The Planning Lab

Child's play

How good are nine-year olds at creating ads? A colleague of mine found out this weekend when the agency hosted a birthday party. 

The Brief

Draw an ad for BMW or Mini. Write a slogan – why buy a BMW/Mini? 

Tools and Deadline

A piece of paper, pens and 15 minutes.

Ideas

1. "Buy a BMW/Mini. So much power for real men."

Planner comment: power and masculinity becomes the proposition of this ad. A clear call to action. Buy the damn car!  

  

2. "Buy a BMW. For a cheap price. Make a good choice. BMW is the safest." 

Planner comment: Price and safety is generally not the brand proposition of BMW. This is usually what happens when creatives get loose briefs. Plus for showing the different angles of the car. 

  

3. "Buy a BMW. A cosy trip for the whole family."

Planner comment: this ad focuses on consumer benefits beyond product attributes – family cosiness, visualised by two station wagons for that competitive angle that BMW is famous for. An excellent strategy in Volvo land.

 

4. "Buy a BMW/Mini!!! It's both fast, modern and cheap. It will only cost you your "pants"! Four seats and bold! For a real man!"

Planner comment: another ad that focusses on masculinity. It's also the only "copy ad". 

   

5. "BMW/Mini!!! The car everybody has been waiting for. BMW/Mini. The car for real men."

Planner comment: the creative execution of this very much like early Volkswagen ads. Simple copy and lots of white space around the product shot. 

Two things come to mind from this. First, I'm amazed that 9-year olds are so literate in the language of advertising and brand knowledge – three of the five ads included masculinity (without any outside influence). Second, a sad but true fact is that some of the ads here are actually more strategically relevant than real ads from actual advertising agencies! 

Child ' s play

How good are nine-year olds at creating ads? A colleague of mine found out this weekend when the agency hosted a birthday party.

The Brief

Draw an ad for BMW or Mini. Write a slogan – why buy a BMW/Mini?

Tools and Deadline

A piece of paper, pens and 15 minutes.

Ideas

1. "Buy a BMW/Mini. So much power for real men."

Planner comment: power and masculinity becomes the proposition of this ad. A clear call to action. Buy the damn car!

2. "Buy a BMW. For a cheap price. Make a good choice. BMW is the safest."

Planner comment: Price and safety is generally not the brand proposition of BMW. This is usually what happens when creatives get loose briefs. Plus for showing the different angles of the car.

3. "Buy a BMW. A cosy trip for the whole family."

Planner comment: this ad focuses on consumer benefits beyond product attributes – family cosiness, visualised by two station wagons for that competitive angle that BMW is famous for. An excellent strategy in Volvo land.

4. "Buy a BMW/Mini!!! It's both fast, modern and cheap. It will only cost you your "pants"! Four seats and bold! For a real man!"

Planner comment: another ad that focusses on masculinity. It's also the only "copy ad".

5. "BMW/Mini!!! The car everybody has been waiting for. BMW/Mini. The car for real men."

Planner comment: the creative execution of this very much like early Volkswagen ads. Simple copy and lots of white space around the product shot.

Two things come to mind from this. First, I'm amazed that 9-year olds are so literate in the language of advertising and brand knowledge – three of the five ads included masculinity (without any outside influence). Second, a sad but true fact is that some of the ads here are actually more strategically relevant than real ads from actual advertising agencies!

Success is all about statistics

This TED talk by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi about creativity and flow made me think about what actually determines greatness in life, both from an individual perspective and from a agency perspective. 

It all comes down to one thing: experience. Intelligence and talent is one thing, but becoming super-skilled is all about doing things many times over. After ten years of doing something, you will fully master it. So, it's all about statistics. Nassim Nicolas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness, has an even more extreme position: he argues that success is totally random – people who have reached exceptional wealth have been the right people at the right time in the right environment. 

I'd say the outlook for somebody who believes only in statistics is rather gloomy, and I believe there's one way to beat the system: productivity (not really surprising, most exceptional people I know also happen to work a lot). So, if you're twice as productive as the average person, you will do twice as much and instead of ten years, you'll master a subject after five years. If you're lazy, things will take longer – unless you're a lucky bastard, that is. 

Success is all about statistics

This TED talk by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi about creativity and flow made me think about what actually determines greatness in life, both from an individual perspective and from a agency perspective. 

It all comes down to one thing: experience. Intelligence and talent is one thing, but becoming super-skilled is all about doing things many times over. After ten years of doing something, you will fully master it. So, it's all about statistics. Nassim Nicolas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness, has an even more extreme position: he argues that success is totally random – people who have reached exceptional wealth have been the right people at the right time in the right environment. 

I'd say the outlook for somebody who believes only in statistics is rather gloomy, and I believe there's one way to beat the system: productivity (not really surprising, most exceptional people I know also happen to work a lot). So, if you're twice as productive as the average person, you will do twice as much and instead of ten years, you'll master a subject after five years. If you're lazy, things will take longer – unless you're a lucky bastard, that is. 

Better creativity (updated)

The credo of Account Planning Group is Championing in creative excellence sounds vague, but the task of the planner has always been rooted in guarding creativity from bad stuff (like client research). And while this is still relevant in many ways, the pressures AND opportunities for delivering relevant creativity has never been greater. 

