Opinionated Northern Ravings

7. Sharing - Beyond Engagement for Trust

2008-08-28T02:38:00.000-07:00

So two final posts on this stream of thinking for now. The first on how the approach to what the digital channel is for needs to change to build trust and then one on the realities of adopting this approach for companies and the implications.

We hear a lot about the need to attract and engage consumers. The real power of communications in digital channels comes from going beyond that. If we can construct dialogues that enable and empower the individual and lets them control the future direction of communication then we have truly placed people at the centre of the communication and will develop trust accordingly.

See below, this illustrates both the opportunity and challenge of doing this. Brands are reluctant to let go of control but they must if they are to reap the benefits of trust based communication.

In practice what does this mean? It means starting dialogues not knowing where they will go, creating a piece of communications that opens up a conversation and then listening before deciding where you (the brand) wants it to go next. If you really get to the point of empowering the consumer you find a way to let them take the brand in the direction they want. Obviously there are constraints, obviously whilst I talk about individuals we are really talking about a collective consciousness but the principles still apply.

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Bordeaux Birthday 2008

2008-08-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh a gastronomic joy.

5 days in the Bordeaux surroundings, eating fine food, drinking fine wine, making new friends, losing old ones (joke).

My associates for the adventure, Jean Peranaud (host and local), Celia Grannum (pregnant angel wife of the former), Teddy Rudholm (brief flirter of food and hardest working man in business), Reshma Sohoni (major flirter in general:-)) and Philip Stoeckl (he's the German join him!)

Three great restaurants in 3 days

Day -1: Before the rest of the group arrive I sample Jeans mums cooking
Home made duck fois gras
Tomato salad with tomatoes from the neighbour
Duck confit
Home made Tarte Tatin
A good Sauterne and Bordeaux
Do I really have to say more?

Day 1: The starter for 1 (star) Le Saint James a Bouliac - Michel Portos
Jean and Celia have the best lamb ever
Ted asks for more bread
The pre-dessert dessert with infusions of lemon grass and ginger gives us all inner glows of joy
The guys died over their desserts whilst I enjoyed my cheese and incurred Jeans wrath for having port (it was on the cheese board sunshine!!)
Service was poor and attitude sucked so I would have removed their star out of spite...
...but they also forgot to put 100's of euros of extra's on the bill so all good in the end :-)

Day 2: The main course for 3 (stars) - Les Pres de Eugenie - Michel Guerard
The best French cooking I have experienced
The mushrooms oh the mushrooms
The lobster oh the lobster
Calm down Reeshma, no I don't want tea and boobs

Day 3: The dessert for 2 (get it?) Relais Poste - Jean Coussau
The grilled Fois Gras was so rich we all felt it but I would eat it again and again until I died (see pics below)
The Tattinger 1988 for a birthday treat
The great desserts
The Armagnac
The oh dear shouldn't have followed that with more champagne 4am moment

Day 4: Just a little lunch
The mushrooms and egg en coucotte (sp?)
Mmmmm

Oh and hey weighed myself today....I lost weight over the weekend, package me up and ship me to Bordeaux.

Random images below, click the image to see the amazingly humourous descriptions.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

6. Sharing - Why the Trust Iteration works

2008-08-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Why does what is laid out below work better for brands and people?

See below, this is reflective of campaigns as we know them.

Most campaigns develop high peaks of reach with a sharp fall away (point 1 above). This is true even with camapaigns including digital elements, it may help lesson the fall away (illustrated by the light grey illustration above) but the principle remains.

Assuming media spend and creative success are constant then reach is always similar (2 above). This could be different people, but the volume of reach is the same because we always start from point 0.

By focussing on TV and print the media spend can be high to attain the desired reach and the challenge is to ensure that the reach is relevant. (3 above)

The Trust Iteration provides a different result, below

A combination of traditional techniques and online marketing combine to create awareness (Point 1 above). By understanding the target market and by leveraging multiple relevant online media and techniques together with traditional sources reach can be more relevant with a greater conversion % and lower cost per reach.

Note
Initial reach can meet or exceed that of traditional campaigns depending on media spend and strategy. This is shown lower here to facilitate the rest of the illustration

Effective, relevant engagement between points of awareness stimulates further reach through word of mouth (2 above)

To maintain momentum and engagement typically there is a greater frequency of targeted activity over time compared to the traditional approach (3 above)

Use of digital technologies allow us to capture and remember consumers that have engaged so each new initiative builds on the last rather than starting again from zero (4 above)

In actual fact each step in the mountain can also be techniques working together (point 5 above)

Over a period of time the total reach compared to the traditional approach is far greater with a correlating increase in conversion and the benefits that provides.

