What’s your favorite commercial? Why?

Last night I watched a show online about some of the best commercials from the 90s in France where I grew up. Most of them were just crap, others were just sh#tty good!

It got me thinking… What is a good commercial? What makes a commercial memorable? And is a good commercial also necessarily an effective commercial?

Ads that are funny, controversial, racy (although you don’t get to see here in the US fully naked women selling a yogurt – like in France), or crazy usually are the ones getting the attention (for the better or the worse), topping the advertising ranking lists and public opinion polls.

Back in the 90s, the more you paid to get exposure (on the limited media channels available at the time), the more impact you had. Nowadays, with multiple media channels available, your content gets easily diluted in the vast ocean of commercials, or it can go viral over a few minutes.

Gone are the days where you could remember a commercial for months (granted – they were not as many commercials, and they were on a limited number of media). Now, you have commercials every 10 minutes whatever medium you are on. 

While effective for their shock value and viral marketing capacity commercials can be, their long-term ability to affect daily decisions are almost non-existent. What’s important is the short fame, exposure you get out of them. Advertisers mostly want short spikes in recognition for a promotion or event rather than long-term associations.

Think of some of the best commercials you have seen on TV – what made them the best and what made them memorable? Were they funny, innovative, or shocking? Did they tell a story? Did they speak to an experience you personally have felt?

Assessing the emotional impact of an ad is difficult because it is subjective. Assessing the success of an ad campaign in generated $ is easier.

Different people find different types of ads effective, but there are some common themes. Ads that you can directly relate to often have the best results.

The commercials I personally like the best are the ones that are provoking, irreverent, and non-traditional. I’m not going to change my consumerist habits out of a commercial I’ve seen on TV. For an advertiser, it is more about positioning than anything else. Content and native marketing are better ways to tell a story, in a personalized and emotional way.

Here are two 90s French commercials that I still remember and refer to today. Each one is for a very traditional French product (drink). Both companies hired provocateurs (in their own way) to direct these commercials. These ads have become iconic in France, even 20+ years later.

The first one is for Perrier, the famous French sparkling water. Jean-Paul Goude, an advertising genius at the time, made this ferocious, audacious, crazy ad. Let me know what you think.

The second one is for Orangina. Alain Chabat, a sort of French SNL comedian turned actor/director made this non-sense but hysterical commercial aimed to re-position the brand amongst a younger generation. Let me know what you think.

So, what makes a good commercial in your eyes?

Spoiler! Consumers don’t give a crap if your company is innovative.

Unless you’re Apple, you’ve just released the 6^th generation of iPhone and the masses see that as the latest most innovative product on earth (yeah, Apple can still make believe), consumers don’t care about incremental updates to your “new” product.
You can brag as much as you want about how innovative your company is, how disruptive your market strategy is, how unique your company’s culture is, the reality is (sorry!) that consumers don’t give a crap about all this.

Clone baby, clone

Many so-called “innovations” are driven by executives or engineers who (genuinely?) believe their product is groundbreaking. The reality is, their product is only “innovative” to them, not to the consumer.

Back in the Cold War era where former USSR and the USA piled up new weapons one after another not only to catch up but to out-feature the opponent, present companies follow the same strategy: piling up new features to out-feature the competition. Companies look for ways to do better, cheaper, faster, nicer products, but they all offer cloned products. Executives’ motto now is “stop me before I innovate again”.

Most companies adopt a reactive/ adaptive strategy (“let’s see what our competitor does, we’ll do it cheaper”). A very few of them adopt a proactive strategy. Going back to Apple, it probably fits in both categories.

As most products become commoditized almost instantly as they enter the market (if not even before), companies forget a very important marketing principle: consumers don’t remember specific features, they remember the experience they had. Companies are confusing product upgrade with innovation. As consumers are volatile, go from one brand to another, one new product to the newest one, they forget very quickly about your product unless they get a memorable experience out of it.

Innovate to change the game

In an interview last Fall, Howard Schultz talked about how Starbucks’s business model is about changing behaviors, from selling coffee to redefining social interactions to moving to e-wallet. You don’t innovate to compete; you innovate to change the game.

