John Wanamaker, Warby Parker, Bike to Work, Streaming, Business School
John Wanamaker, Warby Parker, Bike to Work, Streaming, Business School
The Weekly | Brigadoon
April 29, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
The Weekly = Enterprise + Culture + Sport + Policy
Subscribe here: http://thebrigadoon.com/subscribe/
ROSS RANT
Brand marketing in a direct marketing world
Pop quiz: What was the top Super Bowl 2018 ad according to USA Today’s Ad Meter?
Heck, if you can name one of the top ten, I will give you bonus points.
The reason you can’t remember the best ad or any ads from the big game, it’s not the best tool.
It’s not the best tool because it doesn’t connect, make an impact, or leave a mark.
You see brand marketing doesn't work in the direct marketing world.
Brand marketing is from a different age. A different business environment. A different communication era.
Brand marketing was created when John Wanamaker’s statement “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half” worked because it could work.
It could work because advertisers created a mass broadcast communications environment to serve its needs.
Radio was created to sell ads.
Television was created to sell ads.
Brian Millar, co-founder of the Emotional Intelligence Agency, writes "traditional advertising went after ‘share of mind’–the idea was to get you to associate a brand with a single idea, a single emotion. Volvo: safety. Jaguar: speed. Coke: happiness. The Economist: success. Bang, bang, bang, went the ads, hammering the same idea into your mind every time you saw one.
"Advertising briefs evolved to focus the creatives on a single unique selling position and a single message. Tell them we’re the Ultimate Driving Machine. Tell them in a thrilling way. It worked when you saw ads infrequently on television, in a Sunday magazine, or on a billboard on your morning commute."
This type of advertising worked because it was a communications environment of one to many with only a handful of vehicles to reach an audience.
But that is not today.
Today we are living in a direct marketing world powered by the WWW.
Now we have micro-media and personalized broadcast communications environment which serves the needs of the end user.
The internet was not created for ads.
The internet is not mass media.
To better understand this new communications environment the Emotional Intelligence Agency conducted a study to understand what kind of content works. The firm found communications which used funny, useful, beautiful, and inspiring content delivers the best results. Not surprising the most successful brands do all four.
Also not surprising these are the adjectives used by any top storyteller. She knows they are best words when executing micro and personalized communications.
Yet most of us communicate using only one type of emotionally compelling content - if at all - employing brand marketing techniques that are closer to the days of Mad Men them to the present day of Laundry Service.
We still communicate like once a day, or worse just a few times a month. Instead of using tools that follow and engage our most active supporters in their media diet.
When it comes to the WWW and the direct marketing communications environment, being multidimensional beats being single-minded.
Surprise beats consistency.
Emotion beats fact.
Funny beats dour.
Useful beats sales.
Beautiful beats boring.
Inspirational beats directional.
The best communicators have always understood this instinctively.
By the way, USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked Amazon's "Alexa Loses Her Voice" as the best 2018 ad.
I don't remember the ad either. But I do remember my friends telling me a story or two about Alexa that used funny, useful, beautiful, and inspiring words to describe their experiences.
FIVE ARTICLES TO READ
Over 400 startups are trying to become the next Warby Parker. Inside the wild race to overthrow every consumer category: Wharton professors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs are fueling an entire generation of Warby Parkers. Now there are more than 400 startups tackling products from toothbrushes to bras. What could go wrong? http://bit.ly/2I5oKT9
Hit-and-run fatalities soar as more people walk or bike to work: Hit-and-run crash deaths are rising nationwide, and pedestrians and bicyclists account for close to 70% of the victims, according to a new report, as more people cycle to work and motor-vehicle fatalities are at a near-decade-high level. https://on.wsj.com/2r0pu4E
How streaming will continue to change everything in the music business: The next revolution in the music business will not be a new consumer-facing format or a visionary product. The next revolution is financial and multifaceted with wide implications, and it’s already started. http://bit.ly/2FcB7tH
Why we should bulldoze the business school: There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many. And I should know – I’ve taught in them for 20 years. Guardian - Martin Parker
Who creates a nation’s economic value? A challenging analysis that forces us to reconsider how our economies work — and who it works for. https://on.ft.com/2vW9zJG
"Among other things, we need to re-think the relationship between markets and governments; make a clear distinction between creators of wealth and those who merely extract it; embrace bolder collective ambitions, notably a shift to a greener economy; and spend on the future, instead of embracing a sterile and counterproductive austerity."
GUEST POST
Hey, you reading this.
Fill in this space.
PRODUCTIVITY
Is technology hurting productivity? It is possible that new technologies are not just doing less to boost productivity than past innovations. They may actually have negative side effects that undermine productivity growth, and that reduce our wellbeing in other ways as well.
