Monday 5 June 2017

Holy Schhhh…. Creative ideas, and/or creative recycling


I joined the beer company Grolsch in 2005, inheriting an existing Canadian advertising campaign that pivoted around the “sch” in the brand’s name. The iconic brewer was working to build their Canadian business, and they had accepted the counsel of their Canadian marketing agency to expand brand awareness by establishing the correct pronunciation of the company’s Dutch name through widespread advertising. The advertising was built upon creative executions that played on this “sch” idea.

The campaign execution involved print ads, trade collateral (beer coasters, posters), out of home ads (billboards, transit shelters), and a lot of radio that hammered home the correct verbal pronunciation of the brand’s name. The radio ads also established the brand’s Netherlands heritage through a questionable (but allegedly humorous) Dutch accent. It was a clever idea - the campaign won a few awards, and it increased “unaided brand awareness,” if not actual sales. 

We chose to evolve the brand’s Canadian ad messaging in the following year. You need more than name recognition to motivate purchase in the beer business, and while heightened brand awareness was a valuable step, it didn’t actually stimulate new business (and the concept was hated in Quebec), so we moved on. 

I was reminded of the old campaign earlier today when I read a social media post from a past colleague who accused the carbonated beverage company Schweppes of “stealing” the decade-old Grolsch “sch” creative concept. On the surface, Schweppes has taken an almost identical approach to the Grolsch campaign in their recent Canadian advertising, with words like ”RefreSCHing” and “ThirSCHt” in their creative executions. It’s definitely a similar concept - too close for comfort, really.

Unfortunately, my old colleague’s indignation appears to be unfounded - because Schweppes already executed a variation on this same theme between 1965 and 1973. Apparently, in the UK, the tagline “Schhh…. you know who” is legendary among those who are old enough to remember it. If anything, today’s current Schweppes creative builds upon their own 50-year-old idea, bringing it into the present.



So, hooray for the internet information age: this original “sch” Schweppes campaign was created by the London office of Ogilvy and Mather. O&M had worked with Schweppes since 1953, and my guess is that the early “sch” campaign was designed to build their business outside of the UK, developing the same sort of name recognition and unaided brand awareness that Grolsch’s Canadian agency was targeting over 40 years later.

The true genius of O&M’s old Schweppes concept, in my opinion, is the “sch” onomatopoeia that replicates the sound created when you open a bottle of soda. By linking the “sch” sound to the Schweppes brand, their advertising claimed ownership over an attribute that was common to the entire carbonated beverage segment - the auditory signal that a beverage is ready for drinking. I’m sure that many consumers thought of Schweppes every time they opened a carbonated beverage bottle or can, regardless of which product they were opening. Owning an audio cue like this across an entire segment is huge - every fizzy beverage opened would echo the Schweppes brand - including colas, mineral waters, beer and cider. This auditory element could have worked for the Grolsch campaign too… if only the agency had thought of it (though to be fair, while the cans and crowntops go "schhh." the iconic Grolsch Swingtop bottle goes “pop.”)



I’m not suggesting that Grolsch’s Canadian agency stole their idea from Schweppes in 2005, nor am I suggesting that ideas are being recycled by anybody now - I would never make such accusations. What is interesting is how it is much easier to verify the originality of creative ideas in the internet age. In 2005, nobody was archiving old advertising campaigns online, so there were fewer ways to check for originality. Now, I can easily learn that Schweppes relaunched themselves in the UK with a modern version of the “schhh” campaign - in 2006. I can also clearly follow the thread between a great old advertising idea and a modern reinterpretation, in great detail.

There are so many creative ideas, and there is so much danger of crossover - but at least it’s simpler today to verify when intellectual property has already been used, 

just as it is easier to understand how legacy brands are building on their history.

Monday 22 May 2017

Exit Isolation.


Every time I hear of a musician’s untimely death – and there have been a lot of them over the past few years – my first thought is always “please don’t let it be an overdose or suicide.” Most of them are.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide rates in the North America increased by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, but in the same period, rates jumped to 43 percent for men aged 45 to 64.

As messed up as it seems, I was happy to hear that George Michael died of a natural cause at the age of 53. It’s somehow nicer to consider a quick, natural surprise passing, than the self-administered result of long-festering pain.

Musicians and songwriters tend to spend a lot of their profession analysing and expressing emotion. Sure, there are lots of happy songs, but there are also a lot of songs that delve into angst, loss, anxiety, despair, and cynical submission. This is particularly true of the 90s scene that produced Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, and Chris Cornell.  

There’s a bent romanticism attached to younger musicians who kill themselves. Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis became gothic heroes, the tragedy of their deaths tied to “what could have been” more than to the immediate, awful circumstances of their passing. The suicidal angst of a 20-something is often viewed as somehow poetic or poignant, but a middle-aged death is a signpost for a deeper level of pain.

From Michael Hutchence to Stuart Adamson, Cobain and Staley, Scott Weiland, Prince, and now Chris Cornell – preventable middle-aged deaths are so troubling. These people had talent, resources, opportunities, families, and many had children – but depression is an ugly beast that isolates an individual, overtaking all of these assets until nothing else matters.

