housecreative-blog

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25 posts! yay!

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7 web design trends you'll see in 2014.

By Nick Connors Most of these trends have been gathering popularity since 2012, but we predict you'll see lots more of them in 2014. 1. Responsive web design Responsive web design or RWD. A term first coined by Ethan Marcotte way back in May 2010 to describe the process of designing for an unpredictable web. Today's web consists of many devices, from traditional desktops and laptops through to mobiles, tablets and even TVs. Each with multiple screen resolutions, orientations, settings and possible permutations. Responsive design is one way to offer a great user experience on them all. Your analytics will tell you what devices your visitors are using but how do you cater for all of them? Responsive design maybe your answer. Whilst not the only solution in the web design toolkit, great examples of responsive design were seen all over the internet in 2013 and we predict even more for 2014.

2. Web fonts The arrival of font services such as Typekit and Google web fonts a few years back finally brought salvation for web designers with a love for typography. Gone are the days where designers were restricted to using only standard fonts like Arial, Times, Georgia, Courier etc. Today, the sky's the limit. But don't go mad! web fonts are an overhead for page load times and are best saved for headlines, nav items or small areas of copy. The web is bursting with beautiful typography and we expect 2014 will be no different.

3. Movement Lets go back to 1999. A time before the iPhone, tablets and super fast fibre optic broadband. A time when Adobe's Flash was king. The once ubiquitous Flash was just about the only way to deliver interactive content and animation to web pages. These days, CSS3, HTML5, Javascript and even Animated gifs can be found bringing 'interactive' back. Subtle animation and effects can help bring content to life. 2013 saw some wonderful examples of this and you can expect much more in 2014.

4. Big We predict that 2014 will be big. And by big, we mean big typography, big images, big video and big client budgets! (well.. possibly.. ) The web has grown up a lot since the days of tiny type and pixel fonts. Typography these days should be easily readable on any device and should suit the viewport (browser window) it sits in. Content, menus and buttons that are not easily absorbed can cost you customers who may never come back. Do your customers a favour and ensure the readability of your pages, they'll reward you for it. Here's some further reading on designing for readability. And while we're at it, so long as file sizes are sensible lets have big images and bigger videos too. Great photography and especially video, can sell your story, proposition or services quickly and effectively. And now on to those big budgets... anyone?

5. Flat UI With help from the Android and Windows 8 user interface design (and to a certain extent iOS7 from Apple), we expect things to be a whole lot flatter over the next few years. Trends come and go but it seems the tendency for designers to want to emulate the real world in interface designs is beginning to wane. The recent trend of shunning shadows, gradients, textures and patterns in favour of clean layouts, flat blocks of colour and clever use of space looks so fresh and can really allow content to shine. Windows 8

Propellerhead's figure app

ios7 from Apple

6. Minimalism Simple, minimalist designs can be beautifully effective. Less truly will be more this year. Sadly seldom seen in e-commerce (although there are some brilliant examples out there). Expect to see more of 'less' in 2014.

7. Mobile You've heard it all before. The importance of mobile.. yeah yeah. We do hate to go on about it, but if customers can't engage your brand via mobile channels in 2014 you will be losing sales. But its still surprising how many sites don't cater for mobile. If you don't have a mobile strategy in place, get in touch with your friendly creative agency. John lewis app

Vufold mobile site http://www.vufold.co.uk/

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David Ogilvy. The Rolls Royce of Advertising.

“It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.” The wise words of one of the industry’s founding fathers, David Ogilvy. Founding father not merely of the industry but of Ogilvy and Mather. Or, he might have said, like a car. Because one of the ads with which Ogilvy made his name was for the biggest, most prestigious marque in the automotive industry, Rolls Royce. So put these two things together: a passionate commitment to big ideas and the world’s biggest motoring marque and what do you have? Why, bigness of course! Mega budgets, massive sets, jawdropping special effects, big location shoots. That sort of carry on. Right? Wrong. Because for Ogilvy, good, much like God, was always in the detail. Like all trailblazers, Ogilvy was a master of the unexpected. And it’s the unexpected, subverting preconceptions, that’s at the heart of all great ads. So Ogilvy found the key to revealing the magnificence of this most magnificent of vehicles in one of the smallest details of all. And one of the quietest. Its clock. ‘At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock’. So ran the headline. The loudest noise comes from the clock. It’s worth noting here that the Roller’s clock was not just any old windup tick tock but a whisper-quiet electric number. It speaks volumes. Or rather it speaks of no volume at all. Instead, what it speaks of is a smooth susurration utterly befitting the nomenclature of Phantom, Ghost and Wraith. And the fact that Ogilvy has described the suppression of engine noise by talking not about the engine itself but about the clock is both surprising and telling. With the barely-discernible whirr of the clock drowning the galloping steeds under the bonnet. It’s one of the most powerful and compelling juxtapositions in advertising history. Of course we know nothing of the problems (if indeed problems there were) that Ogilvy encountered in trying to sell in his ‘little big idea’ to the doubtlessly impeccably tailored suits at Rolls Royce HQ. But one can only imagine the waves of opposition that might well have bounced off the company’s boardroom wall. “A clock….a CLOCK…..but what of the engineering excellence, the brobdingnagian engine, the epic nought to sixty times, the top speed, the sumptuous upholstery, the handcut walnut veneers, the handbeaten coachwork, the….the….the…the….the....but a CLOCK?!” “Yes….that’s right….a clock….” One can but imagine the smooth as silk Fettes and Oxford-educated adman’s unruffled response. “But a clock that tells you a good deal more than just the time.”

