Tuesday 15 December 2020

Planning Dirty Strategy Academy Free Resources


 

 

 

 

Planning Dirty Strategy Academy Free Resources

·      Free creative briefing course.

·      Short Sharp Strategy (Write better strategy) 

·      Strategy Mate (Key tools needed for a strategist)

·      10 Best Strategy Papers (Learn from the best)

·      Giving Creative Feedback (Learn to give great feedback)

·      Creative Brief Template (Created the Frankenstein brief template)

·      Politics 101 (Hot to deal with office politics)

·      The Cogs Of Marketing Effectiveness (How marketing works) 

·      100 Creative Ideas on Tiny Budgets (Budget shouldn't be a limitation) 

·      Comms Planning Stats (Key statistics for the value of comms planning)

·      How to work with creatives (Essential to being a successful strategist)

 

Supplemental Reading

Planning Guide” by JWT London

Truth, Lies and Advertising” by Jon Steel


“At the heart of an effective creative philosophy is the belief that nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a human, what instincts dominate their action (even though their language so often camouflages what really motivates them.) For if you know these things you can touch them at the core of their being." - Bill Bernbach

Thursday 27 August 2020

BRANDS CANNOT BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE

It was once said that a brand could only be one of three things – better, different or cheaper. That said, a brand can also be ‘new’, which is helpful but, of course, only temporary.  In the service economy ‘faster’ can also be brand positioning. Lastly, if a brand fits into none of these categories it could be considered “doomed.”

 

Admittedly this seems overly simplistic. But for every contested brand category, the dominant brands clearly fits into this classification.  Take airlines for example. Emirates and Virgin are positioned as better. Spirit and West Jet are cheaper and Southwest is different. 

 

As demonstrated in the adjacent Venn diagram, brand positioning can overlap. There are indeed well crafted power brands that occupy two circles. As consumers, it takes us minimally two planes of improvement in order to choose a particular brand or business for its value proposition. Think Tesla, which many see as both better and different. Or, Old Navy, which may be seen by many as both cheaper and different.  While certainly possible, there are few examples of better and cheaper.

 

What is impossible is to occupy all three circles simultaneously. Moreover, why would a brand want to be all three?  If, for example, your brand is perceived as both better and different you can charge a premium price so it would be foolish to throw away this well-earned margin by also claiming to be cheaper.  Let us also agree that (in most cases) “cheaper” positioning is a ‘race to the bottom’ with increasing commoditization and diminishing returns. 

 

“Better” might entail a high level of expectations surrounding design as it relates to your product. It might also represent a superior service professional who is providing the direct client interface. It could mean that it’s the “full service,” highest value package to all customers and that you drop the lower-range product offerings. It could factor in a seamless user experience in your app, or perhaps even a customization level that was previously unavailable.

 

Figure out what “better” means to you, as well as to the customers you serve – because this will mean different things to different people.  Your answer just has to arrive at the fact that it’s far superior to your current version, your competitors, and to the status quo.  This, if you’d like to change any sort of consumer behavior by offering a better option.

 

In today's world the pace of innovation, change and growth have gotten so much faster, that even if you checked all three boxes (of, faster, better, and cheaper) these are no longer sufficient to guarantee success in the on-demand economy.  Especially as new D2C brands are shaking up the landscape.

 

No matter which position you choose– figure out what your brand is, internalize it, and then stick with that plan to continuously surprise and delight your clients. Ultimately, while you may not be able to dictate brand positioning to your potential customers you can still influence your audiences with a strategic brand narrative to mold their opinion over time.  Need some help crafting you perfect positioning?  We can help

 

Tuesday 21 April 2020

HOW TO PERSUADE PEOPLE TO CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOUR


Government and public health organizations have been tasked with the challenge of changing behavior — getting people to not only practice social distancing and shelter in place but also do it for weeks and potentially months. Not surprisingly, almost everyone is relying on the standard approach to drive change:  Tell people what to do.  Issue demands like: “Don’t go out,” “Stay six feet apart,” Wash your hands,” and “Wear face masks.”