The most efficient solution for advertising agencies to adapt to a changing macro environment has always been to remodel and reinvent itself. But is this survival strategy the best one today when communication trends have a lifespan of 12 months? I'm not sure. Reinventing an advertising agency takes lots of time, and time is money. 

I don't have the solution, but I'm not sure the future of the advertising agency lies in capitalising on specific expertise/resources to gain short-run competitive advantages. Rather, it may lie in the capability to deliver creative thinking over the long-term.

At an extreme this would mean that the things we call planning tools are pretty useless for getting ahead (not per se, tools are still good for efficiency). Instead of being focussed on WHAT ideal are going to achieve, planning would in this alternative reality be focussed on HOW we will achieve our ideals. 

Just a thought. 

Footnote: planning guru Russell Davies wrote a piece on The Planning Lab about the greatest planning challenge not being brands but organisations here.

Better creativity (updated)

The credo of Account Planning Group is Championing in creative excellence sounds vague, but the task of the planner has always been rooted in guarding creativity from bad stuff (like client research). And while this is still relevant in many ways, the pressures AND opportunities for delivering relevant creativity has never been greater. 

The most efficient solution for advertising agencies to adapt to a changing macro environment has always been to remodel and reinvent itself. But is this survival strategy the best one today when communication trends have a lifespan of 12 months? I'm not sure. Reinventing an advertising agency takes lots of time, and time is money. 

I don't have the solution, but I'm not sure the future of the advertising agency lies in capitalising on specific expertise/resources to gain short-run competitive advantages. Rather, it may lie in the capability to deliver creative thinking over the long-term.

At an extreme this would mean that the things we call planning tools are pretty useless for getting ahead (not per se, tools are still good for efficiency). Instead of being focussed on WHAT ideal are going to achieve, planning would in this alternative reality be focussed on HOW we will achieve our ideals. 

Just a thought. 

Footnote: planning guru Russell Davies wrote a piece on The Planning Lab about the greatest planning challenge not being brands but organisations here.

Account Planning Group on Social media

Over at Account Planning Group, the think tank of the ad industry, the discussion topic of the evening was social media. I've tried to gather my thoughts and conclusions the best I can – some probably confirm what you already know, while some might be really interesting, depending on where you stand. Here goes: 

Social media is important for most brands to utilise, but some brands can benefit a lot more from a dialogue with its stakeholders. 

Planners definitely need to be aware of opportunities in social media channels, but not necessarily in-depth or on the edge of technology.

Social media shouldn’t be used as a short-term campaign media but as a long-term platform and dialogue.

Social media are under-utilised as listening posts, and there are several opportunities for competing brands to 

Like traditional communication channels, social media suffer from lack of integration between departments in companies, e.g. between PR and marketing. 

There might be a social media backlash soon (if it isn’t happening right now) as there are few or no relevant metrics that are better than traditional media. 

YouTube is increasingly becoming a paid channel, and it’s hard to distinguish between views that have been achieved organically or artificially. It’s just a matter of time before clients are fully aware that ‘views’ can be altered. 

Content in communications is as important as ever. 

Sociological/psychological insights into the usage/interaction behaviour of a particular technology is key to mastering it when designing a successful communications solution. 

In reality there’s no way to predict that our ideas, no matter how creative, will work or not. But we can be smart guessers. 

Thanks to everyone that showed up! 

Account Planning Group on Social media

Over at Account Planning Group, the think tank of the ad industry, the discussion topic of the evening was social media. I've tried to gather my thoughts and conclusions the best I can – some probably confirm what you already know, while some might be really interesting, depending on where you stand. Here goes:

Social media is important for most brands to utilise, but some brands can benefit a lot more from a dialogue with its stakeholders.

Planners definitely need to be aware of opportunities in social media channels, but not necessarily in-depth or on the edge of technology.

Social media shouldn’t be used as a short-term campaign media but as a long-term platform and dialogue.

Social media are under-utilised as listening posts, and there are several opportunities for competing brands to

Like traditional communication channels, social media suffer from lack of integration between departments in companies, e.g. between PR and marketing.

There might be a social media backlash soon (if it isn’t happening right now) as there are few or no relevant metrics that are better than traditional media.

YouTube is increasingly becoming a paid channel, and it’s hard to distinguish between views that have been achieved organically or artificially. It’s just a matter of time before clients are fully aware that ‘views’ can be altered.

Content in communications is as important as ever.

Sociological/psychological insights into the usage/interaction behaviour of a particular technology is key to mastering it when designing a successful communications solution.

In reality there’s no way to predict that our ideas, no matter how creative, will work or not. But we can be smart guessers.

Thanks to everyone that showed up!

What social media can't do

As much as I like social media, I find its true limitation lies in brand building. This Louis Vuitton ad does a fantastic job in storytelling, brand repositioning as well as selling the product. As planners AND creatives, we should not fall blindly into new ways of engaging and reaching in place of efficiency in communication. The role of communications is often more important than the actual message. 

What social media can ' t do

As much as I like social media, I find its true limitation lies in brand building. This Louis Vuitton ad does a fantastic job in storytelling, brand repositioning as well as selling the product. As planners AND creatives, we should not fall blindly into new ways of engaging and reaching in place of efficiency in communication. The role of communications is often more important than the actual message.