reliance on Supermarkets for Distribution – Health Stores

The new products may boost demand amongst young adults, but Kellogg’s must still find a way to get their packaged products consumed, without relying any further on supermarkets.

To do this Kellogg’s should look at the example set by chewing gum companies, who have successfully managed to distribute their products both at sweet counters and at oral health counters, based on which sort of chewing gum it is.[21]Having provided a cereal with real health credentials, Kellogg’s can now start to stock it in places other than the breakfast food shelves of supermarkets. Chemists and herbal health stores would be ideal locations for the W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand to reach their health conscious, young adult target market.

Packaging

The W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand must have distinctive packaging to separate it from the existing cereal’s unhealthy image. It should also be made to fit in with other products sold in health food shops, so that it can acquire some of the positive connotations associated with those goods.

To achieve this the cereal will be sold in jars as apposed to boxes. This will add to the premium and thus healthier image of the product as well as making it seem like a genuine health food product.

It will also give it a distinctive look in the market place and separate it from all of the competition, simply because it’s sold in such a different state.

Full labelling

As more and more people gain access to broadband, information about nearly anything is available to almost everyone. This has lead to a serge in ‘Pro-active knowledge seeking’, which is the use of resources, such as the internet, to find out as much information about products as they can before they buy.[22]

While this would seem unlikely to affect a fast moving consumer good, such as Kellogg’s cereal, controversial facts, such as the amount of sugar in products, can be spread across the globe in minutes. If this information was not made readily available by the brand, then people will begin to feel they were mislead and it can be even worse if it comes out as part of a debate about a current newsworthy issue, such as childhood obesity.This sort of bad press can reflect very badly on a company, so it is important that as part of Kellogg’s new healthier image, they display all the nutritional facts, about their products, good or bad, in the most open way possible.

With the W.K Kellogg’s cereal, this could work in their favour, by displaying exactly what attributed the cereal can provide to the health conscious consumer’s diet. This would allow them to pick out exactly the cereal they need with a minimum of fuss.

Full labelling of benefits is exactly what you would expect from a product in a health shop as well, lending weight to Kellogg’s new distribution strategy. Customers have been shown to appreciate the advice available in health stores, so providing this sort of data with minimum effort will make choosing Kellogg’s an easy choice.[23]

Finding the Time to Eat - Experience Store

These product changes and launches alone will not be enough to help convince 25-34 year olds that they have the time and desire to have a bowl of cereal though. The trouble with these users is that they tend to eat cereal as snacks, where ever they can fit them in, which means they cannot become consistently high users of the products.[24] Therefore, Kellogg’s must provide new and better ways of delivering their products to consumers, a way of handing them the time and space they need to eat breakfast everyday.

For these reasons Kellogg’s is in the perfect position to offer an experiential fast food store. It will follow the trend Starbucks has used for coffee, and provide a range of customisable cereal choices.[25] The W.K. Kellogg’s store will stock all of the newer, healthier cereals, as well as the normal Kellogg’s brands. Customers will then be able to pick their own mix of all the different brands, to create their own unique breakfast.

In keeping with Kellogg’s guidelines to always try and show cereal as part of a larger meal, being eaten with things like fruit and juices,[26] the store will also provide little fruit portions, which can be added to customer’s mixes, as well as offering a range of healthy drinks, including smoothies which actually contain cereal, for those who are really in a rush.

On top of this, Kellogg’s could use the trend for ‘added health’ ingredients, by having ‘Rooster Boosters’ on their menu. These will be things like whey protein, or Omega3, which can be sprinkled over any cereal mix. This allows people who really want a health kick from their cereal to have exactly the benefits they desire.

Finding the Time to Eat - Breakfast Club

To make sure the young adults can make it to the store in time to then go to work, Kellogg’s will begin to run ‘Breakfast clubs’ at schools in major towns and cities. These will provide schools with cheaper cereal for them to sell on to children before the lessons start. It will work in the same ways as school dinners, but in the morning, allowing children to pick three different cereals they would like to have in their bowl, much like in the real W.K. Kellogg’s stores.

This will allow parents to drop off their children earlier, safe in the knowledge that they will not only be looked after and with their friends, but they will also be getting a good breakfast, which is proven to make them concentrate better on their work.[27]

‘The Breakfast club’ helps Kellogg’s to provide that extra bit of time for young adults to eat right before work. The hectic lives of their target market will mean offering the gift of time and space will truly be a valuable contribution to their day.

Creating Heavy Users – All Day Store

Although it is likely to be their busiest period, the W.K. Kellogg’s store is not just for mornings. The 25-34 year old age group are one of the biggest users of cereal at other times of the day, and often eat them as snacks. Therefore, continuing this trend and making people accept cereal as a health food for any time of day is another one of the store’s objectives. Their hectic lives mean that they try to get the health and fibre it provides whenever they have a big enough break to make it. Therefore the store can act as a great place to come on breaks, or just after work.

This is where the experiential nature of the store comes in to play. It will offer comfortable sofas, corn plant decorations and a rustic, cottage like feel to the interiors. This will link back to the heritage of Kellogg’s and provide a homely environment that is even more relaxing than their own house, because is it will feel separate from their busy lifestyle.

Protecting the Environment – Recycling Initiatives

The problem with fast food stores is the litter they can create, and with environmental trends and causes getting bigger and bigger, Kellogg’s will have to make sure they are making a visible effort to recycle and keep the streets clean. Today’s protesting students will be their target market of the future, and with an 11% increase in the amount of people who recycle in the last 2 years, there is every reason to believe that they will continue to push for change in 5 years too.[28]

To make their stance clear, the stores will not only have recycle bins throughout the store and outside it, but they will also have a special recycling system for their products which are not even eaten within the store.