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Selling ‘Baby Hitler’. How America came to love Hitler’s car.

Given its origins, it’s a miracle that one of the world’s most successful brands has achieved the success it has. After all, the very term ‘Volkswagen’ is undoubtedly the most lasting and ubiquitous remnant of the language of Nazi Germany. In the 30s and 40s, though, it was not alone. For a start, it had ‘the people's radio’ and ‘the people's tractor’ for company. But who were these ‘people’? After all, for a Fascist state, all this ‘people’s this’ and ‘people’s that’ frankly sounds rather….well….socialist. The problem is, though, that these ‘people’ were non-Jewish Germans. Throughout the 20s and 30s, Germany had been striving to build a cheap German car that would be more accessible to ordinary people. Levels of car ownership were incredibly low compared with Britain, France and especially the US with just 81,000 passenger cars in Germany in the early 20s compared with 15.4 million in the US by 1925. In fact, cars were such a rarity on German roads that, believe it or not, in the 1930s drivers only had to drive on the right if there was any traffic coming the other way! And some of the failed attempts to come up with a successful cheap German car such as the Hanomag (the ‘Rolling Bread Loaf’) and the Opel ‘Tree Frog’ make for hilarious reading. However, all of these ventures came to nought because there was simply not enough money around to make car ownership viable. Then along came Adolf. Inspired by Henry Ford, one of Hitler’s first deeds was to announce a ‘people's car’, a four-door vehicle priced at 1,000 reichsmarks, well within the reach of ordinary Germans. The new vehicle (first rather sniffily dismissed as the ‘beetle’ by the New York Times) was christened the ‘Strength through Joy Car’. And (somewhat unsurprisingly) its original spec allowed for it to carry a machine gun! At the end of the war, the VW first appeared as an Allied military vehicle and then, because the cold war demanded a prosperous West Germany, as the mass market Beetle we came to know and love. Fast forward to the early 60s. When the Beetle did something that the Axis powers could never manage. It took America. This, after all, was the car The New York Times had dubbed ‘Baby Hitler’, the car that, when people were being kind, they referred to as ‘a motorized tortoise’ or a ‘pregnant roller skate’. So how did it do it? Essentially through a groundbreaking ad campaign spawned by the founder of modern advertising, Bill Bernbach. And, perhaps most remarkably of all, Bernbach, most of his clients and many of his staffers at the DDB agency in New York were themselves Jewish. But Bernbach saw the potential in a smaller, more economical, more quirky vehicle that would go against the grain of the conspicuous consumerism most vividly expressed by the rocket-finned gas-guzzling automotive barges of the day and appeal to America’s more daring, radical and frugal under-25s who accounted for as much as 50% of the population. Like the vehicle itself, the ‘Think small’ campaign went against the grain. Its honesty, simplicity and youthful self-deprecating humour broke the mould of advertising hyperbole forever. While TV executions such as: ‘Have you ever wondered how the man who drives the snow plough gets to the snow plough?’ combined wit, charm and a fierce intelligence in creating irrefutable selling messages. The results were overwhelming. In 1967, the ‘Beetle’ sold 430,000 units, more than the sales of all other imported cars combined and more than any other American brand except for Impala, Mustang and Plymouth. Today, the campaign, and of course the brand, live on. That ironic and self-deprecating style of humour and the simplicity and honesty of its approach make the brand’s marketing instantly identifiable. Personally, I count a stint as Creative Group Head on VW at DDB’s London office one of the greatest privileges of my career. So long live VW! And long live the principles of Bill Bernbach. How deliciously ironic that it took the honesty, integrity and wit of a Jewish pioneer from the Bronx to turn ‘Baby Hitler’ into a global phenomenon.

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In the latest Google update (known as the Hummingbird), Google Plus became a key part of your SEO strategy. Time to invest some of your time to Google's social media platform then...

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When CEOs attack. How foot-in-mouth disease could seriously damage your wealth.

