talk

These days the latest Olympic scandal is a print ad for a courier company, official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball team, where Spain’s Olympic basketball team players appear stretching the skin on either side of their eyes for an Asian slant with sheepish grins on their faces. That add seems to say “look out Chinese people, here we come!”
The two full-page ads have been running since August in the Spanish sports newspaper Marca. Nobody in Spain noticed anything “inappropriate” until a British newspaper showcased it yesterday.

“Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures.” Wrote Sid Lowe for The Gaurdien. “The failure to recognise the potential consequences is striking in the light of the problems Spain has had with issues of race…”

I am sure the Creatives behind the campaign had no intentions of offend anyone with this ad, nor could they distinguish any offense in it.
It’s an interesting cultural contrast, which is worth examining. continue reading “The Un-PC basketball team”

I-phone : You-cardboard

You think the future of mobile phones is the all in one i-phone? Well seems there’s a California company that thinks a painlessly disposable, super lo-cost cell-phone made of cardboard is the future. While with the I-phone you’re tied to AT&T, with the cardboard phone you’re –sort of- free, or at least you don’t have to pay one of those horrendous penalties if you decide to change companies. Minutes are charged from a pre-paid card, no matter what network is behind your calls. This is great news for tourists, or people who want to keep track of their cell-phone expenses on a business trip. But unfortunately in the US if you want a fancy phone you have to have it locked to a network. You can bet the idea of an unlocked i-phone makes AT&T tremble!

The European Wireless freedom:

What does a “locked” phone mean exactly? It means you are locked into a given system, and often times it feels like you made a deal with the devil. Europe has lived a free wireless life from the beginning, since the wise European Union forced all the network systems to unify from the start. So over there you can buy a cell-phone while in a network and move the device with you if you change your carrier. Really!!

For the US consumer the advantage has been that the cost of the phone itself has been greatly reduced, subsidized by the wireless carrier. So as soon as you get bored with one model you can move to another for a reasonable amount not even close to the real value of the device. That’s if you keep it in the same network. If not the Penalty Monster gets you and that, for some, it’s something that goes against all good old rules of capitalism.

California rules:
But wait there’s hope! A few days ago a preliminary California ruling stated that Sprint Nextel must pay consumers in California $18.2 million from a class-action lawsuit that challenged these “early termination fees,” and that the company must stop trying to collect the $54.7 million they are seeking from other customers who haven’t paid they early termination charges.

There’s a big possibility this ruling may extend to other states. Maybe very soon we’ll move into a network free wireless world in the US too. If that’s the case, it will very likely be the cheap cardboard cell-phones that turn out to be the big winners.

So many forms of media exist today that Media Nerd is absolutely certain that soon the phrase “alternative media” will cease to have any meaning at all. In our quest to make sure that nobody escapes from advertising messages we use every available surface for signage, screen placement, projection, graffiti, murals, until the landscape has no clear, open surfaces. So here are a few ideas about more:

Health Clubs:

• Cardio-workout equipment can be equipped with text zippers on which to read news, stock quotes, and ads.
• Plastic bags in the locker rooms can carry ads, which will cut the cost for the club because the advertiser is underwriting the service.
• Towels can be made with ads or logos and then supplied free or at low cost to the club
• Let’s not forget the back of the restroom stall door, which is already being done in bars and clubs.

Books:

• Bookmarks with ads/coupons can be distributed in bookstores with purchases and/or in libraries with books being checked out
• Put ads back in mass-market paperback books; they had bound-in ads in the middle about 50 years ago. That will help cut the cost of books themselves while delivering an audience that probably reads fewer magazines and watches less television.

Media Nerd recently met with the sales manager of Hercules Networks, a company that makes charging stations for cell phones: You watch news, weather, and ads while your cell phone charges in 10 minutes flat. Bookstores, libraries, and health clubs are three more venues I would suggest to him, since the average user is in each of these venues for at least ten minutes while browsing, shopping, or dressing. Not to mention everyone else who is also there who is exposed to the ads.

Of course, this also needs an approach that a client can measure, since everything is all about results. This has been done with 800-telephone numbers before, so there is a simple answer: All ads carry a variation of the web address so the site administrator can pull reports to log the number of hits by media form. That’s how to measure ROI.

