Schupp Company Blog

The Past, Present, and Future of Advertising

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I’m often not compelled to compile links throughout the week, but for some reason this past week has felt a little different.  With an influx of information coming through at all angles, sorting through the good and the bad can often be an agonizing issue, but this week the good just kept getting better and the bad decided not to show.  Below you’ll find some of the most well written articles I’ve read in the past few weeks.  What’s the common thread?  They all focus on the new, the old, and the in-between of the advertising industry.  Interested yet?  Read on.

This week we take a look at the past, present, and future of advertising.   We witness the end of a cultural revolution as Alex Bogusky continues to confess why he left the ad world to pursue a new life of fearless and sustainable creativity.  We read about what’s keeping advertising alive, and why those that say it’s practically six feet under are dead wrong.  We learn how to leverage social media and how to restructure the typical agency model to cater to a new type of consumer and more importantly, a new type of client.  Lastly, we’re given access to some of the most inspiring thinkers in the biz, offering ideas and insights on the future of digital and links to the most important books, blogs, and people leading the way.

And so it begins…

Advertising is Undead

When radio came out, print was supposed to die. When TV came out, radio was supposed to die. When the inter-webs were born, TV was supposed to die. The reality is that with every new medium, or adjustment to a medium, new tools become available to advertisers.  Those that claim “advertising will fail” are grossly misinformed.

Three Key Lessons to Learning Social

These are challenging times for corporations and ad agencies alike but they’re also exciting. The future is characterized by accelerated change and we all must respond accordingly.  You don’t sell to a community, you support it.  Business isn’t changing, it’s changed.  You want social media success?  Quit resisting the demands of becoming social.

Alex Bogusky Tells All:  Why He Left the World’s Hottest Agency

Over the past two decades, the ad business has changed utterly, with digital imploding linear 30-second spots, earned media usurping paid media, and consumers co-opting brand conversations.  Bogusky’s insatiable appetite – and foresight – for change kept him ahead and on top.  Find out how he got there, how he stayed there, how he defied those around him, and how business will change now that he’s gone.

Books, Blogs and People to Follow

The digital community is extremely open and collaborative when it comes to offering advice, recommendations, and insights on what is and isn’t working in the industry.  There are inspiring ideas floating around the Internet, but oftentimes you’ve got to know of the right people and the right places to look before you can truly benefit from the free-flowing influences of the community.  Edward Boches takes the guesswork out of the process.   Happy (un)hunting.

Tags: Advertising, facebook, marketing, news, schupp company, social media, trends, work
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online, Water Cooler | No Comments »

What Social Media Strategy?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Social Media continues to surge. And for some in our industry, using social media is second nature. They’ve essentially come of age with it. They’re constantly connected. They’re entrenched in their online communities. And when it comes to applying their personal practices to a client’s business, they have a pretty good understanding of what can and can’t be used to infiltrate the masses with a branded message.

For others, understanding and using social media effectively is more challenging. They’re not exactly tech-savvy. I see them with their Facebook and Twitter pages, but they’re really not relevant to the online community because they don’t know what to do or say once they’re out there. They’re just there because they think they need to be. And for some reason, it never fails that these are the people telling clients that their businesses/brands need to embrace social media. Seriously?

When you hear these guys talking “social media strategy” with clients, it’s like listening to someone give you a movie review even though you know they’ve only seen the trailer. They’ve got the general story line down. They’re just missing some key character and plot development. It’s like they’re focusing on the costumes instead of diving into the movie’s message for the ages.

The best part of these meetings happens when the client pulls the needle off the record and says, “So, explain it to me again. Why do I need to give you $200,000.00 to do a Facebook page?” (Assuming the client actually has the foresight to ask this question and hasn’t already jumped to the foregone conclusion that they HAVE TO be doing social media just because.)

So … for all of those advertising and PR pros out there who need to talk the talk to encourage social media spending, I’d like to introduce WhatTheFuckIsMySocialMediaStrategy.com.

It’s social media strategy made easy. This amazing website generates strategic social media statements so you can sound smart, meeting after meeting.

What client wouldn’t want these things for their brands? With these strategic nuggets, anyone can become the “social media guru” in their client’s eyes. So, thanks, Mike and Sted. This is brilliant and much needed in some circles. Now, if only making these strategies a reality was just as easy as saying the words.

