« Ogilvy Group UK Home

By Sarah Green (not the E-list ex Blue Peter celebrity)

Celebrity endorsement at your peril. Can your brand afford to take the potential risk?  Is there such thing as a ‘risk-averse’ celebrity?

Who would have thought that squeaky-clean Tiger Woods would have seen his world (and his brand endorsements) come tumbling down around him?  But then again, Kate Moss regained her status as a leading celebrity brand endorser post the cocaine scandal with her TopShop partnership.  Escalating the retailer’s profile and sales significantly.

Yes, in this mad world where Katy Perry’s makeup-free face makes the front page of the tabloids, celebrity endorsements can sure pack a punch. The constant challenge for marketers is to come up with new ideas, ensure there is relevance and to keep things interesting.  Why would multi-millionaires Billy Connolly or the then newly-weds Ashley and Cheryl Cole give a toss about the Lottery?  Just a smug ‘invitation’ to give it a go with the opportunity to have a taste of their fabulous lifestyles?

Walkers’ association with Gary Lineker is one of the long-lasting celebrity partnerships that has benefitted from refreshing and updated campaigns; they’re topical, tongue-in-cheek, and can incorporate other partnerships (eg Comic Relief).  Gary can also complement additional personality endorsements as diverse as Lionel Richie to the current ‘Clash of the Comics’. The long term relationship has worked well for both parties.

But one-night stand relationships can be just as rewarding and have the desired effect on brand sales albeit on a tactical basis. The crucial thing here is timing – assessing the celeb’s appeal to coincide with the brand hitting the shelves or being made available. Kylie was perfect for the launch of the ‘small but beautifully formed’ Ford Street Ka; Morrisons and M&S have also used celebrities tactically to capture the zeitgeist.  Right person, right place, right time, short or long term, the role of celebrity will continue to play its part in the marketing landscape.

There is a myth in the advertising industry that Terry Lovelock, then a copywriter at CDP, came up with the line, “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach” (an example above) in a hotel room in Marrakesh. According to the story, after 3 weeks of waiting for Terry to come up with something, his boss threatened to fire him if he didn’t crack it. So, Terry drove to North Africa to get “inspired”. Legend has it that he came up with the idea while in bed – he woke up from a fretful dream, grabbed his notebook and wrote the famous line that spawned one of the best-loved advertising campaigns in adland history.

Over the decades there have been many theories on how to come up with ideas – David Ogilvy recommended interrogating the product until it “confessed”, Leo Burnett made everyone on the Macdonald’s account work serving burgers for a week to gain inspiration and a Creative Director I once worked for reckoned no one ever came up with a decent idea when sober. On a recent episode of Mad Men, the creative team were seen stripping off (that’s Peggy below) to try and encourage the creative muse. (Not to be encouraged in today’s open plan environment.)

These are tips from creative people. But how do clients think we come up with ideas? Judging by the amount of time some of them give us, they think they just happen spontaneously once we see the brief. But seriously, many clients are mystified by the creative process. So mystified that they spend their careers trying to de-mystify it. I once attended a session where we were “taught” how to come up with a Big Idea via a PowerPoint presentation. Most of the people in the session were clients – and they loved the whole thing. At last, the creative process revealed! But I, and the only other creative person on the course were downhearted.

Cynics I hear you say – but no. We’d have loved it if it had worked – we’ve all had the fear of the blank layout pad. We’d welcome a tried and tested way to crack a brief – but the truth is there just isn’t one.

The proof is seen in the results of group brainstorms. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a genuinely great idea come out of one of these no-such-thing-as-a-bad-idea sessions. Mediocre ideas maybe. But not great. Sorry if this sounds controversial, but I really believe that creativity should be more highly valued. The best Copywriters and Art Directors have been trained, not by PowerPoint but by years of hard grind, plenty of rejection and the sharp tongue of an honest creative director. Anyone in a creative department has worked incredibly hard to be there. Their job is to come up with ideas – however they choose to do it.

