And the winner is... Arcade Fire?!

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Yes, Arcade Fire won Album of the Year at this year's Grammy Awards

As a Canadian it does not come to too much of a shock to me that this band from Montreal was able to walk away with this award having seen them a number of times in concert now.  I don't even think this surprised many other artists because since the release of their first album (Funeral) they have received praise for their talent from the likes of David Bowie and Coldplay to name a few.  However, judging by some of the twitter posts from music fans in the US this has blind-sided many, including Barbara Streisand as she announced the winner.

Let's take a look at the competition that the Arcade Fire was up against, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum.  Part of Lady Gaga's act includes a level of theatrics and shock value in her performance that for some may distract from her music (maybe even alienate) while Eminem at times is controversial with some his lyrics that could also have the same effect. As for Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum, they are both talented and popular but there is nothing to point to of distinction for Album of the Year.

Which brings us back to the Arcade Fire.  The piece here to note is not just their music but how they released it to their fans.  Upon the release of The Suburbs they partnered with Google to do an online video for their song the wilderness downton.  To see it click here. It brings a customized user experience for their video demonstrating the capabilities of HTML5 code in the Chrome Browser.  This was truly innovative and most importantly extremely relevant.  They did this at the time when many in the digital world were unsure as to the capabilities of HTML5 when there was all of this talk regarding the demise of Flash.  Ultimately, this brought their music to many and the big win was the earned media generated from the tweeting and posting of what users experienced and saw, while at the same time getting to sample Arcade Fire's newest single.  Many of the users included Internet Developers, Marketers, and Techies who by nature are highly connected online.

There is BIG insight here for marketers to note.  When we are trying to reach our customers it can be tempting to shock/interrupt with a stunt to get their attention for your product.  The problem with this is that you will find yourself constantly trying to one-up yourself and your competition to keep their attention.  If you take a moment, scan the environment and come up with value and relevance to your customers that can enhance the experience your customer has with your product, who knows... maybe you might even win a Grammy.

Make it Mobile

Lots is changing in the world of marketing but lately the emergence of mobile technologies is cause for pause to look at what is happening and how we can engage with these technologies.

Key Trends in Mobile
- Increasing consumer demand for smart phones
- Enhanced wireless service offerings (launch of 4G networks in 2011)
- New devices entering market from different makers (new phones and new tablet devices)
- Users increasingly accessing online content through their mobile devices
- Advertising dollars are shifting into display ads on these devices slowly
- Websites are designing mobile versions of their sites with simpler navigation experiences
- Mobile Apps are being downloaded for these devices from App stores regularly
- Location-based social sites are slowly becoming mainstream (Foursquare vs. Facebook places)
- Free public wireless is becoming a popular offering in public spaces (ie. Starbucks)
- Mobile has increased the level of participation “on-the-go” on Social Media sites
- eBooks are growing in popularity challenging sales of hard cover books
- Increasing popularity and demand for mobile gaming (ie. Angry Birds)
- New jobs are being created for developers as mobile app developers
- QR codes (digital bar codes) are increasingly appearing on Out of Home advertising asking users to scan it to send them to a website for more information
- SMS marketing campaigns are increasingly asking consumers to text message ‘something’ to a specific number for a particular call to action
- Companies are adding mobile apps as part of their service offerings (ie. Zip cars uses a wireless signal from  their mobile app to substitute as a car door key to access their vehicles.
- Augmented reality with smart phones is emerging as a new technology but is not widely being used, yet.

Opportunities
1. Add value to product offerings with how software can be developed for mobile devices that can enhance the user experience and ultimately add equity to the brand.
2. Develop mobile versions of websites in parallel to the design, programming, and deployment of standard desktop versions of websites so that cost synergies could occur.
3. As a result of the increased level of consumer engagement via social networking sites and mobile sites, new insights can be uncovered by observing behaviour in these environments.

Threats
1. The increase in the number of devices from a number of different makers complicates deployments of mobile websites and apps as they all have different interfaces.
2. Funding and investment for mobile content and applications is difficult to secure as other channels still dominate priorities within marketing departments (ie. TV, print, OOH, retails, POS, standard websites).
3. Knowledge gaps amongst marketers about mobile marketing, case studies, appropriate measurement, and benchmarking are barriers to marketing investment.


