Insurance against bad timing

Last week I noticed a very unfortunate example of advertising with bad timing. As you may recall the Italian Cruiser Costa Concordia was involved in the tragic accident in the Mediterranean sea. Berlingske (Danish newspaper) had a significant coverage. As you can see Albatros (travel agency) ran an ad next to the article - unfortunately they were offering "Dream cruises"

I know these incidents happen. And this one is really sad given the fact that people were dying during the accident.

Here is a free idea for Berlingske and media in general:

Why not offer a guarantee to advertisers, that this doesn't happen. As an advertiser you can define the articles (defined by a theme or other relevant parameters) you don't want to be associated with and maybe you pay a premium to have this guarantee (extra revenue in a very squeezed industry). The data is available, maybe in 2 different departments of the Media (Editorial part (knowledge of articles) and Commercial part (knowledge of campaigns and advertisers), but it should be a walk in the park to make this product. And to me both the newspaper and the advertiser give a bad impression in the above example.

In Trust we trust

Branding and communication can sometimes be hard. Today I have noticed an example that truly prove this.

Last week my son turned 10 and one of his most wanted gifts was a wireless mouse. He is a young gamer and wants gear that's easy to move around.

I'm not an expert, but after some research I found that a wireless mouse would be OK even though a game fanatic might argue that a mouse with cord was even better for gaming. But still he is 10.

I was a bit late so I skipped my initial thought of buying on-line. In Fona (a TV/Radio retailer) I found the right product (a fast and accurate mouse). Not cheap, not expensive. And a promising name (maybe the alarm clock should have been ringing?):

My son was excited (he is not yet brand conscious) and the installation was an easy fix. But, but a week later the mouse stopped working. I tried everything, but the mouse had rally stopped working. Suddenly it's hard to call your brand Trust. It becomes pretentious and a bit of a laugh. Only I didn't laugh. Maybe it was a great idea in the beginning and really a promise they as a brand wanted to pursue and deliver on. But today they don't.

Fortunately Fona took the chance to use a "bad product experience" to brand themselves. I got a complete new product in 3 minutes - no arguing. Only professional service.

And now I'm here with a new Trust mouse. I'm hoping the best. But I trust Fona.

The Problem in Brief

In most agencies you spend a lot of time discussing the brief that you (normally) get from clients and internal briefs as well. What's the objective and what are we asked to do (campaigns, product development etc.).

In some projects we get a very clear and very detailed brief and everybody is happy. Now we know exactly how to approach the project and maybe even what to deliver. And within the limits of the brief we can be extremely creative.

Lately things are changing dramatically. Since we preach a more holistic and multi disciplinary approach the briefs and projects Advance get involved in become complicated. And it's hard to be creative, because you lack information or a complete overview.

Part of the solution is to spend more time on defining and discussing the problems that we are trying to solve rather than a predefined brief. What kind of problem are we trying to solve with a campaign and can the problem really be solved with a campaign. Today I saw an article in a danish new paper discussing if brands can buy a better image (making campaigns). See it here http://www.business.dk/media/kan-man-koebe-sig-et-nyt-image

Of cause they can't, but if the problem is a poor brand image, there are solutions to it (a complete product, organization and communication solution would be an Advance bet). But if the brief is a campaign, you never get to the right solution.

This means that creativity from an agency perspective is also in the way you approach the problem. And the clients will have to approach the agencies with a more (open) problem oriented discussion. At least to get the most effective solution and more value out of the agencies. I'm sure that the concepts that we get out of this will be more holistic and much more relevant than traditional solutions. And fortunately we can see it working with the most courageous of our clients (and client owners within the agency). The beauty of it, is that you produce an alignment between clients and agency (you measure against the ability to solve a problem that you agree on) and between competencies within the agency. Long term I believe only agencies that can facilitate this proces and who can create a trustworthy relationship with the clients will make it to the top. And that's our ambition.