Or...

Learned commentators all seem to be asking Big Questions these days.
However, in the greatest period of uncertainty we’ve known they’re
struggling to provide us with any defi nitive answers. So perhaps, after all we’re looking to the wrong people. At My Agency we don’t think we have the answers either.

But we know the people who do.

Fans are the economic engine beind every business built on brands. Fans are willing to invest their money, time and loyalty. They become the embodiment of brands and, when motivated,they are the most effective recruiters of new fans. Fans are therefore the strongest and most certain economic indicator we have. And why creating fans for your brands must be your number one priority.

Big Questions Number 2

A couple of weeks ago, The Grocer ran a small but interesting like piece.

ASDA delisted I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter as part of its Less is More initiative, which sort to cut down on product duplication. At the time, chief merchandising officer Darren Blackhurst questioned the logic of stocking it alongside Utterly Butterly. “What’s the point of stocking both? It’s only marge! He said.

However fans did not see it quite the same way.
The recent re listing was the result of customer feedback said a spokeswomen for ASDA. “we have listened and we have re-introduced it.” (Source: The Grocer 20th June 2009)

It is another example of "fan power". Scroll down to check out what happened to Tropicana earlier in the year.

Without fans brands die. They become commodities. With fans they live and anything becomes possible.

The big question...

There was a fascinating economic / business think piece in The Times on Monday. It was written by Dr Gerald Lyons, Standard Chartered’s Chief Economist. Lyons was confident (in common with many such pieces right now) in stating that the indicators are suggesting that the end to the recession is in sight.

Thank God.

What struck us was the missing link between “the signs” and real people doing real things. It was captured in Lyon’s fundamental concern: “but where is demand going to come from?” He called it “the biggest question”. However, he left it unanswered.

My Agency has a strong point of view on this. We think that the key to stimulating demand is for brands to nurture fans. Fans are the economic engine driving every brand. They invest the most time and money and loyalty into brands.

Energising, motivating and activating the fan base will at the heart of the economic recovery.

And that is why creating fans for brands is every marketeers number one priority.

Hope for the Govt?

So we received this back from The PMs office this morning. You may remember that we proposed a fans for brands campaign in order to attract a new generation of prospective party candidates. We'll keep you posted on any developments.

An open letter to Mr Brown

27th May 2009

Mr Gordon Brown,
10 Downing Street,
London SW1A 2AA.


Dear Mr Brown,

My Agency is an advertising and marketing communications agency. We Create Fans for Brands. We do this because fans are the engine that drives successful brands.

Following the reaction of the public on BBC’s Question Time it is stating something of the obvious that right now the brand, Member of Parliament is rather short of fans. In fact, so short of fans that there is a significant impact on democracy. Fewer people will vote. Fewer (quality) people will want to become MPs.

Even in these straightened times we think you should give serious consideration to funding a Creating Fans for MPs campaign.

This campaign would showcase the vital work conducted by MPs that the public doesn’t know about. It would also be a call to action to recruit a new generation of candidates.

Advertising is part of the solution. Other “content” such as TV programming, a road show touring libraries, social media all have a part to play.

We have some ideas on what this campaign might look like. Who can we show? How can we move this forward?

Kind Regards




Nick Wright

My Agency helps BBC producers think multiplatform

A couple of our guys were invited along to coach at a really interesting training day put on for BBC producers. The idea was to help producers think move beyond broadcasting programming to developing ideas and concepts that engage and connect with a fan base across many communication platforms.

The BBC is a mature digital news and entertainment brand, which has had great multiplatform – web, red button and mobile - success with www.bbc.co.uk and the iplayer. With recent programme strands like ‘Bryony makes a Zombie Movie’ ‘Lily Allen’ and ‘Born Survivors’ though, they’re demonstrating a real commitment to push beyond simply creating supporting websites or putting programmes onto new devices. By providing these new forms of multiplatform programming that empower their audience to represent themselves, be heard and reflect issues that are genuinely important to them, the BBC can begin to liberate themselves from the linear schedule, collaborate with audiences to create content and provide more participative experiences.

