I Bastardi di Frode

Oh dear Ferrari. I think you should know that in doing what you just did, you not only severely damaged the image and reputation of Scuderia Ferrari F1; but you also dented the shiny bodywork of the master brand.

I've watched Formula1 every year since I can remember, from the days of Nigel Mansell and Ayton Senna through the dull years of Ferrari-Schumacher dominance to the exciting open season we have now. Yet I struggle to think of an incident that has made me feel so down on a competing brand. (They told Massa to let Alonso overtake him and win the race despite Massa overtaking him and holding the lead for 3/4 of the race)

Even last year when Renault were found guilty of cheating, it was clear that a few people took the decisions and they were punished accordingly. Even when Ferrari did the same thing to Rubens Barrichello in 2002, that wasn't as bad (it was still legal to do it for a start).

The difference here is that we know it isn't allowed anymore. We know that it may go on across the pit lane but it shouldn't. To see the biggest name in F1 so blatantly and coldly breaking the rules was just mind numbingly angering for fans.

Yes you want to win the championships, but the whole point of winning is to boost the brand; if you do it by cheating and damaging the brand, then what is the point?

Given this came a year to the day that Felipe Massa was nearly killed in his Ferrari, after which he made a brave and hard fought effort to get back into racing and work for the team; to deny him that symbolic first recovery victory was heartless. For a brand that is so much about soul and passion to be so cold and cruel in this way is staggering.

Ferrari need to learn a lesson quickly. To do this again would be to strike a huge huge blow against the master brand. I got through the boredom and arrogance of the Schumacher years, but this has really hurt the way I look at Ferrari and their cars.

Pic from www.moonbattery.com

User Generated Outcomes

The Adam and Jane series of ads for BT have been an unusual one. They have always felt a little cliched, an attempt to shoehorn modern day lives into the Gold Blend formula of the 80s. Yet thanks to the writing and casting they have always come across with a warmth that makes them work. (They wouldn't have ran this long if they weren't connecting right!)

Always a great case study for the unspectacular, I also enjoy seeing a creative idea being allowed to develop and grow like this. They won't win any Gold Lions but the audience has time to become attached to the idea and the characters.

With the campaign coming to a close, the public have been roped in to vote for what they want to happen at the end. A pointless excercise in many respects, as I can hardly see "They all get run over by a Virgin Media lorry" winning, it will of course be happy schmaltzy ending or faux-meaningful seperation. But maybe that's okay, when a campaign has connected with people in this way; it's better to end on a cliche than leave everyone wondering 'what the hell just happened?!' - See Renault Clio and Nicole).

It will be interesting to see how many people vote and what comes out as the winning choice, but I won't expect a surprise.




Oh and My Family is still shite.

Thanks Eric

I moved to Manchester about 18 months ago, and realised pretty quickly I needed to pick a side: Red or Blue.

I chose red (I didn't want to follow the new Chelsea, I prefer Stone Roses to Oasis, I like the club's history and positive style), though I wouldn't claim to be a true fan like the guy sat on the next desk.

However even when I lived down south (where the percentage of Utd fans was higher...) I knew that the best thing about United in recent times was Eric Cantona. A legend of the Premier League, and the kind of player that everyone can appreciate.

See, I'm about to cancel my Sky Sports subscription, I just don't watch it enough. But seeing the collar flinging legend promoting Sky's Sports coverage very nearly changed my mind.

To some extent the execution doesn't matter, it's Cantona, the definition of personality branding. Just seeing him talking about Premier League and HD makes me want to buy an HDTV and sit there watching Stoke vs Everton.

I think there is a lesson here. Most of the time you can't rely on celebrities and their personalities to sell and make your brand look good without a solid idea behind it. Just occasionally though, you can. (See also Thierry Henry and Renault).

Create like a man

I'll make no bones about it, the Old Spice video work online over the past day or two has been nothing short of staggering. The kind of quick, witty dialogue that defines the very best of what we can do as agencies online. The very definition of viral content. Well done W+K.

I do worry though that some agencies will take the wrong message from it; and start trying to imitate the style or end up bombarding people with bad content.

Here's my view on what Old Spice did right:

1. Get the tone of voice perfected, then perfect it some more

2. Be personal. Talk to individuals as well as the mass audience

3. Have a client with creative understanding that is prepared to let the agency develop 1+2

4. Have a damn good creative idea in the first place

5. If you get lots of contacts, make lots of replies

6. Go where people are, don't force them to come to you

7. Don't over complicate

8. Don't outstay your welcome

Oops... APSOTW extra credit

Just realised I didn't include my email address on the page for this.
If you had a go at it please email me at rob@ this website ad-pit.co.uk

I'll keep accepting entries (presuming there are more than one of you!) til the end of Wednesday given the lack of email!

A Request!

Hello folks, my lovely wife is doing the Cancer Research Race for Life this weekend and is looking for sponsors.

It's a 5km run and she is doing it in memory of our friend Russ who sadly died from cancer in January aged just 27.

If you would like to sponsor her for this great cause please visit her Race for Life page here.

Thanks those of you who have sponsored her already :)

Rob

Good Day to You Sir

I was worried that the new ad for Fosters by Adam and Eve would be yet another retread over the worn Australian cliche's, surviving on stereotype alone. Not that Fosters have been overly guilty of it, but in general Aussie stereotypes are one dimensional and obvious.