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5. Sharing - The Trust Iteration (Practice)

2008-08-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

So how do brands/agencies do this?

1. Ensure that any communication fits into an overall strategy and business imperative and does not become determined in isolation
2. Ensure that any communication takes into account the previous and next touch points (micro-interactions)with a person
3. Ensure communication can be instigated as needed and therefore be relevant

Below is what I call the Trust Iteration, a simple overview of what we need to do as agencies or companies to best service the needs of the individual with our brands. Being able to go through this loop time and time again with each micro-interation or touch point between and brand and a consumer in a way that addresses the above three points is the key to effective communication for brands.

How does this work?

1. Understand
• It starts with People. Human insight is crucial, we have to understand and keep learning about people, not just general demographic data.
• We have to understand people based on their motivations, needs, desires, culture, their loves, their hates. We have to know it now and we have to have a view how it is going to change over time.
• Note that people touch all elements of the Trust Iteration. Everything that follows must be done with people (the consumer) in mind.

2. Envision, Justify, Plan
• Vision: A strategic direction irrespective of media
• Rationale: A business rationale for the above, why bother?
• Tactics: A strategy to implement the vision re: brand, planning and media. What will this provide the business? How will the business need to evolve to deliver on this?
• Success definition and measurement: what is success (in business and consumer terms)? How will we qualitatively and quantitatively measure it?

3. Innovate, Inspire, Create
• Relationship Design – construct the chain of touch points between consumer and brand and how people move, or brands move people, between them (note this is a non-linear series of points)
• Creative & Content strategy - how we bring the above to life by inspiring innovative effective creativity across all relevant media

4. Attract, Activate, Engage, Enable, Empower
• Stimulate awareness and interest in creative execution/pr etc and start engagement
• Beyond Engagement; Enable & empower the consumer (I shall come back to digital being “Beyond Engagement” in a later post)
• Other Production - bring the vision to life through words, images, motion, objects (or whatever else works)

5 Convert, Learn, Retain, Measure
• Once we have the consumers interest make sure that converts into sales
• Process the inputs from dialogues and apply those learnings back into the next iteration of Steps 1&2
• By doing the above improve the experience of each consumer with the brand to keep them loyal, consider mechanics and incentives to aid this process
• Finally accurately measure how you have done (not in reach and awards) so that on the next iteration you can eliminate the bad and do more of the good

That seems a lot of things to do if you are to iterate effectively and efficiently but the reality is that once you have established the key strategic drivers and direction and once you have started the process it is a case of subtle changes and tweaks or ending streams of communication and starting new ones or even just a set of mental check points when considering instigating another micro-interaction or having to create on as a response to an event.

The bottom line is if someone is in control of their communication and the overarching dialogue they are looking to have with a consumer they can insert and change the subject matter relatively easily, just as a person would in a sales meeting when responding to questions or on a date or in a job interview…you have an objective, you know your subject matter and if you are to be successful you will apply that in a way your audience is satisfied, and using this model will ensure communication is effective and not wasted.

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4. Sharing - The Trust Iteration (Theory)

2008-08-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Campaigns are dead. How many people are saying this as a headline to grab attention? OK, maybe I may have said it myself in some presentations over previous months. On reflection however I think using the word "campaign" is missing the point. Irrespective of what we call our communication I firmly believe it is the frequency that is the primary issue to discuss and not necessarily the form it takes. I think debating the need for “traditional” or “online” communication misses the point. In life I want to be entertained and engaged, amazed and appeased, sold and served. None of these things are mutually exclusive, what is important to realise is when I want one and not the other. Don’t keep telling me how great something is when I can’t figure out how to turn it on, don’t sell me on something new when what I have got doesn’t work.

Knowing where someone is on his or her journey with your brand is essential. As is being able to be there when people need you, and not make them wait until you are ready to communicate with them. This is where the use of online and other digital media can be of massive benefit to brands.

Brands typically choose to communicate with their consumers once every 3-6 months. This is because it takes that long to internally meet and discuss a strategy, then turn that into a brief, then illicit responses on "the big idea" from agencies, then decide, then produce, then agree media, then distribute. All of this and often still no real accurate source of measuring success other than tracking bottom line sales and industry awards.

The obvious driver (excuse?) here is the time required to go from inception to distribution of content in traditional media as well as the internal decision lag in big business.

