"The most effective advertisements of all are those with little or no rational content..."

Wrap your head around this, via BBH Labs:

"The most effective advertisements of all are those with little or no rational content..." This is probably contentious, but it suggests that if you attempt to employ any rational messaging in brand building communication, you might well be shooting your brand in the foot..." [T]his piece of research, if we hold it to be valid and that, alongside Feldwick's paper, requires those who still hold on to things like Reasons to Believe and USPs to have a good hard think.

Faris Yakob's post pulls from a couple studies, and I only grabbed some of the most startling quotes. You should read it for yourself, because it makes sense. If you offer a rational message in an ad, you've invited a debate. And as a brand with a vested interest in the outcome of that debate, everything you say will be suspect. Why would you waste your money like that?

Furthermore, Alan Wolk writes that the "transition of the consumer decision cycle from Ad -> Purchase into Ad -> Google -> Purchase" has eliminated the need for RTBs and USPs, but increased the need for positioning and branding.

This is where advertising can make a real difference, by creating a memorable brand image. It’s going to have to be a broader swath than what we’re used to carving out: the cool one, the safe one, the fun one—but we need to take into account how little consumers care to hear from advertisers about me-too specifics and copy points they can research and learn about themselves.

Advertising isn't dying. It's getting better. You can't rely on a bulleted list of advantages to build your brand. You'll need to be funnier, cooler, smarter, more relevant and more emotional than ever before. Fewer features and benefits. More content, utility and image. It's going to be so, so fun to be a part of it.

A complete list of the 42 pages of branded content in the December 2009 issue of GQ

Are they ads? Are they articles? Are they just filler in between photos of Leighton Meester? I don't know. But there sure are a lot of pages of branded content in GQ these days:

Pg. 39 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Adrian Grenier and Nautica talk about conservation and a charity named Oceana.

Pg. 73 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Ashton Kutcher and HP talk about education and Unicef.

Pgs. 81-84 - Grey Goose offers a guide to the best holiday vodka drinks.

Pgs. 93-113 - GQ and Bombay Sapphire present their search for the nation's most inspired bartender. (From Denver, someone named Anika Zappe gets a nod.)

Pgs. 117-121 - Verizon Wireless brings us The Global Gentleman Photo Contest and the Global Gentleman's tips on Paris.

Pgs. 132-133 - Heineken offers up ideas on how to "rule the revelry" this holiday season, with tips on gifts, hotspots, fashion and music. (Check out pandora.com/heineken for the brand's ultimate party playlist!)

Pgs 135-138 - Toshiba teams up with four "men of talent" to design artwork for four limited edition laptops. (Hey, it's Omar Epps!)

Pg. 139 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Mark Wahlberg and Gillette tell us about the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation.

Pgs . 143-146 - Ketel One presents The Gentleman's Guide to Holiday Entertaining. (Two words: artisan pizza.)

Pg. 147 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Josh Duhamel and Ketel One tell us about the Pat Tillman Foundation.

Pgs. 165-170 - The Gentlemen's Fund, Ashton Kutcher (again) and HP talk about a flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ashton makes a mini-mag about it. On an HP.

Pgs. 189-192 - T-Mobile publishes four pages on ways a few worldly guys have personalized their cell phones.

Selling sport: Under Armour, the Colorado Rapids, the USATT, Arena and Nike

Before I was in advertising, I worked in gyms. Over the course of six years, I worked at the towel desk, at the front desk, in membership sales, and finally as a certified personal trainer. I have a special passion for athletic marketing. And a special frustration when it goes wrong.

Like Under Armor's audacious new line, "Under Armour is Football." I saw the flagship spot during a college football game, and when the game came back on, I couldn't help but notice that both the teams had Nike logos on their jerseys. Ouch.

Or the long-running Colorado Rapids tagline, "Experience The World's Game." Apparently the team hasn't noticed that Americans give absolutely zero weight to global opinion.

Or the United States Table Tennis Association's continued insistence that the best way to increase participation is to point out that table tennis is a game that anyone can play. So they put out publications featuring elderly and disabled athletes and then wonder why young, athletic men and women don't gravitate to the sport.

What do I like? A print ad for Arena swimsuits, which I first saw on the SCAQ blog and have reposted here. You want to be a monster in your next open water race? Wear an Arena suit. Simple. Insightful. Powerful. And so cool.

And at the risk of being obvious, I like Nike. From their relationship with Oregon football to the Live Strong line to Nike+, they have defined the meaning of athletics for two generations of Americans. They're a big brand that is still relevant to the cutting edge. And that's a pretty amazing thing to pull off.

If I started calling myself a message director, would that be cool or would people just roll their eyes?

Copywriters got hosed in the job title department. The word doesn't indicate that we also come up with concepts, cast talent, choose music, direct voiceovers, develop content for multiple media channels, help our partners determine a visual approach, manage junior creatives, present work to our clients, and often even determine strategy.

Decades ago, some designer looked across the table and said, "I'm going to start calling myself an 'art director.'" And his copywriter should have replied, "OK. Then I'm going to start calling myself a 'message director.'" But he didn't. Whoops.

Maybe we ought to correct that mistake. More than ever, copy is the least of a copywriter's problems. Integrated storytelling, with multiple engaging and surprising doorways into a cohesive brand, is our current measure of greatness.

Yes, I still get giddy when I get a brief asking for a 30-second spot. But I get equally giddy when a client says, "We have this much money. How do we use it to maximize our brand across multiple consumer touchpoints?" A copywriter may not have the answer. But a message director certainly would.

