Category: What I Think

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What I Think

© Now

It’s one of those details which means nothing and everything at the same time. The copyright year on your website is the kind of detail which, if remained unchanged would not mean the end of your business or attract a fine from the ATO like failing to lodge your BAS on time (BASTARDS!)

The year after the copyright symbol on your website does speak volumes. Think about the last time you saw that symbol combination number. How did you feel about that business?

If the copyright year was for the current year then you were reassured that the business was:

  1. still in business
  2. the information, including pricing and specifications, was up to date
  3. and they pay attention to detail.

If their copyright year was not current then you probably had a sliding degree of enthusiasm for that entity based on how out of date the © is. Or was.

The greater the time between this year and the © year on the website the lower the perceived value of the information available.  Doesn’t mean it is wrong or even out of date at all. But in branding, perception = reality and for the sake of a 60-second task – Nike it!

This works in real life too. Car dealers hate having plated stock made in the previous year on the yard or in the showroom. That’s why they have January sales; to sell the plated stock from the previous year even though they are only months old. People have an aversion to buying the old stock at full price. In 99% of cases, IT’S THE SAME CAR!

This is repeated across any industry where NEW = GOOD like white goods, electronics and fashion.

Bottom line; put a  reminder in your calendar for every 31 December to update the © year across all your websites (and downloadable documents).

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What I Think

Satisfaction Guaranteed*

*Fine print is for weasels.  If you have a marketing offer make it simple. What you get. What you have to do. By when. Simple.

There is more to lose when marketers add fine print. Look at the reams of qualifications, rules and exemptions in a Frequent Flyer program. Pages and pages and pages of fine print that the program owners love to use to get out of paying up. They keep changing the rules and never in favour of the consumer. Which is why a rewards program is a double-edged sword. If you ask any airline CEO they would gladly get rid of them immediately. The value on their balance sheet of outstanding points in some cases exceeds the value of the airline. So when the airline fails (is old, merges, collapses) those points disappear into… thin air!

BOGOF is the oldest promotion ever; probably the first. By One Get One Free. (My version remains the best ever although in the age of #MeToo is outdated, to say the least.)

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What I Think

That’s a great idea!

Having a great idea is, well, great. Family and friends will stroke your ego and say how clever you are and how much money you’re going to make. Get used to hearing the word ‘killer’; it’s a killer idea, it’s a killer app, it’s a killer product/solution/service. You’re the next, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb.

But what’s the next step to getting ‘it‘ out of your head and into the world? And the next step? And the next? And the one after?

Maybe you need a patent, prototype or plan. What’s your marketing strategy, sales strategy, exit strategy?

You’re an expert in your idea. And we are experts in the next steps.

Let’s chat and see if we’re a fit, Killer.

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What I Think

Here’s what I think about the new Nike ‘Dream Crazy’ TVC featuring Colin Kaepernick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq2CvmgoO7I

Why the fuck would anyone care what anyone thinks about this ad? Adland has gone nuts on reviewing this ad.

Want to know what I think? I think 13,482,216 in 36 hours (at the time of writing) is amazing. They made it emotive because that’s Nike’s brand voice. They used Colin Kaepernick because they wanted to be controversial and that is how you get news media to pick your ad and play it in prime time news, over and over, without spending a single cent. Did they have to use him; of course not. Apple’s groundbreaking ‘Here’s to the Crazy Ones‘ TVC which is in almost the same mindset, used actor Richard Dreyfus.

The only people whose opinion matters about this ad are the target market. Everyone else is nothing more than a bystander.

 

 

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What I Think

What’s in a Name? Details

Yesterday someone vandalised the sidewalk star of Michael Jackson with red paint. So Paris Jackson cleaned it. About now you’re thinking that Paris Jackson cleaned the Hollywood Boulevard Star of her late father.

But there’s another star marking another Michael Jackson.

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What I Think

Rupert is taking business advice from Tony Montana

One of the great lines from Scarface and most quoted of all movie lines is, “…first you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” So says Al Pacino’s immortalisation of Tony Montana and while the line is delivered brilliantly it is a business plan that works best for drug lords and wannabe wise guys in the later part of the 20th Century.