While a lot of us are following recommendations so far, making sure everyone sticks with them for the long haul is a tougher ask. Some people are still or have resumed congregating in groups. Some churches, with support from their local leaders, are flouting stay-at-home orders. And protesters have begun to demand that businesses reopen sooner than experts suggest.

Directives aren’t particularly effective in driving sustained behavior change because we all like to feel as if we are in control of our choices. Why did I buy that product, use that service, or take that action?  Because I wanted to. So when others try to influence our decisions, we don’t just go along, we push back against the persuasive attempt. We get together with a friend, shop more than once a week, and don’t wear a mask. We avoid doing what they suggested because we don’t want to feel like someone else is controlling us.

Our innate anti-persuasion radar raises our defenses, so we avoid or ignore the message or, even worse, counter-argue, conjuring up all the reasons why what someone else suggested is a bad idea. Sure, the governor said to stay home but they’re overreacting. 

Maybe the virus is bad in some part of the country, but I don’t know a single person who’s gotten it.  And besides, many people who get it are fine anyway, so what’s the big deal?  Like an overzealous high school debater, they poke and prod and raise objections until the persuasive power of the message crumbles.

So if telling people to do doesn’t work, what does? Rather than trying to persuade people, getting them to persuade themselves is often more effective.  Here are three ways to do that.

1. Highlight a gap 
You can increase people’s sense of freedom and control by pointing out a disconnect between their thoughts and actions, or between what they might recommend for others versus do themselves.

Take staying at home. For young people who might resist, ask what they would suggest an elderly grandparent or a younger brother or sister do. Would they want them out, interacting with possibly infected people?  If not, why do they think it’s safe for them to do so?

People strive for internal consistency. They want their attitudes and actions to line up.  Highlighting misalignment encourages them to resolve the disconnect.

Health officials in Thailand used this approach in anti-smoking campaign.  Rather than telling smokers their habit was bad, they had little kids come up to smokers on the street and ask them for a light.  Not surprisingly, the smokers told the kids no. Many even lectured the little boys and girls about the dangers of smoking. But before turning to walk away, the kids handed the smokers a note that said, “You worry about me … but why not about yourself?” At the bottom was a toll-free number smokers could call to get help.  Calls to that line jumped more than 60% during the campaign.

2. Pose questions
Another way to allow for agency is to ask questions rather than make statements.  Public health messaging tries to be direct: “Junk food makes you fat.” “Drunk driving is murder.” “Keep sheltering in place.” But being so forceful can make people feel threatened. The same content can be phrased in terms of a question: “Do you think junk food is good for you?” If someone’s answer is no, they’re now in a tough spot. By encouraging them to articulate their opinion, they’ve had to put a stake in the ground — to admit that those things aren’t good for them. And once they’ve done that, it becomes harder to keep justify the bad behaviors.

Questions shift the listener’s role. Rather than counter-arguing or thinking about all the reasons they disagree, they’re sorting through their answer to your query and their feelings or opinions on the matter.  And this shift increases buy-in. It encourages people to commit to the conclusion, because while people might not want to follow someone else’s lead, they’re more than happy to follow their own.  The answer to the question isn’t just any answer; it’s their answer, reflecting their own personal thoughts, beliefs, and preferences. That makes it more likely to drive action.
In the case of this crisis, questions like “How bad would it be if your loved ones got sick?” could prove more effective than directives in driving commitment to long-term or intermittent social distancing and vigilant hygiene practices.

3. Ask for less
The third approach is to reduce the size of the ask.

As an example, a doctor was dealing with an obese trucker who was drinking three liters of Mountain Dew a day.  She wanted to ask him to quit cold turkey, but knew that would probably fail, so she tried something else. She asked him to go from three liters a day to two.  He grumbled, but after a few weeks, was able to make the switch.  Then, on the next visit, she asked him to cut down to one liter a day. Finally, after he was able to do that, only then did she suggest cutting the soda out entirely. The trucker still drinks a can of Mountain Dew once in a while, but he’s lost more than 25 pounds.