Project Syndicate - Jeffrey Frankel
BOOKS
My favorite books on politics and campaigns:
Selling of the President 1968
What It Takes: The Way to the White House
Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns
Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics
Bad Boy: The Life And Politics Of Lee Atwater
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class
SONG
Nothing But Thieves - Amsterdam http://bit.ly/2Hs4olS
Brand marketing in a direct marketing world
Pop quiz: What was the top Super Bowl 2018 ad according to USA Today’s Ad Meter?
Heck, if you can name one of the top ten, I will give you bonus points.
The reason you can’t remember the best ad or any ads from the big game, it’s not the best tool.
It’s not the best tool because it doesn’t connect, make an impact, or leave a mark.
You see brand marketing doesn't work in the direct marketing world.
Brand marketing is from a different age. A different business environment. A different communication era.
Brand marketing was created when John Wanamaker’s statement “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half” worked because it could work.
It could work because advertisers created a mass broadcast communications environment to serve its needs.
Radio was created to sell ads.
Television was created to sell ads.
Brian Millar, co-founder of the Emotional Intelligence Agency, writes "traditional advertising went after ‘share of mind’–the idea was to get you to associate a brand with a single idea, a single emotion. Volvo: safety. Jaguar: speed. Coke: happiness. The Economist: success. Bang, bang, bang, went the ads, hammering the same idea into your mind every time you saw one.
"Advertising briefs evolved to focus the creatives on a single unique selling position and a single message. Tell them we’re the Ultimate Driving Machine. Tell them in a thrilling way. It worked when you saw ads infrequently on television, in a Sunday magazine, or on a billboard on your morning commute."
This type of advertising worked because it was a communications environment of one to many with only a handful of vehicles to reach an audience.
But that is not today.
Today we are living in a direct marketing world powered by the WWW.
Now we have micro-media and personalized broadcast communications environment which serves the needs of the end user.
The internet was not created for ads.
The internet is not mass media.
To better understand this new communications environment the Emotional Intelligence Agency conducted a study to understand what kind of content works. The firm found communications which used funny, useful, beautiful, and inspiring content delivers the best results. Not surprising the most successful brands do all four.
Also not surprising these are the adjectives used by any top storyteller. She knows they are best words when executing micro and personalized communications.
Yet most of us communicate using only one type of emotionally compelling content - if at all - employing brand marketing techniques that are closer to the days of Mad Men them to the present day of Laundry Service.
We still communicate like once a day, or worse just a few times a month. Instead of using tools that follow and engage our most active supporters in their media diet.
When it comes to the WWW and the direct marketing communications environment, being multidimensional beats being single-minded.
Surprise beats consistency.
Emotion beats fact.
Funny beats dour.
Useful beats sales.
Beautiful beats boring.
Inspirational beats directional.
The best communicators have always understood this instinctively.
By the way, USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked Amazon's "Alexa Loses Her Voice" as the best 2018 ad.
I don't remember the ad either. But I do remember my friends telling me a story or two about Alexa that used funny, useful, beautiful, and inspiring words to describe their experiences.
-Marc A. Ross
Marc A. Ross is the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in developing winning communications, content, connections, and commerce for entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
Make the choice
Desiree Linden is an American marathoner and could be the most inspiring runner I have ever known.
In 2017 it appeared she might have peaked.
Instead, in 2018 she became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years, finishing the race in 2 hours 39 minutes 54 seconds.
Linden, a two-time Olympian, placed fourth at the 2017 Boston Marathon and was burned out on the sport. And tired. After three marathons in the previous 14 months: the Olympic Trials (second place), the Olympics (seventh place), and then that fourth at Boston. She didn’t feel like running again until the end of September. Five months off, during which, she said, “I hated everything about running.”
But she wanted to win the Boston Marathon, and she made no secret of that goal.
Her desire to run the course in Boston was the reason she started running marathons in the first place. She has a golden retriever named Boston and had another named Miles who died last year.
So last Monday, she was back on the course in Boston attempting to complete her goal.
But before the race more hurdles, as Linden thought about dropping out as she wasn’t drinking enough fluids and was afraid of getting cramps in her legs. Add a weather report of strong winds and the coldest temperatures in 30 years, this year's Boston Marathon would be even more challenging than usual for her and the rest of the field.
Linden now lives and trains in Northern Michigan and resides closer to the North Pole than the Equator. So the NorEaster that bore down on the course in Boston with its horizontal rain and freezing temperatures is ordinary training weather for many months in the Great Lakes state, but many runners found this climate to be the worst running weather in decades.
Linden's ability to persevere and succeed in exceptionally miserable physical circumstances is remarkable.
Linden's ability to persevere and succeed in exceptionally challenging mental circumstances is remarkable.
To succeed in 2018, Linden had to find a deeper gear to compete.
Her pinned Tweet displays where she finds this deeper gear:
"Some days it just flows and I feel like I’m born to do this, other days it feels like I’m trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I’ve got, and to try and be better.
My advice: keep showing up.
#MondayMotivaton #TogetherForward"
I don't think any advice can be more profound.
Make a choice to show up and keep showing up.
You might just achieve your goal.
-Marc A. Ross