Consumers have an abundance of choice. With new technologies emerging, interactions between businesses and consumers are evolving. Excessive proliferation of choice creates confusion and uncertainty. Consumers want choice and they want the choice decision to be easy. They are looking for ways to simplify their lives.
Consumers, especially Gen Y, want to be in control of their experience, with the technology being the enabler of that choice, not the dictator.

Companies have to switch their focus from being transaction oriented to being emotion oriented. A product is a transaction, an experience is an emotion. That’s their differentiator.

From transaction to emotion

The right way to think about innovation is this: how are we transforming customers? How are we changing and simplifying their lives?

This is a different way of thinking about your value proposition; it’s about developing human connection with customers. Not simply delivering a product or service “because that is what companies do”. Companies who believe that out-featuring competitors is the path to innovation are kidding themselves. It might work in the short-term, but it will turn against them in no time. Customers, people, users, are experiencing more chaos than ever. Too many choices are creating noise in their lives. This is a huge opportunity for both startups and established companies to make an impact in people’s lives. The sooner you rethink how you look at innovation, the faster you will orient your efforts towards really thinking about how you might change your customers’ lives and behaviors.

The consumer experience with 
a brand is more than just the functional benefits. It is the total brand experience including emotional benefits as well.

To change your organization, change the way you bring change.

Change is constant. If there is one thing that does not change, it is change. Have you ever considered changing partners? Not changing partners in terms of swapping spouses, but changing your partners’ or employees’ mindset and behavior? Have you tried to do that? Not easy, right?

A few weeks ago I spoke in front of a group of local business owners. I first asked how many of them were open to change; they all raised their hands. “How many of you have been through a change initiative at your company in the last 3 years?”. Once again, most of them raised their hands. “How many of you can say it worked?”. Then, only a handful raised their hands.

Change within companies is a bit like sex among teenagers. Everybody talks about it, but only a few actually do it. In fact, change has become a dirty word inside organizations. People are tired of being asked to change or innovate.

Why don’t people like change?

Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD, says that it's not just that people fear change, though they undoubtedly do. It's also that they genuinely believe (often on an unconscious level) that when you've been doing something a particular way for some time, it must be a good way to do things. And the longer you've been doing it that way, the better it is.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in a HBR blog, reveals the 10 most common reasons why people don’t like change, such as:

- Loss of control

- Excess uncertainty

- Dislike of surprises

- Doing something differently creates confusion

- Concerns about competence

- More work 

What you need to change… is your approach to change

The most effective approach to change does not start or end in the C-suite. It happens at the heart of the organization, where mid-level managers and their teams build the momentum to implement and lead change. Executives initiate and support change, the rest of the organization lead change.

Everyone is a change agent. Leadership ought to realize that empowering their teams to lead change, think in different ways, and experiment will help take the business to places it’s never been before. Not only people want to be inspired about change, they also want to be in control of how change can happen. Experimentation should become part of your company’s metrics, not just success. If you base your employees’ performance just on success, they will take the safe route, where risk and trial don’t exist. If you empower them, encourage them to experiment, (and likely to fail – at first), you will lead them to think creatively, solve problems in their own way (not the company way), and ultimately innovate.

Change is a mindset, not an SOP manual. In your organization, Marketing has a different culture and way of working than Accounting, IT, or HR. Teams don’t need a 50-page SOP document to talk about or implement change. In contrary, teams need customized tools to break down barriers, kill rules, challenge assumptions, and reverse the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. There is no one-size-fits all program on change. This is why it is so critical to delegate change implementation and change management to teams to customize it and make it a reality. The key is to provide directions and create new behaviors, not to dictate teams how to do it.

One step at a time. Because you can’t change a company’s culture in one day, leaders need to implement change in increments. Find small sized projects with a realistic (successful) outcome and instill new ways of thinking and new ways of doing will get people notice that something different is taking place. Employees and managers will be more willing to take a chance and embrace the change if the outcome is tangible. Leaders must encourage employees to participate. As experimentation must be part of the metrics, participation is the same – not forced, but encouraged. “Is there a different way to make this work?”. “What should we do to make it fail?”. “Why would customers not buy our product?”. Reverse thinking is a way to turn upside down the approach to tackle problems. In other words, employees need to unlearn to be innovative. Little by little you will change your company’s DNA and make it a place where change it not only possible, but it is critical to its success. 