A good marketing agency can achieve miracles for the brands it works for. But the impossible can often prove beyond us. And it’s sometimes our clients themselves who make things so impossible. What’s worse, it’s often the CEOs who do the most damage to the companies they control. As a CEO, of course, you’ll be in the trade and media spotlight 24/7 so it’s vital that you mind your corporate Ps and Qs. Say something out of turn, do something out of line and you can bring down the whole goddamn edifice. Just like, for example, Mr.Ratner. Gerald Ratner was CEO of the highly successful Ratner’s chain of High Street jewellers in the UK with no less than 2500 stores up and down the country. Not content with that, Mr. Ratner appears to have fancied himself as a stand up comedian. So, when making a ‘private’ speech to a gathering of some 5000 members of the UK Institute of Directors back in 1991, the hapless Gerald decided to attempt to engage their chuckle muscles by sprinkling his speech with ‘hilarious’ one liners such as the following little gem: “We do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say: ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say: ‘Because it’s total crap’.” The following day, with grim inevitability, ‘private’ turned ‘public’, Ratner’s share price crashed from 4.20 down to 0.07 and the entire business, in short order, went south. While we’re on the subject of c***, we should also consider the salutary ( and sanitary!) case of John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch who, one might say, really put the company’s gluteus maximus on the line by spending $35,000 of corporate money on his own personal WC for his newly-renovated office suite. Not to mention splashing out $68,000 on an ‘antique credenza’, $87,000 on guest chairs and $1400 on a waste paper basket. Needless to say, the media had a field day. And, of course, as CEO, Mr. Thain soiled not merely his own good name but that of his company too. Meanwhile, in Italy, gay rights activists have launched a boycott of the world's leading pasta maker after its chairman said he would only show the ‘classic family’ in his adverts and, if people objected to that, they should feel free to eat a different kind of pasta. Guido Barilla, who runs the Barilla Group with his two brothers, has succeeded in alienating not only activists but also presumably the entire gay community, mainstream consumers and even some politicians when he said he would not consider using a gay family to promote his pasta. ‘For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company,’ he told Italian radio. ‘I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals who have the right to do what they want without bothering others … [but] I don't see things like they do and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family.’ Asked how he thought gay consumers would react, Barilla added: "Well, if they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don't like it and they don't like what we say they will … eat another.’ Within hours, the hashtag: 'boicotta-barilla' was trending on Twitter with Barilla’s remarks provoking anger among many politicians who are trying to pass legislation against homophobic crimes and Alessandro Zen, an MP for the opposition Left Ecology Freedom party, declaring that: ‘Here is another example of Italian homophobia. I am taking part in the [Barilla] boycott and invite other MPs….. to do the same.’ In the final analysis, what some of our CEOs don’t appear to realise is that they are the figureheads of their organisation, that their views will be seen as the views of the company and the views that lie behind the products that consumers buy. So perhaps the outspoken Mr. Barilla should have kept his views to himself. While undoubtedly poor old Gerry would have been better advised to wear a gag rather than attempting to tell one.

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‘Do you want information with that?’ A lesson in customer service.

I must confess that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the golden arches. However, from time to time, usually on a long, gridlock-bound and hunger-inducing road trip, I will succumb to the charms of a McSausage McPattie McBreakfast or whatever they’re called these days. And it was such a day the other day. In fact, I’d already been primed by the slew of recent TV advertising promoting their ‘Great Tastes of the World’. So when, with tummies grumbling like Victor Meldrew unwrapping socks on Christmas morning, my colleague and I hauled ourselves wearily through the door of a Maccy Ds in the East Midlands one particularly grey Tuesday afternoon, my eye naturally alighted upon a placemat on the counter promoting this week’s sunny blue-skied South African Deluxe. Confusingly, however, the poster behind the server extolled the virtues of the equally sunny blue-skied Australian Barbecue Supreme variant. When asked to clear up the confusion, my server helpfully explained that they’d run out of the South African whatnot and were now offering the Aussie BBQ option instead. Fair enough, I thought, and went for that. And quite nice it was too. But then my curiosity got the best of me and, with my colleague too preoccupied with ‘nuking the ninnies’ (her words not mine, by the way) on ebay, my eye wandered to the blurb ‘explaining’ the promotion on the carton. To my surprise, I learnt that the Aussie offering was actually from two weeks previously while I drew a blank in seeking to elucidate precisely what made the Australian Barbecue Supreme, well, Australian (I was especially curious about this, by the way, as I’d lived Down Under myself for a number of years and was keen to know whether the beef pattie, for example, had perhaps been enlivened by a generous dollop of Vegemite), the blurb only adding to, rather than relieving, the confusion. Accordingly, I decided to ask the servers, who shrugged, mugged and muttered ‘dunnos’ and ‘I dunno do yous?’ And thus we departed, sated admittedly yet perplexed at the serving staff’s seeming incapacity to answer so simple and obvious a query. The whole episode highlights a key point and a learning for marketeers I think. First and foremost, however compelling your marketing, it needs to be reflected in the customer experience on the ground. While more compelling marketing is likely to lead to increased footfall and ultimately an increase in customer queries like mine. For avid globetrotters like myself, for example, a ‘Great Tastes of the World’ promotion has some appeal in whisking me away, in my imagination at least, to more exotic climes on a wet Wednesday afternoon in blighted post-industrial Blighty. Which means I’d love to be told the full story so that I can savour, in this case, every last Antipodean nuance. And I don’t just blame the staff (or, rather, their manager) for this lack of information. The blurb on the pack hardly helped matters either. So I think the moral of the story is get your offering right instore before you take it out to the big wide world. Or, in this case, before you take the big wide world out to the big wide world. Because a disconnect between the marketing and the experience on the ground can cause a serious disconnect between your brand and the consumer. And not just a disconnect but serious dissatisfaction with a brand that’s simply not delivered on its promises. In other words, loss of business this way lies. But, when all’s said and done, what DID make the Australian Barbecue Supreme ‘Australian’? Or ‘barbecue’ or ‘supreme’ for that matter. Burgered if I know.