It is clear that mobile telecommunications are here to stay and the technology is continuing to evolve by the minute. The communications that mobile has enabled has meant that consumers demand content immediately and can share it with their social networks easily. It will be important for marketers to be innovative in their approach to capitalize on their opportunities. Doing so will ultimately add value to their brands. Not doing so could hurt consumer perceptions of a brand over time as they are left behind by competitors who do.

In search of the Level 5 Leader

For a long time since reading Good to Great, I have been conscious of the leaders I have encountered in my career for good or for bad. As some leaders have come across as good managers, others exhibit good leadership and only a handful amongst them have demonstrated the Level 5 status described in Jim Collin's book.

Jim Collins described Level 5 Leadership as a ferocious leader who will do whatever it takes to achieve results and performance for the company.  Most importantly the humility of this type of leader is exemplified by the way in which they attribute success. When reflecting upon the source of their success rather than look in the mirror at themselves they are looking through a window towards their employees whom are all looking back at the source of their respective success.

It's remarkable how that picture of leadership can really resonate and permeate within an organization that is lucky enough to have these leaders within their organization. I know for one that my performance has been inspired by the handful of level 5 leaders I have encountered, and as Jim Collins meticulously points out in his book, so have the employees of many companies that have grown from good to great.

I was also struck once by a quote on the walls at the University of Toronto Business school.  It read, "Managers know how to do things right, Leaders know the right things to do." Often there are those who are in leadership positions at companies who have spent a career doing things right but when it comes to managing the performance of others to do the right things the latter can fall flat.  I think that in this day and age when competitiveness, creativity and agility are so important in this economy, Level 5 Leadership should be of the utmost importance to be cultivated at every company.

To me Level 5 leadership has been something I have tried to promote in myself as I grow in my various roles while I watch and adapt various styles that I have seen and responded to.  As leadership is something that is developed and worked on and refined over time, one can hope that you encounter more of these types along your career that help inspire the best performance.

6 Things to Watch for in 2011

As we begin to wrap up 2010, I cannot help but be excited for the things to come in the year ahead. We live in interesting times when comes to how brands behave as more and more marketing budgets are being spent online. So here are 5 things that I will be interested to see how marketers bring value to their brands as the below take shape.

1. Google TV - When this service from Google gets rolled out it, and more importantly how quickly it is adopted by users, it will be interesting to see how this changes TV viewing and the media/advertising that supports it.  Will standard advertising buys change to be more about exclusive app-based pre-rolls, search and display ads?

2. Mobile - Most metrics indicate users are accessing branded content from their mobile devices therefore mobile-friendly websites will become much more of a priority and the creative ways to reach users.

3. Foursquare vs. Facebook Places - Locational Social Networks are a big trend right now and marketers are catching up and participating in these communities. Will Foursquare be able to hold on or will Facebook Places overpower it? What kind of promotional activities will brands continue to use in either of these social services?

4. The year of the Tablet? - Apple opened up this category with the iPad and rumours are that the iPad 2 will come in April.  Samsung's Galaxy Tab and the Blackberry Playbook will have entered the market in 2011, which promises to kickoff a very competitive period for Tablet market share.  It will be interesting to see how these host of tablets will make out in 2011 and also the associated applications that come out for these devices

5. Group Online Purchasing - Consumers are mobilizing like they never have before and are demanding discounts in return for guaranteeing significant sales volumes.  Pricing strategies will be important for marketers as they face this growing trend in 2011 in order to ensure appropriate sales margins.  With services such as Groupon, and more likely more to come, Marketers will have the opportunity to embrace this trend in order to build relationships, dialogue and participation with their brands.

6. The Cloud - If Chrome OS is what everyone says it is, it may bring this trend into the mainstream.  Microsoft has started to embrace it in their advertising and many of Google's Applications already use it. Bringing our software needs, especially our OS, online instead of being housed on our computers may mean that we will have leaner and meaner devices without all the memory needed for the software.  The challenge with all of this will be how might we ensure users are comfortable with the privacy they will receive with this shift.