What is really important is to build an enterprise where employees: 

- can think asymmetrical in a linear culture

- are not afraid to come up with (bad and good) ideas

- feel comfortable to fail by experimenting

- get rewarded not by their number of successes, but by their number of attempts

- embrace change as an opportunity, not a threat.

Change happens. It doesn't care whether you like it or not. Change doesn't need your permission. Change is the one constant in business. What you decide to do with change is up to you.

Close proximity technology redefines relationships between businesses and consumers.

This article is part of a series of posts covering innovation in Indiana.

In the recent months there’s been a lot of buzz around hotel chains adopting proximity technology to enhance their guest experience, whether the technology uses NCF, RFID or BLE.

If, like me, you’ve had your fair share of business travel, you often experience problems. Airline delays. Congested traffic. Key doesn’t work. Room not ready. Long lines. The list goes on. It can be really inconvenient to travel, and the industry is constantly searching for new ways to develop brand loyalty among consumers.

Travel brands are looking to offer their guests something new and compelling. Indiana-based y!kes delivers a differentiated way to travel.

As the creator of the first of its kind, proximity-aware technology, y!kes provides an advanced solution to ensure traveling is hassle free.

The company’s technology equips business and leisure travelers with the ability to use their smartphones to bypass the cumbersome hotel check-in process and access their room all while their phone sits in their pocket. By harnessing the power of Bluetooth, y!kes opens the doors to unlimited interactions between businesses and consumers and redefines their relationships.
The hotel guests’ process has remained unchanged and cumbersome for years. Now that the majority of visitors come equipped with a smartphone housing Bluetooth capabilities, there is room for improvement. While regular guests wait in line, friends walk in thanks to y!kes. 

According to Alan Philips, Chief Marketing Office at Morgans Hotel Group, “putting location & service aside, gone are the days when you can differentiate your hotel by spending lavishly on the buildings design & fixtures. The future customers of hotels will be less concerned with the luxury appointments of their rooms, and more concerned with the experiences you provide and how your brand services their personal needs & image”.

y!kes’ h(app)y technology, also known as its hyper app, actually attracts, retains and grows lifelong guests by offering an experience that feels unique and upgraded. With the ability to avoid the front desk and customize rooms to individual preferences, hotels are able to build long-term loyalty and leave users feeling happily surprised.

While industry adversaries attempt to mimic its sophistication with other versions of keyless entry technology, none matches the unprecedented hotel experience y!kes unleashes. Competitors’ front-desk bypass applications require guests to physically utilize their mobile device to unlock a hotel room by holding their phone up to the door handle (not much different from using a keycard). With y!kes, users can keep their phone tucked away and need only the app running in the background to unlock the door. As a result, competitors inflict a more invasive and time-consuming solution when compared to y!kes.

The company’s initial public debut was in 2012 at HITECH, the world’s largest hospitality technology tradeshow, and was recognized for its groundbreaking system when it was awarded a 2012 Indiana Innovation award. Its industry-first system unlocked a new era of proximity-aware technology, and the team has spent the last two years refining its proprietary system even further.

The Indianapolis-based company continued to innovate and grow throughout 2014, bringing in new employees and creating promising relationships with some of the world’s leading hotel brands. With keyless entry gaining momentum in the market, international brands have expressed unprecedented interest in integrating y!kes-enabled systems into their properties.

y!kes focuses on maximizing the hotel infrastructure to perfect, streamline and simplify the guest experience. By eliminating the multi-step process, the company intends to deliver the hotel stay of the future, and expand it to other markets.

y!kes serves as both a software and hardware solution, presenting the next generation of proximity-aware technology through the advancement of Bluetooth capabilities. Offering hotel properties specifically engineered y!kes devices for install in the lobby, room floors and doors, and offering consumers a customizable mobile app available for download on smartphones, these patented technologies work together to alter consumers’ experiences as soon as they step foot on the property.

y!kes’ h(app)y technology retrieves data from onsite Property Management Systems (PMS) and provides guests with room number confirmations via the app on check-in day. The company is revolutionizing the hotel industry and redefining proximity technology. It is the only company to develop the hardware and software needed for secure, seamless hotel navigation through keyless access requiring only a touch of a door handle and a tucked away smartphone.