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House to move mountains for 9bar

Wholebake, makers of a range of wholesome nutritious snack bars, has awarded full service agency House the task of refreshing and repositioning its seed-based energy bar, 9bar. 9bar is currently distributed both up and down the high street and along some of the most precarious and gruelling ultra running, cycling and white-water rafting courses in the world, from Land’s End to John O’Groats and Mont Blanc, thanks to a loyal fan base within the endurance sports community which includes Olympic cyclist Ed Clancy as brand ambassador. Having already taken the brand to the mountain, Wholebake is now looking to bring the mountain to the mass market by briefing House to broaden the brand’s appeal to anyone needing an energy boost in today’s increasingly hectic world. Which, when you think about it, is just about all of us! Entrusted with delivering a brand refresh, full online strategy and a new advertising campaign, the new look 9bar brand will be unveiled in the autumn. Christine Colbert, Managing Director of House, herself a long distance runner, having recently completed the Wilmslow Half Marathon in a personal best time, has this to say about the project: “Research shows that everyday consumers are increasingly looking to energy bars to provide a healthy and convenient energy boost to combat that ‘four o’clock lag’. Our job is to broaden the appeal of the brand to fulfil this need for busy commuters, juggling mums and everyday athletes.” Mark Gould, managing director of Wholebake adds: “House approached me with some real insights and knowledge of the sector along with some great ideas on how we can take an already successful brand to a new mainstream audience without compromising our roots in free-from and sports. Their understanding and passion for the brand matched my vision. I’m looking forward to unveiling the new campaign in the coming months.” House, a boutique agency, based in Macclesfield has been operating for ten months with a team of ten people. Clients range from Cookson, the UK’s leader in jewellery supplies, to leading independent jeweller Green and Benz, Bents Garden & Home and organic French wine label Tour de Belfort. Led by a team of seasoned ex-JWT, McCanns and TBWA Manchester and Saatchis and DDB London professionals, House’s refreshingly honest and down to earth approach is proving an appealing combination for clients. More information can be found at http://housecreative.co.uk/ or follow House on twitter  @housecreative

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All hail king Hank…. or….who’s the pajero in the black?

So….the deed at last has been done. And you know what I’m talking about. After all, is anyone talking about anything else? ‘George’. ‘Farmer George’. Like all the Former Georges. Anyway, it got me thinking. Are names really important? And how, if at all, do they affect us? Well, here’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. So there. On the whole, people grow up to reflect their names. For example, have you ever known a Fred who’s not a bit of a dab hand with a monkey wrench? A Camilla who doesn’t speak with a plum in her mouth? A Terry who’s not a bit of a wheeler dealer? A Jemima who’s not a bit….well….scatty? A Derek who reads Proust? Or a Nigel who’s handy with his fists? Except for Nigel Benn, of course. But then the exception, as they say, proves the rule. The same is true of brands. They come to reflect their names, not just in the way they’re perceived but in the way they behave. The difference being, of course, that we inherit our names whereas a brand chooses its own. Take Virgin. Virgin is perhaps the best brand name of the past 50 years. Why? Simply because the name itself tells you everything, or nearly everything, you need to know about the brand, its ethos and its philosophy. In a world of greed, spin and cynicism, Virgin’s identity is pure, ethical, credible, genuine, untainted by the dodgy morals and deceit of the corporate world. Virgin says: ‘You can trust me because I’m not like them’. It also helps, of course, that Virgin’s figurehead is perceived, for all his obvious business acumen, as a wacky and still luxuriantly coiffed old hippie with a weakness for tubular bells and outlandish stunts. The genius, and strength, of the Virgin brand is such that its brand values are so effortlessly transferable: from music to airlines to cola to money. With the launch of each and every new product range steeped in these same values of honesty, integrity and truth. No other brand has ever achieved this with such aplomb. Because no other brand comes with such a powerful personality, both literally and metaphorically speaking. It’s also an example of a brand name that actually MEANS something. Unlike….say….Consignia. Recently, there’s been a veritable plague of meaningless but ‘corporate sounding’ brand names, which are clearly meant to sound sonorous and important but actually in the final analysis merely convey the impression of a faceless, grey and soulless bureaucracy. Consignia, by the way, being a cack-handed attempt to rebrand the Post Office in 2001, mercifully now abandoned. No. Meaningful names are good. If their meaning is good, that is. And good names stand the rest of time. Of course we don’t consciously register the meaning of great brand names like Jaguar, Oxo, Ski and Apple but subconsciously their relevance (muscular fast feline/ chunky meaty flavour/ healthy, cool, refreshing/ friendly, simple, accessible ) still sinks in. Then, of course, if you’ve plans to go global, there are translation issues to consider, issues which presumably, over the years, dashed the hopes for global domination of the likes of Pee Cola, Pschitt! Lemonade, McPussy cleaning products, Fart candy, Kraps snacks, Shitto pepper sauces, Bum biscuits, Megapussi potato chips and Japan’s finest, Asshoe shoes. Nor is it any mere urban myth that the Mitsubishi Pajero had to be renamed the Montero in Spanish-speaking countries when the company became aware that ‘pajero’ is Spanish slang for w***er. While Honda discovered to its horror that its “Fitta” model translated in Norwegian into something approximating to the Honda Ladysnaughtybits. But, when all’s said and done, our Georgie Porgie needn’t have worried. Because, after all, even had he been dignified with the name Hank, he never was going to end up fronting a country and western combo, parading his multitude of bellies on the oche at The Lakeside as Jocky, or, as Kev, terrorising Ryman’s League defences with his patented deceptive body swerve. Although, admittedly, King Hank, King Jocky or King Kev might well have been a little bit more fun.