To deliver on this commitment though, multiplatform thinking has to be at the centre of the programme making process, so ideas don’t always start with or even centre on the TV experience. Which is where Crosswise, their multiplatform lab tasked with providing training and support, My Agency and an intensive day of rapid prototyping comes in.

The aim of the day was for BBC producers to demonstrate what they had learnt from the Crosswise training course by working in teams to develop an idea for a multiplatform programme and then pitch it to BBC 3’s commissioning editors. Granted that’s not a lot of time for a lot of work, but they were given the support of a Crosswise mentor, our senior designer Paul McDermid and Digital Creative Director Alistair Knight to help refine and bring their ideas to life.

During the day the teams scoped out their ideas, looked at the audience need, user experience, benefits, competition and discussed their ideas with real audience members. Paul and Alistair each worked with a team, using their knowledge and experience around creating engaging interactive experiences to get them thinking about how and why the audience would interact. They then hastily pieced together concept maps and key visuals to support their pitches.

Despite being very intense, the day proved to be a great success, with all the producers managing to develop new and exciting multiplatform ideas that the editors loved. Both our guys thoroughly enjoyed the day and meeting everyone from the BBC. Big thanks to Simon Smith for letting us get involved.

Brand loyalty from beyond the grave

If you are a fan of SV Hamburg you now how the option of being buried by the footie club next to the stadium. I haven't come across this before but when i was working for Oxford United we'd get a few requests for ashes to be scatered. In fact one such request came from my extended family. My uncles ashes are scattered at the Kassam Stadium. And for those with a morbid interest, the homily was delivered by the Club Chaplain in the first team dressing room. All very surreal but touching none the less.

Don't fxck with the trust

Interesting story from the New York Times. It is about consumer rebellion against some new packaging introduced by Pepsi Co’s for Tropicana. Basically the consumer “fan base” campaigned via letters, e-mail, telephone for the original look. Pepsi dropped the long term icon of the straw going direct into the orange. In an outpouring of mea culpa, Pepsi says they “underestimated the deep emotional bond of our most loyal customers”.

For me there are three learnings as we all attempt to get our bearings in a world turned upside down. First, consumers have an ever great need and desire to feel that they can trust brands. Not least because they feel that they can’t trust anything else. So don’t fxck with the trust. Second, it shows that consumers are in a mood to be militant. Third, that they feel that they have rights over brands. They are coming to terms with owning banks. So we should come to terms with the fact that they ultimately own brands as well.






February 23, 2009
Advertising
Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
By STUART ELLIOTT

IT took 24 years, but PepsiCo now has its own version of New Coke.

The PepsiCo Americas Beverages division of PepsiCo is bowing to public demand and scrapping the changes made to a flagship product, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. Redesigned packaging that was introduced in early January is being discontinued, executives plan to announce on Monday, and the previous version will be brought back in the next month.

Also returning will be the longtime Tropicana brand symbol, an orange from which a straw protrudes. The symbol, meant to evoke fresh taste, had been supplanted on the new packages by a glass of orange juice.

The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

That ability to share brickbats or bouquets with other consumers is important because it facilitates the formation of ad hoc groups, more likely to be listened to than individuals.

“There will always be people complaining, and always be people complaining about the complainers,” said Peter Shankman, a public relations executive who specializes in social media. “But this makes it easier to put us together.”

The phenomenon was on display last week when users of Facebook complained about changes to the Web site’s terms of service using methods that included, yes, groups on facebook.com. Facebook yielded to the protests and reverted to its original contract with users.

And in November, many consumers who used Twitter to criticize an ad for Motrin pain reliever received responses within 48 hours from the brand’s maker, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, which apologized for the ad and told them it had been withdrawn.

“Twitter is the ultimate focus group,” Mr. Shankman said. “I can post something and in a minute get feedback from 700 people around the world, giving me their real opinions.”

Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, acknowledged that consumers can communicate with marketers “more readily and more quickly” than ever. “For companies that put consumers at the center of what they do,” he said, “it’s a good thing.”

•

It was not the volume of the outcries that led to the corporate change of heart, Mr. Campbell said, because “it was a fraction of a percent of the people who buy the product.”

Rather, the criticism is being heeded because it came, Mr. Campbell said in a telephone interview on Friday, from some of “our most loyal consumers.”