Especially in times of crisis, health organizations want big change right away. Everyone should continue to stay at home, by themselves, for two more months.  But asks this big often get rejected.  They’re so different from what people are doing currently that they fall into what scientists call “the region of rejection” and get ignored.

A better approach is to dial down the initial request. Ask for less initially, and then ask for more. Take a big ask and break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Government officials responding to the pandemic are already doing this to some extent by setting initial end dates for social distancing measures, then extending them. But there might be more opportunities, for example when experts allow for some restrictions to be lifted — say, on small gatherings — but insist that others, such as concerts or sporting events, continue to be banned.

Whether we’re encouraging people to socially distance, shop only once a week, thoroughly wash hands and wear face masks, or change behavior more broadly, too often we default to a particular approach: Pushing.  We assume that if we just remind people again or give them more facts, figures, or reasons, they’ll come around.  But, as recent backlash against the Covid-19 -related restrictions suggests, this doesn’t always work over the long term, especially when your demands have no fixed end date.

If we instead understand the key barriers preventing change, such as reactance, and employ tactics designed to overcome them, we can change anything.

Monday 18 November 2019

SIGNAL IN THE NOISE: ADVERTISING IN THE AGE OF DATA

Advertising is the quintessential example of an industry known for creatively embracing what’s new and next. From emerging technologies, channels, and formats to bold, go-to-market media strategies that are guided by evolving customer expectations for personalised, seamless, and omnichannel experiences, the most successful brands, agencies, and vendors just keep moving forward. 

This topic has been discussed for a number of years now from “Talking to Ourselves”, “Lee Chow Will Only Say This Once”, CP+B’s “Woodshed”, and “the Disruptor Series” and many others. What is absolutely clear is that the agency model has shifted. We all know it’s shifted. We can feel it. Our relationship with the client has shifted. Our value proposition (and perceived value) has shifted. The culprit? For the sake of brevity – is “Data”.

The introduction of “data” into our business has shifted the perception that what, once upon a time was considered alchemy, is now quantifiable. The pendulum that swings between art and science in advertising has decidedly taken a step towards science. Why? Well, for one, it’s the natural course of human progress. 

We humans have a history of decoupling and commoditizing our once lofty constructs. You may remember years ago the arduous task (and associated costs) of building a website? Today, we have Squarespace for $16 per month. 

Moreover, with the dollars attached to advertising at large, you can bet that any number of intelligent people will attempt to commoditize any number of its functions. To this end, the advent of this “Age of Data” has put all advertising practices under scrutiny.

But the backlash today being witnessed (against the traditional ad agencies of the world) is palpable. The problem appears to be that this “Age of Data” promised far more than it has delivered.

It is the natural and inevitable course of human evolution. However, being able to quantify and benchmark every consumer transaction along the customer journey is not tantamount to success. We now, arguably, have access to every metric under the sun but the data is largely meaningless. We are still pressed daily to find the signal in the noise.

This harsh reality has manifested in plateaued CX performance, digital transformations that did not deliver the expected returns, and early efforts to capitalize on new technologies and models that took a technical, rather than operational, viability path.

The larger risk may be market-based. While taking a step back to build foundation, those firms may have missed a closing window of good economic times and deferred more aggressive strategies to an economic climate that is at best mixed and, at worst, recessionary.

At the same time AI and robotics move deeper into the organization, closer to the customer, and, more profoundly, into the very makeup and operations of the company. This presents the best mechanism to drive growth - a strategically planned ecosystem that delivers value to customers throughout their life cycle. To establish a successful ecosystem, CMO's will need to thread the needle between employee experience, customer experience, brand purpose, creative, and technology, imbuing all these crucial areas with customer obsession.