For a translation into NYSE and FEC financial reporting parlance you get this…

“We have many challenges and opportunities ahead, and Lachlan’s strategic thinking and vast knowledge of our businesses will enable me, as executive chairman, and the company as a whole to deliver the best outcomes on behalf of our stockholders, employees and customers.”

This quote by Rupert Murdoch from The Guardian defines exactly what’s wrong with business priorities; stockholders come before employees and customers. Aside from the fact that Rupert and Lachlan are number 1 and 2 shareholders respectively and are essentially putting themselves first, they are putting their staff and customers last, after investors.

It’s completely arse about for the 21st Century. Messrs Murdoch, if you really want to keep your shareholders happy do this;

  1. Keep your staff happy – you know what to do here so just do it. They produce a better product and…
  2. This will make your customers happy and give you more money – proven time and time again. So….
  3. This will make your shareholders (and yourselves)  rich/er happy/ier.

Fast forward to Bryan Cranston’s critically acclaimed portrayal of high school chemistry teacher turned 21st century drug lord Walter White in Breaking Bad and you get this…

http://youtu.be/k0cN4WENUoU

Advisory invoice to come. You’re welcome.

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What I Think

Why I loved ‘Gravity’, and it’s not why you think


Stunning visuals. Tick. Great plot. Tick. Edge of the seat. Tick. Clooney not being a douchebag, nor taking up too much screen time. Tick. Bullock. Tick. Wearing not much. Tick.

But I loved Gravity because one of the mechanical heroes was the Space Shuttle. The two remaining Space Shuttles were retired two years ago. The reasons are many; too costly, no need for humans in space, provides no benefits to mankind (oh really, space exploration created your  mobile phone, you shortsighted congressional luddites). But it wasn’t the nostalgia of seeing the Space Shuttle as hero, and then tomb, in this movie. It was because the creators of this movie were able to use old tech, in a present day movie. Without the need to enlist a historical element to make the audience believe the story was ‘old’.

How did they achieve this? An alternate reality perhaps? Everyone knows the Space Shuttle doesn’t fly anymore. Even though they invented a whole new Space Shuttle for this movie; Explorer. There were actually five Space Shuttles in the fleet. The first, used only as a test bed and never went into space was named Enterprise OV-101 (named by petition from Star Trek fans, really truly), Columbia OV-102, Challenger OV-099, Discovery OV-103 and Atlantis OV-104. All anyone sees from NASA these days is the Mars rover robot.; red dust, red dust, red dust.

And why does this aspect of Gravity make me love the movie even more? Because I’ve had a script idea for years that I thought died when the Shuttle was retired. Look out for ‘Playing God‘. In cinemas 2018.

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What I Think

Why social media platforms won’t be free forever

We’ve all come to love, mostly, social media. The first kid on the block, MySpace disappeared when Rupert tried to make back his then astonishing $580M purchase price, in a single day. The the upstart Facebook migrated from the domain of US college students to anyone with an email address, or 10. Blogging had been around and popular but was a siloed activity with feedback and comment coming only after an audience had been built. Then came Twitter’s micro blogging which we didn’t even know we needed until we couldn’t finish or start every breathe without telling our followers about the breathe we were about to, or had just taken.

Follow the money!

Rupert lost his cash on MySpace and even though it’s been reinvented, rebranded and relaunched, it’s a ghost town.

The most anticipated IPO of the past decade was Facebook. It heralded a return to the days when millionaires, even billionaires could be made overnight; if your were an advisor or merchant banker on the inside of the deal. Facebook stock has recovered half of what it lost since Zuckerberg asked his long time girl friend to marry him but it’s nowhere near its opening bell price. And with a revenue strategy that is as revolutionary as airships don’t expect it to recover. Ever. Hindenburg. It might be a great platform for companies selling their wares but it’s getting old and tired very quickly. With no new money coming and no longer being the cool kid at the party Facebook is becoming the slightly out of date uncle that is trying to be king of the kids. In reality, Facebook is fast becoming everything Mark hated about himself which was the catalyst for creating The Facebook. Circle of life, much?