[Ed. - This post was inspired by a discussion on the Egotist.]

Create ads that are brave and wonderful

Here are two print campaigns I love. Canadian Club Whiskey from Energy BBDO. And Havaianas ads like this one from AlmapBBDO. On the surface they couldn't be more different. The former campaign is insightful and cool. While the latter is all unmetered joy. But they share one important trait. Courage. I am not sure how Energy BBDO convinced Canadian Club that the key to reaching a new generation was to create an homage to an old one. And I'm not sure how AlmapBBDO sold Havaianas on the idea that cynicism and edge are inferior to happiness and beauty. But they did. Our world, and our industry, is better for it.

It's just this simple

1. Identify a niche. Two years ago, inspiring, visionary leaders were in short supply.

2. Have a great product. Barack Obama had a compelling life story, a good grasp of policy, and a talent for politics.

3. Build your product into a brand. Obama could have been beaten. Change could not. And a killer logo didn't hurt.

4. Create a relationship. Obama's campaign encouraged user-generated content, experimented with new strategies, optimized social networks, and did anything else it could think of to capture data - along with hearts and minds.

Of course, for most brands, the journey ends here. For Barack Obama - and the USA - it is just beginning.

The key to being a great Internet brand is to be a great brand

There have been lots of new media channels invented in the past decade. Ad agencies have a responsibility to be experts in all of them. And the only way to get good at something is to practice. So I have a blog. And a microblog. And a tumblelog. And nevermind any social networks, online communities, and video or photo sharing sites I may be a member of. (They're all aggregated on Friendfeed, if you're interested.)

Recently, I've had this crazy thought. It's sort of unorthodox. So of course I'm going to blog it and let the whole Internet tell me I'm dumb. Here goes:

Web 2.0 is more like a conversation than a media experience. Yes, some of these conversations will be about you. But you shouldn't try to control them. People will start saying nice things about you when you stop being an asshole.

The fact is, no company has ever been able to control the conversations that went on about them. Ever. One hundred and fifty years ago, someone was saying that Joe's Horseshoes suck and someone else was agreeing and suggesting Benjamin's Horseshoes as an alternative.

Today, companies have the ability to see these conversations take place in real time on the Internet. So they want to get involved in them. But that makes as much sense as barging into someone's living room and telling them to stop badmouthing you.

Instead, create something useful and beautiful. A better product, a better experience, a tool or widget, or even an ad. And then trust that your creativity, value, attitude and usefulness will shine through.

I'm not saying that brands should exit the social media space. I'm just saying that being engaged is nice, but being great is better.

Courage

When Nike named it's new spot Courage, the brand had no idea that it would soon need some of its own.

A few months ago, Speedo built a better swimsuit. A seamless, pricey, high-tech marvel named the Lzr. Nike swimmers put up a brave front. But as world records fell, it became pretty clear that any athlete not wearing Speedo or Tyr will be at a major disadvantage in Beijing.

So Nike finally did what it had to do. It told its swimmers they could switch suits for the Olympics.

It wasn't a move Nike had to make. Few would have noticed if Nike's swimmers had failed to medal. (It's not like they sponsor Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin or Ryan Lochte.) But Nike had the courage to admit it was marketing an inferior product. And the beneficiary is the USA and our Olympic team.

It's not the sort of courage showed by, say, a firefighter. But for a brand that makes a living selling stuff to athletes, Nike showed some guts.

Cross-posted at 300 Spartans Gym.

Clients and the changing marketing landscape

In my interview with Scott Goodson, I expressed my opinion that agencies aren't the only ones who need to adapt to the changing communication landscape:

I'm always reading in AdWeek about clients who demand new ways to connect with consumers. But I haven't seen much of that here. Far more often, I see creatives intuitively going after business opportunities and being shut down by clients who want to know where their damn ad is. Maybe that's just a function of working in a mid-market city. I know we have problems preparing our clients for the idea that we might not come back with an ad.

So take my sentiment and make it way more eloquent and you have this must-read post on The Toad Stool:

I mean we can reinvent agencies all we want. Do away with traditional art director/copywriter creative departments as per Joe Jaffe’s recent suggestion. We just need to find someone who’s going to hire the resulting entity.

Because most clients aren’t set up that way. Bigger ones, anyway. They’re all about “hiring ‘best in class’ partners in every discipline.” Which may have worked 25 years ago, but now basically results in a bunch of overlapping vendors all stepping on each other’s toes and doing what they can to defend their own little piece of turf. So we can suggest changes in store design to our clients. But if they already have a store design agency, they’re not going to care what we think. Or want to pay us for it. (And if the idea does start to get traction, the store design agency sure isn’t going to be too happy about it and will do what it can to sabotage it.)

Go read the whole thing. Very worth it.

Playing against type

On November 8, 2007 I wrote a post that talked about how social marketing "tests the concept of juristic personhood by daring brands to live up to their legal status." That's still true. But juristic personhood doesn't make one a person.

People have the ability to play against type. For instance, "The Natalie Portman Rap" isn't funny if it's not sung by the sweet, petite, Ivy Leaguer. And with apologies to Sarah Silverman, "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" would've been been a yawn if Hollywood nice-guy Matt Damon hadn't been singing backup.

I'm not sure this sort of self-referential riffing would work for brands. Consider Gatorade's spinoff G2. The G2 spots play on the core brand's athletic heritage, not against it. The copy includes the line, "You're always an athlete, hydrate like one." Can you imagine the same campaign with the tagline, "You're not always an athlete, so we made a drink for that, too."