A giant letter box will be placed at the front of the building, inviting people to post through their cereal boxes from home. These will then be used as part of the covering around the take away bowls sold in store. Turning recycling material immediately into new products shows instant results to the public and has already been successful for the company Doy Bags, who turn drinks cartons into fashion accessories, so more schemes like this are likely to be popular in the future.[29]

This will work well with the normal Kellogg’s products, but for the healthier Sub-brand an even more practical tactic can be deployed.

Due to the more expensive, but aesthetically pleasing packaging of the W.K. Kellogg’s products, the store will offer refills for the jars. These will be priced at less than the cost of the cereal sold with the jar and provide a real incentive to reduce the amount packaging consumers use.

These recycling initiatives will provide a very visible indication that Kellogg’s is committed to the environment, while keeping their take away items branded.

Advertising

The advertising will play a vital part in making the new Kellogg’s health image believable. The story of the company’s creation and the invention of corn flakes as a Doctor prescribed health food will be a great asset for the communication.

The advertising must also draw upon more general health and scientific visuals and language, again, to help the new product positioning.

As the target market are big internet users, something which is simple visually and therefore able to appear both on the internet, through Flash, and during TV programmes is important.[30] To provide all this, the advertising will focus on a timeline of health inventions from the 20th century, listing all of the things we have come to expect today. However, it will stop when it gets to ‘Corn Flakes, W.K. Kellogg, 1976 and imply that the health and concentration benefits of the cereal helped the other inventors to make their contribution, with the phrase ‘Must have been something they ate…’ as the punch line.

This will be followed by a brief shot of the W.K Kellogg’s products, to introduce the exciting new packaging and the line ‘The Original Health Food’, to reinforce the company’s healthier past.The campaign will reach the target where they are most likely to see and engage with it and provide them with a little knowledge about Kellogg’s past, to help them appreciate the benefits of the new cereals.

Media Plan

The campaign to keep Kellogg’s the leader of the cereal market in 2013 should begin with the opening of the Kellogg’s store. This will give people the biggest push to get cereal into their lives again and promote eating it at any time of day.

The opening will be done in conjunction with the advertising for the new W.K Kellogg’s products which will at that point only be available from the experiential store. These adverts will therefore also act as a teaser for their mainstream release.

Of course, as this is going on, the ‘Kellogg’s Breakfast Clubs’ will be starting up in primary schools around the country, giving children healthier diets and better concentration and allowing parents to have a little more time to themselves in the morning.

As the store is meant to be a place for workers to stop off and get a health kick, the eventual release of the cereal, previously only available in the specialist healthy fast food store, will add yet more impact to its health message. This should work in much the same way as the assumed quality that products used in hair dressers receive when eventually sold in shops.[31]

When all of the new strategies have been introduced, Kellogg’s should be in a position to compete better than their competitors in the 2013 market, because they will have reacted to the important consumer trends in a fast and innovative way. From here though, they must continue to actively engage new trends and technical advancements, if they want to remain the cereal market’s leader in 2018.

References

1) MORGAN, A. Eating The Big Fish, Canada, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1999.
2) Simmons, J. Great Brand Stories: Innocent, GB, TJ International Ltd, 2006.
3) Mininni, T. Interbrand, Letting Consumers Design Their Own Experiences: Case for the Mass Customization Model, Brand Channel.com.
4) Mintel Breakfast Cereals Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
5) Mintel, Impact of the Environment Report (The), Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2007.
6) Mintel Hair Salon Products Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
7) Mintel Health Food Retailing Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
8) Mintel Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
9) BBC, Junk food Ad limits ‘Not enough’, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7090206.stm), (Accessed Nov 2007)
10) Doy Bags Website, All about Doy Bags, (http://www.doybags.com/about.html), (Accessed Nov 2007)
11) Euromonitor International, Top 10 food trends for 2007, (http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1134&Itemid=2), (Accessed Nov 2007)
12) Kellogg’s Website, How it all began, (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/company/history/howitallbegan.aspx), (accessed Nov 2007)
13) Kellogg’s Website, Responsible Marketing, (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/company/corporateresponsibility/responsiblemarketing.aspx) , (Accessed Nov 2007)
14) LiquidRock, Info Journey, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_info.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
15) LiquidRock, Slow Show, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_slow.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
16) LiquidRock, Techno Goodness, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_techno.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
17) PersonalMD, Breakfast: How Eating Breakfast Helps Children Be Their Best, (http://www.personalmd.com/news/breakfast_030800.shtml), (Accessed Dec 2007)
18) Sainsbury’s Website, Healthy Eating – Labelling, (http://www.j-sainsbury.com/files/reports/cr2006/index.asp?pageid=20#wheelofhealth), (Accessed Nov 2007)
19) Scientist Live, Satiety enhancers in food, (http://www.scientistlive.com/food/20070601/ingredients/2.3.296.299/17801/satiety-enhancers-in-food.thtml), (Accessed Nov 2007)