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Having opened its doors as recently as last August, new Macclesfield full service marketing agency House has quickly become home to some significant new business...

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We're in the news!

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Jesus Christ. Redeemer, son of God, adman.

If we’re to believe the Bible, Jesus really was a man of many talents. Given his apprenticeship at dad Joe’s knee, he would certainly have been able to knock up a more than presentable bit of tongue and groove. While turning water into wine and raising the dead before breakfast demonstrated a pretty nifty skill set. But what’s been somewhat surprisingly overlooked over the years is JC’s prodigious copywriting talents. Take the Sermon on the Mount for starters:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 
 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. And compare this:

Hello Hello Hello
 Hello Tosh, Gotta Toshiba?
 Hello Tosh, Gotta Toshiba? Like Ya Hi-Fi System!
 Like Ya Hi-Fi System! It's got a fair ol' bit o' powah! 
It's got a fair ol' bit o' powah! We are talking quality!
 We are talking quality!......... Get yer ears round that! (What?)
 Get yer ears round that! (What?) Hello Tosh, Gotta Toshiba?
 Hello Tosh, Gotta Toshiba? Just in case you’re wondering, that last bit wasn’t JC. It was DT. Dave Trott. But, had JC been flogging electrical equipment rather than the Word of God circa 28 AD, he might well have come up with something very similar. Look at the relentless musical rhythm, the use of repetition: Jesus is using tricks lifted straight from the barrister’s textbook to get his message across and to get it remembered. And Dave Trott is using the exact same devices for Toshiba. Now consider this: ‘Veni, vidi, vici.’ It’s another JC speaking here of course (just what is it with JCs?): Julius Caesar. The fact is that Caesar had landed on the south coast of England, had a brief dustup with a bunch of aled up Millwall fans down on a jolly for the day and promptly cleared off back to northern Gaul. Talking of gall, because there was no Panorama or Sunday Times to report on what had really happened and because Caesar had his eye on the kingship in Rome and a canny way with propaganda, he fed the line back to the folks back home that he’d actually conquered the place. And did so in three pithy, alliterative duosyllables that have been famous ever since. Which was very much the intention. Caesar, much like that other JC, was using devices lifted from the courtroom, even from his great nemesis and bitter opponent Cicero, to get his message across, and remembered, in the most powerful way possible. It’s the rhythm and the alliteration that make the words so memorable. We translate the line as: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’. But, of course, he could have said: ‘E navibus exposui, breviter ambulavi et gentes Millwallenses superavi’. I disembarked from my ships, had a wander about for a bit and defeated the Millwall fans’. Instead of which, he chose a pithier, more memorable way of expressing, and magnifying, his greatness. Compare this:

P-pick up a Penguin — a lovely big Penguin,
 When you pick up a P-P-P-Penguin there’s so much more to enjoy! 
It’s bigger, so delicious, chocolate flavour through and through,
 When you feel a little p-peckish, what’s bigger and best for you?
 A P-P-P-Penguin!
 So pick up a Penguin!
When you feel a little p-peckish…. P-P-P-pick up a Penguin! Penguin uses Ps, Caesar uses Vs. But the approach and the technique used are identical. Finally, let’s look at one of the most celebrated rallying cries in human history:

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. Winston Churchill is using the same devices as Jesus and Caesar before him. And they are devices that advertising still using to this day: Compare ‘Compare the market, compare the meerkat’ to take just one current example. The art of communication is an ancient one. The principles that make great communication work have remained the same throughout the ages. They’re as old as the hills. Or at any rate as old as the mount Jesus chose as his podium some two thousand years ago.