As I mentioned before nothing is mutually exclusive so if there are valid drivers for large scale mass reach communication for your brand then great continue with the 3-6 month cycles BUT; they should be in the context of the broader dialogue with your consumer, and should be inter-dispersed with regular micro-interactions maintaining the brand-consumer conversation, listening, learning and giving input and context to the next large scale explosion.

My position is that if you were wanting to choose (and on the assumption that choice is normally driven by budgetary limitations), the constant communication of micro-interactions is far more powerful, cost effective and relevant to your brand than the high cost explosions, I really believe these are now the “nice to haves” in your communications mix.

So why the need to have these micro-interactions? I believe it comes down to relevance. As mentioned earlier, as a brand you need to be there when I need you, but also when you need to be there as a brand.

As an example, if I am reaching a purchase point for a product (e.g. my laptop is old/broke), you need to know that and be there for me helping me understand why it makes sense for me to purchase your product (especially if its one of your products I am replacing!), you only know that if you have maintained a dialogue with me and understood where I am on my journey. If it is one of your products I am replacing you know that and you turn that into a benefit with a loyalty discount on my next purchase etc.

Likewise you should be there when a moment or event makes your brand/product instantly relevant to someone or if your brand/product has had a significant positive effect on the moment in question. In the last 24 hours as I type this Usain Bolt has just won the Olympic 200m with a 19.30s world record (on top of his 100m world record), he has also proudly paraded his gold Puma running shoes in front of the cameras and into 3 billion homes…in itself not a bad result for Puma, but now is their time to jump all over that moment, knowing it could have been a reality they could have already planned to leverage it. They still might, but the reality is whilst the event will be have awareness for some time the mass impact is within the first 24 hours of it happening. Politicians announce relief for disasters in the first 24 hours because it will have the greatest positive impact on their ratings, they could wait a week, the event is still resonating, but people respond to instantaneous response as it resonates with what they are feeling at that moment.

Linked to the above is the impact of word of mouth. In the next 24 hours of a significant event it is all people discuss. Today the papers and discussions are of Bolt and his amazing efforts, but tomorrow or the day after there will be others (remember Michael Phelps and his 8 gold medals? Yesterdays news, sorry Speedo). Add to this point the role of social media online and the ability to spread news from 1 to millions and you understand the opportunity that is currently being missed by brands (oh and do recognise that online people spread news to offline people as well so it is not just about leveraging a relative minority market online!)

The advent of online and in particular the increase of social media means that now I don't need to wait to have to hear about and contribute to events, news, moments.

So in summary, going back to the imperative of trust (see previous posts), brands have to be able to contribute to dialogues and discussions as they happen or as they need to happen in a contextual and relevant manner otherwise at best you are missing an opportunity and at worst seen to be irrelevant and “bandwagoning”.

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Sharing with piece of mind

2008-08-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to use this forum to share thoughts and opinions on marketing but there was always the concern of "do I want to give away that which I hold most dear". But recently meeting and talking to the likes of David Armano and David Bausola I really have come round to the idea of share and trust. For extra piece of mind though Mr Bausola introduced me to the Creative Commons licensing scheme you will see on my posts. Mr B narrates a wonderfully illustrated film on what this all means and why you should take an interest.

And breathe...

2008-08-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Off to Bordeaux (that's in France btw) for 5 days fine wine and fine food and no wireless...

It's been a good week.

3. Sharing - The Strategic Start Point

2008-08-20T02:33:00.000-07:00

So if we assume that volume of advertising continues to grow, and that digital is now an established medium, other media stay relevant but choice in media consumption will increasingly go into the hands of the consumer and that what we crave is trust where do we go?

First understand how the current model doesn't deliver.

Established thinking in marketing has always focused on the brand. Understand clearly what we are, why we are better and then tell the consumer in a clear, appealing, emotive manner and make them WANT us.

In real terms (see below) we understand our brand, our target market, and then how we can PUSH to them and best REACH that market in apportioning our media spend. Then we create a message that best exploits each media and (hopefully) all fits into the same broader "Big Idea". We then do that every three months, often starting from point zero again with a new "Big Idea".

Thing is, if what we marry that to human behaviour that is like me meeting you for the first time, saying "Hello, pleased to meet you, I'm Jason Hartley, and I'm a great brand strategist, who are you?" then meeting you three months later and saying "Hello, pleased to meet you, I'm Jason Hartley, and I'm a great Creative Strategist, who are you?". You are going to think a) he's rude for not remembering me, b) he's inconsistent and maybe a bit of a bullshitter for changing what he is and maybe, c) he's a little arrogant for claiming to be great...I'll be the judge of that. The outcome of this is dis-trust, the exact opposite of what we seek.