As 2011 takes shape, I am sure the conversation will not be limited to just the above but it will be interesting to see how we adapt to them.

Ode to the mascot

 

I am constantly confused and annoyed by Subway's advertising.  I have never understood why lab monkey's were selected to be featured in their ads.  I always wonder how this was ever pitched to a client as a good idea for their business and also how a client bought off on it.  It just feels like such meaningless colours on a screen and does not seem to deliver on any insight that would push me to buy their sandwiches.

I mentioned this to a colleague and the idea of mascots for brands came up.  One of the most iconic mascots is the energizer bunny which still lives on today.  The idea of the Energizer Bunny works so well because it delivers the brand message on and on, and on, and on... It's actually quite clever because although you might find the bunny annoying, it's mere appearance is a symbol of it's main functional benefit of battery life.

Telus also uses mascots quite cleverly for their incredibly successful "The future is friendly" campaign. They now use animals to help communicate the benefits of their service.  A hippo for the largest  3G network, a dolphin for their smartphone offering all communicate the brand's emotional benefits as well as their functional.

This is where the Subway monkeys miss the point.  How do monkey's symbolize anything about the benefits of going to subway? What kind of mascot would you rather see for subway?

To QR Code or to not QR Code?

Ok, when I first heard about the idea of QR codes, I certainly geeked out about the idea that by taking a picture out the real world it could prompt your phone to go to a website. I had heard that in places like South Korea and Japan this technology had already been widely adopted. Unfortunately for us the technology just isn't there yet and more importantly its appropriate use.

In some of the Ad agencies I have worked, I have heard creatives say, "can we just get over QR codes already." Well my colleagues had a point. As Spider-Man once said, "With great power, comes great responsibility." Which brings me to the above pictures I took in the subway. This was a subway ad for a new video game with a QR code on it inviting you to go learn more. Here is the difficulty I have with it.

1) Most Smartphones are not equipped to capture that data unless the proper app is installed. However, I will give it a pass because their gaming target likely have the right technology.

2) The QR code is on a poster on the other side of the subway track. Most smartphones do have zoom but the resolution is likely lost so it is not easily readable even if you have the right technology.

3) Lastly, and probably most importantly, currently there is no wireless connection in the Toronto subways, thus rendering the idea of it kind of useless.

I don't doubt that QR codes will become widely adopted in the future and be valuable for marketers, it's just this one seemed really odd to me.

Is this a product of enthusiasm for the QR code or is it a failure to recognize the wrong technology in the wrong place?

Some Inspiration

A number of months ago I attended the FITC conference in Toronto and one of the seminars I attended was by Scott Hansen. Check out his blog. One the things that really struck me about his talk was about how he found his inspiration. He referred a lot to the old broadcaster promos of the 60s and 70s and the bright animated colours. He also showed a lot of examples of album cover artwork, some of which he designs himself. I really liked his take on album artwork because I am one of those who needs to have the artwork whenever I download an album off iTunes. I guess it is the nostalgic part of me. Growing up there was something special about buying an album and listening to it to first time while exploring the cover art. This is a ritual that seems lost in the digital age.

More importantly, what I was left with from that talk was a question about what artwork over the years has inspired me. The more I thought about it, I kept coming back to the old WW2 propaganda artwork. I think it started in University where a roommate had gathered a number of posters from his trip to the Imperial War Museum in London. We had all these poster with some really nostalgic artwork and slogans like, "Wings of Victory" and "There will always be a Britain". It always kind of stayed with me since WW2 history has always been a hobby.

Now that I work in the Ad business I look back at these posters, the medium of the time, and think, "These posters were ahead of their time." This was well before Mad Men. Think about it in today's advertising terms. Compelling imagery, Inspiring message associated with an obvious cause, and a clear call to action. Pretty powerful stuff. I should also acknowledge that there were a lot of racist and sexist aspects of the posters of the time but that is not the point.

The imagery of that time period is something I have always liked and in today's terms is still pretty powerful print advertising. The pioneers of Mad Men. What inspires you?