Additionally, for anyone out there who has toils with dinner plans and can’t decide what to feed the family every evening, check out these guys’ sister site: WhatTheFuckShouldIMakeForDinner.com. Tonight, I’m having Moroccan style lamb with carrots and chickpea puree.

Tags: facebook, interactive, social media
Posted in Culture, Online | 3 Comments »

Levi’s takes experiential marketing to a whole new level.

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

It’s classic. It’s American. It’s entertaining. It’s engaging. It’s collectible. And it seems to be experiential marketing at its finest.

Well, it looks like Levi’s is at it again. On the heels of their Pioneer Sessions music program (where Levi’s invited contemporary musicians to re-make the songs that inspired them), Levi’s is launching what looks to be another amazing consumer marketing program.

Levi’s has partnered with Alamo Drafthouse to celebrate the spirit of Americana with a tour of American cinema.

Throughout August, the Alamo and Levi’s will be taking the Rolling Roadshow to the people under the unified banner of ‘We Are All Workers.’

The Rolling Roadshow is a nationwide tour of free outdoor 35mm movie screenings, which pair renowned films with the famous locations where they were shot or set. All Rolling Roadshow screenings are free and open to the public. Some screenings may even feature surprise celebrity guests, and each location will feature additional, sideshow events.

The lineup looks something like this:

Aug. 6 – JACKIE BROWN at Los Angeles’ Del Amo Fashion Mall
Aug. 7 – DIRTY HARRY at San Francisco’s Washington Square Park
Aug. 8 – THERE WILL BE BLOOD at California’s Kern County Museum
Aug. 8 – CONVOY & RED DAWN Double Feature at the Ft. Union Drive-In in Las Vegas, NM
Aug. 13 – THE BLUES BROTHERS at Chicago’s Joliet Prison
Aug. 14 – ROBOCOP at Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center
Aug. 19 – ROCKYTHON! (ROCKY I-III) at the Philadelphia Art Museum
Aug. 20 – ON THE WATERFRONT at Hoboken’s Pier A Park
Aug. 27 – THE GODFATHER Part II on a Manhattan rooftop near Little Italy

But aside from launching a movie tour about self-made Americans to engage jean-wearing boys and girls across the country, what really caught my eye was in the details.

Each event features a limited-edition movie poster print. Levi’s commissioned Olly Moss to create the series. These are true pieces of art, and below are a few of my favorites from the series in case you were wondering what you could buy me for my birthday.

The events are even being promoted on iTunes in their movie section. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Nobody uses iTunes!” And yes, I appreciate your sarcasm as much as my own. But, you can also find everything you need to know about the Roadshow on Levi’s Facebook page, on which there are over a half million followers.

But this is what really tied the whole experience together for me – Gowalla.

Gowalla is an interactive, location-based (geo-caching) scavenger hunt game for your mobile device. Josh Williams (one of the originators) believes that trips are the ultimate feature of Gowalla. If you check in at multiple locations (taking a virtual tour) you receive the icon for that trip upon completion. It’s really social gaming – kind of like what people are doing with Foursqare only cooler (in my opinion).

To extend the experience beyond the feature presentation, Gowalla worked together with Levi’s and Alamo Drafthouse to create Gowalla Trips highlighting scenes from the films for nine of the Rolling Roadhouse tour cities. Describing the New York trip:

… in conjunction with the screening of The Godfather II, we’re offering a Gowalla trip you can’t refuse: Trace the path of Vito Corleone from Ellis Island through his boyhood home and stomping grounds in Little Italy, grab some cannolis at Caffe Reggio, visit the site of Luca Brasi’s death, Vito’s narrow escape from the hospital and more.

The trips can be accessed by following Levi’s on Gowalla. Plus, there’s a promotional overlay. The first 50 people to complete the respective Trip in each city will receive a VIP package to attend the corresponding Rolling Roadshow screening.

For me, the Rolling Roadshow has it all: great movies in great cities, limited-edition art, celebrity appearances, social media extensions, mobile gaming, the chance to win and, best of all, a common thread that strings it all together for the Levi’s brand. Oh, and did I mention it’s all free?

Levi’s has raised the bar for experiential marketers everywhere. I just wish there was a cool movie set in St. Louis so there’d be a chance I could see the festivities in my city firsthand. I guess playing Escape from New York in the Lou would’ve been too confusing.