So how do we resolve this. We do the following:

By placing people at the centre of our model we allow people to control the conversation with the brand. They PULL and ENGAGE with the brand in media as they see fit. Of course we can attract, stimulate and guide using traditional methods, no harm in that, but they take on the role of stimulus, jumping out of the crowd starting a dialogue saying "hey, fancy a chat?", rather than "hey you, shut up and listen to this".

Note that unlike the previous model where we can create individual brand communication for each channel in isolation we now have to create a holistic brand experience that can take into account a person starting or engaging in a dialogue at any given point in time or in any medium. This means that any touch point needs to be both an introduction to, and a driver to, continue engagement and that all points HAVE to be consistent in message, tone of voice and their visualisation. Brand managers will no doubt say that has always been the case but I challenge them to go and look at their communication delivered by different agencies across different media and then tell me what they wanted was what they got.

The role of media is also important to note here. You cannot do one size fits all. You need to be flexible and not prescriptive with media strategy, until we determine where the dialogue is going to be most effective or where it will be held we cannot pretend to have 100% understanding of where we must invest. Media agencies will no doubt contest this, but only because their business model means they have to. This flexibility needs to extend per market and even per segment per market. Again, developing trust takes commitment and effort and can't be based on general-isms and shortcuts.

Given that the pragmatic answer to a cohesive, consistant dialogue across media isn't and never will be "give it all to one agency" the challenge for brands/companies is how they deliver the above. That is next...

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2. Sharing - The Consequence of Noise

2008-08-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

So given we know there is a proliferation of communication and that choice is prevalent in modern culture how do brands secure their place in peoples minds and wallets? The following illustrates that there really is, I believe, only one way to be heard and that is to develop trust.

What does this mean?:

Brands can't just shout and expect to be heard. They have to listen. Listening may mean the need to change, not for short term gains but for the greater long term good. Listening means measuring (qualitatively and quantitatively). It means starting open ended communication and seeing where people want it to go and then adapting to their needs. It means doing things you think may fail but the learning you get is worth the risk.

Brands can't just reinvent themselves as appropriate to leverage cultural trends, they have to live by their previous choices and expressions and evolve from them, admitting mistakes and building on success. This means stopping with constant creative re-invention It means letting the need to work hard connecting people and brands over time take the lead over big ideas exploding every three months.

There is only one way this can work, and will be illustrated in the next post, its a very simple strategic shift for a brand/company to make but the implications in communications and internal organisation are significant which is why there are very few (dare I say no) illustrations of this being done currently

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1. Sharing - The basics

2008-08-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

So moving forward I am going to use this blog more as a platform to share my thoughts on communication, feel free to contribute, borrow etc but please take note to the licensing conditions, many thanks.

Lets start with some basic background info that sets up the framwork of the debate. Yes digital is a factor but no TV and other media for that matter is not going to suddenly disappear as a relevant factor in communication. To me this is common sense but I have read enough to know others believe different so I just wanted to set my stall out. By the way after going from Keynote to PowerPoint to GoogleDocs some of my lovely slides look a little ropey, sorry for that.

The one thing to note here is that the medium is increasingly going to become an irrelevant tag when creating content, today often we say "TV" when we mean "Film" and "online" when we mean "websites". Already digital media is actually a medium for any form of content and over the coming couple of years the TV will catch up and be an interactive shell for digital content. Moving forward content will become independent of the medium to deliver it. What will become important is how we construct experiences and ongoing dialogues across the different media so people get the right content and interactivity in the context of what they are doing and what their needs are at a specific point in their brand interaction.

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Moving On...

2008-08-18T03:23:00.000-07:00

So from that situation comes a crossroads...what to do? 3 years of running my own agency, then a supposed stable period turns sour. What to do?

Battled but unbowed by the Look experience, more certain than ever that effective use of digital in a variable media mix is without a doubt the way to develop effective lasting profitable consumer brand relationships but without a vehicle to express this belief.

After seriously considering a move away from all forms of marketing comes a bolt from the blue that reaffirms my faith!

Drafted in (via fairy godmother Pasquelina Petruccio) to work with 180 / TBWA on a global digital pitch for one of the worlds best known sports goods brands. Working with Omnicom/TBWA CDO Colleen Decourcy and a team of brilliant, lovely people in 2-3 weeks of very long and stimulating work we deliver a pitch to be proud of.

Up against, Droga5, Aegis Isobar and AvenueA Razorfish the result is due today...watch this space...

So from the worst to the best experience of my career...ain't life funny.