Twitter hasn’t listed but must at some time. Soon. A couple of years back they took a $300M investment from a Saudi prince and gave him, I shit you not, a mere 3.75% of the company. This deal instantly valued Twitter, which had made not a single dollar, at $8,000,000,000. Look at all those zeros. Eight. Billion. Dollars!

Google+. Stop laughing. This is Google’s second or third attempt at a social platform. I’m a big fan and have a bad poker face. I love this platform and am not quite sure why. I think it’s because I can have long conversations with people I don’t know but share an interest. This makes it very different to Facebook (can only talk to friends and lets be honest, how interesting are they – no offense friends who read this) and Twitter (where pithy takes on a whole new meaning somewhere between art form and cryptography – that’s code breaking, dummy).

There’s one more thing that Google+ has over both Facebook and Twitter; bucket loads of money. Plus patience. Google is more than happy to play the waiting game. They invented the waiting game. They also invented the ‘oh, that looks fun, let’s buy that company’ game. They play both very well and win frequently.

Polish your crystal ball and look into the future. Facebook falls over because revenues remain stagnant, investors pull out and the company is purchased for pennies on the dollar by Rupert. Then it dies. Twitter continues on its trajectory of being an easier platform for spammers and with no revenue model is purchased by Rupert. Then it dies.

Google has a history of giving things away and then turning the taps off when they feel the time is right.

There are some notable exceptions like Gmail but in reality it is the perfect entry point for all of Google’s other services not to mention the constant visitors for AdWords advertisers. And lest us not forget the massive data mining exercise that Google embarks upon with every email sent and received through their ‘free email’ service. There are also add ons to the service like data storage for people who really need to keep every email they’ve ever received (ie are too lazy to cull their old emails).

Recently they turned off their free Google Apps service. This service is for SMEs and provides a host of brilliant collaboration platforms like Gmail, Docs, Messaging and easy management of all those services. Plus there are a host of third party widgets that can be installed to enhance your business operations.

If you already have an account you can add domains to your free account but you can’t create a new free account. Kills me that I merged all my free accounts into one master account about a year ago. Ho hum…. still, glad I have that one free account. New members will need to pay $5 per user per month. That’s $60 per employee per year. And that’s what I reakon they will do with Google+ sometime in the future when Facebook has been sold to Rupert.

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What I Think

Why I am no longer a Creative Director*

When I started in advertising the Creative Director of an advertising agency was the most senior person in the creative department. Depending on the size of the agency they may also be a partner in the business or even the agency owner. The most creative advertising professionals, the ones who won gold lions at Cannes year on year were Creative Directors.

On the creative ladder, CD was the top. It was an aspirational role for sure and unique to the advertising business. But something happened a couple of years ago. Perhaps with the popularity of The Gruen Transfer or just because it sounded ‘cool’, the title Creative Director started popping up all over the place. Suddenly magazines had Creative Directors. Then record labels had Creative Directors. Then startup businesses that loosely worked in the creative industry had Creative Directors. I think this is all Don Drapers‘ fault!

True Creative Directors were people with minds that worked differently to everyone else’s. Beyond the creative side of their remit was the business side. They were as familiar with marketing strategy as they were with managing client relationships. They also had a great sense of humour and presentation skills that could sell anything to anyone. I once saw the CD of one of the big agencies I worked for, fake a heart attack in the middle of a presentation to their bank client, then get up and continue on with the presentation, all to win a $100 bet with the agency MD. Inspired!

I was immensely fortunate to be taught by George Betsis and then train under four great CDs; Grahame Bond (at BondStrothfeldt), Bob Mitchell (at Clemenger), John Anstey (at SASS) and Jan O’Connell (at Grey). And when Tim Hunt promoted me to Creative Director at Capital I had 15 years experience under my belt working in some of the biggest, some of the best creative departments on some of the biggest brands in the world. When I founded my own agency I continued as Creative Director. And that’s when the real work started. Inside someone else’s agency there is a support system. Not so when you’re doing it for yourself. But the flip side is unprecedented freedom in every aspect of the business you are creating; in reality, a true Creative Director.