Wellness is the new big American obsession. It speaks to our country’s hunger for continued youthfulness, focus and purpose as different things continue to exert strong pressure on our personal, family and work lives. We’re frankly all a little bit stressed over many things, including the economy, the state of the world, and the environment.

And while technology helps us to catch up by organizing us a bit more, keeping up with the growing base of gadgetry can also add to the worries. As a result we desperately need some space and time to meditate and take care of ourselves. Welcome to America’s heightened search for balance.

This search for the ‘better self’ was begun by Oprah in the late eighties and has increased over the years. Our quest for calm, ironically, is coming at a time when Americans are forced to work and try harder to keep up with the rest of the world. The Asians are kicking our butts in terms of economic growth, and the Europeans and their stronger Euro are putting a break on our ability to enjoy foreign travel. No wonder we’re looking for an outlet to let off some steam.

But we’re looking for a little bit more than just relaxation; we’re also looking for values and meaning. This feeling was drastically marked by the catastrophic impact on our collective identity after September 11th. continue reading ““I Feel Good” : America’s Wellness Revolution”

How and when did brands get so small? It seems that despite the greater availability of tools and engaging media to connect brands with consumers, the impact of brands on society has greatly diminished. Why are the trillions of dollars currently spent on marketing only getting us “Paris Hilton” brands instead of timeless “Liz Taylors?” It seems that this past decade’s media revolution has empowered consumers while making brands more insecure.

Brands that want to be leaders must learn how to lead. They must facilitate what we call “branded movements” – or powerful collaborative statements with non-traditional groups such as grassroots organizations and influencers resulting in powerful brand communities. How do branded movements begin?

Brands should first adopt a more assertive attitude with regards to the roles they can play in society. They should not be afraid to ask themselves how they can change the world. This type of weighty question will naturally guide your brand to true values and give clarity, edge and purpose to your branding strategy. Plus, doing so will also bring you closer with a stronger base of consumers that are already asking themselves that very question of the brands they embrace.

A growing number of examples of branded movements is feeding consumers’ appetite for brand meaning, including General Electric’s “Eco-magination,” Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong,” Dove’s “Real Beauty”, and Bono’s Red Campaign. At the core of these initiatives is a brand becoming human, inspiring through values, and then building communities through stories and interactions through imaginative use of creative and media.

“Branded movements,” work because they give everyone involved a sense of purpose around the brand and its values. They are also powerful because they allow to brand to touch upon society’s big shifts as well as the themes impacting the day-to-day decisions of individuals and families. The brand becomes both symbolic and relatable, inspirational and accessible. It is then, by being truly a part of consumers’ lives that our shrinking brands can become big again.

I’ve always had a good gut. When I was 5, I thought it would be a wonderful idea for a chain restaurant that JUST served fries. When I was 13, I couldn’t understand why places like Walmart or Target didn’t have fashionable teen clothes. Why everything “cool” was super expensive. Why gum, couldn’t help whiten or clean teeth. Now all of that has changed and I see that, I wasn’t crazy, I was just ahead of my time. There are a couple of more ideas that I have that I would like to put on the table. The business development of such enterprises is a bit beyond my area of expertise, yet as I would truly love to see these ideas come to life, I’m sharing. After all I can’t do them all and I would love to see them happen. If you’re reading this and know how to make these ideas happen feel free to ring us up for ways we can help.

1st: PureFeet: A business model that combines holistic foot spa treatments with podiatry, with a podiatrist on site to take a look and prescribe treatments as needed. continue reading “Billion Dollar Ideas.”

Innovation, along with the power of execution, is constantly heralded in the business media as one of the cornerstones of business strategies and growth. But how do you attain it. Industries differ in their inherent capacity for innovation. It’s an art form that requires both a culture fit and a set of processes that see business ideas thrive to become profitable initiatives and products giving new life to brands and to the bottom line.

Advertising agencies should be naturals at doing this given their focus on what consumers are looking for. But unfortunately they are more concerned in the day to day of running ads. “Today’s agencies must become more open in everything they do, we need to leverage our uniqueness when speaking to consumers and come up with other innovations besides simply ads to impact our clients. ” states Roberto Ramos, President & CEO of the vox collective, a full service communication agency that comes up not only with campaigns but also with product and business ideas for clients.