OK so enough of the personal emotional posts, now back to the fun of communications and how we need to react to the changing world of consumer brand relationships to successfully deliver value to client organisations...

cherish is dead, long live cherish

2008-08-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

So what an interesting few months that has been. It's my blog so I can be honest, and here goes honesty....albeit in short.

November 2007...time to wrap up cherish...why?

1. cherish was doing small work with big brands. This was not going to change in the short term and was frustrating.
2. As a self financed venture cherish never had the money to hire the very best people, with all respect to those that worked with cherish in its 3 years. This was hurting our work and the business.
3. I was increasingly failing as a manager, partly because of the above points it was becoming clear the business, which successful compared to many small agencies, was not living up to my expectations and aims...so before it died or I died it was time to close.
4. There was an offer of something interesting that would allow me to leverage the cherish model but in a larger better financed environment. More of that below.

Feb 2008...new challenges and little bit of stability, or so I thought...!

Over the course of 2007 a friend at the time Hans Howarth, CEO of Amsterdam based web agency MediaCatalyst, had approached me to help head up a new joint venture between his company and Cayenne, the traditional agency of Canon in Europe. The new company, Look, was to be the integrated agency of the group. My role was to be Strategy Director, determining the offering of the business and help solidify a very shaky client relationship between Canon and Cayenne.

Public blogs are not for details so I will leave it by saying it was not what it was meant to be, politics and in fighting resulted in stagnation and impotence, someone I considered a friend turned out to be quite the opposite in their expectation setting and more disappointingly in their financial commitment so after 4 months it was time to leave what in fact turned into the worst experience of my career.

You always learn from these things, they make you stronger, but it is still not pleasant to experience.

The biggest disappointment of all is that the small number of Look employees brought in to start the business were very able, very admirable people. MediaCatalyst is a company with a strong culture and great team. It is an example of how one person's ambition can be blind to what could be lost in order to reach a financial goal. A lesson in business for us all. But, onwards and upwards.

cherish lives on, but now as a vehicle for me to engage agencies and brands to deliver on the opportunity that exists in communications without the baggage of overheads and the necessity to sell campaigns or production.

Me bad...cherish good

2007-11-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

I am becoming increasingly shocking at regular posts...that's the bad. The good was the results of the Van Dobben campaign mentioned below.

From a zero media budget cherish managed to get the Dutch nation croquet crazy. By spanning the campaign over a month with the interactive engagement (vote for the filling in the croquet, cherish invented 4 new flavours to represent Holland - Erwtensoep, Bier, Haring and Appeltaart) it allowed time for the buzz and word of mouth to generate, and once the ball started rolling with local Amsterdam paper Echo we never looked back.

Further newspaper coverage from, to name but 2, Het Parool (Amsterdams largest daily) and then a front page on De Telegraaf (the Netherlands biggest selling newspaper - see image) really helped generate energy prior to the event (yes I know I look an idiot but I'll take whatever publicity I can get in the spirit of Richard Branson).

All of the build up culminated in an appearance on De Wereld Draait Door, recently voted Hollands most popular TV show, a daily look at the world of current affairs and culture where croquet maker and campaign front man Piet Brink explained the theory. This then led to national TV news picking up the story with NOS, RTL and SBS (see attached film) all featuring items on the day on the event with over 2000 people turning out to see the grand unveiling. I must admit it was a bit surreal, at the point of the unveiling it went mental, a real scrum of people and press, crazy...but good.

SBS6 - Hart van Nederland

Bottom line is that we attracted over 15,000 unique visitors to the campaign site in a week. It generated hundreds of thousands of Euro of PR Value from nothing and also as we encouraged Van Dobben to actually make the 4 new flavours they proved so popular that Appeltaart is now going into production in 2008...deriving a new revenue stream for the business. Sales figures for Q4 are expected Q1 08. You can see more of the coverage on the website www.cherish-amsterdam.com

Swing Low...

2007-10-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

OK I know I am a bad blogger. The last month has been dominated by a giant croquet (www.grootstecroquet.nl) and the small matter of the Rugby World cup....and tomorrow I head to Paris for the England - South Africa final. I make no bones about it, today marketing takes a back seat to nervous excitement for my beloved game and my inspiring English hero's....no idea what I am on about? Ah well sorry, your missing out. Go to Coco's on Rembrandtplein tomorrow Sat 20th around 8pm and you'll soon underatand. As for me, miracles do happen and I have a ticket and will be in the Stadium....don't call me on Monday.

Sneak Peak / Oh Dear!

