Viva la VIA?

Introducing the newest CC visual post, this time explaining in 90 seconds why Starbucks is making a branding mistake in introducing its new VIA(tm) instant coffee.

Strange Budfellows

Introducing the first Conk Creative TV commercial produced for Anytime Fitness. This is currently running for four weeks in five states. In Minnesota, you can catch it during the KARE-11 and WCCO morning shows.

Feedback welcome.

Simple Works

Once in a while I catch a real-life reminder of the benefits of "keep it simple, stupid"--or as former Gov. Jesse Ventura was fond of saying (in my opinion, Freudianically in relation to himself): "Keep It Simple AND Stupid."

Freudianically is not a word.

For all the hand-wringing about photography, copy and art direction, the concept (and how well it communicates) is what matters most. In this billboard campaign, which I see every day on the corner of Snelling and St. Clair, the client clearly wanted to communicate one thing: People who think they're driving "buzzed" instead of drunk are most likely fooling themselves, and they're a danger to themselves and the rest of us. How to communicate that on a billboard?

They could have gone any number of ways, but the execution they use is simple and perfect. First, they show the outcome, not the problem. (They could have pushed the edge and shown a cadaver, but that's going a bit too far.) Second, they show the exact same picture twice. The result is a Highlights Magazine effect, where you immediately start looking for differences between the two photos... only to realize, of course, that there aren't any.

Mission accomplished. Drunk driving and buzzed driving are the same thing. Stop fooling yourself. I get it.

The only worry now: a billboard that's so effective, it distracts drivers, like they're drunk. Or buzzed.

Red Flag Phrases, Part 1

Introducing a new feature on Chaos2Clarity joining the ranks of "BrandWatch," "HandshakeWatch," "Focus vs. Inclusion" and "Random Rewrites." I'm calling it "Red Flag Phrases." Its purpose is to provide some preventive medicine for the marketing world by exposing the words and phrases that mark the early warning signs of impending catastrophe.

Kicking off Red Flag Phrases is the mother of all red flags. If you or someone you love says the following in a marketing meeting, stop immediately:

"We'll do that in a Phase 2."

What does this phrase mean? It means that the client has scaled back its expectations and/or budgets for a particular project... or it's been decided that surviving politically means tackling things in smaller bites instead of all at once. As in, "We'd love to have the bells and whistles on our website, but let's just get something up in time for the trade show and handle everything else in a Phase 2."

In the realpolitik of marketing, this phrase is very common and completely understandable. The issues marketing directors face related to budgets, politics, deadlines and unreasonable expectations are staggering (especially today, when those who are fortunate enough to be employed are expected to do the jobs or two or three people).

The problem is, the phrase spells impending doom for a project. I'm quite certain that in some universe, at some time, Phase 2 has actually happened according to plan and everyone has been happy. I've yet to experience it myself. More commonly, what happens is that the creative agency does the interim work (minus the "Phase 2"), and the client isn't happy with the results. Why? Because Phase 1 is boring, and even though clients say they don't expect to see Phase 2's bells and whistles yet, deep down they really do.

The key for both sides in this situation is to stop for a second and hammer out what they really mean by Phase 2. More often than not, with early detection, Phase 2 can be reached in Phase 1 without anybody getting hurt. (I was going to write more about this topic, but I'm saving it for a Phase 2.)

SEO vs. Brand

I recently found myself in a place of clear brand contradiction. These are the moments when Philosophy (how you want people to behave) meets Behavioral Psychology (how people actually behave). And the two go at it until they either shake hands or kill each other.

Working with a client in a brand consulting capacity (Philosophy), I followed the adage that the best way to cut through in terms of marketplace positioning is to define not only your organization or product, but an entirely new category around it (think "SUV" or "overnight delivery service"). I thought they should define themselves in a totally different way than their competition, and then name it. I presented the idea. I proposed a name. They liked it. It was time to do a new website. Time to use the new positioning. Time to conquer the world.

I put on my writer hat and developed a whole page devoted to this new angle, this new perspective, this new term. I storyboarded an animation they could use to show it visually. Then I made sure to sprinkle the term throughout the site to achieve consistency, clarity, repetition and reinforcement. Mission accomplished, right?

Wrong. Now it was time to look at the site from the perspective of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO, at least in terms of title and description tagging, is the ultimate in behavioral psychology. To be effective, you have to live in the real world. What do people look for? How do they search for it? What terms do they most often use to find exactly the information they want?

SEO has quickly become one of the most important marketing considerations for virtually any company--especially business-to-consumer organizations. The problem is, it flies directly in the face of otherwise-effective branding. To effectively position something, you have to go against the wind. To make something SEO-savvy, you have to go with it.

If FedEx had been founded today, there would have been a huge fight among the marketing folks about whether to create the category of Overnight Delivery Service:

"It's original, no one else has thought of it!" would shout the philosophers. "And if we don't take it, someone else will!"

"No one is searching for it!" would shout back the psychologists. "It has no relevancy!"

In the end (as with everything except politics these days), the solution was a compromise. The new positioning could still be there front and center, but the site still had to be loaded with already-used keywords--both in the copy and in the tags.

Now comes the experiment: Will anyone start searching for the new term and create a truce between these two warring camps?

Buyers vs. Users

A recent study revealed some interesting truths not only about technology, but about human nature in general. It was commissioned to solve a mystery: Why do so many people buy technology-oriented products, only to return them a week later? The conclusion: because as a species, we're basically bipolar.

Maybe it's more accurate to say that we all have multiple personality disorder: We're one person when we buy something; we're quite another when we own something. For example, when looking at say, digital cameras, we care most about having lots of features. All things being equal, we want the device that offers the most stuff so we feel like we're getting our money's worth.

The problem is this: Once we take the camera home and start using it, we become an entirely different person. Our needs change. We want simplicity. And because loading a digital camera with all the bells and whistles needed to get us to buy it also increases the device's complexity, we get frustrated and return it. (The poor camera-maker then throws his or her hands in the air and says, "What do I have to do to please these people?!")

Dividing our personalities into "buyers" and "users" is quite fascinating on all levels. Think about how it applies to dating (buyers) vs. marriage (users), and you probably have a hit screenplay on your hands. Lately I've been thinking about how it applies to purchasing creative services. So often what companies look for when shopping for an agency is Creativity (with a big "C"). That's one of the reasons why Big Agency spends so much money on cool digs, hot young account execs, juice bars, ping pong tables and retro video games.

That gets the account. The problem is, once the account is won, the client switches from a Buyer to a User. Now what they want is high-quality work, responsive account service, strong attention to detail and reasonable prices. Unfortunately, putting on that sizzling dog-and-pony show to win the RFP costs money. Details and customer service? How boring.

My suggestion: Try to have a User mindset from the beginning. That way, you'll never get used.

Taking an Untraditional Approach

I'm happy to share the results of a recent project that covered the "concepting" part of my copywriting, concepting, clarity tagline.

A joint project--won through an RFP and executed between Conk Creative and 185 Media--the challenge was to create a 5-minute video that would get high school students excited about Hennepin Technical College.

The concept was to make the video as untraditional as the school itself:

• Focus on action and showing the facilities (rather than a talking head).
• Rather than a standard voiceover, make it a fast-cut music video with a custom-built soundtrack.
• Incorporate the actual sounds of the school's different areas into the soundtrack.
  
• Use clever transitions that link the different areas of study (e.g. a stove burner in Culinary Arts to a fire during a Firefighter Training exercise).
• Draw a clear and appealing distinction between the experience of Hennepin Tech vs. a traditional 4-year college.

Here's the result. Let me know what you think.