Ad Ninja

Hastune Miku has been selling out shows in Japan for years now. Who is Hastune Miku you ask? Oh just some made up hologram that prances around on stage “singing” mechanically engineered songs. Once again the Japanese are way ahead of us in the technology curve. While an American might have seen this concert as strange a couple years ago, it’s applying the technology in a meaningful, culturally relevant and emotionally impacting way that makes technology+art magical. Regardless, I’m definitely going to start scouring Japanese trends and tech news to bring new ideas to my agencies next digital brainstorm.

Coca Cola is switching to measuring expressions over impressions.

With increasingly complex outlets it’s getting harder to justify using impressions as a sole analytic. As advertiser’s in the new digital world, we don’t control things anymore. It’s not like the olden days of there being a set number of tv shows, radio stations, and newspapers with ads people basically had to pay attention to. Measuring impressions in that world made sense.

Today, people own brands now, so instead of measuring how many people are hearing what we’ve said, measuring how many people responded to the brand is a much more indicative and robust measurement. With the internet, social media, yelp, youtube, amazon, whathaveyou, people are finding infinite outlets to get their opinions heard, and with digital word of mouth, advertising has a lot less say on what a brand means to someone. Instead of fighting against it, we should use it to our advantage:

1. Create work that people will respond to, optimize work for that over impressions or click-throughs. People will create much more content for you than your brand ever could on it’s own.
2. Learn from expressions. I can’t tell you how much I learn about general consumer sentiment over a brand or tv spot after reading just a couple pages of youtube comments. Spending tens of thousands of dollars in traditional focus groups is pretty old school and pricey when you can learn so much online for free. (Of course there’s a right time and place for that as well.)

We all are aware of Gaga and her incredible presence in pop culture. She’s been disected by trendwatchers, bloggers, fans, and even Google in a 2 hour live youtube interview and has been crowned a marketing genius (see: Gagaville.) I think it’s due time we’ve given some of the limelight to another artist that has been taking the music industry and pop culture by storm. Another fiercely wild, unapologetic, shocking, strong female musician Nicki Minaj. Nicki, like Gaga, has been creating somewhat of a cult following, with her hardcore fans referring to themselves as Barbies (like Gaga’s little monsters,) and Nicki like Gaga, has been taking a lot of heat for being a rip off of Lil’ Kim (Gaga/Madonna.) There’s actually a lot of similarity between the two so I’m thinking there must be some kind of formula to this superstardom, incredible success, and obsession (besides talent.) 

So let’s look at our celebrities. Madonna, Lil Kim, Gaga, and Minaj. What do they all have in common? They’re fiercely different and UNAPOLOGETIC about the person they are (or the image they project.) In a culture where we are constantly striving to be somewhat normal, or at least follow society’s rule in some way why are we so forgiving to those who blatantly break the rules? Not even forgiving, but even going so far as to worshipping? 

With so many brands trying to please as many people as possible, it gets hard to differentiate themselves from competitors, or even to get people to notice. That’s why the daring and unusual (see: Geico) sticks. But it’s gotta be more than that. Being crazy just for attention can only take you so far. You have to stand for something too. The problem when you stand for something means there are things you don’t stand for. But listen to Bill Cosby on this one, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Strong brands help create identity for people, so your brand has to say something about the purchaser. Help them create that message.

Looking more closely at Nicki Minaj there may be another way… Part 2 to come.

Love em or hate em, with some strategic thinking QR codes can be used effectively. Here’s a link to 7 uses that might change your way of looking at them… With the exception of the QR codes on the girls vag area, which is just idiotic, these are pretty creative examples of how we could use them, especially the “stepping into the commercial” idea that leads to an app download. 

People wrongly hate QR when they should hate the way we stupidly have been implementing them. If a QR is simply a link to a business site, a BUY NOW, or something equally as unappealing, then you’re doing it wrong. There has to be a reward.

I think the key to using QR is either to either be useful, by helping someone like the airport example or be entertaining by taking it a step further within the phone - Not just a website link or exclusive ad like Calvin Klein did, but to an interactive experience of some sort, possibly unique to each individual. Maybe we could use facebook connect, personal pics/videos, or existing music library within the users’s phone to personalize an experience for each individual. Or, use the medium the qr code is on to integrate digital with traditional and turn a print ad into a talking face like this example.

Whatever you may have thought before, QR use is on the rise, and we’re learning more creative ways to use it. Get ready to love QR.

Sure if you spend all your energy using a dull spoon to cut up a potato, yes you will eventually end up with a bunch of little pieces of potatoes.  It might not look exactly like you wanted it to, but it got the job done right?

Unfortunately that’s the approach many brands are using with facebook. They all want to jump on the social media train without realizing how to use it. We’re scrambling to get as many ‘likes’ as possible without realizing what that really means.

Doing this not only lowers the value of a ‘like’ in facebook world, it’s inefficient. Like taking a spoon to a raw potato, you’re either using the wrong tool, or trying to achieve the wrong goals. Facebook is not meant for buying fandom.

Yes, many brands have seen a drastic increase in ‘like’s’ through pure incentives, exclusive content, coupons, contests, etc… But let me ask you this, if you have to buy your friends, are they really your friends?

If I can like your page to get $1 coupon from you, and there’s no further engagement after that, then what is your fb brand page but a glorified coupon. That’s what coupons are for idiot. Try creating interesting conversations and involving your core fans. Create evangilisits and super fans from the ones that actually have real love for you. And if you don’t have anyone that actually loves you on their own, maybe you should rethink your product or business strategy. Facebook isn’t going to fix your mediocrity.