2007-09-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

In a little preview of what we are up to with Dutch snack food legend Van Dobben here I am pictured last week in their factory with the latest incarnation of the worlds biggest croquet...to also illustrate how comfortable I am in myself I include the worst picture of me ever taken...but it is funny, the combination of the hairnet, ill fitting coat (or actually ill fitting belly) and crouching position really does do me a lot of favours... but enough of me, check out the size of the croquet!!!

Some Stats...

- Current Length: 1,5 meter (normal croquet 9 cm)
- Weight: 168 kilo = 1,680 times that of a normal Van Dobben croquet (100 g)
- 28 kilo flour
- 28 kilo beef = 190 steaks
- 70 liters stock
- Custom made fryer is 2m x 1,5m x 1,5m
- ± 1200 litres frying oil = 600 bottles (sshh don't tell the nutritionist)
- 16 hours to make the croquet

Media Independence!!

2007-08-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I was talking about not being comfortable with cross-media integrated agency as a description of cherish, and after much thought I think the concept of true media independance is really what captures the essence of what I am trying to achieve with the business.

I have been speaking to clients and contacts about what it really means to be “cross-media” and that the benefit cherish has is true “media independence”. To recap an earlier point, what I mean by this is that a lot of agencies preach cross-media but in reality they have one dominant media that they have to have as a cornerstone of a campaign to make their business model work. I have not yet seen traditional agencies constructing cross media without TV and/or print. I am less likely to see interactive agencies producing cross-media campaigns without an online/digital element. This is naturally because of their skills base in house and the fact they need to keep them utilised to stay profitable and pay salaries. cherish was founded on a different business model that will still facilitate financial and headcount growth but in a scalable and truly media-independent manner. If, together with our client, we feel that a TV and print campaign is correct we can deliver this. If an interactive campaign combined with events is required we can do that. It is about what media is right for the consumer and the campaign and not what media is right for the agencies margins. This is an interesting and relevant topic as a number of traditional, PR and interactive agencies are all trying to jump onto the cross-media bandwagon at present but there business models constrict their flexibility.

So there we have it, cherish is a media-independent cross-media agency...hmmm, maybe to many "medias" for one sentance but it makes the point.

Henry's birthday!

2007-08-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Moving onto what's important. Henry is 2 today, hurrah. Let's celebrate with him by calling cherish and giving us lots of new campaigns, you know it's what he would want...and if we don't get campaigns it makes me angry and frustrated and taking it out on Henry today would be such a shame...

Reclameweek Interview

2007-07-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

Look out in next weeks Reclameweek for an interview with my good self . Bart Remmers came over for a chat this week and has done a very kind job of writing an article which I think really reflects some of the key thoughts of myself and cherish...also as we finally start the PR machine rolling with press releases in Adformatie and Reclameweek

Van Dobben

2007-07-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

It's all about the English and Dutch getting together today...cherish has had the green light on a campaign with legendary Dutch brand Van Dobben. We approached them with a specific idea to help promote them but also to illustrate cherish's abilities to it's home market. Our campaigns are all over Europe but I wanted more visibility in The Netherlands. As part of the deal cherish will be visible on all of the collateral in the campaign...and actually I have really high hopes for the campaign itself...very funny and very visible...watch this space. From a PR angle the idea of an Englishmans company promoting the essence of Holland is already starting to bite...lovely...

It's not cross media...but what?

2007-07-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

So for the time being I have settled on cherish being an "integrated, cross media" agency...but I am not happy...integrated:, well yes we do bring together different aspects of agency life, PR, media, creativity...but only because it makes sense and only then if a campaign needs it, not just for the sake of it...cross media: it is true our campaigns span several media, but cross media tends to bring up images of one concept pushed through differing channels, and always the same channels...cherish is focussed on campaigns that use any media that is relevant and necessary to pull the consumer into an engagement. Our business model, now and for the future, does not look to recruit large elements of a single skill set into the business...thus meaning cherish never NEEDS to sell a campaign of a certain type for the sake of the business, as out traditional and interactive colleagues do.

Without TV as part if the campaign the traditional agencies are really struggling to justify the budgets they need to match their costs, the interactive agencies have to keep the developers working so the campaigns must be interactive in nature. I don't have a problem with TV and interactive always being there if they are needed...but ONLY if they are needed...

What I am talking about is media neutrality, a media neutral agency...hmmm not sure neutral is a good way of describing an agency with a strong opinion. It's not about a new description for the sake of it, it's because there IS a new way of looking at things...media agnostic...nope...consumer led...naah...media independent...maybe? Suggestions on a postcard please...

Will it ever stop raining...

2007-07-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

PLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEE

The new cherish website...