[1] Kellogg’s Website
[2] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -The Consumer
[3] Taken from the TGI survey, Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2005/Mintel
[4] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[5] BBC News
[6] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -Executive Summary
[7] Liquid rock
[8] Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006Distribution
[9] Liquid Rock, Scientist live
[10] Interbrand
[11] Liquid Rock, Euromonitor International
[12] Sainsbury’s Website
[13] ‘Eating the big fish’ – Adam Morgan
[14] Great Brand Stories – Innocent – John Simmons
[15] Mintel, Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer, UK, September 2006
[16] Mintel, Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer, UK, September 2006
[17] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[18] Kellogg’s Website
[19] Great Brand Stories – Innocent – John Simmons
[20] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -Executive Summary
[21] Mintel, Chewing Gum and Mints - UK - June 2007
[22] Liquid Rock, Euromonitor International
[23] Mintel Health Food Retailing - UK - March 2006
[24] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[25] ‘Eating the big fish’ – Adam Morgan
[26] Kellogg’s Website
[27] Personal MD Website
[28] Mintel, Impact of the Environment (The) - UK - April 2007 Consumer 1 – Defining the Consumer – TGI
[29] Doy Bags Website
[30] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[31] Mintel Hair Salon Products - UK - September 2006

New Blood

2008-06-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

From Monday 23rd till Wednesday, some of my work will be on display at the D&AD New Blood exhibition in London.

Anyone going, feel free to look me up and take a business card!

Things with which I have done: EU

2008-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

This project was for a Europe wide competition. The brief was to focus on a segment of your home country and make them more accepting of the EU.

Our choice was C2 and D demographics...basically the most anti-EU people we could find, because we like a challenge.

Basically, are key insight was that before now, the EU's work had always been credited to what ever government was in control at the time, leading the EU to appear as a new threat to these people, because they have no knowledge of their part in previously accepted legislation.

So our job was to communicate the previous work the EU had done, specifically the work to help this segment (eg. cleaner UK beaches and paid working holidays).

You can see how we did this in our book on the project here

The results were recently announced for the competition and our entry came top out of all the UK entrants and 5th in all of Europe, earning us an honourable mention. I worked on this project with Dayve Talbot, Ollie Moxham and Christiaan Huynen.

The return of the London Gentleman

2008-05-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

It's time for the longest of my increasingly frequent trips to London.

This time I'll be doing some work experience at BBH, so I'm very much looking forward to the whole thing and hopefully I'll come back better at what I do, as well as more bankrupt.

I also hope that the weather will get just cool enough that the glorious advertising sweater vest can be displayed. I don't know how to be professional without it...

The Gina G of advertising

2008-04-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

I posted before about an EACA Europe wide competition I was entering, with the task of making the EU more accepted in our home country.

Well, the results came in last week and it turns out my team was the highest rated entry from the UK. We also came 5th in all of Europe, earning us an honourable mention in their results publication.

We're all obviously really pleased with this, as the UK is not exactly an easy place to convince about the EU and on top of that we deliberately chose the most difficult demographic within these fine lands....just to make it interesting. Ha ha.

I'll make a big post of all the work we did for this once my final university deadlines are out of the way, but until then, au revoir!

April Tools

2008-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

The April fools jokes this year seemed to crank up the budget higher than ever before.

Looks like the day is becoming an even better tool for marketing, as suddenly virals can be displayed in traditional media without losing effect.

Take this rather expensive looking fake trailer from games website IGN:

This would be a pretty great viral if it had just been released on YouTube, but thanks to April Fools day, it could be posted as a major news item on the front page of their website. When people are spending big money on virals anyway, I guess it makes sense to release them on a day where lying in advertising is not just accepted, but promoted.

Penny for your thoughts...

2008-04-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

Some new coin designs have been unveiled then, but I'm still not sure how I feel about them. I think that's probably because the quality seems to vary across the coins, with the corners of the shield in the 10 and 2p looking a bit too awkward for my liking.

Still, I think it's hard to tell without looking at the things in my hand. Hopefully lots of them at that...

London Gentleman

2008-03-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I shall be venturing in to London for the rest of this week, enjoying agency visits and an interview along the way.

If you see a man in a stylish sweater vest, feel free to give him a job....and some better accommodation...

Anything but Guns and Roses

2008-03-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Humour in mainstream advertising - a sack of thinkings

2008-03-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

Humour is a great tool. My favourite adverts, TV shows, computer games, Youtube videos and websites are usually based on how funny I find them. In fact, it's what I look for in pretty much everything I enjoy.

One of my favourite series of adverts are the Orange spots before films. There are several reasons for this, such as its ability to turn a formulaic 'turn your phones off' message that we all have to listen to at the start of a cinema trip and make the message into something enjoyable.

Now while I love the fact an on brand message can also become part of the experience it is supposedly interrupting, that's not why I actually look forward to them when I see a new film (I'm not THAT obsessed with advertising). I like them because generally I find them funny. I mean, who doesn't like to laugh at Macauly Culkin?

However, recently I've been going to the cinema far more often than I ever have in my life. These means, instead of a new Orange advert every time I go, I now see the same one several times.

Of course, the adverts struggle to remain entertaining in this context. The first time I laugh, the second time I may chuckle at a different line I didn't hear before, but soon I just want the film to start.

This, it strikes me, is a major problem for a lot of adverts. In the cinema, Orange adverts have always held a special place in my heart, as a one off piece of entertainment. In the real world though, of 30 second TV spots and magazine pages, would it just be another advert? Can the often throw away nature of advertising comedy really stand up to the repeated viewings we all get of them?

This reminds me of a post I read on Scamp's blog about how adverts now have to be funny all the way through. Is this important just for keeping people's attention through the ad the first time they see it, or is this simply a case of providing enough laughs for people to not get sick of it after that first viewing?

