First impressions count.  Not so long ago, that meant making sure your physical brand presence – your head office, branches, outlets, etc – were consistent and attractive, and conveyed the brand meaning you wanted them to.  Any visiting potential client or customer would be left with a clear impression of what you stand for.

But these days it’s more than likely the first impressions people get are being generated from your website or digital presence.  Visitors look at the layout, colours, sophistication and language of your sites, and draw their own conclusions about what you mean to them.

In doing business with you, they may not ever venture into your office or branch.  Even shopping has become an experience that is sometimes detatched from the actual physical location of the store.  How does Coles, for example, convey brand meaning on www.colesonline.com.au compared to the supermarket shopping experience?

It has implications for marketing investment.  Is it a choice between an expensive new fit out of stores, or, a similar investment in an amazing website experience?  It may be decision that needs to take into account the source of new customers – is it from footfall, or is it from online, and where is the growth channel?

The Cancer Council of WA (and other Cancer Councils in other States too) are investing a lot of money to convince people like you and me that “there’s nothing healthy about a tan”.  I’ve seen airplanes dragging signage across the sky near the beach, bus side posters and TV commercials.  It’s a big effort to change behaviour.

But is it possible?  Could you really have your perception changed by this advertising message?  I suspect not.

We are hardwired to think a tan looks healthy. See the current BUPA TVCs below, where the tanned version of the person is the healthy example.

A tan is usually derived from outdoor pursuits  under the sun.  Our brain sees a glowing person and draws the conclusion, “they’re healthy”.  Telling us to stop thinking that way is likely to be futile.

For mine, a more believable proposition that might gain better traction would be “sun exposure isn’t healthy” (with a Creative and Copywriting team to fix it up!) and an acknowledgement that fake tanning lotions are a better solution.

It reminds me of the saying, “losing the battle but winning the war”.  Giving up on convincing people that pale = healthy means the Cancer Council might have a chance of  winning the war against melanoma.

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Further to this blog entry, I received a great response from the Cancer Council

I encourage you to read their research:  http://www.cancer.org.au/Newsmedia/mediareleases/mediareleases2011/22November2011.htm

Now what do you think?

Being in the business of understanding the motivations, attitudes and behaviours of people, I frequently reflect on my perception of different groups.  Is my view of how people behave right?  Do I imagine them correctly?  Or have I been misled or not paid enough attention to real people?

Each Tuesday I regularly attend a suburban exercise class comprised of only women.  It gives me a little surprise each time to see what these women are really like.

They look nothing like the women I see in ads, on TV, in the media at all.

They’re thin.  They’re chubby.  They’re daggy.  They’re happy.  There’s the girl who looks like a trucker, doing cardio in her jeans, whooping it up and cheering for her favourite song to be played.  There’s the 45+ lady doing breakdance moves on the floor, acting the clown and giving everyone fits of laughter.  There’s women who grin and shake their booty like no-one’s watching (not me for the record).

Of course what they look like is not the point of this article, and not a commentary about the portrayal of women in the media (although it could be).  It’s just relevant because how they look is an expression of their attitudes and how they feel about themselves.

If you’re in the business of connecting with real people, it makes sense to mix with real people.  Hang out at Westfield, even if it doesn’t fit with that inner-city hipster image you’re working on.  Go to the new housing estates, even if it offends your sense of fine design.

See some real people in action, find out what they really think and feel.  Query that perceptual image you have of them, which just might be redundant.

Hall-a-freakin-elujah.

I have wanted a car seat handbag holder for my whole life.  Any woman can tell you the utter frustration of having the entire contents of your handbag emptied on the floor of the car upon hitting the brakes a bit too hard.  Or your tray of sushi, like happened to me this week :/

Full kudos to Nissan Micra for integrating this into their current car design.  Perhaps other brands have done it before, but I’ve never noticed until now.

So why has it taken so long?  Do you get the feeling that there’s extremely qualified engineers and technical genuises that design vehicle features, and they obsess over things like engines, features and actual driving performance?

But what people want is so simple.  A solution to their problem.  It’s a smaller problem than getting from A to B safely of course, but nevertheless a big problem for female drivers.

Now I just need to figure out how to get my family of five into the teeny Nissan Micra…..