2007-07-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

Is live!! Rejoice! It's taken some time, as anyone in a busy agency will know, but it is live. A combination of living elements (like, photos, this blog etc) and a creative explanation of who cherish and what cherish is. It has been really well received so far which is nice, but it has only just begun, it will evolve and grow...watch this space...well not this space, that space...

Imitation is sincerest form of flattery

2007-07-05T03:51:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a new, highly contagious disease in the ad/pr and media industries at present. Case's of NeedToSurvivitis (otherwise known as BandWaggoning) are increasingly common with more agencies are trying to re-invent themselves as integrated/cross media blah di blah companies.

The thing is, when I set cherish up it was specifically because I could not see any existing agency capable or even willing to change sufficiently to address the needs of the marketplace...cherish was established 2 years ago solely to deliver effective campaigns across any media and using and technique necessary to connect brands and consumers, irrespective of buzz words or convenient industry categorisations. What this means for our clients is that our business model is such that we don’t have large numbers of people in a specific skills area sat around not working if one campaign has no interactive or no TV - this means we don't have to find a way to price campaigns to pay their salaries. We have no pre-conceptions of the advertising industry, no minds needing changing, no egos damping.

So...don't accept substitutes....a pig in a woolly jumper is not a sheep...a transvestite is not a woman (no offence!)...a rebranded/repositioned agency is not..well...cherish.

Why will traditional agencies struggle?

Because there is s battle for hearts and minds of traditional creatives more difficult to win than that the Americans are fighting in Baghdad. The belief that an industry is changing incorporating media that they do not understand means they are frightened and defensive. Buying in interactive talent helps but as I know from people fighting the fight in Amsterdams 2 most famous agencies the politics and egos are making change slow and inefficient, and who is losing out whilst people are rutting like stags internally? Clients and consumers. As always.

Why will PR agencies struggle?

I'm afraid the shock of the complexity of devising, creating and producing campaigns including interactive media is simply not understood by much of the PR industry. The process and structure you need in an organisation is central to the culture of the company and will create conflict and failure before it creates results.

Why will interactive agencies struggle?

Mainly because they struggle to have the gravitas and strategic thinking to engage with a brand on a truly conceptual and strategic level, and even if they have are 'C' level clients ready to engage an interactive agency as a strategic brand partner? Also whilst some interactive shops are trying to break into TV this is a tough leap to make. I do think if they bring in the right skills and have the right culture to adapt they will find it easier than the traditional agencies to morph but to be honest I respect the agencies in this space that are focussing on increasing their depth of skill and expertise and creativity digitally and ignoring the lure of the integrated world and sticking to what they are good at

UPC Shoot...

2007-07-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

Another week another eventful few days in the life of myself and cherish. Thursday was the first TV shoot for cherish, a big day in proving that we have credibility in "traditional media" as well as the many other forms of media we are already leveraging in our campaigns. The shoot is for UPC in The Netherlands and is a concept we created to promote safe use of the internet for teens in Holland. It integrates with an online resource to advise teens on how they can avoid getting in trouble.

We are working as a partner to Solid Ground in this campaign, a significant player in the PR world in Amsterdam and thanks have to go to CEO Peggy de Lange for having the faith in cherish to get us involved.

The shoot itself went very smoothly, other than the inevitable clashes between large ego's and creative minds (erm...that would be me and the director then!) but the result is going to be great and that's the most important thing. The biggest achievement of the day was getting good weather to shoot at all, the only sunny day in weeks of absolute crap in The Netherlands...Budapest feels a long time ago!

Also we saw the launch of Niels Broekhof's career as the Stunt Pervert, fantastic effort Niels!

The spot will be on TMF in The Netherlands (a youth focussed Dutch MTV) 4 times a day for at least a month and you can see further pics of the day by clicking the link to cherish photo's on the right of this page.

Budapest Tales

2007-06-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just back from visiting Budapest and in the process of setting up a partnership with an agency over there who are effectively our interactive production arm. At the invite of their CEO myself and cherish's head of production took 4 days in Budapest and then out at lake Balaton and were treated like kings. The people were a joy, hospitality was amazing, the weather in the 30's and quite frankly coming back was hard. I am looking forward to very exciting times ahead with the skill, commitment and scalability this partnership will provide. On the pic you can see the end of another free dinner with founder on my right and CEO on the far right of the pic...oh their names...not a chance until the partnership is signed!

...England cont.

2007-06-19T06:20:00.002-07:00

...or is it this one? Votes on a postcard.

England

2007-06-19T06:20:00.001-07:00

Which image some us Brits up...is it this one?