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Every little bit of honesty can help.

What best sums up advertising for you? Lying, exaggerating, devious, economical with the truth? Or honest, truthful, genuine and true to the brand? Well of course it can be both. Good (and therefore effective) advertising, however, belongs squarely in the latter camp. As David Ogilvy (I think it was) once opined: good advertising is ‘truth well told’. And certainly one of the 21st century’s most effective campaigns, that for Tesco, is built upon these principles. ‘Every little helps.’ (Which would have been even better for Lidl with ‘Every Lidl helps’ but I digress). So let’s imagine ourselves in the agency think tank working on the new brand positioning brief. There would almost certainly have been voices advocating grandiose and grandiloquent claims. Your ‘Massive savings right across the store blowing our High Street competitors right out of the water from dawn to dusk seven days a week from now until the end of time’. Or words to that effect. And perhaps just one dissenting voice proposing something altogether more modest and entirely more believable.

‘Every little helps.’ You can imagine the reaction: ‘Little?!?!?! In an ad? In a RETAIL ad to boot!’ ‘Ah but remember ‘Think small’?’ interjects a greybearded old copywriter who’s watery eye has seen it all. ‘Remember VW in the 60s and how Billy Bernbach turned America away from ranch houses on wheels towards a rather more practical approach to getting from A to Zee?’ ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah…..’ someone might have complained. ‘That was then, this is now!’ ‘That’s right,’ continues the copywriter calmly, ‘and today we don’t buy advertising so easily. We don’t swallow it all whole. We’re a bit more media savvy. We’re wise to its tricks. Today’s consumer responds to honesty, integrity, a brand they can trust…’ And so it turned out. The line ran. And ran. And ran. Julie Walters, with her no-nonsense, down to earth, utterly believable style was the natural choice for voiceover. With each and every execution identifying a modest saving the brand’s customers could make with the humour and low-fi, low budget, homespun approach adding further credibility, engagement and warmth. The campaign really does ring as true as a bell with its modest and believable claims and the ultimate inference of all those saved pennies mounting up to something altogether more substantial in pounds. The approach, and its success, provides a lesson for all.

Especially for all those retail brands, of which there remain many, still insisting that the cudgel can achieve more than the rapier, that, if you hit the consumer on the head often enough they’ll soften up and buy. The problem, though, is that these days, rather more so than in the 50s, spurious claims are all too easy to see through, especially in a world where consumer feedback and opinion are so easy to access online. Which means there’s literally nowhere to hide for the brand built on the sand of empty claims and huffing, bluffing hyperbole. Just like the lice-infested B & B exposed for what it is on Tripadvisor, or the dodgy plumber chased out of town on Rogue Traders, there’s simply nowhere for the cock and bull merchants to hide. The consumer is king like never before. And that can only be a good thing for all of us. Well, almost all……. So, if your brand has something genuinely special to offer, we’d like to hear from you. Because we might just be able to help. In some very small way, of course.

[housecreative-blog]

Local, global or glocal? You decide.

It’s a massive dilemma for global brands. Which of the above options do we take? Do we go local and have the complications, cost and lack of joined up thinking that can only lead to fragmentation and dilution of message in an increasingly joined up world? But with the benefit of sensitivity to local appetites, wants and needs? Do we go truly global with a ‘one size fits all’ approach and to hell with local sensitivities? Or do we try a combination of the two, as the glorious new construct in our headline implies? Of course, the need for brand consistency has led most global brands to gravitate towards a common theme, an identity that seeks to achieve global appeal. But how to go about achieving this remains a thorny issue that, for most, remains unresolved. So let’s look at two very high profile examples with two very different approaches: Nike and Emirates. Historically, what Nike has done is to localize the global message through the use of local sports personalities. Of course, the use of personalities to represent the brand through a kind of image shorthand is one of the oldest tricks in the marketeer’s book. But it is HOW Nike uses these personalities that gives the campaign cohesion, so that each commercial bears the unmistakeable stamp of the brand. Unlike others, Nike uses no po-faced images of rock-hewn athletes staring down the rising sun, and the world, from beneath the brim of a baseball cap. Instead, what we get is the brand toying with the skills of its protagonists, even sending up their talents, and, by inference, the brand itself, in self-deprecating scenarios that remain lodged in the memory and create the impression of a talent so ineffably confident and at ease with itself that it can afford to have fun. Take the recent TV execution: ‘No cup is safe’, in which Tiger and Rory’s tee shots play merry havoc at the golf club.