With the hotel industry already jumping on board, there are many other vertical markets where y!kes is hoping to provide significant impact, including retail, multi-unit housing and more… Looking towards the future, y!kes will continue to utilize proximity technology to better the overall customer experience.

Why I am big fan the Taylor Swift brand… What she teaches us about branding.

I am not personally a big fan of Taylor Swift as an artist (meaning I don’t buy her records – although I enjoy listening to her music). I am probably too old to relate to her lyrics, but my kids love her songs and I see her as a good role model for them.

However, I LOVE the Taylor Swift brand. Why? Because from a young age she’s developed an authentic, engaging , truthful relationships with her customers (sorry – her fans!).
If you have any doubts, check out Oliver Darcy’s article and the YouTube video… She is not a fabricated star, she is authentic and she genuinely cares about her customers (sorry – her fans!). The same happens backstage on her tours. A few weeks ago I heard on the radio listeners commenting on their various backstage experiences. Most of them said stars just show up for a few minutes, take a group picture and leave. Taylor Swift actually spends time with fans, has dinner with them, takes individual pictures, calls them by their names, wants to learn their personal stories…

What can TS teach us about branding then? Kevin Roberts, Executive Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, perfectly describes the different between brand and what he calls lovemarks.

People have only 3 questions of any brand engagement:
1. do I want to experience it again?
2. do I want to share it?
3. do I want to improve it?

The key is to create an emotional experience and you get action. Brands are built on respect. Lovemarks are created out of respect and love.

Brands build loyalty for a reason. Lovemarks inspire loyalty beyond reason. Actually they inspire loyalty beyond attribute, benefit, range, price.

Brands aim to be irreplaceable. Lovemarks are irresistible.

Intimacy is the small touch, the perfect note and it is the future of business. The purpose of business is to make the world a better place for everyone. Intimacy is empathy, the brand in the audience’s heart, (not the audience at the brand’s heart).

Kevin Roberts takes it even further. “Brands are owned by companies, marketers, and stockholders. Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them”.At a Cannes event back in 2012, he shared how marketers can build loyalty beyond reason for their brands through music and turn their brands into Lovemarks.

Takeout 3Es

Enthusiasm – (from Greek enthousiasmos). Be an irresistible force of nature. Risk it! Put music at the heart of your brand.

Execution – The audience won’t wait for inspiration: Form a music partnership. Start a conversation. Ignite a movement. Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast! Now!

Emotion – Music is life. Lead with your heart, and you will become priceless.

In a previous post, I explained how companies must find a new why to do business, meaning to connect emotionally with their customers.

A brand is the external reflection of a company’s inside culture and core values. In order for a brand to stay relevant, be different and unique, it must reinvent itself continuously. If a company’s products or services don’t change the game regularly, they suddenly become a commodity, as unique and innovative they could have been at some point. EVERY product and service becomes sooner than later a commodity. What’s critical is for the company to keep its brand relevant by innovating and bringing to life new game-changing products or services. You must keep delivering on your brand promise, day after day.

DON’T settle for being an er-brand. Your tactics are focused on being better at the same things that your competitors do. Red flags go up whenever I hear a pitch that explains how a new offering is just like another but is small-er, bigg-er, thinn-er, light-er, fast-er, sexi-er, whatev-er.

DO find a unique brand personality that translates into a unique customer experience, enabling your brand to rise above competitive comparison. Using brand personality in this way is not simply about developing creative communications; it’s about infusing every aspect of your operations with your unique character.

You have to switch your company’s focus from being transaction oriented to emotion oriented. A product is a transaction, an experience is an emotion. That’s your differentiator. 

It is easy to create a brand and a “promise”. What is hard to achieve is to deliver on the brand promise over and over again. As innovative as the brand promise may be at some point, other brands will follow and suddenly your promise will become commoditized, again.

As marketers, we all need to turn our brands into lovemarks. Like Taylor Swift.