“We underestimated the deep emotional bond” they had with the original packaging, he added. “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”

Among those who underestimated that bond was Mr. Campbell himself. In an interview last month to discuss the new packaging, he said, “The straw and orange have been there for a long time, but people have not necessarily had a huge connection to them.”

Reminded of that on Friday, Mr. Campbell said: “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”

That echoed an explanation offered in 1985 by executives of the Coca-Cola Company in response to the avalanche of complaints when they replaced the original version of Coca-Cola with New Coke: Consumers in focus groups liked the taste of New Coke, but were not told old Coke would disappear. The original version was hastily brought back as Coca-Cola Classic and New Coke eventually fizzed out.

(There are, it should be noted, significant differences between the two corporate flip-flops. For instance, the Tropicana changes involved only packaging, not the formula for or taste of the beverage.)

An ad campaign for Tropicana that helped herald the redesigned cartons, also introduced last month, will continue to run, Mr. Campbell said. Print and outdoor ads that have already appeared will not be changed, he added, but future elements of the campaign — like commercials, due in March — would be updated.

Unlike the packaging, the campaign has drawn praise, particularly for including in its family imagery several photographs of fathers and children hugging. Such dad-centric images are rare in food ads.

The campaign, which carries the theme “Squeeze it’s a natural,” was created by Arnell in New York, part of the Omnicom Group. Arnell also created the new version of the Tropicana packaging.

“Tropicana is doing exactly what they should be doing,” Peter Arnell, chairman and chief creative officer at Arnell, said in a separate telephone interview on Friday.

“I’m incredibly surprised by the reaction,” he added, referring to the complaints about his agency’s design work, but “I’m glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention.”

In fact, Tropicana plans to contact “everyone who called or wrote us” to express opinions, Mr. Campbell said, “and explain to them we’re making the change.”

Tropicana is among several PepsiCo brands whose packaging and logos have been recently redesigned by Arnell. The new logo the agency produced for Pepsi-Cola has been the subject of comments by ad bloggers who perceive a resemblance to the logo for the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

•

The bloggers have also buzzed about a document outlining the creation of the Pepsi-Cola logo, which appears to have been written by Arnell for PepsiCo executives; Mr. Arnell has declined to comment on the authenticity of the document, which is titled “Breathtaking Design Strategy” and is written in grandiose language.

One aspect of the new Tropicana packaging is being salvaged: plastic caps for the cartons, also designed by Arnell, that are shaped and colored like oranges.

Those caps will be used, Mr. Campbell said, for cartons of Trop 50, a variety of Tropicana with less sugar and calories that is to be introduced soon.

During the interview last month, Mr. Campbell said that Tropicana would spend more than $35 million on the “Squeeze” campaign. Although he declined on Friday to discuss how much it would cost to scrap the new packaging and bring back the previous design, he said the amount “isn’t significant.”

Asked if he was chagrined that consumers rejected the changes he believed they wanted, Mr. Campbell replied: “I feel it’s the right thing to do, to innovate as a company. I wouldn’t want to stop innovating as a result of this. At the same time, if consumers are speaking, you have to listen.”

The rise of the new values

We conducted a large and global insight study with our friends at Grant's whisky in 2007. It took place when, arguably, the world was a markedly different place. A world of personal progression, status symbols and conspicuous consumption. Remember that? Feel like a very long time ago! However, even then we were detecting that a significant change was happening. That men - after all this was a whisky study - whilst still conscious of status, were increasingly rejecting extrinsic, clichéd, simplistic images of how status was represented in the media. Instead they were turning to authentic, intrinsic, personal definitions of status. A memorable quote from this particular activity was “sharing knowledge is the new currency of success” Now, 18 months, this insight seems even more powerful and even more right. The following article from the FT looks at brands arriving at the same station.


Brands tap into old and new values

By Jenny Wiggins , Financial Times, 24 Feb 2009
Women who eat McDonald's hamburgers are groovy: they skateboard, play electric guitars and wear thick blue eyeshadow. Men who drink Chivas whisky are chivalrous: they carry women across muddy fields in the rain, and push-start broken-down cars. And teenagers who drink Coca-Cola are cheerfully content, as they chance upon their soulmates in the library.