Smart CMOs will undoubtedly begin pulling back on strategies that drive short-term gains at the expense of customer affinity, including dark patterns —design patterns that manipulate customers against their own interests. Meanwhile, spend will flow back into creative as the importance of differentiated branding becomes apparent in a world of digital sameness.

At the same time, technology-driven innovation — the ability to deliver new business results through opportunities discovered by continuously experimenting with technology, both emerging and established — will soon be table stakes for leading organizations.

Today, deep learning is sorting pictures posted on Snapchat, natural language processing is providing the backbone for customer service chatbots, and machine learning is helping companies accelerate product development by handling tasks from forecasting the effect of cancer drugs to helping to edit Hollywood movies.

Just imagine an advert that dynamically changes the tone of the voiceover based on the unique preferences of the viewer. The convergence of AI with human creativity and insight will transform advertising, and we’re just beginning to see what’s possible.

Artificial Intelligence allows machines to be able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart”. And, Machine Learning is based around the idea that we should just be able to give machines access to data and let them learn for themselves. Employing both, however, despite their infinite promise, has also not yet delivered real, tangible value (at least at scale or en masse.)

Yet, we are still pressed daily to find the signal in the noise. Moreover, we are still dealing with error-laden legacy data in disparate silos and clients are ill-equipped and the speed of technological change (which means we are always catching up.)

As a result, somewhere between ‘what is infinitely possible’ and ‘what is possible today’ lies the ad agency paradox today. Selling the promise of data-driven creative and personalisation at scale to clients whose platform simply will not get them there.

This paradigm shift also extends its own vernacular – now also far more focused on return on investment and short-term results. And herein lies the problem du jour. But, in the short term, humans are still the ultimate software. 

It is as if, metaphorically, someone had just invented the paintbrush. Despite, potentially, never using one, you can still see the infinite possibilities in its premise. But you can see (in this example) that the paint brush’s promise far exceeds its current application. Ultimately, this is simply the ebb and flow of all human endeavour. 

The agency of the future will undoubtedly be consumer centric, automated, transparent, collaborative, intelligent, nimble, experiential, and focused on a sprint versus a marathon approach. They can champion creative but will undoubtedly have deep expertise in strategy, consumer insights, and measurement.

Moreover, this heightened focus on the measurement will allow agencies to not just understand campaign performance, but to also understand how a brand is moving people through a journey and how advertising is fostering that movement.

With a heightened level of insight about what people think, feel, and do (after they interact with a brand’s advertising) we are simultaneously entering an advertising landscape with more immersive experiences that engage consumers on a deeper emotional level. 

One thing we do know? The importance of data and how it’s used to make changes that put consumers first cannot be understated. Agencies that pay attention to this now are sure to set themselves up for success in the years to come.

Thursday 31 October 2019

ADVERTISING AND BREAKING THE FORTH WALL


The quest? A single big idea that works across every media. An idea that can draw the consumer out and compel them to spend some time with the brand, and maybe even some money. The problem? Millennials apparently hate traditional advertising. This is apparently documented by multiple studies. But, as the largest living adult generation in the US now with $200 B in annual spending, Millennials can’t be ignored.

The Solution? One tactic increasingly being employed is a brand explicitly acknowledging that they are advertising to you — essentially making fun of themselves in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. This feels akin to breaking the fourth wall, the same technique you’ll see in a movie or play when the character speaks directly to the camera, acknowledging that it is a movie or play. 

One of the more subtle goals of advertising is to make the brand topical and most importantly a part of pop culture. Social currency and social relevance are integral to advertising today. Another thing that often distinguishes a great ad today is a sly, self-awareness that lets the consumer in on the pitch. This, in the parlance of performance arts, is known as breaking the fourth wall. The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot. This can be done through either directly referencing the audience, the play as a play, or the characters' fictionality.