Tags: Advertising, Alamo Drafthouse, facebook, Levi's, Movies, social media
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online, Water Cooler | 1 Comment »

The Huffington Post | Stepping Out to Be More Social

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I just recently I read an article on the Huffington Post labeling itself as a social media company. While many rival editorials may scoff at the idea of social media ad buys and integration across the board, I think this is one of the smartest tactical moves that a publisher could make to take a significant lead in the era of content creation and distribution.

For those who don’t know much about the publication, the Huffington Post is a liberal/progressive Internet newspaper that has more monthly unique visitors than the Wall Street Journal, LA Times and the Washington Post (quickly closing on the NY Times). While being an online-only news source is probably the largest differentiator in the Huffington Post’s strategic plan, the approach that it’s now taking aim at ad sales is almost equally unique.

In a recent interview with Ad Age, Greg Coleman, President and Chief Revenue Officer stated:

“First and foremost, we are positioning ourselves as a social-media company, meaning that all of the great and powerful social marketing tools that have made the Huffington Post grow right now to 24 million unique visitors, we can now use to help our marketers beam their messages throughout the Internet, across the galaxy, and around the world.”

What does this mean? It means wider distribution, a viral spread of branded messages and a hell of a lot more eyeballs.

When talking about how the Huffington Post has implemented social in the past, they use GE’s healthyimagination campaign as an example:

“One example is a terrific project we did with General Electric, where GE has this whole campaign on ‘healthymagination.’ We allowed them to run advertising on anything tagged ‘wellness’ across our site. We then created a special share bar for GE, and any time you tweeted that article or retweeted that article or shared it, the ad module would go with it. So when you shared it with your friends on Facebook, the GE ad module would go there. When you retweeted it, [you'd get] the hashtag “GE healthymagination.”

This is the future of social. Creating campaigns that earn impressions through the use of industry experts, established news sources and identified thought leaders. The pub will earn the impressions, and the brand will pay for what’s been earned. We haven’t seen many ad models for social, so I’ll be keeping an eye on how this goes.

Quotes via @adage

Tags: Advertising, Huffington Post, social media, trends
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online | No Comments »

Advertising: It Seemed So Much Easier Back Then

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Looking at advertising and what it is now, it’s pretty easy to see that it’s nothing like it used to be. Sure, some elements remain the same. There’s a client, an agency, a brief and a creative execution, but the channels, the platforms, the programs and the strategic thinking have all changed drastically over the years.

It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. But I came in too late to be a part of the ad industry heyday. I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over. Advertising will never be the same. I think many Americans think that way. I think many advertisers do, too. The good thing is, I don’t think this is the end of an era. I think it’s the beginning of a new one. There’s a lot more opportunity around the corner. We just need to realize that things aren’t quite as easy as they once were.

The number one thing we need to think about, as we look into the future, is the idea that we can no longer market a brand to an audience. We need to build a community around a brand. It’s about marketing with people, not at them. Consumers have the power, and they will embrace advertising that treats them as fans. It’s getting easier to skip, block or refuse those brands that threat them like consumers. The model below states the evolution best:

In the past, advertising was about buying impressions. The future is all about earning them. As agencies evolve, we will continually need to focus on adopting new practices that cater to this new, radically different business model. The consumers have spoken, and they continue to get louder and louder as they go. This isn’t going to be easy. It isn’t going to be fast. But we must evolve. If we can’t be digital natives, we must at least be digital immigrants.

Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer at Mullen, has a lot of great insights on the topic of what it takes to be a successful agency in the future. He states, “Digital isn’t about technology; it’s about the people. We want to do business with people, not companies. The focus shouldn’t be on telling a story; it should be about getting other people to tell it for you.”

With all of this I couldn’t agree more. As consumers, we have new sources of information (RSS, Delicious, Twitter, Buzz), the tools to create quality content (Flip cams, iMovie, WordPress) and the platforms to distribute our ideas (YouTube, Posterous, Tumblr). As marketers, the goal is no longer about producing the content ourselves. It’s about conceiving ideas that generate content from consumers. It sounds easy on paper. Getting it to happen is a whole different story.

The future is upon us, and we need to adapt now. Traditional advertising is still alive and well, but there’s a new agency model that’s impossible to miss. Communities looking to engage, collaborate, and share stories on behalf of a brand – it may not be the old industry model, but it most definitely shows signs of opportunity to me.

Tags: Advertising, social media, trends
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online | No Comments »

What does Social Media mean to the consumer shopping experience?