Maybe the answer is hidden within the schedules of the E4 channel. Take a gander at a TV guide and the vast majority of its day is filled with two programmes, Friends and Scrubs. Both shows have reached over 100 episodes, so they can be repeated two a day for the rest of eternity, safe in the knowledge that by the time the same joke comes around again, it's been long forgotten under about 500 others.

Of course this isn't always feasible, as most people seem to struggle to get real humour in a single advert, let alone 100. But then again, as I'm sure no one needs to hear, Innocent do manage a similar thing with their labels.

Perhaps a more realistic approach is to make sure that if you make an advert based almost solely around humour, that you provide so many levels of comedy, it can keep people amused every day it appears on their screens. I think now when we make adverts, we don't just need to test if someone laughs when they see it, we need to test if they laugh when you show them it the next day and the next day and twice the day after that.

Not an easy skill by any means. In my opinion, the best people at this have been the writers of the Simpsons and Futurama. The characters will speak and there'll be a joke, but while this is going on, someone will be pulling a ridiculous expression, while standing next to a sign with a gag written on it.

I can (and do) watch episodes of Futurama over and over again and always find something new to laugh at. I even listen to the director's commentaries on the DVDs so they can tell me about other jokes I've missed even after repeated viewings. How was I to know there were secret alien languages found on objects in the background which provide their own jokes if you can work out what they say? I didn't, but it sure made me want to watch the episodes again when I did.

Is this kind of multi-level humour really beyond us? I fear if it is then the engagement of adverts will continue to move over to mediums such as Youtube virals. In fact, maybe the reason comedy adverts have worked better in that form is not because they are more controversial or original, but because their shallow levels of humour are not put under the scrutiny of repeated viewings.

These have just been a few of my personal thoughts on humour within advertising, if anyone has any other opinions on the subject feel free to comment here.

P.S. This is officially the longest post I have ever written. If you have made it this far then I will reward you with another example of how a piece of comedy can get a whole new layer.

Insight

2008-03-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

I was watching the Spurs Vs PSV European game today, when I noticed a frankly baffling piece of insight used in an advert.

One of the moving ad boardings said:

"Like football?"

"You'll love the Army"

Now, I like football. But, a young John Rambo I am not.

I like a lot of the Army adverts, especially ones pushing the skills it can offer for later life. However, I'm not sure a viable angle is that it teaches you to be the next Peter Crouch.

Perhaps the name Live was too ambitious

2008-02-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

After spending much of my day unable to access my Hotmail account (with seemingly most of the UK and America in the same boat), now was perhaps not the best time to receive a promotional email telling me to entrust all my internet needs to Windows Live...

Long way down

2008-02-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

Ewan Mcgregor.

For a while now, his name has created a feeling of admiration among people my age. Most students have or plan to go travelling before starting the 9-5 for the rest of their life, so his epic travels round the world on his bike has made him a bit of a young person's hero, in my experience.

Which makes it all the more sad that now whenever I watch TV with my friends, he gets ridiculed. A once once quietly dignified and respected personality, dropped back down to the level of common celebrity.

On the face of it having a man so well travelled become the face of Davidoff Adventure makes sense. In fact, I'm fairly certain it could have worked, if it had just been done with a bit more subtlety.

If the advert needs to explain why he is adventurous in such detail, then he obviously isn't well known enough to be the face of an aftershave. By trying to condense his whole journey into an advert, while discussing the smells of a life changing experience, it takes all the authenticity out of his once admirable trip. It makes his journey of discovery look like a corporate sponsored day out.

I've not yet sat through a viewing of the advert where no one has commented how bad it is. I'd like to put it down to overkill on trying to link Ewan to adventure this time, and hopefully the advert will be cut down soon, so we don't get hit over the head with the rational anymore.

With a little understanding...

2008-02-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

The time has come. After nearly a year of blogging, I cannot hold it off any longer. I'm going to talk about Neighbours.

Five have been making a big song and dance about being 'the new home of neighbours', but despite saying all the right things about how they understand what makes neighbours good and that the only thing changing is the channel, they've lost one of its biggest selling points.

I can cope with the adverts, I can even cope with the ridiculous fact that Weightwatchers have started to sponsor it right in the middle of a 'the dangers of slimming' storyline.

No, what really damages the experience is the fact that they've tried to make it look like it's film quality. This basically seems to be achieved by making the screen darker and dropping the frames per second.

The trouble is, Neighbours should never be film quality. It's not a gritty drama, it's a place where the sun always shines, and Five seem to have forgotten that.

In an age of media neutral ideas and all that, it strikes me as odd how they can advertise the show as being the sunny, happy slice of Australian life, then decide to make it look darker and grittier.

One of the things that annoys me most is when there's a great idea behind a product or brand, but somewhere along the line, either laziness or fear stops them from taking that idea and running with it.

One of the things I enjoy most about advertising is coming up with ways of taking an idea and injecting it into every part of a brand, turning the ordinary, everyday stuff into something that identifiably belongs to that company. That to me is how brands build character.

I'll still watch Neighbours though, just as long as they don't start dealing with real issues.

Things with which I have done in New York

2008-02-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

About a week before I went to New York with my course, I was given a brief by the Bandujo advertising agency. This was to be worked on in a group of three, including a member from each year of the course, and was based around the New York Conservatory for Drama - School of Film and Television.

Our task was to advertise the 2 year acting course that it offered through a print ad, which would help to distinguish it from the other, better known acting schools in New Nork. To do this, we would have to make the SFT seem like the best education and training an actor can get. The target market was 18-25 year olds who had just left school, or were struggling young actors.

We started by looking at what made it different to the competition, which included it being a two year course, so students can become professionals in a short space of time and that they require auditions to get on the course and they even dismiss those who don't show any improvement once they are on it.