“Breaking the fourth wall” is defined by a character in a story who essentially tells the audience that they know they are a character in a story, hence breaking the imaginary “wall” that separates performance from real life.

It's a technique best known for its use in films such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fight Club, and American Psycho, breaking the fourth wall goes all the way back to the days of William Shakespeare and ancient Greek theatre. Although it was originally criticized and looked down upon, TV shows like 30 Rock and Netflix’s House of Cards have been using it more and more frequently.

Breaking the fourth wall works because it’s unexpected. Consumers expect brands to be nameless blobs spewing pithy taglines at them, and instead, these brands are acknowledging truths they know about their consumers and thus, trying to feel more relatable. There is no avoiding the fact that they have to advertise anyways, but they have to try to grab attention in a different way. Their business metrics will dictate whether it works or not.

Some examples include:

Tuesday 15 October 2019

THE MARRIAGE OF DATA AND CREATIVITY

Certainly, creativity captures an audience’s attention. But, to retain digital eyeballs, advertising also needs to be both contextually relevant and targeted. As such, there is understandably a lot of hype around the relationship between data and creativity today.

Marketers are recognising the power of data and creativity working together and that, within the right framework, data can always improve the creative process and campaign’s success. The trick is marrying digital and creative into one seamless marketing campaign.

Marketers applying data insights to their digital marketing campaigns’ creative sides might be surprised by the opportunities data creates. Using analytics to identify specific groups of customers can help marketing teams ensure that messaging and branding are tailored to each audience. Data insights allow demographics to be broken down further than simply “college students” or “middle-aged parents.” Instead, marketers can target “highly educated Californians aged 20-30,” developing content that resonates with that audience.

The impact of data on campaigns shows that analytics and creative are no longer separate marketing categories; creative campaigns need to be based on data insights, and data has to be presented to consumers in a creative way to be useful. Data as the linchpin to creating more emotional content.

Take the NIVEA Protection ad (below) as an example. A print ad in a magazine supplied a tear-out bracelet with a built-in locator that parents can use to keep track of where their children are on the beach. Using advanced mobile and geo-tracking technology, the bracelet enables parents to set a maximum distance their child can go, and sends a smartphone alert if this distance is exceeded.


In this example, NIVEA uses a highly creative approach to engage parent’s emotions – fear, protectiveness and desire for a worry-free holiday – to establish themselves as a brand that keeps children safe.

The 'Melanoma Likes Me' campaign for MELANOMA PATIENTS AUSTRALIA, leverages real-time social data to identify when users are out in the sun, raise awareness of the risks of sun exposure and educate the audience on how to identify melanoma.

Using a real-time response tool that utilises API endpoints to identify popular hashtags related to having fun in the sun – such as #beachside, #sunkissed and #tanlines – the campaign instantly responds with social messages from @_melanoma.

In this example, MELANOMA PATIENTS AUSTRALIA reached its target audience (via their channel of choice) at the very moment they are at most risk from sun damage, and opens up an immediate channel of engagement.

The bottom line? Greater collaboration is needed between creatives and data analysts. While this is already beginning to happen with the examples above, the unison of data and creativity needs to become the rule rather than the exception.

Monday 14 October 2019

WEATHER TRIGGERED MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Why Is Weather Data the Hottest New Commodity for Marketers?   
Primarily because the weather has a significant impact on our emotions, which directly translates into retail sales.The weather is a universal driver of consumer purchase behaviour, mood and receptiveness to marketing messages. Moreover, it has direct relevance to at least 30% of the products and services we consume and, behind the state of the economy, has the largest influence on consumer behaviour. 
 
Bottom line? The weather has a tremendous effect on what actions consumers take; where they go, how they travel, what food they eat, what clothes they wear, what products and services they buy, and even how they feel at any given time.
 
Just ask yourself what you had for lunch today? A salad or a hot soup? How did you travel to work this morning? Walk, bike, Uber, or cab? What clothes did you wear when you left the house? And what was your mood like? It’s clear that many of our everyday decisions are subtly shaped by the elements.
 
