NORTHERN PLANNER

I had some pretty good training on digital stuff recently.

Some of the specifics –  you know, programmatic buying, blind networks etc.

This stuff is important as I’m getting more convinced that, whatever kind of agency you are in, you need to get to grips with the nuts of bolts of the technology that’s out there and how content and stuff tends to actually get in front of people.

I suppose it’s like great Formula One Driver know their cars inside out and work with the engineers as much as possible.

This matter firstly because of first mover advantage. If you’re first to take advantage of new technology or media stuff, you get the chance to do something really special.

Subservient Chicken springs to mind.

 

As does this Honda video – a genuinely ‘interactive’ video that integrates with the story.

 

It also matters because it’s how you put things together that matters. Which means a fundamental grip of what works and what works together.

This great Yeo Valley case study wouldn’t have got so much traction on the back of one hero spot without working so well with social media.

 

Broadcast working with Facebook was fundamental to this Yorkshire Tea campaign.

 

What is also true of the last two examples, is how they are still TV campaigns.

Not TV as we use to know it, but television still.

Because, despite the emerging tradition to kill off telly, it’s still the most efficient channel for building business profit, against a whole range of secondary objectives.

It’s just that it’s role, and how it works with other channels and assets HAS changed.

Funnily enough, there’s evidence it’s also the most efficient and driving genuine widespread word of mouth.

Which brings me back to that training.

They made a fair point, that we have to assume that whatever content you put out there can be played with by people on all sorts of networks. There is little you can do about it, so you may as well embrace it.

But what they didn’t say was that you will be very, very lucky if anyone can be bothered, if you intend it or not.

And you have to assume they won’t, which is the most commercial way of looking at things.

Since, as has been discussed by cleverer people than me, it’s the light buyers that notice a brands stuff the least that matter for growth the most. The people the least likely to engage.

The only point of people getting involved with your stuff is how it will extend your reach, to infiltrate the barrier of indifference most of us have for most of the things we buy with some sort of social proof or whatever.

They used these examples to show the power of people playing with your content and getting involved.

 

 

But nothing would have happened without, of all things, a finely crafted ad that, yes, was really cool and funny, but also dealt with a specific truth about how shower gel gets bought (by women for men) and a bigger truth the brand could play with –what it means to be a man in our porous, ironic culture.

 

So don’t forget, be a digital engineer, its essential these days, but don’t forget to understand some older fundamentals too.

Basically, few people care, and the role of people that do is to make them notice. 

I was reminded last week that the internet grew out a US military drive to increase security.

That’s right. It’s not up there with moveable type of course, but the internet has still created a seismic shift in freedom of information and control of content.

Out of a drive to limit it. 

Whereas the World Wide Web was one the unexpected by-products of setting CERN to send atoms whizzing around and smashing into each other.

Which goes to show that when you set out to do stuff, not only do you not know where it all may end.

If you open your mind to the possibility, all sorts of wonderful things can tumble out along the way.

It can be the exact opposite of what you intended in the first place.

I guess that’s why science funding is so important. Just by trying to do all sorts of improbable stuff, we often get far more unexpected value.

Perhaps that’s an argument for more learning for learning’s sake and a subtle swipe at those who see education only in terms of economic ROI. But let’s not go there.

Looking at the day job, it’s why I think pitching is healthy, even if you don’t win.

 The tight deadlines, adrenalin and the way they bring teams together can bring other benefits.

Great ideas can develop along the way to save for later, along with the main crux of your pitch.

Moreover, if you put together a pitch team of folks that don’t usually work together, it’s great for creating an even closer knit agency, while the getting used to other views and frames of reference develops everyone’s world view and skill set.

It’s also why planners should be as interested in as much non-work stuff as possible.

Great ideas are as much about drawing new connections between things as ‘bolts from the blue’. The more fodder you have, the more likely you’ll produce the goods.

Put another way, read, watch and experience as much as you can, you never know when it might come in handy. 

If you can get hold of The Big Lie, by  the Future Foundation, it's well worth a look. 

It's a nice little window into what people in the UK care about right now, but more than that, it's a study into how research makes people tell lies. 

It's evidence based, full of real data from real base sizes.

It shows how the same group of people can claim to 'think/feel/do' one thing.

Then claim to 'think/feel/do' something totally opposite.

Even in the same questionnaire. 

Everyone is usually at least two people – how they see themselves and how others see them. 

This get's resolved a little as people get older. 

But this has only been complicated by two develops in recent times.

First, the porous nature of modern culture. There is so much choice of what to experience and 'how to be' that people genuinely are different versions of themselves in different situations and different groups. 

Second, the way today's thirty and forty somethings are much 'younger' than generation before and actively try to avoid growing up. 

Then there's social media, where we're seeing folks projecting a more 'perfect' social self, an idea of who they would like to be,rather than who they are. 

For example, it's quite cool (people say) in the UK to have a work ethic and look disciplined, so loads of folks are exaggerating how much they go to the gym and what they do there.

Just the data tends to show people claim to dismiss 'celebrity' yet the Daily Mail website is one of the most popular sites in the world. 

So it's totally authentic for me to moan about work commitments getting in the way of time with the kids.

Then moan about time with the kids getting in the way of cycling in other company.

Both statements are true and authentic. 

Which makes research and 'insight' bloody hard. 

It means that if you come across a neat little insight, it's probably only half the story. 

It means we should look for tensions and contradictions more. It means we're on to something. 

It means we should avoid asking people direct questions, or at least, look for connections, patterns and tensions in their answers. 

The tensions are the insights!

It means that 80% of market research findings are, at best, questionable. 

More likely, they are a pack of true lies. 

 

I'm guessing that I come into Sainsbury's target market. 

I know that I think about ads and stuff too much.

I know that tapping into all that WW1 stuff around at the moment should create some natural traction.

But I do wonder if this..

 

Will be seen as a tune free version of this..

 

Not to mention, I wonder if people who think about things a little less, might react a little adversely to something as serious as millions of men giving up their lives, in service of selling turkey and tinsel. 

Winning Christmas is really important commercially and much of that can come from making people feel something profound, but I question the relevance here, the 'sharing' present element feels too bolted on.

Borrowed interest can be really powerful, but you need to get the relevance. I wonder if folks might like the ad (if they can't remember Macca) but not attribute it to Sainsburys. 

Anyway, my favourite Christmas commercial is this…