So, what about the Heineken story? Here it is in Terry’s own words:

“ The brief was “Refreshment” and that was it. Took me three months to come up with something. They wanted a line “with legs” which lasted two years. I had to get out of the agency to think. Ended up in the Hotel Mahmounia in Marrakesh. It’s all true. Desperation struck at 3am. The campaign lasted 24 years. Beyond all my expectations. I was just trying to keep my job. If only I had negotiated royalties. I thought a good old fashioned line like “Refreshes the parts” would take it anywhere. Wouldn’t allow it now though. Possibly medically misleading.”
(T. Lovelock, retired drummer, copywriter, director)

Like most people in the UK, I watched with amazement as we slipped deeper and deeper into chaos as the show fell during December. As stories unfolded about travel problems, flight delays and families stranded, I wondered why, after decades of supposed  learning, that we still find ourselves complaining about the same things year after year.

But one new dynamic emerged that still amazed me even after the snow has thawed – hotels becoming snow blind.

Hotels situated near London airports have been accused of cashing in on the plight of thousands of stranded airline passengers by charging up to 300 per cent more for rooms.

As the heavy snow halted UK air travel at many airports leaving passengers stranded, availability for rooms around Heathrow and Gatwick were at a premium. As demand outstripped supply, the prices simply increased – basic economics you could argue. But hotels guilty of this are surely missing the point. When consumers find themselves stranded as a result of chaos, the very brands that are seen to rescue them earn long term appeal.

During the ash cloud chaos of May last year, Starbucks staff at airports handed out free food and beverages to stranded travellers which no doubt provided a small ray of sunshine on an otherwise ‘ash cloudy’ day. Imagine if the same passengers walked into Starbucks still fuming from a 10 hour delay only to find their skinny latte was now £7.50 due to demand.

We live in a society with an ever growing social network and brands can no longer be so short sighted without suffering long term damage. When we find ourselves in this snow chaos situation again (and we will) the smart brands will win consumers hearts and minds by actually REDUCING prices. Helping the consumer when it matters most has significant strategic value and this will provide a far better return on investment in the long term.

By Thomas Thompson

Whilst at the pub with some arty friends I found myself discussing the impersonality of social media and web based sales.  A friend of mine is an artist and has yet to develop a website and isn’t on Facebook, never even looked at a page….apparently!  In part he has refused to sell out to what he sees as the impersonality of the internet and compromise his creative belief through getting his art out to the masses.  This got me thinking, do I work in an industry where our disciplines are destroying classic creativity and with the ‘death’ of the highstreet will everything become homogenised??

As I was discussing this topic I began to see digital communications in a new light.  It presents us with a filter and gives you the opportunity to subconsciously screen out the things of no interest. Digital and well targeted marketing looks to talk to a focused group of people and with the development of the ‘Shopper’ approach this focus becomes more apparent.  With both my work and creative mind pumping overtime I realised that what on-line and social communications give us is another dimension to our consciousness.  We have had it for long enough to use it in a way which means creativity is not compromised, the content ensures this, it is merely a medium through which we can get what we want, faster and gives us another creative outlet/opportunity.

To my friend, galleries will not disappear, we love art and nothing is a substitute for the real thing. The materials, media and light affect it beyond anything a flat screen can give.  However, if he wants to be truly creative, is part of this not the desire to expand ones consciousness and if there is a whole world out there he has yet to tap into…. he had better get on-board.

Our fashion guru, Thomas is keeping us on our toes here at Westbourne Terrace. In fact the strip of floor that divides the account team from creative has become more of a catwalk. As we stride into the office Thomas looks us up and down and gives us his rating. Some of us have had to re-think our wardrobes entirely and the charity shops of Paddington are reaping the rewards.

In advertising terms, the Thomas crit is possibly the closest to what really happens when our work is judged. It’s often as much a case of how fashionable an execution is as much as whether it actually communicates the client’s message. This season, no campaign is complete without a phone app and surreal humour is now very big.

On a project I worked on a while ago, the client was looking for something that would be new and different – out with last season’s beige mac and matching scarf – in with the latest look. He’d seen the latest designer collections at Cannes and was determined that his brand would be on the ‘best-dressed’ list this season. We were up against a rival couture house and, sadly, we just didn’t have flair enough to embrace the new look. The client felt the other agency was pushing the boundaries. Quite in what way, he didn’t say.