The impact of weather on consumer demand is so ubiquitous and the range of weather dependent verticals so vast, that many businesses may not even realize the true extent to which their sales are driven by weather.

WEATHER TRIGGERED MARKETING CAMPAIGNS 
Weather-marketing, commonly known as ‘weather-based marketing’ or ‘weather triggered marketing’, is a powerful form of marketing automation which utilizes real-time weather data to trigger ads and personalize marketing messages based on your audience’s local weather. In other words, you can serve ads for raincoats when it’s rainy, windbreakers when it’s windy, thermals when it’s snowy and breathable vests when it’s hot.  

Using Programmatic Advertising, you can easily refresh ad creative to match the viewer’s local weather, inject dynamic information into the ad itself, and even modify campaign spend levels and regional bidding decisions based on local weather conditions.  

Advertisers today can easily apply weather-based automation to their search, display, social and shopping campaigns. An ordinary AdWords, Facebook or Instagram campaign can be made weather responsive – triggering your ads or social media posts to activate before, during or after localized weather events.

INCREASED RELEVANCY
Imagine a snow-clearing business targeting ads to audiences who are located in areas where there has recently been a heavy dump of snow. The more snow that comes down, the more the Adwords bids could be increased. Or, imagine an insurance company demonstrating the merits of hail or crop protection insurance when there is hail coming down. Or Corona advertising kicking in anytime the temperature exceeds 80 degrees. The opportunities to drive relevancy using weather are obvious. 
 
You would be wrong to think that only low-ticket impulse buys are weather-driven. High-value purchases such as cars and houses are also influenced by the weather. Brand awareness campaigns perform just as well with weather triggered advertising as direct response. Jeep’s weather-responsive ad unit performed an amazing 600 per cent above the standard click-through rate of a mobile 320 x 50 banner ad.

SHOPPERS RESPOND TO THE WEATHER
The benefits of running weather adaptive campaigns are manifold – many brands have doubled or even tripled their conversions, clicks and engagement rates – whilst simultaneously lowering their cost per acquisition. For the 30% of businesses whose sales are directly impacted by the weather, being able to activate ads before, during or after specific weather events is an essential strategy for maximizing their key performance metrics across social.

Looking for more examples of weather-triggered marketing? Here are a few examples of weather-triggered campaigns that have produced considerable performance uplift.
 
-       - STELLA Cidre reported 65.6% increase in YOY sales during the period they ran their weather-responsive DOOH campaign. 
- MOLSON COORS increased CTR by 89% via their weather-triggered ad campaign on social media.
-       - NEUTROGENA Beach Defence Sunscreen used in-app ads which were activated by sun and UV levels, increasing purchase intent by 43% and product awareness from zero to 63%.
-       - Fashion retailer LA REDOUTE saw 34% traffic uplift and 17% sales increase generated by a weather-triggered DOOH signage campaign.
-       - BRAVISSIMO’s weather-triggered PPC ad campaign increased PPC-driven sales revenue for their swimwear range by nearly 600% during the 3- month campaign. The conversion rate of browsers to buyers increased by 103%.
-       - BURTON menswear used weather-activated dynamic website promotions to generate11.6% uplift in conversions.
-       - PURE360 reported 500% increase in email open rates for campaigns relating to domestic holidays during good weather. Click through rate rose from 12% to 27%.
-      -  PANTENE’s weather targeted display ads produced a 28% sales increase as well as 600,000+ social impressions.
-     - LIPTON's ran a weather-sensitive campaign across Facebook mobile. They reached 6.9 million people, and achieved a spectacular 12.8% video view rate - which equated to just £0.06 cost per view.

For the 30% of businesses whose sales are directly impacted by the weather, being able to activate ads before, during or after specific weather events is an essential strategy for maximizing their key performance metrics across social.  
 
Have questions? We’re here to help.