Our execution would emphasise the speed at which the course can turn you into a professional by using the before and after style imigary. Due to the subject of the course however, we decided to reverse the images, to provide shock and interest in the poster and emphasise the range of emotions actors must show.

Once we had been able to catch the attention of passers by, we could then put through the message that SFT is 'New York's most serious acting school'. We would do this by focusing on their strict quality control of students. Images of distress in the 'After' box, mixed with taglines like 'Audition Required' help to not only show the quality of acting achieved by the students, but also emphasise that fact that it is a school reserved only for the very best actors.

Other executions would then use recognisable acting imigary and past successful students to make it imidiately clear what the SFT offered.

We presented our concept to the agency in New York and they seemed to like our ideas, with our focus on the auditions actually being quite close to their own work on the project.

The tight week long deadline and the need to stick to a poster format limited what we could achieve with the brief, which is a shame, as we had some good ideas for how to take it further, such as a 'spot the bad acting' Facebook application.

I worked on this project with Esme Burford and Adam Lowe.

New Stoke

2008-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

It's time for my first ever trip to New York. In fact it's my first ever plane journey too. I'll be stopping off to present my team's work on a brief for the Bandujo Donker & Brothers agency, as well as visiting Third Eye Design and no doubt many other places of photo worthy interest.

Should all be a great experience and hopefully I won't have a fit of panic on the plane.

Have a good week!

The scariest thing I've ever seen at the cinema

2008-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

A bit of a different approach for Lynx. It's still the '15 year old boy's dream' message, but with a touch more class. It's already got people talking about it, but at the moment it's about how he'd pull out one of your lungs right from your chest, while still keeping that big grin on his face...

I need your attention, your comments and your motorcycle

2008-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Despite a whole advert showing you the wonderful activities and scenery available, it's obvious California realises its main draw is the chance to hunt celebrities.

I can't help but laugh when Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals the comedy quip at the end of the advert. I don't know if it's the cheesiness of the whole thing, or just the fact that a man who once played Danny DeVito's pregnant male friend is actually Governor of a State, but it's an advert I look forward to seeing every break.

Scrooge you guys, I'm going home...

2007-12-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

Having held a deep burning resentment for anyone enjoying the Christmas spirit these past few weeks, I have now finally met my deadlines for Uni work, competitions and applications, so I can be merry with Christmas joy at last!

Walking through Hamley's toy store in London also helped...

One to tick off the advertising checklist...

2007-12-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a struggle to blog (and sleep) recently, with a life crushing work load from uni, applications and competitions, but I felt it necessary to share my joy at today pulling off the dream presentation ending.

That's right, the novelty T-shirt revealed from behind a jacket finish!

Anyway, back to work...

101 reasons to talk about sandwich relish in your job application form. No.73

2007-11-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

I managed to get to the first round of interviews for a Graduate Placement I applied for. It will be my first one ever, so I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm sure it'll be a great learning experience, even if nothing else comes from it.

A few more years of this and I may actually begin to know my way around London.

Phone a friend

2007-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

I know pay as you go is the phone payment choice of children and I should grow up, get a contract and shut up, but I didn't know just how much for kids it was until I heard the new voice of Vodafone.
Now, I'm all for making company phone lines seem more human, and I have had some good experiences with Virgin Media who have done that recently.

However, when I want to check my top-up balance, a lengthy chat with homecoming queen 'Vicky' is not really what I want. Her 'OKs' and 'oh, by the ways' make a process, which took too long in the first place, even longer.

Not only that, but they seem to have retained the same old robotic voice for the personal details, which makes it an even more jarring switch from the standard stuff than before.

A friendly tone of voice is fine, but not when all you want to hear is some numbers!

We are Scientologists

2007-11-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the most confusing days of my life. It started off with me being excited about having a free ticket to see We are Scientists, a band I'm particularly fond of.

I did wonder why it was free, and naturally assumed it had been scheduled for noon because it was an intimate acoustic set. (I love that term).

As we sat down, it soon became clear there were no instruments being set up, just a Powerpoint projected on a screen with the words 'Brain Thrust Mastery'.

I genuinely began to think the band had been brainwashed and were traveling round Universities trying to get others to join their (probably evil) cult.

Then the Powerpoint started, and I was relieved (but still confused) to see that it was the band taking the piss out of cults and self help schemes. Which they continued to do, for the rest of their hour long set.

Having been prepared to boo them off at the lack of music, it turned out to be quite an enjoyable comedy show, but it was still not at all what I expected when I got tickets to see a rock band.
Their music videos have always used comedy, and judging by their show, it is something they really enjoy. It was kind of heart warming to see them reveling in the chance to do something they love to a small crowd in Stoke on Trent, when they can, and do, sell out much bigger and more glamorous sets with their music.

I know the Ad industry is a hard one to crack, but I hope, even if I never make it to the top, that I continue to enjoy it every time I see a new brief, as much as those guys enjoyed performing comedy.

Things I love which have vaguely effected my ability to work in advertising. Part 1

2007-11-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

Right, I've been working non stop on Uni work and Grad applications for the last couple of weeks, so now I'm going to write about something I like.
Whilst working on those projects this week, I came across a promotion I couldn't refuse. A free computer game from one of my favourite series of all time, Sam 'n' Max.

For those who don't know, it's an old school click and point adventure game from the early nineties, which has now been brought up to date and released in episodic format over the Internet. It stars a dog and rabbity thing as a pair of freelance detectives, and it is awesome!