The vox collective worked very closely with Regatta USA and Kohl’s to come with a clothing line for model and television personality Daisy Fuentes. The agency leveraged its extensive knowledge of the retail and female market, as well as the growing Latino market to come up with a business plan and relevant communications to launch this brand. It is currently the biggest private label brand at Kohl’s, expanding into categories such as accessories and home décor.

Should we have less actual media placements and just make them the right ones? This is the question provoked by Fox’s recent decision to limit themselves to five commercial minutes per hour in two of their new programs. Media Nerd suspects that these premium units will initially be snapped up at a package rate by long-term big spenders while the network looks at the effectiveness of this strategy. The alternative scenario is that the cost will be sufficiently high to have more :15s being placed into these programs. This certainly won’t solve the clutter problem because of the traditionally-perceived lower recall rate of the :15s, leaving everyone back where they started while paying more for it. Nobody wants their CPPs to double, so the return for this has to be more than twice the sales to make it viable.

The Spanish-language networks already run fewer commercial minutes per hour and more program promos, mostly not cluttering the screen during credits or program time. When you factor in the lower commercial load during most novela premieres, you have an audience that isn’t picking up the remote. Good opening episodes will then mean a loyal audience.

Univision’s forthcoming Video on Demand in 2009 comes as no surprise in a market with increasing media choices and comes as very welcome news to viewers who want to have choices about viewing times. The damper on this good news, however, is that their licensing agreement with Televisa doesn’t allow them to provide their blockbuster telenovelas within the VOD offerings.

No te preocupes, because Televisa’s own viewers have come to the rescue: A few of them are meticulously posting entire episodes to YouTube. Media Nerd saw the first 40 episodes of Fuego en la Sangre prior to its record-breaking US debut and saw numerous posts from regular YouTube users eager for the next installment. The stream count for most of those clips so far is in the low to middle 5 figures, not enough to cut into Univision’s normal viewing audience, most of whom clearly prefer to see their programs on a standard-size or large screen with significantly better resolution.

The ones censored by Univision, however, got over 200,000 plays each.

Media Nerd, having seen some of the badly edited DVD sets of a few past titles, would happily watch them on YouTube. Even with commercials. Muchas gracias, amigos.

Many fashionistas talk about the stimulating and soothing effect of shopping when one is not feeling too fancy. The ladies in “Sex in the City” have become the ultimate symbols of this state of mind. But what happens when the carefree shopper is hit with a not so light case of dwindling disposable income and credit, as is currently the case across America. How should retail brands respond when people start putting the breaks on how much they are spending for clothes? It seems the fashion and retail categories need some retail therapy of their very own.

While a recession is not good for anyone, the limitations it engenders can motivate brands to become more focused on what they provide their consumers. By weathering the storm with a smile, a touch of class, and a lot of ingenuity, retail brands can fuel an evolution that will take them to new heights once recessionary waters subside. So retail brand managers: stay positive that better times will return, and in the meantime, work to find more creative and nuanced ways to connect with shoppers.

One of the most important lessons to remember when selling during a recession is that this unique confluence of economic variables presents a good time to remind your consumers about your unique value proposition. By doing so, you dispel the uncertainties of a recession, with the certainty of choosing the right brand for them.

continue reading “Retail Therapy for Recessionary Times”

Parents often have an image in their heads about who might offer their kids drugs that has nothing to do with reality. The members of Generation Einstein, as children born after 1988 are being called, have a good grasp on perception management. You see it in the popular teen shows like Gossip Girls; you hear it in their references to what is, or what isn’t “off brand” for them.

This is making it harder for innocent parents to discern who is a menace to their family and who isn’t. This challenge taken to another level when you throw into the equation the fact that these parents are not American ex-hippies, well aware of the subject at hand, but 1st generation Latinos, more familiar with kidnappings & violence than they are of the slow burning social ills that plague our urban centers. They face an uphill battle of cultural differences as their children adopt the language and customs of American kids, which they often have trouble understanding.

Many such parents prefer to defer such important, but often awkward, conversations to another family member or to the school system without realizing that such procrastination facilitates the opportunity for others to make that first introduction to Mary Jane. Parents also have trouble with the idea that kids as young as 11 or 12 are already getting exposed to pot.

These latest ads were developed with Latino parents in mind to bring precisely these ideas to life. The pictures are sweet and cynical meant to drive a point home. They are meant to be provocative to get kids and parents talking about the subject. The idea is that if we give parents and kids a reason to start talking about the subject, we’ve accomplished half the battle.