Aside from this tone of irreverence and supreme confidence, Nike’s advertising is also marked out by one of the world’s simplest, greatest, most visible and expressive, brand icons: the tick. Once underpinned by the line: ‘Just do it’, the Nike tick now stands alone, its meaning, its depth of meaning, clear and its power indisputable. As an immediately recognizable branding device, the tick, along with the tone described above, provides the necessary global glue. But it also says so much so economically. Positivity, dynamism, power, energy, self expression, spontaneity, confidence. Will that do? Then there’s its sheer breathtaking simplicity. Like all the great ideas, it looks effortless. (And I think we all know unfortunates around and about our industry who’d look at such a thing, equate simplicity with lack of worth and sneer with nostrils flaring: ‘You say it took you HOW long?’) Nike, then, is truly a global brand that combines a powerful all-pervasive global identity with a distinctive, and very human, local appeal, marked out by a tone of voice that we can all relate to. The opposite of Emirates in fact. The Emirates equivalent of the Nike tick is a line: ‘Hello tomorrow’.

And, of course, achieving global consistency through a line is never easy given the planet’s 6,500 spoken languages. So the Emirates solution is to take two undeniably positive words, ‘hello’ and ‘tomorrow’, and combine them. And voila. There you have it. Double positive. Twice as nice. Job done. Except that it’s not really, is it? Because what we are left with is a construct bereft of meaning in which the strategy, like the proverbial maiden aunt’s petticoat, is all too obvious. It’s weak at best. At worst, it’s frankly risible. And the commercial that launched this new theme hardly helps the situation either with its highly polished, highly Americanized vision of a shiny world characterized by identikit smiles and perfect sanitation. But, of course, the custodians of the brand, the agency, mean well. I worked on this account in a precious life and have first hand experience of the guidelines and rules that were put in place to achieve consistency, synergy and strength. The problem is, as the Irishman said: ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t start from here’. And in this case the ‘Here’ is ‘Hello tomorrow’ and a suite of images that present an airbrushed view of our world that appears to have been lifted from a compilation of 70s fragrance commercials. Essentially, Nike connects with real human emotions, Emirates does not. There is little reality in ‘Hello tomorrow’, except, of course, the reality of a damned fine shoot in some of the world’s most beautiful and spectacular locations. Something else, in fact, that we thought had gone out with the 70s. Perhaps, as I contemplate my next shoot in the back streets of Oldham (which is no disrespect to Oldham), I am, after all, just jealous.

[housecreative-blog]

Brand guidelines or bland guidelines?

How many times have I sat in a meeting with the Marketing Director of a FTSE 100 company, been presented with ‘brand guidelines’ and told that the brand messaging must work within an artfully constructed pattern of shape and colour with guidance on style of photography thrown in? 276. I’m joking of course. It’s 349. And it’s a sadly recurring theme. The intention, of course is admirable. But seriously misguided. Imposing discipline and consistency upon a brand is absolutely what’s required. But not a discipline born of a designer’s pipedream passion for baby pink, graphical swooshes, squiggles and piddles and Plumptious Grotesk. Every element in the communication must have meaning, must serve the brand idea. And, if you don’t first establish the brand idea, this is what you get. Vacuous nonsense. Or Graphic Design Light. And, if you think I’m exaggerating, take a casual glance at the marketing output of a random sample of building societies. Admittedly, the claim that they’re ‘building society’ with their services carries little credibility these days but surely they can do better than the horrors of……. The Blue Swoosh.

Yes, The Blue Swoosh. (Image available at Shutterstock should you really want it.) Not the antihero of some lurid 50s comic strip but a graphic element bolted on willy-nilly to the base of a million financial services ads without reason or rhyme. Which brings me on to another point. Namely that many financial services campaigns tend to LOOK THE SAME. This, amazingly, appears to be because these institutions gain comfort and succour from DOING WHAT THEIR RIVALS ARE DOING. There is little impetus here to develop a point of difference, a USP, a uniquely compelling positioning in the market. Just a hankering for the cosy comfort blanket of generic industry mediocrity. No names, no pack drill of course, but my own most gobsmacking moment in advertising consisted of being asked, in all seriousness, by a financial services client: ‘Why does our advertising need to stand out?’ But I digress. Back to The Blue Swoosh. Where did it come from and what is it for? True, and doubtless for some deep seated reason, blue is often the corporate colour of many financial services providers. More generic thinking. However, fair cop. But the ‘Swoosh’? And NB this is no Nike tick-type swoosh (nor is the Frogthorpe Building Society doing a nice line in trainers by the by) but a sort of undulating hillock underpinning the page. Well, even its originator at ‘Glittery Graphics’ won’t be able to tell you what it means beyond a shrug of the shoulders and ‘it….well….looks nice’. Sorry, Tristan, it doesn’t. Because unless what you’ve done derives from the essential brand proposition, its key differentiator, it’s start again time. Everything needs to flow from a key insight and, in turn, a brand positioning that carves out a unique niche for the brand to powerful and compelling effect. And it’s no pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard until this has been established and agreed. Only then can we contemplate addressing those brand guidelines, not this time with complete ‘creative’ freedom but working within the discipline that the proposition provides. So every nuance of the brand’s visual identity from that moment on will serve this message, from typeface to style of photography and graphic elements. Nothing is wasted, gratuitous, irrelevant or ‘art for art’s sake’. We are in the business of selling not an art gallery. Which means that every ingredient must build awareness and sell the brand proposition. And, if you agree with any of the above, perhaps we should talk. We can assure you it won’t be a case of the bland leading the bland.