Unfortunately I had been unable to afford the series due to being a poor humble student, but having played the free episode, it brought back all the memories of how I used to love point and click adventure games when I was young.

Honestly I can link this to advertising, I promise... (and not just about how the free demo was a brilliant piece of publicity before the second season of the game comes out, which it really is, because now I won't to buy it instead of eating!)

Games like Sam 'n' Max and Monkey Island (all made by LucasArts), were pretty much where I got my sense of humour from, because the writing was always so good in them.

Not only that, but it must surely have contributed to my ability to find creative solutions to problems. If getting a giant freelance detective dog to put a fish shaped magnet on a severed hand, then the severed hand on a golf ball retriever to get a ring out of the worlds largest ball o' twine didn't help me think outside the box, then I don't know what did!

I suggest you all go to http://www.telltalegames.com and have a laugh right now. Do it!

Not mushroom for good names

2007-10-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

After going to the cinema last night, I was hit by the usual previews for horror films that appear at this time of year. However, it seems that as the Halloweens have past, all the good horror names have been taken (then remade about 5 times each).

So, in the next few weeks I'll be looking forward to seeing the terrifying 'Pathology' and the gruesome 'Shrooms'. They don't kill 'em like they used to.

2007-10-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

A recent post by NP on confidence when presenting work made me think about my own approach to it. Last Friday, my team and I had to do a group presentation to win the chance to win the chance to win the chance to present at Cannes. We had some good plans for making the EU more appealing in the UK and this got us past the first round, but then something strange happened...
I realised I actually enjoy doing presentations. It may not seem like a big deal, but compared to when I first arrived at Uni and felt like I was talking to a group of (vaguely interested) lions, it's quite a change.

Exactly what has caused this change I don't know. It may just be the sheer volume of presentations I've done has made me lose the sense of pressure involved. On the other hand, it may be that I'm just proud of the work I do now.

I feel like my ideas and insights are actually worthwhile and relevant these days, so rather than needing to do a presentation to pass the course, I now want to do them to show something I have found, or come up with, that I think people will find interesting.

Plus I like using pretty pictures....

You'd better read, read, read, read, read, read, read...

2007-10-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

Having recently been thinking of song titles/lyrics for a project I was working on, I was reminded of how important it is to think about everything to do with that song/band/scene etc. before using it.

One of the funniest examples I can remember of this going wrong is with Smile.co.uk. the Internet bank.

Now while I love the song 'Smile' by the Supernaturals, it does mean that I continue to sing it in my head after the advert finishes and unfortunately for them, I remember that the next line after the cut is:

'You'd better smile... because that's all you've got left.'

Probably not the best tag-line for a bank...

Card Sell

2007-10-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

A quick question for any business types out there. Would you still keep a business card if it was slightly thicker (about 2x) then a regular one? And keep in mind, it would be a visual delight! All opinions appreciated, even if they're just a personal, curse filled attack on my character... Thanks!

Juice + Fashion =

2007-10-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

I recently came across 'Doy Bags' (www.doybags.com). A company run by a women's co-operative in the Philippines, that uses old recycled juice packs to create some pretty cool looking bags.

To me, the company seems exactly how a business of this kind should be run. The items are really good, but not overly priced, it is environmental in a way that is innovative and can be easily seen, but most of all, the website makes the whole business seem very transparent, even using pictures of the workers and the recycling/making process.

My only complaint is that I don't know a lot of the juice companies used in the items. The moment they get an Innocent man-bag, I'm there!

What would Jesus drink?

2007-10-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

There are so many energy drinks out these days, that the only way I can decide which one to buy is by mentally playing out a fight between the animals they're named after. Which is why the poor Red Rooster will never pass my lips... I just can't picture it beating a bull or a bear, let alone a shark!

Luckily Coca-Cola have made a new energy drink ridiculous enough to beat them all. Sure, it would be pleasant to have the energy of a bull, but why bother when I could be a 'RELENTLESS INFERNO'.

A Relentless Inferno! Take a moment to fully comprehend the power of those words. I'm fairly confident that if I drank it, I would explode in a ball of very alert fire.

And all of this is backed up by a can with such dark colours and ludicrously unreadable writing, that it manages to look like a cross between a real Ale and the Bible. I also received a money off voucher for it, which included the line 'Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the energy to change the things I can'. It's like some sort of holy miracle can!

I love things that are over the top and a biblical energy drink is just about silly enough to earn my money. Plus it would easily kill a bull...

Blogger, we hardly knew ye!

2007-09-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

There will be a short period of me not typing things, as I get back into Uni work and sort out an internet connection in my new house (just in case anyone thought I was getting lazy!).

Hopefully I'll come back with all new work to show and maybe even some interesting topics of discussion. Well, interesting to me anyway...

After years of...After years of...After years of....

2007-09-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

After years of lesser films, such as the Matrix, being copied in adverts over and over again, at last it is the turn of a real classic.

Yes, Groundhog day is back on TV, but this time to sell phones. I can't tell if I like the Vodafone advert or not, but it's entirely irrelevant, because Groundhog day is awesome and therefore the advert makes me happy.

Who ever is first to turn the Super Mario Brothers Movie into an advert gets all my money...

Things with which I did at Public

2007-09-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the result of an anti-smoking brief I worked on and presented at Public.

http://www.mortfolio.co.uk/SmokingPresF.pdf

If anyone wants to see it in a non-pdf form, I will be writing it up on Mortfolio.co.uk soon...ish.

I tried to take an original approach to solving the problem, so I would be interested to know what people think of it!