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Wikipedia provides a blanket definition, stating that “Social Media uses the Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one-to-many) into Social Media dialogues (many-to-many).”

Simply stated, Social Media is the bazillion conversations people are having online … all day, all night.

It’s the industry darling for the moment, an emerging and evolving channel where marketers can tap into a pre-established consumer base. So, everyone wants to get involved, of course, from retailers to brands to businesses to services. But before you dive in and create your new Facebook Fan Page, here are six questions you should ask yourself to make sure you’re maximizing your Social Media efforts:

1. Do you know your consumer?

2. Do you know how they use social media?

3. What’s your brand differentiator?

4. How will you “make it real?”

5. What’s the role for social media?

6. What is success?

If you already have all the answers, you obviously have everything under control. But if there’s anything you still feel unsure about, maybe you should give Schupp Company a call.

Don’t be shy. Our interns are on the edges of their seats, awaiting your call: 314-421-5200.

Ask for Mark.

Tags: music videos, people, schupp company, social media
Posted in Culture, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Stop Creating Ads and Start Creating Useful Things that Advertise

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

I’ve been stuck to the computer most of the day but I’d have to say it’s been a pretty productive experience.  It’s amazing how much information you can find in the form of videos, podcasts (which I’m not sold on), blogs, Twitter Feeds, and Facebook posts. While a new client project has taken up most of my morning, I did come across a post this afternoon that really got me thinking.

In a video titled “The Way Forward,” Bob Greenberg and Barry Wacksman of digital agency R/GA discuss ways in which they are changing the framework of advertising – specifically digital.  What are they doing different?  They’re not creating advertisements; rather they are creating useful things that advertise – most importantly, what they call platforms.

People are reading and listening more than ever, however the digital landscape has changed the distribution channels. More people listen to music, but CD sales decline.  More people are reading, but magazines and newspapers are no longer the most prominent mediums.  Television is still a huge part of society, but DVR, on-demand, and online sites like Hulu have changed when, what, and where people watch.

What does digital allow us to change?  It allows us to change the way in which we place our media.  It’s no longer about what you buy; it’s about what you own. It’s not about delivering a message to a target market; it’s about bringing that target market to you.  How are the most successful agencies changing the landscape of advertising as we know it?  They are focusing on platforms rather than campaigns.

What is a campaign? At the most basic level, a campaign is something that comes and goes. It delivers a short-lived message to a consumer in an up and down cycle.

What is a program? A program is designed to create ongoing relations with an audience or a consumer. Most often a program is created with the intention of rewarding loyal consumers.

What is a platform? A platform is the future of digital and interactive advertising.  A platform creates long-lasting interaction between brand and consumer. It’s a unique application that often provides useful tools to an audience of individuals while also connecting them with the brand.  Let’s take a look at R/GA’s example.

Who’s heard of Nike?  Everyone.  But not everyone has always been interested in purchasing a pair of Nike Running shoes.  Campaigns have attracted the attention of consumers in the past, but a huge audience was still out there looking for ways to connect with the brand and the running lifestyle it promoted.  A platform needed to be created to connect user and brand.  What was the platform?  Nike +.

Nike + introduced a chip in Nike shoes that allowed users to track their runs on a computer.  After you were done with a run, you could log onto your Nike + account and see all the statistics associated with the run.  I’m sure everyone has heard of this.  It’s been around for about 3 years now.  Results?  Users have logged in over 160 million miles in 3 years.  The average user logs onto the platform at least 3x a week. The product was a huge success.

In 2008, R/GA took this to the next level. They hosted the largest race in World History. People could gather at one of the locations around the world, they could run in their backyard, on a treadmill, or they could simply watch others run online.  Individuals posted pictures, congratulated one another on message boards, and interacted with each other through different social networks.  The platform brought the world together, and continues to do so to this day.

We’re at a time when advertisers shouldn’t have to sell ideas to a client.  Advertisers should be there to prescribe solutions.  What does it boil down to?  Talent.  Finding individuals, who can tell a story, think outside the box, systematically manage the execution of an idea, and do what’s necessary to make it work. Advertising is an epidemic that makes some people sick.  It’s finally time to change that perspective. It’s time to find useful solutions that make the audience and consumer happy, healthy, and headed in the right direction. It’s time to build platforms to the future – now.

Tags: Advertising, interactive, social media, trends
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online | No Comments »