[housecreative-blog]

Tourist board or tourist bored?

Hey! It’s holiday planning time again. And have I got the perfect holiday for you. It’s got beaches. And sea. Restaurants. Hotels with pools. Nice landscape. You can drink wine there. And play golf. And tennis. You can relax. Or you can be more active. You can paraglide or bungee jump. Or even go hot air ballooning. You can share fun times with family or friends. Oh, and the sun shines sometimes. It’s a place called….wait for it….Everyland! Most of the nations on earth offer most of these things. And most of the nations that offer themselves as a tourist destination use these things to promote themselves. So you’re left musing : ‘Well, knock me down with the tail feather of a fairy wren! There’s a golf course in Azerbaijan!’ Or ‘By Jove and all the Olympian gods, who’d have thunk it, Doris. There’s a restaurant in Arbroathshire!’ And you can see their thinking. Why, you can almost hear the cogs. Their target audience is…..wait for it…..everyone. That’s right. All of us. But just imagine if the strategy of just one of these places paid off. Our locust hordes would be sleeping six deep on the beach every night. That’s if they could lay on enough flights from Gatwick. Of course it doesn’t happen. The strategy is a failed one. Because, in seeking to appeal to all, the advertising these places throw up appeals to no one. The fact is, they all look the same. Even worse, in seeking mass appeal, their individuality, what makes them really special, gets lost. Call it folly, call it corporate greed but every man Jack and woman Jill of them, pretty much, follows the same path. Towards ordinariness and generic, me-too claims. These ads plumb new depths of shallowness and actually conceal the true appeal of the places they seek to promote. And it’s not just me who’s missing out. It’s all of us. Because, when, given special filters and fancy camerawork, every beach looks the same and every pillock of a hillock comes across like K2, we simply don’t know where to look or where to go. And all because these guys, ill content with their own special niche in the market, want it all. How much better (for them and for us) if they said: ’Hey, forget the golf but we’re the place to come if you really want to swim on a tropical reef’. Or ’Look, you won’t starve here, that’s a given, but what we’re really great for is history and culture’. The worst of it is, though, that even two of the most distinctive places on earth are at it too. America and Australia. The first time I saw ‘Land of Dreams’ (!), the USA’s self-promotional epic, the way I watch all ads, like most of us I guess, with only half an eye open, I only recognized the place in the final few frames as the unmistakeable streets of New Orleans hove into view. Despite the presence of Roseanne Cash (I think) performing on the banks of the Hudson (correct me if I’m wrong) with a crew of ‘world musicians’ I could have been pretty much anywhere given the standard montage of sun, sea, sand and smiles, small children in flower fields, couples dancing, daredevils daredevilling, waves lapping, bikers biking, open air diners open air dining and old codgers playing dominoes which put me more in mind of the pub next door than the most diverse and amazing nation on earth. Admittedly, I see there’s Monument Valley at the start now I’ve come to rewind it but, apart from The Big Easy, that’s about it. Where are the saguaro cacti forests of Arizona, the pueblos of New Mexico, the Old West towns on the Santa Fe trail, the Amish, the Cajuns, the crazy hip subculture of Venice Beach, Malibu surf central, the twin music capitals of Nashville and Memphis, Graceland, the Empire State, wigwam hotels on Route 66, the Chrysler, the rodeos of Texas, Apache pow-wows, Cape Canaveral and Mission Control Houston, the neoclassical monuments of Washington DC, the fledgling colonial settlements of New England, paddlewheelers still plying the Mississippi and steam trains huffing and puffing their way into the Rockies……need I go on? The Australian equivalent, ironically dubbed ‘There’s no place like Australia’, meanwhile, does provide more insight into the astonishing visuals of that vast majestic land yet still contrives to spoil t all by smoothing out the rough edges and diluting the spectacle with a more generic appeal. In short, it fails to conjure up the unique atmosphere and feel. We should be left tasting and smelling a place that’s an assault on the senses. But all we’re left with is the taste of the tasteful and the faint whiff of heavily oaked chardonnay. These are both places I love ( I wonder, does that come across?) But what I don’t love is the way their essential uniqueness has been sacrificed on the high altar of mass appeal. It won’t work. It never does. It shouldn’t be in the nature of any marketing man or woman worth the rim salt of their tequila to accept generic blandness for any brand, be it soap powder or sports car. But AMERICA? And AUSTRALIA? Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. But if you do, and you’d like to see your brand heading for somewhere more exciting than Genericsville, perhaps we should chat. And perhaps exchange one or two holiday tips along the way.

[housecreative-blog]

Great article on how google glass actually works.