All of Doncaster breathes a sigh of relief...

2007-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

My week of work experience at Public has come to an end. And a very useful experience it was indeed.

I shall soon post the results of my exploits. Look away now if you like smoking...

Sofa, so good

2007-08-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

My idea for DFS managed to win the APSOTW competition here: http://http://joymachine.typepad.com/northern_planner/2007/08/okay-heres-the-.html

Really greatful for all the feedback there and some of the other ideas are superb.

Also, I promise I'll write something useful on here at some point...

It's alive!

2007-08-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.mortfolio.co.uk/ is now a site with fully working buttons. It also has a little bit about the work I did last semester.

Let me know what you think.

Pointless or cunning?

2007-08-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

I turned on to the Community Shield yesterday, as you do, when I realised the score was no where to be seen.

It took a few seconds (5 according to the Sky box) for it to appear from behind the channel select bar. It all stank of a pointless change to the design, merely for the sake of changing something. No one had seemed to have taken the time to intergrate what was on the screen with what Sky's own products put over the screen.

I thought about all the times I've had to watch football on crappy projectors in pubs and not even been able to see the bottom of the screen. Then it hit me, maybe it's all a cunning plan on Sky's part to catch pubs that pay for a normal Sky subscription.

Often the reason I notice that I cant see the bottom of the screen is because I can't tell if the little pint glass is in the bottom right, showing that it's allowed to be shown to a big audience. So, now pubs will have to show us all if they've been forced to pay up or not.

Pointless or cunning then? Maybe just lucky...

Won't somebody please think of the children!

2007-07-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

"I was driving past a bus stop full of children". Oh no, I thought, it's another one of those graphic adverts which shows children getting hit by cars to warn people off speeding/drink driving.

No wait, it's a National Accident Helpline advert. About a car hitting another car. The children were fine and completely irrelivant, but boy did it get my attention.

I think this could be the start of a whole new style of advertising:

"I was walking down the street the other day when I saw a child being held at gunpoint. Later that day I ate some Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop!"

Mortimor, you diabolical!

2007-07-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

The other day, to my suprise, I recieved a certificate and cheque in the post for being voted one of the Art, Media and Design department's top Level 2 students.

In fact my work is so well known in the department that they even spelt my name wrong!

Still it was quite an honour, though I was disappointed at the lack of a ceremony. Sometimes I wonder why I ever bought those formal shorts...

Hummer Mia

2007-07-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rob Campbell and all the judges who liked my idea for the APSOTW competition.

It says about my idea here: http://robcampbell.wordpress.com/2007/07/13/report-card-apsotw-synopsis/

Plus the comments go on to a much more serious issue as well, so you should read it anyway!

Mortfolio

2007-07-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

I've started up a new online portfolio site,

http://www.mortfolio.co.uk/

It's still hugely unfinished, but feedback is welcome!

Homer you're a delightful fella, sorry 'bout the salmonella

2007-07-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

It shouldn't work, but despite a quite disappointing external make-over and the fact they're alligning themselves with a store famed for its over pricing and food poisoning, I still want to go to a Kwik-E-Mart 7-Eleven and buy a Squishy.

Strange that even after years of falling standards the show is still such an important part of our culture. More importantly it paves the way for my dream of opening a pirate themed pub.

On guard, touche! Oh that is so cliche.

Things with which I have done 3: Attack of the phones

2007-06-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

This brief was quite a difficult one for me, as although in other briefs I have often looked to adjusting things in-store to fit a brand, this was the first time it had been the only objective.

My task, individually this time, was to reinvent Virgin Mobile stores, to make them as fresh, technologically advanced and exciting as the likes of Apple and Urban Outfitters.

Having already done a brief for Virgin Bingo, I had a good idea of what the virgin brand as a whole stood for, but further research into Virgin Mobile on it's own lead me to the brand values that my new store would focus on.

#Transparency

#100% Human

#Flexibility

These suggested that Virgin Mobile wanted their customers to be able to see how every part of the business was honest and trustworthy, because you could see it was all run by people like them, trying to do their best.

But, what better way to show the customers the store is run by people like them, than to let them design it. This also fitted in with research I had done on phone features, which suggested photos and music were the most used of the latest additions to mobiles.

And so, 'Your Virgin Mobile Store' was born. Customers will create the artwork for everything from in store posters to top-up cards, depending on the resolution of their phone cameras. The only rule was that the picture has to have a phone on it somewhere. Photo's can then be transferred to the in-store phones for appraisal.

Research into the stores Virgin mobile wanted to be like led to further improvemtns to my idea. The strong use of music in Urban Outfitters could be adjusted to suite Virgin Mobile, by allowing users to send their favourite songs to the in store phones, ready to be played in the shop once they've been approved.

Apple is famous for it's in-store tutorials, and this ethic has been further expanded on by Virgin Mobile. As well as having people able to show customers how to use phone functions and even photoshop to help with their pictures, the store will also encourage experimentation with the latest features of phones.

My research found that many of the latest features are just to complicated for many consumers to grasp. Therefore, to encourage this experimentaion without them having to spent money, the in store phones will be used to solve mystery puzzles. Hidden away in the test phones emails, videos, favourite WAP sites etc. are clues to a secret celebrity, who will come to a virgin Mobile store that month.

People who solve the mysteries will then get the chance to meet the celebrity and photograph them for use in Virgin's promotions. This follows on from the extensive use of celebrities in Virgin Mobiles recent campaigns and provides a real encouragement for experimentaion with phones.

