Yearly Archives: 2011

Freshies for Google.

By
Steve Poppe
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Here I sit this morning, in a winter wonderland of snow — on this glacial moraine we call Long Island.  And tres beautiful it is.  The storm has cleared, the sun is low casting long sharp shadows. Is there anything prettier than a holly tree branches heavy with freshies? And in the paper paper today, Google has announced Eric Schmidt will step aside come April to be replaced as leader by co-founder Larry Page.

Talk about freshies?

The spin in the papers is that Google feels it has lost a step, becoming a bit too corporate and in need of a return to its entrepreneurial roots.  Google longs to move at the speed of Facebook. Mr. Page is thought to be adult enough now to manage Google – being steeped in the fast and furious start-up culture.

No matter how you spin this thing, it suggests a management problem.  Earnings, announced yesterday, were terrific but the narrative behind the move, not so much.  Something is amiss. I can smell it and it doesn’t waft well. Stay tuned. Peace!

Owyang on ROI. Ow for some.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang conducted a webinar a couple of days ago, along with Michal Della Penna of StrongMail, on social media today and tomorrow.  He made two very key important points.  Don’t market your ass off (my words) only to give your traffic over to Mark Zuckerberg.  And don’t use “engagement” as a key metric when trying to prove social media ROI to your executive committee. 

Point 1.  I’ve heard on a number of occasions, from some pretty smart, that many companies are considering reducing the scope and scale of their corporate websites in favor of bulked up their Facebook efforts.  Mistake.  Overblown company and brand websites can be a blight, but they don’t really hurt anybody.  Letting all your customers and prospects learn about your product on Fotchbook on the other hand, can dilute your control and funded sales efforts.

Point 2.  Consumer engagement, often defined on the dashboard as clicks, time on site, members, views, likes, check-ins are not sales.  Certainly they can lead to sales, but until tied to money changing hands, its engagement not a wedding ring.  It’s like dating without the you know. We all know dating leads to you know, so I’m not pooh-poohing engagement, I’m just suggesting as did Mr. Owyang that executives care about da monies.  When was the last time you read a financial article the headline for which was “Goldman’s Engagement Slid 53% In Quarter.”  Peace!

Quietly American? Such a thing?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Apple’s earning (just reported) were crazy off the charts.  They are selling more, to more, more often and at higher price.  What’s that, the quad-fecta?  Anyway, it got me to thinking about China and Taiwan and all the other places I suspect Apple products are manufactured and it made me wonder if we Americans were ready to purchase an Apple product with a little made in America sticker on it. 

I read someone once that the most expensive part in an iPhone is the housing, the case that all the parts are contained it.  The part cost something like $7 or $16.   So let’s just ask the question, If there was an Apple US-based manufacturing group that made product solely with American parts, and the prices were 3 times higher, would people buy them?  And what would that do to the aura of Apple? As a marketer, I suspect it would cause some consumer consternation. Okay lots of consumer consternation.  But would it be so wrong?  I’m no xenophobe, trust me, but this approach might help American manufacturing learn a thing.  Then, of course, the products don’t have to be labeled “Made in America,” maybe they are quietly American.

Daring? Yes.  Jobsian?  Yes.  Think different.  (Can you say renminbi?)

The Super Bowl is our Super Bowl.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

As we jet (oops Dr. Freud) closer to the Super Bowl, I realize what an exciting time it is to be in  advertising.  The Super Bowl is our Fashion Week.  It’s when agency people get to lay some wood.  The best commercials of the year are put on display, much the way at Fashion Week the best designs are showcased.     

I wrote a brief once for an online music property in which I stated “an artist is never more in touch with his/her art than when looking into the eyes of the audience.”  Well, that’s sort of what we do in the ad business during the Super Bowl, we display our work and sit with people we care about, watching their reactions. The ad meters and USA Today polls are nice, but real time reactions from those around the chips and dip is most important.  Real consumers.  Our friends.  Our family.  And if you tell people it’s your spot it is cheating.

Granted, the best spots don’t always sell the most, just as the best fashion designs don’t…but the Super Bowl allows agencies and the builders of ads to represent (and learn a wee bit about their craft from the people).  Good times. Peace!

Pepsi ReFunk

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Okay I could be tripping and correct me if I ‘m wrong, but wasn’t the Pepsi Refresh Project going to be funded by taking money normally put into Super Bowl ads and reallocated to well-meaning projects around the world.  You know – “Come on world, tell us how you want us to spend our money and we’ll refresh the planet!!!”

I’m all for doing good, or as I wrote in a strategy for Bailey’s Café in Bed-Stuy “doing good’s work”, but the whole Pepsi Refresh thing seems a little off.  Like a big advertising application in search of a product.  Anyway, I read today that Pepsi has a number of spots on the Super Bowl.  And the two most recent posts on the Pepsi Refresh Facebook page are from 17 hours ago and Tuesday.   