CDs in adland noted this devaluing trend in the title and started looking for alternatives; Creative Partner, Executive Creative Director or my personal favourite, CCO (Chief Creative Officer). WTF! IMHO none of these fit the bill. So they drew upon their creative minds and looked left field; Head of Ideas, Principal Thought Generator, Ideationist. I mean seriously, rather than defining what their roles and responsibilities, these titles sound at best confusing and at worst a joke.

I experimented with alternative titles when I was CD at Left FIeld. The company name deemed that we needed to be different and we wanted to portray that difference at every opportunity. Staff titles was the first place we started. I was Creative Director, Knower of Things and Chief Swashbuckler. The format was simple; real title from employment contract, a talent, a personality trait. We rolled this format out to all staff. They appreciated it and so did clients and other stakeholders. A great icebreaker as well as serious communication device.

But I will no longer call myself a Creative Director. The title has lost any true value and now is as useful as describing someone as a ‘consultant’.

* For the purposes of being pigeon holed and LinkedIn, I have to keep calling myself a Creative Director. At least my mum now understands what I do for a living.

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What I Think

The Problem with Passwords

There are thousands of posts on how to create a good password. There are even more on instances of hacking and the consequences there of. And if it all seems too hard to remember complex passwords ask yourself this question; do you like your life?
Here’s another question to ponder; why do hackers hack?
The dudes who hack government databases, websites and secured servers, as well as media and big bad corporation sites want info to use in a variety of ways from citizen activision in the case of governments to corporate espionage in the case of corporations.
So what do they want with your details? Imagine if you will you arriving in a foreign airport at passport control or immigration. Except it’s not you it’s someone else. Someone who purchased a complete real identity and simply changed the picture on a passport. In some countries this is easily aided with a bribe; near Asian and form eastern bloc countries for sure. They probably wont impact you until next time to use your passport. Alarm bells will ring. You will be questioned and the ‘evil doers’ ( thank you President Bush) will be long gone. Far fetched. Not nearly far fetched enough.
Many countries have banking laws far less restrictive than ours. It’s those restrictions that helped Australia bypass the GFC a few years back by the by, but thats another story. The online credit card processing procedure requires very little real world info and hardly any verification. Run this nightmare in your head; a hacker gets your deets then applies for a credit card. Thing this, they don’t stop applying on a variety of sites until the stolen persona fails. By that time, you have incurred the debt of a small African nation. Maybe even a large one. Can’t happen to you. So thought Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson who was so sure his UK bank account could not be hacked he printed in his newspaper column his bank account number. A significant amount was transferred on his personal, private and oh so safe bank account to a charity. A virtual, fuck you, Clarkson. The bank repaid the stolen funds in a PR move to remind customers that giving our your account number is probably the single dumbest thing a human can do.
McAffee, the security experts, believe the most common password that people use is ‘password’. This only applies to systems that don’t use forced criteria password creation. As a password, ‘password’ is probably the first password a non-hacker would attempt, especially with wireless networks.

Human memory is the greatest advantage hackers have to accessing your details or data. Human nature dictates that we want ease and avoid difficulty. Therefore we use the same password across many websites, usually with a pet’s name and their birth year. Hackers say thank you. Not because they guess them, because people rarely give their pets long names or even add the two numeral century indicator prior to their birth year. Hackers love short. Cracking short codes is fast.

When we think hackers we think of well organized criminal geeks wanting to get to our money, or credit. But often they are after pieces of information from multiple web sites where we have handed over personal details. Their real aim is identity theft. The value of a complete ID is worth far more than the money you have in your bank account or the credit available on your credit cards. With an authentic identity including valid history, credit can be secured for a range of services from cell phones to Internet access. Another popular target for hackers is email accounts, especially the free online services like Hotmail and Gmail. Hackers sell cracked email addresses to spammers so they can ply their trade. Personally, I’m still a,a

Security levels vary from financial and banking websites to