To help all these features really draw in the technology hungry customers Virgin Mobile are aiming for, the limited window space available to the stores will showcase the customer photos and music in a very original way.

State of the art touch screen and speaker technology will mean that the window display will come alive, as passers by are able to change how the store front looks by touching the window and changing the photos being shown. Not only that, but they can also change the music being played, which will burst out the window as the glass is transformed into a giant speaker.

Together, I hope these features would not only attract these technology hungry young people, but also keep them coming back to see what's changed and keep them experimenting with the phones and interacting with the brand. (Without the use of YouTube :D)

Things with which I have done: Part 2

2007-06-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

In the second semester, I entered a competition brief, set by D&AD.
This brief was done in a group of four with myself, David Talbot, Oliver Moxham and Christiaan Huynen.

Together we had to use a range of ambient media to generate awareness, excitement and support for the Puma brand during the 2008 Olympic Games, with a campaign based around the concept of 'Perfomance Couture'.

After doing the usual research into the brand, we found that the biggest draw of Puma sports products, was their ability to be worn as fashion products as well.

So, we came up with three different ways of using ambient media, which would all link together to raise awareness for Puma. The overall idea was to create scenes that contained objects associated with both sports and fashion and bring them together in unusual ways.

The first of these ideas was to have a series of trucks travelling round the major cities chosen for the campaign. These would use seethrough materials for the trailer, so other cars would be able to look in. Inside would be people in Puma's sports clothes, walking up and down a catwalk, while other models, in Puma's more fashionable clothes, would be jogging on the spot, using tredmills.

The trucks would then park up in the city centres and release Puman. He/she is a Free Runner, who will travel around the city, performing amazing feats of athleticism, all in Pumas latest clothes. The truck would then turn into a station for customers (and fake customer) to come and exchange photos of Puman for sporting prizes.

This one off event would then be followed by the longer lasting Pumannequins. These would be mannequins dressed up in Puma clothes, left where ever Puman went, stuck in the pose of whatever action he/she was doing at the time. The amazing places the Pumannequins will appear will keep people looking out for them on the way to work/school, meaning they will actively seek out the promotion.

Thanks for browsing more.

Branson Adventures

2007-06-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the research log that went along with the Virgin Bingo project.

http://www.pixelink.org/comicbook3.pdf

It's presented as a branded comic book, to match the concept. We wanted to create something that would stand out in a portfolio and really make people want to read something which is basically just research. This example was the most off the wall of the research logs we made, but I think providing a narrative helped to keep people reading.

If anyone out there spends a lot of time looking at potential employee's portfolios, it would really help me to get some feedback on whether this sort of thing would be more appealing than a straight presentation of work.

Thank you for browsing.

Things with which I have done : Part 1

2007-05-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Right then, to start things off I thought I would share details of the briefs I have been doing at university recently, in preperation for entering the big ol' world of advertising.

The most enjoyable brief I was set this semester was given to us by Lean Mean Fighting Machine. It involved teams of two using new media to make Virgin Bingo appear to be the most exciting and fun bingo to be found on the internet.

We were basically meant to aim for their current market and the people already likely to play online bingo. So, my partner for that brief, David Talbot and I did the usual research on the company, competition and new media in general.

Our research led us to believe that interaction between players, using Wee Mees would be a great way of recreating the fun of a bingo hall online. Wee Mees had already become popular in sites such as Friends Reunited, often used by the young to middle aged women we were aiming for.

However, to add a unique touch to our virtual bingo hall, we decided to use a seventies cartoon art style for the characters, now called 'Bingo Buddies'. Wee Mees are based on the simplistic style of South Park, which is ideal for the young internet users of today, but we wanted to aim at a slightly older market, so using the style of cartoons from their childhood seemed like an ideal approach.

Once we had this central idea of cartoon versions of the players that could celebrate when they won, talk to their friends and even shout 'BINGO' through a microphone recording, the rest of the campaign seemed to fall into place.

The Bingo Buddies could gain new items based on the purchases players made on other virgin sites and there would be music playing in the background, just like regular bingo halls, only the players could vote for the song, based on the Virgin Radio play list.

We also decided there was no better way to show how the cartoons can match someone's features then to have the recognisable face (and beard) of Richard Branson as the cartoon mascot for the site.

He would then be used in TV and flash adverts showing his cartoon counterpart exchanging clothes and items depending on the advice of the other players in the bingo hall. Then, as the items get more and more rediculous, it cuts back to the real life Branson on his laptop, wearing that rediculous item (eg. an afro).

The cartoon nature of the advert means it could be crudely animated and still look good, which would be ideal for Flash. Also, the TV version of it would utilise the red button, to allow players to create their Bingo Buddies from the comfort of their living room, then upload it, ready to use on the net.

The website would also contain blank comic strips containing a celebrity player, who would create their Buddy and play a few games that month. Users would be encouraged to fill in the blank speech bubbles, to make humrous scenes involving Branson and the celebrity.

Winning entries would be shown on the site, while the inevitable controversial entries could be 'leaked' to parady websites and papers.

We felt that the new Virgin Bingo website and campaign very much retained the fun, fresh image of the Virgin brand, while appealing to the celebrity loving, socialising audience of the game.

Before the project was fully finished, we visited Lean Mean Fighting Machine, who seemed very positive about our ideas...which was pleasant.

(A bit long winded I know, but as soon as I know how, I'll upload the comic book we made, which details our research and ideas, as well as telling the story of a heroic Richard Branson adventure...)

Under Construction

2007-05-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

I am currently snooping around the website, pressing buttons to see what they do.

Something wonderful will no doubt follow...