I “like” Pepsi’s refresh advertising, its intent and its lovely imagery, I’m just not so sure I want to vote for Pepis with my mouth.  (Drink it, that is.) Isn’t that the point?  And please, don’t tell me the category is mature and everyone knows what Pepsi is  – a similarly expressed sentiment, from earlier this week in a Tostitos article. 

Refresh should be moved to the corporate side of the business – kept alive and funded – but let’s refresh the strategy and move some cases. (The Coke people probably don’t agree.) Peace.

Advertising Holding Company Futures?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

ITT announced yesterday that it will split into three companies.  Sara Lee is considering splitting into two companies. And as you know, I believe Google will split into 3 companies in the next 5 years.  All this makes me wonder what’s in store for the big public ad agency holding companies?  What will IPG, WPP, Omnicom and Publicis look like in a decade or two?

The drivers of divestiture are usually varied margin and profitability spans.  In the case of ITT, the military business is not as profitable as the water pump business.  In agency holding companies, I wonder if there are discreet businesses with differing margins? 

Our business has changed much in the past 5 years thanks to the computer and digital marketing.  Analysis and reports, once the provenance of humans are now much more automated.  Translating the big selling idea across platform was always the heavy lifting, but today many media forms are converging. Content is still where the money and margin is in marketing.

If I were a betting person, I’d suggest a bifurcation of creative and analytics. Move the analytics companies nearer the energy plants so the computer farms are cheaper and run the creative companies in urban centers closer to all the stimuli. Patsy Cline? Fast forward. Peace!

Sugar and Salt. America is finally well cared for.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Thank God Tostitos is Reuniting America.  Someone has to. Now, if they could only take on gun control.  Reunite America is the silliest, most well-intentioned, advertising idea I’ve heard in a long time.  I thought tossing or snapping Tostitos around the room and off the wall was silly, but this takes the tortilla.  And to read about the campaign (Goodby, you should be ashamed of yourself) in Stuart Elliott’s ad column today, it seems as if this is not so much a brand idea as it is a media strategy.  To wit (as reported in the New York Times):  

The goal of the campaign is to establish Tostitos as a brand that “brings
 people together through the power of technology” said Justin Lambeth,
vice president for marketing at Frit-Lay in Plano, TX. 

Is the technology the onion dip bowl?

Beside myself am I. My fingers have seized up with the thought of this campaign – well-meaning though it may be.  Tostitos is owned by the Frito-Lay unit of Pepsi, a company busy refreshing America.  So, at least we are in good marketing hands fellow countrymen.  Sugar water and salts snack….taking care of the motherland. Peace!

Newsweek-Daily Beast or Ballast?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Does anyone see a problem here?  Como se dice “weekly daily?” 

Okay, the venerable Newsweek is done, stick a fork in it.  The Beast is, well, a beast. Albeit not the HuffPost.  So why not bypass all the peaceful coexistence, “let’s learn from one another” BS, merge the two properties, call it the News Beast and get started.   A new publisher, Ray Chelstowski, was announced yesterday who will sit atop both vehicles, but I’m feeling more organizational mission than editorial mission.  The reason Newsweek is in the straights it is, is because of stasis.  Well, let’s go for goodness sake.  Seconds are ticking. 

News isn’t a weekly thing anymore or a daily thing for that matter.  It’s a minute thing.  What a beast does is eat ravenously.  Every minute.  It’s hungry.  It’s a beast, not a ballast. Let’s go Mr. Diller, Mr Harman, Ms. Brown. Peace!

The Coens (Brand of Brothers.)

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I saw True Grit last night and it moved me.  In a telephone interview with a NYT reporter one of the Coen Brothers (Which is the pretty one? Family joke.) said he didn’t know why the movie had “connected so strongly” with its audience. It’s grossing like a dookie, by the way. The film may be the Coen’s first with a PG-13 rating. 

 The same don’t know why response is mine when someone asks me why I like the Coen Brothers. It’s hard to articulate.  My pat answer is have you seen “No Country For Old Men”?   That’s one way to sum it up.  After reading the Cormac McCarthy book and loving it, I saw the movie and loved more. And you know that doesn’t happen often. It is just hard to put their craft into words.  Is it pacing?  Dialogue? Art direction, camera work, sound, casting, acting? All that.

Is it realness? Truncated fanfare? Their work has a story; sometimes a beginning middle and end – but not always and it’s not always fulfilling…it’s just raw, thoughtful life.

I first ran into the Coen buzz machine for the first time at the Park City Film Festival (now Sundance) with their launch film Blood Simple.  They became the darlings – and it was a good place to break out.  The dudes are complicated and not for everyone.   But when we look back on film making 200 years out the Coen Brothers brand will, perhaps, be the only one remembered from this era.  Errah Errah.  Peace.

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