Bigger and older is not always better

2007-06-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

Interesting to see the world of marketing really buzzing over in London, lots off opportunities and good work happening. It makes me smile to see the tidal wave of movement towards digital and integrated marketing and the traditional agencies also now trying to differentiate themselves by wanting to be integrated but by saying they don't consider themselves integrated and that is some way beyond that...how suprising to see them being dare I say a touch arrogant (not). Let us not forget the late 90's when the traditional agencies first ignored then clamoured to be part of the integrated clan. Much time has passed and much learning has been gained but I still see campaigns driven by TV creatives then thrown to the digital team for a treatment...it takes more than a shrewd acquisition and a hire or two to break down years of working practice and to really understand how to interact and stimulate a consumer and not just bombard them with one message through multiple media channels.

Unusual Pets

2007-06-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

This is first of a series of posts from a visit to London. My friend has a new pet, a rabbit. Interesting choice for a working man, but it seems happy, living in one of his draws and coming out to play when visitors arrive. Interesting looking thing it gets in the strangest of places but seems to bring him pleasure so who am I to judge!

Ooooh exciting

2007-06-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Other highlights of the week is moving to closure on capturing one of the Netherlands best known brands as a client hopefully to be finalised in the next 2 weeks, also looking at a new opportunity in an existing client and the confirmation of a meeting at the end of the month with one of the worlds best know brands...all very non-informative I know but you know how it goes...suffice to say lots of good stuff going on, but we still need more good people (see earlier post)

The Advisory Board

2007-06-10T08:30:00.001-07:00

Another week flies by. The intention was to update a little everyday but of course that will never happen! Last week highlights include the formation of the cherish Advisory Board. This is a collection of people who will help advise me and coach me in the development of the cherish business. It's been so inspiring to hear peoples response when asked to join, real interest and desire to help (for no money it must be said!) and a real sense of belief in the business and myself so very humbling and equally exciting. Can't make those involved public at the moment but a fine bunch I can assure you!

You learn new things every day...

2007-06-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

...sat drinking coffee with someone far younger and cooler than me who is a musician and designer discussing his thesis on Futurology / Future Studies.

Now I have always believed the understanding of cultural trends is increasingly relevant in advertising, in particular because I believe advertising needs to illicit response, engagement and dialogue with consumers to build relationships, not just batter them with one way explosions of creativity. This means you need to be cleverer and understand how to trigger peoples touchpoints through humour, love, desire etc the extreme emotions - you need to make them want to engage. When adding the European dimension to that, the ever growing number of cultures each with their own history, behaviour, humour, trends this becomes a pretty complex area.

I was considering hiring a sociologist to look at this but it seemed a little too removed from what we do as a business. A futurologist however seems very interesting. Maybe the world knew about Futurology, but until this morning I didn't. Any Futurologists or Future Studies students looking for an internship? Get in touch...

I want one

2007-05-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have developed an emotive desire for a Microsoft product, oh Steve J please forgive me...but check out Surface I like a lot, like the old sit down space invaders games taken to the ultimate level, I want one...sooooooo bad.

cherish needs you!

2007-05-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

By the way, if you are a very talented account/project manager or graphic designer (or whatever) with passion, ambition, and a desire to get away from the boring and increasingly irrelevant conveyor belt of traditional advertising and want to work with Amsterdams most exciting new agency (biased) get in touch at jason@cherish-amsterdam.com...we will pay EUR 500 for anyone who refers someone in, or give you a EUR 500 starting bonus if you see this and get a job.

Too much to do too little time...

2007-05-31T05:02:00.000-07:00

...which I realise is better than too little to do and too much time but how I wish the word 'balance' would appear. Missed Marcom 07 today in Amsterdam to focus on our clients (which is of course fine) but would like to spend more time talking cherish as well as working cherish! Alles op in het tijd I suppose (everything in time).

I do have a solution though. Attending conferences and the like is all about networking and seeing what is going on in the wider world, but if all of you reading this with marketing budgets simply employ cherish to do your marcoms then I wouldn't need to consider neglecting clients for conferences, everyone wins...get it?

Let us begin...

2007-05-31T04:53:00.000-07:00

So look at me, preaching the changing world of advertising and the influence of digital media on modern life and I think I am the last adult in western Europe to start a blog! Ah well better late than never.

I have always been a frankly open and honest person and will endeavor to do so on this blog. I know the safe thing to do is create a professional expression of myself to further enhance my business but that isn't me...in return for the honesty though please don't judge cherish, accept these ramblings for what they are and marvel at someone actually being honest and not hiding behind a veil of politically correct niceness!