Or so the consumer goods companies behind these brands would like you to think. Once preoccupied with encouraging people to show off through lavish consumption, they are now depicting people engaged in activities that reveal them to be rich in a personal life as well as in material goods.

One advertisement from the "This is the Chivas Life" campaign that began in 2003 showed men drinking whisky with their pals while fishing off an iceberg. In contrast, the television advertisement for the new Chivas campaign, "Live With Chivalry," which started in China in October and will be run globally, opens with a picture of a sad-looking, black-suited man being jostled by crowds as he walks along a grey city street. "Millions of people, everyone out for themselves. Can this really be the only way?" the advertisement asks. "No," viewers are told as they are shown pictures of men jumping out of aeroplanes and riding horses along beaches. "Here's to honour, and to gallantry, long may it live. Here's to doing the right thing, to giving a damn."

The chivalry campaign is about "the good guys who give something back", explains Martin Riley, chief marketing officer at Pernod Ricard, the French group that owns Chivas.

When the drinks group researched the chivalry idea, it hit a nerve, he adds: "People are questioning a certain level of values that have taken the world to where it is right now...the individual getting ahead at any price."

Other companies say consumers are expressing similar sentiments.

In France, McDonald's has begun a new marketing campaign called "Venez comme vous êtes" ("Come as you are") amid concerns that the company's global "I'm lovin' it" slogan is considered arrogant.

Grégoire Champetier, who runs marketing communications for France and southern Europe, says the chain is trying to return to the image it promoted when it opened its first restaurant inFrance, in Strasbourg 30 years ago.

At that time, casual restaurants where people could eat with their fingers and let their kids run around were rare, and the chain had a campaign called "Ça se passe comme ça, chez McDonald's" ("This is the way it is").

Now the French are familiar with McDonald's, he wants to remind them that as well as somewhere to eat cheaply it is a place to be informal with other people. "This campaign is not an answer to the [economic] crisis, but came at the right time," Mr Champetier says.

McDonald's is running four commercials on French television, each showing someone expressing different aspects of their personality. If successful, it will extend the campaign to other countries in Europe.

Coca-Cola is also revisiting past campaigns that accented being positive and optimistic, in an attempt to connect with consumers, some of whom it has lost in recent years as people ditched its fizzy drinks for less sugary alternatives. The soft drinks giant, which ran a campaign called "The Pause That Refreshes" during the Great Depression, and another called "Have a Coke and Have a Smile" during a period of high inflation in the late 1970s, is now going with one called "Open Happiness".

Shay Drohan, global vice-president of Coca-Cola's sparkling brands, argues that the company is in a good position to "comfort" people because its brand is well-established. "Putting things in perspective is one of the things our brand can do," he says. "We can't start talking about something new right now...people are looking for familiarity."

Another brand capitalising on its longevity and familiarity is Guinness, the Irish stout. In Ireland, where it is celebrating its 250th anniversary, it is rerunning television advertisements from the 1950s and 1970s, including one showing a sea lion balancing a pint of Guinness on its nose. "People are searching for security and trust," says Brian Duffy, the global brand director for Guinness. "I don't think you can invent a warm and attractive past – you've got to have one."

Younger brands are taking a more modern approach, but sticking to the same theme. Absolut Vodka, conceived as a brand in its current form in 1979, this month placed an advertisement called "Hugs" during the music industry's Grammy Awards. The advertisement, which shows strangers hugging and kissing in offices, buses and fish shops to the sound of Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss To Build A Dream On", has already received more than 1.2m views on YouTube.

The campaign with the most ambitious goals is PepsiCo's "Refresh Everything". Its US television commercial, which displays the phrase "It's time for optimism" on the screen before flashing words like "joy" and "love", is about the power of being positive, says Frank Cooper, PepsiCo's vice-president for brands. "People that embrace optimism are able to move forward."

Mr Cooper argues that there is a new "cultural movement" afoot. "People feel empowered and feel like it's their right to participate in and effect change."

This was the movement that President Barack Obama tapped into in his presidential campaign, he adds. "It's like the 1960s...we all sense that something will be fundamentally different five years from now."