It’s hard to determine actual social media (grr, hate the word media, as per my previous blog post on the subject) penetration in Australia.  There’s been little publicly accessible data on usage by Australians.  This is often required to convince clients who think that Facebook is only for their teenage kids and the like.  But to be fair, if you’re making critical decisions about reaching an audience (grr, hate the word audience, as per my previous blog post!) you need to weigh up spending money on bought media like radio or print ads vs investing in activities that live in social networks.  This infographic provides just the stats required support the creation of ideas for Facebook, especially.

Kudos to Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific for the data, more of which you can find here:   BM_AP_SocialMedia_Infographics_Booklet_H12011.pdf

There’s a little diagram I’ve been using in my head lately to do communications planning.

It’s come about due to the dramatic shift in the way consumers “consume” messages about brands.  The 1950′s – 2000′s was all about broadcast media.  Brands broadcast their messages, consumers consumed, and the sales results varied accordingy to the quality and quantity of that broadcast.

Now, that model of communications is over, as consumers don’t consume brand messages in the same way as they used to.  They are active participants, seeking out information about products and services that they want.   There no room for one-sided, rose-coloured  brand messages.  The truth is out there, and if your product or service sucks, your prospective consumer will find out.

So, to the diagram.  If you’re not broadcasting a message, what are you doing?

I believe it’s trying to find the sweet spot between what people (formerly known as consumers) are looking for, from the category or a deep human need, and what your brand can authentically provide.  The intersect is an idea, that can come to life in TV advertising, digital projects or experiential events.

It takes some deep strategic thinking to find insight/s about what people want, and deliberate detective work to find out what your brand can authentically (and distinctively, and competitively differently) provide.  But if a great idea is developed at the intersect, it will be worth ten times more than any broadcast message.

Next post – what constitutes ideas and some great examples.  Have any to share?

Once upon a time, news organisations researched, collated and delivered news to us, the consumers.  Once upon a time, goods and service organisations devised messages and gave them to advertising agencies to creatively deliver to us in various mediums.

Now, thanks to internet technology, we are part of the news, creating, researching the stories alongside journalists.

We’re not just consumers of messages anymore.  We share our messages about brands and their quality of goods and services directly to each other.

From a great article by Louise Burke on thewest.com.au (http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/opinion/post/-/blog/louiseburke/post/231/comment/1/) she made this relevant observation;

“It is increasingly apparent that people no longer want to only be told a story. They want to be a part of its incarnation. They want to watch it break and turn from rumour to fact, discuss it with the rest of the world, analyse and satirise.”

It’s the same for advertising.  Viewers just don’t sit and consume TV advertising anymore.  Some great points were made by GM of Retail at iiNet, Matt Dunstan in his recent blog (http://blog.iinet.net.au/tv-advertising-dead/).

Technology presents such a great opportunity for brands to engage with their community.  The fact is, consumers are already involved in building the brand story (like it or not), and it’s up to organisations to understand how to make it a great experience for them.

It’s so exciting and there’s no going back from here.

Insert daft "social media" web graphic here

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy in the ad world.  Nearly everyone refers to “social media”.  The chatter goes… “How can we bring the campaign to life on social media?”  “What shall we do in social media?”

Like it’s a channel where you can buy ad space.  With the exception of some little square ads on Facebook, that’s not the case.

Social media isn’t media at all.  It’s a place where people connect and share their thoughts and feelings.  With friends, family or just followers.  Meeting their deep human need for social connection.

It’s a great place for ad people to listen.

Like the day when Osama Bin Laden was killed and a Twitterer shared, “I just have this sense of the passage of time over the last 10 years”.  So did I.  So did many people I think.  Stopping and remembering that awful day in September 2001 when we knew the World would never be the same ever again.  Then reflecting on what had happened in the World, and personally, over those 10 years.

The wonderful insights that can be uncovered in “social media” have nothing to do with advertising and everything to do with connecting with people and understanding their thoughts and feelings.  Information that can be powerful to grow brands.

The day following the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Hell Pizza in New Zealand runs a great ad.  Wonder if they’ve been sitting on it for a few years?!

I’m so thrilled to see this great little campaign break in the days preceding the NSW election.

A Mexican restaurant has capitalised on the topicality of the event, and put itself in the centre of it.  To read more about the campaign, have a read about it at B&T http://www.bandt.com.au/news/breaking-campaign–premier-keneally-offered-job-at

There’s not much more to say than…. it’s great, great!!  Sometimes half the challenge for a brand is getting and/or staying top-of-mind.  A good idea with a little budget can create lots of attention and awareness.  Brilliant.