To be clear, I consider the overdose death of someone over 30 to be the result of a slow suicide. Accidents happen during youthful misadventures, but at a certain age you know what the possibilities of your actions are, but you do it anyway. Every addict knows it’s only a matter of time until you quit or it kills you, but under the cloak of isolation, again - nothing else matters.

Overdoses make a middle-aged death darker, weirder, and sadder for me – the subjects knew what could happen (or worse, they knew exactly what they were doing) but they still needed to self-medicate. They weren’t doing it for fun. Sure, they had so many opportunities left ahead of them, but the bleak isolation and malaise of a single moment in time was greater. If they couldn’t get out of that pit, then what chance do us faceless mortals have?



I have only written about men here, but that’s part of this discussion – men die of suicide at more than three times the rate of women. Perhaps men are more resistant to getting help? Maybe they are less inclined to quit dangerous habits? Maybe they tend to ingest more than they should? Or perhaps they have fewer true friends?

Men tend to stick to old friendships, building fewer new friendships as they age. In the case of successful musicians, perhaps it is even more difficult to trust the motivations of people in your life – but the same would ring true for anyone in business ownership or management. Sometimes it’s difficult to know whom to trust – but everyone has to get past that. If you feel isolated and alone, go to a Doctor, go to a support group, or attend a series of Anonymous meetings. There are no hidden agendas or egos there, as long as you are willing to abandon yours.

It’s clear that opportunities, status, money or talent don’t rescue anyone from the clutch of anxiety, depression, isolation, or cynicism about individual circumstances. So, what does? Reducing isolation may be a start – connect with other people. Getting clear and clean is another one - many successful musicians are “all or nothing” types, but if you can’t handle consuming everything in the room, perhaps it’s better to ingest nothing at all? It is achievable – trust me. Avoid opioids too. As Weiland, Staley and Prince demonstrate, opioids will beat you eventually, and the only way to surely beat them is to stop taking them.

Music is an escape for so many people, but it shouldn’t illustrate a path towards permanent escape. Everyone is unique. Everyone suffers from a variety of diseases, but some can be treated. Treatment of depression and isolation will, at least, allow you to feel less shitty, more often – and isn’t that worthwhile? Isn’t sticking around a little longer worthwhile too?



Friday 7 April 2017

Thoughts on teaching as a marketing professional

About this time last year, I investigated the possibility of teaching University students as a part-time lecturer. I was accepted to teach two separate marketing courses, beginning last fall. When those went well, I was offered to teach two more courses in the winter semester. The final day of classes wrapped up yesterday.

As a solo marketing practitioner who must assess a breadth of information each day, I am acutely aware of how limited my range of experience can be. I know what I know, and I read as much as I can, but nothing matches the benefit of shared human experience and knowledge. I expected to learn as much from my students as they learned from me, and that expectation has proven to be accurate.

My “day job” focuses on brand development, which is the act of distilling the entirety of an organization’s assets into a few core ideas, before sharing those ideas through focused goals, plans and objectives. Teaching is similar: in a world of options, the trick is to deliver focused learning in a compressed time frame - to choose and deliver the most relevant information within the confines of a single University course. It’s a challenging task, but it is exciting too – especially when you “get it right.”

Strategy is a fancy term for planning, and good plans require accurate, relevant information. Marketing professionals have to understand current trends as fully as they must know theories, tools, tactics and best practices. I can tell you that engaging in a structured dialogue with hundreds of marketing students will sharpen your mind better than any book, video, or colleague discussion can. Part-time teaching provides very little monetary compensation, but that was never the point – my experience has demonstrated that teaching provides so much more.

A few faculty members have moaned to me some negative clichés about “Millennials,” but my experience has proven that today’s students are uniformly smart, applied, focused, and practical about their future. To suggest anything less does these students a great disservice, and proves that you aren’t paying attention (or are clinging too tightly to fading skills and credentials). Today’s University students know what they can offer. They understand that they have a lot left to learn, they embrace a spirit of lifelong learning, and they are realistic about how their skills will connect to future opportunities. I can’t say the same thing about peers in my age group. It would be easy to be threatened by their competence and confidence, but I choose to be inspired by them – especially when they are so generous in sharing what they believe. Teaching and learning should always flow both ways, and these students are proving to be fantastic teachers.

As I look back on a whirlwind academic year, I am genuinely surprised to have a year of University teaching added to my list of accomplishments. A calendar year ago, I didn’t even think it could be an option. It has certainly been a time-consuming avocation (especially with preparation and grading), but I wouldn’t change a thing. I hope to add a few courses of teaching to my professional calendar for the foreseeable future.

If you are an expert in your field, I strongly recommend that you share your knowledge, without any thought to the return-on-investment. I strongly believe that your investment of time in sharing your experience with students who are eager to learn - regardless of monetary compensation - will provide a huge return on your own development as a professional, and as a person.

Starting a Communications class with Sloan's "Underwhelmed" - to ensure nobody misses the point