We heard that the new designs were sent down the runway of research and received not quite the rapturous reception they hoped for. But the agency and client pointed out that the general public were often not the best judges of true creativity, so pushed on.

What they ended up with was a nice-looking campaign that blended in with all the other fashionable wallpaper out there.

You see, what the client was missing was that the very top designers always have something of substance behind their style. An idea. And being able to differentiate a good idea from a fashionable execution is what takes true genius.

By Crispin Heywood

To drive awareness and engage with shoppers, brands need to stand out. Okay, so everyone knows that. It’s not new. But, there’s a difference between shouting at shoppers and communicating with them in a relevant way.

Too frequently brands make standing out their sole objective – concentrating on getting noticed at any expense. They make choices with packaging and point-of-sale communication without regard to their existing band values and equity. This is a dangerous strategy because it makes it difficult for the shopper to recognise the brand. Stand out? Yes. Effective? No.

With shoppers spending less time in store (25 mins vs 45 min in 1995*) and many shoppers adopting an autopilot mode to shopping with a predetermined list of categories / brands they need to buy, brands need a strategic approach to stand out. They need to be constructively disruptive – in a way that leverages the brand’s key equities.

This may seem like a contradiction – how can you drive stand out whilst being on equity? Well there are some tried and tested areas that brands can explore to drive disruption – these include leveraging shape, colour, size, materials and context (location).

A few years ago the Pringles brand introduced curved shelving instore. This was a simple way to capitalise on the unique shape of their pack – equity they own, that is recognisable to the shopper. It was unusual but not for the sake of it – it stood out and also communicated its brand promise. As shoppers looked down the aisle, the curved shelves stood out against the standard shelving of the rest of the category.

Another way to achieve disruptive stand out instore is to use recognisable elements from the pack to create displays and header cards, for example:

• Head and Shoulders Shampoo & Conditioner has successfully achieved this by combining the shape of the bottles to create a unique shape on the shelf that drives standout.

• OXO seasoning cubes have also utilised the brand’s equity by using the distinctive ‘O’ and ‘X’ to maximise brand presence.

But some brands overdo it. They slavishly follow their equity guidelines instore creating brand wallpaper that creates 0% awareness amongst shoppers. For example, a blue rectangular shelf card positioned in front of a blue rectangular product is not going to be seen by shoppers – even if it is totally on equity.

Brands achieve far greater cut through with shoppers if their instore executions are both disruptive and on equity – doing one without the other is only half the job – it will not maximise shopper engagement interaction or purchase.

* Kantar shopper Analysis 09/10

I’m not a fan of reality TV but I have to concede that there are some formats that are strangely compelling. Recently I watched The Apprentice with my mouth wide open whilst team Apollo demonstrated how to make a bad idea even worse by presenting really badly. To make matters worse, this was conducted in front of one of the UK’s biggest retailers Boots or ‘the chemists’ as one team member referred to them.

The problem for me isn’t that they argued constantly or that they ignored an offer of exclusivity, nor that as a team they didn’t support each other (after all it is a competition), the real travesty is their lack of research. If I was pitching to Boots about my beach habits and my arms aching when I am reading a book etc. then this would not inspire confidence. To be fair, team Synergy made the same mistake with their ‘beach towel come cooler pillow’ born out of my desire for a cold drink when I am sunbathing. Ideas pitched on a sample survey of one are merely subjective irritations not great ideas born out of consumer understanding. So Sir Alan, whilst I accept that The Apprentice is a TV programme and perhaps robust market research is not practical, it doesn’t take long to conduct a sample survey or an online forum with real shoppers!

To illustrate my point, we are currently pitching to a high street chain and are using a Mums Panel to better understand the barriers and triggers to purchase Brand X. We will get hundreds of real perspectives in real time from shoppers across the UK via an online hub and this takes hours not weeks. It is this insight that will form the basis for our pitch simply because no one cares about my drinking preferences! Businesses should think carefully about who they listen to and pitches that are subjective clearly have no substance even if they are well presented and polished. Agencies that want to shine should invest less in concept boards and strategic pontifications and more in consumer feedback. As for The Apprentice, I think Sir Alan should fire himself!

END