Happily this ad is a nicely written piece of work with a warmth you might not expect from Fosters. It's still funny though, and shows a nicer positive side to Australian thinking, rather than the old XXXX style negativity/selfishness.

As for the tagline and idea I'm not totally sure, using a well known phrase in that way offers a lot of potential for the brand but maybe risks getting old fast. The execution links well though, the idea of calling in some Aussie positivity feels really nice and spot on for the brand.

Watch the new Fosters ad at Campaign here.

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How to Understand Planners - No1

We planners are an unusual bunch, so with tongue slightly in cheek I thought it was time to start explaining some more about us to the creative and account types out there. A Haynes manual may or may not follow...

How to Understand Planners - No.1 (in a series of some)

"Planners are Basically Kids"

You know that phase kids go through when they never stop asking questions?

"Why is that thing Red? ... Why? ... But why? ... Whay's that? Where from? Why? Why?..."

Yeah, that's us; and we won't change. We always want to know something about everything and everything about something. The best planners never lose that hunger to find out more and more things about a client's product, brand, market, competitors, customers, etc. Some of us actually enjoy reading up on entirely random topics and random viewpoints to give ourselves a wider view of the world. A good planner can find something interesting in even the most boring of topics.

We often tend to have the kid like habit of remembering completely random and trivial bits of information that nobody else could find any use for, and then finding a way to make them relevant to something we are working on.

We also like to draw things despite not having developed (in most cases) the ability to draw. Hence we usually end up drawing charts, graphs or tables that we can then fill with the random information we piled up from asking endless questions.

That said, like kids we love creativity; the fun of making something and exploring things other people create is there within us. Most planners I know love things like music, design, art, architecture, fashion and so on. We can be bluntly objective sometimes, but I assure you that just because we don't copywrite or art direct does not mean we don't get it.

England in the World Cup 2010 - A Planning Review

Anyone who watched the England v Germany game today will have seen a terrible result. One that should rightly shake the nation into sorting out it's football team. We have been in trouble for a long time, and it's clear that our good qualifying performance was just papering over the cracks.

Why Fabio Capello Got It All Wrong - A Planning Guide

1. Failure of Research

Fabio clearly missed some major issues during his research. He saw the players in their league games, he had friendlies to test them out; and yet he seemed to blatantly miss the key points of the debrief. In fact, it has to be questioned whether his methodology was right, because even though he got some good debrief pointers (Gerrard is wasted on the wing. Heskey doesn't score. Crouch is a legend. Joe Cole might actually make us do something) Etc... he seemed to believe they weren't the key issues.

Even when the debrief was presented to him, he clearly wanted to take the bad client road and ignore it through stubborness. Which brings us on to point two.

2. There Is NO One Rule Fits All

His policy of only telling the team who is playing as they get on the coach is clearly not working, you could see that there was no togetherness in the play, no real confidence in themselves. Fabio made the mistake of thinking that what works over a season in club football could work in the World Cup. From a planning point of view, he failed to heed the warnings, and ignored the valuable insights at his disposal to the difference between club and national games.

Perhaps worst of all, he seemed to show a lack of market understanding in placing players in positions where they weren't strong, seeing the warning signs and still letting the competition take the dominant ground. He took initial campaign success and saw that as a sign that the team could take on the market leaders without any new strategies.

3. Understanding the Customer

In doing the above, Fabio managed to completely alienate the team's best customers. He got some good initial results, but when the team started to flag he failed to turn it around. Though the customer doesn't always know what they want, there were more than enough opportunities for Fabio to test and try out the tactics that loyal customers were calling for.

The team exhibited all the features that put customers off, that damage both the England and the Fabio brand significantly; and he could not fix them or rebrand successfully.

If England were a brand, they would be holding a pitch.
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APSOTW Extra Credit - World Cup Assignment

Hi folks, I've been a bit slack with my posting this week; and thought it was time for some updates. I'd like to start with a special APSOTW competition in honour of the world cup.

Now normally Northern Planner or Rob Campbell take care of these, but as this is a topic I felt strongly about I have taken the reigns temporarily...

Background:

The FIFA World Cup is the biggest single sporting event in the world. Watched by billions of people around the world, it brings nations together in a unique way.

The beautiful game becomes the obsession of entire nations, everyone wants their country to win the ultimate prize in football.

But you already knew that...

The brief is this:

The rights to produce and sell the Official FIFA World Cup 2010 ball are expensive (around $350m I believe), with the event providing a huge opportunity for publicity and communication from sports brands.

However, Adidas have had to spend two weeks defending their World Cup ball (The Jabulani) against loud and widespread criticism from players, manager and the media.

The ball is being blamed for everything from the initial lack of goals, poor performances, lack of goals from free kicks, lack of player control, lack of pass accuracy and loss of shot accuracy.

Given the significance of the event and Jabulani product for Adidas; how should they react to the professional and public criticism?

Rules:

As this is an extra credit assignment I won't make it too strenuous...

1. You have 2 sides of A4 for your answer. You can use these in whatever way you wish. You can scan them / email them / post them, whichever is easiest for you!
2. You should consider both the professional and public criticism.
3. Closing date is July 11th (7.30pm GMT) - Kick off for the World Cup Final
4. Judges: Graeme Douglas - (Planning Director on Nike!), Rob Campbell, Moi, others may follow...
5. Have fun!

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