Category: Musings

Talking about popping your own tires– this story blows my mind.  Brandweek reported this week that the auto industry is fighting proposed legislation to increase auto mileage:

The auto industry takes on the government beginning this weekend with an ad campaign that warns consumers that proposed increases in fuel standards would drive up the price of vehicles.

The series of radio spots and print ads, via Glover Park Group, Washington, will run in ten states. The ads also state that a Senate bill that would impose a requirement that automakers raise fuel economy by 40% by 2020 would make drivers less safe because automakers would have to build smaller cars in order to conform to the mandate.

This is Marketing for Bad in all its tire screeching glory.  The industry is simply asking for ridicule.  Are you telling the American consumer that the same country that put men on the moon and created the Chia Pet can’t figure out how to increase auto mileage by 40% in 13 years.  Heck, we should be able to figure out how to build Jetson-style solar-powered flying cars in 13 years. Instead of fighting this legislation, Detroit should invite the entire engineering world to help the auto makers to solve the mileage problem in a collaborative, totally transparent, Linux-like (open standards) movement. Engineers, like computer geeks, love this kind of challenge.  And if Detroit can’t solve the problem they can better start learning Japanese because I have no doubt Toyota will figure it out.

So, happy motoring this holiday weekend. Drive safe. Use your cruise control to optimize your mileage. And if you happen to hear one of Detroit’s anti-fuel standards ads, honk your disapproval.  Better yet, send them a note when you finally get out of the bad city air and into the country.

BRANDWEEK revisited the infamous Boston bomb hoax today to see what impact if any it had on the guerrilla marketing industry. The consensus among practitioners like Interference, Geek Factory and Renegade is that demand for non-traditional programs is enjoying explosive (pardon the pun) growth. Why? Many marketers were exposed to the potential impact of guerrilla marketing by the bomb hoax and realized that the rewards could outweigh the risks.

What’s difficult here is that I could be thanking Sam Ewen, the CEO of Interference (the agency behind the bomb hoax), for going over the line (again) and drawing so much attention to non-traditional marketing. His efforts have resulted in more business for Renegade and allowed us to stake a claim as “good” guerrillas in contrast to his clandestine clan of boundary breakers. For the record, Sam is really good at what he does (I don’t know any one who is better) and the clients that work with him know that he will deliver the attention they are seeking. We simply differ on the definition of what is “good” for a brand and how far our respective firms will go to cut through…

For example, nothing Renegade has ever done gained the attention of the US Senate. The bomb hoax did just that according to Brandweek:

Under the proposed Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007, the government will be able to sue parties involved in stunts mistaken for terrorism. Introduced in the Senate, the bill would add new clauses to the federal criminal code that would make it less appealing to waste government resources. The amendments include extending the prohibitions on spreading false information, increasing maximum prison terms and letting local and federal governments sue to reimburse expenses.

Despite the short-term gains, the bomb hoax was not a good thing for our industry. It pissed off an entire city resulting in the Senate’s legislative action. It heightened fears among big clients that “guerrilla” is too risky to which the industry responded by simply calling it something different like ambient, experiential or street marketing (a bomb by any other name…)  It forced additionally scrutiny of “ambient marketing” program by lawyers and senior client executives.  So, thanks for the business Sam but I still think this is Marketing for Bad for our industry.

Just in case you felt like jumping on the green bandwagon, here’s a cautionary tale about a supermarket chain in England called Sainsbury that made a lot of noise with an organic shopping bag. Londoners lined up to buy it. Keira Knightly was spotted sporting one. Then according to Treehugger, the fit hit the sham:

Yesterday the Evening Standard revealed that the so-called green carriers were made in China, using cheap labour. And the bag was neither organic nor fair trade. Never mind the air miles. Handbags at dawn: today Sainsbury’s denies any duplicity, insisting that it had never claimed that the bag was Fairtrade or organic. It says that it was made in a factory that pays double the minimum wage and complies with Chinese labour law. Hindmarch says that it was shipped by sea. This is an embarrassment for the supermarket which has been making extravagant claims about its green credentials. Activists said that it was bordering on hypocritical and that the whole high-profile episode tarnished Sainsbury’s image.

Frankly, I love this story. Not the fraud part but the fact they got caught and were publicly flogged. Marketing for Good requires a real commitment to doing well by doing good. It is not make-up that you can put on in the morning and take off at night. It is not everyone’s “bag” nor will it carry the day in all situations. It is, however, one way to cut through.

I really feel for Sam and his guerrilla gang at Interference. Their promotion for Cartoon Network has literally blown up in their face. If you haven’t heard about this fiasco yet, see the press clip below. You might wonder how an agency or a client could even consider placing suspicious looking devices all over big cities like Boston, NY and DC in the Post 9/11 world. As an agency that does lots of “guerrilla marketing”, it isn’t too hard for me to reconstruct the process. The client, Cartoon Network in this case, says we really want to get a lot of attention for our new show, noting how edgy the content is and how edgy the promotion should be. The agency, excited to be working with a client who is really willing to take risks and “push the envelope”, throws out a bunch of ideas including one that is truly outrageous, never imaging in a million years that the client would say yes. But the client, probably a young staffer, is anxious to create a huge “buzz” and get as much “free” publicity as they can, says “go for it, what’s the worst that could happen?” Everyone is swept up in the excitement of the idea, knowing without a doubt that this stunt won’t go unnoticed and the idea does not go through all the internal scrutiny and legal review process that more traditional ad campaigns typically face. A few weeks later the stunt is on the street and “kaboom”, a freelance street team operative is arrested, a major corporation is facing investigation from the Massachusetts Attorney General and a guerrilla agency is suddenly infamous.I have no doubt someone at Cartoon Network will lose their job over this one and frankly they probably should. The insensitivity of this stunt is simply astonishing. We all live in this world together and seeking attention by potentially scaring the snot out of someone is an act of self indulgent stupidity. Marketers need to accept responsibility for their actions and avoid “we win, somebody loses” scenarios. I’m coming down harder on the client because they asked for it, they approved it and they funded it. As for Interference, they are going to take in on the chin for this one and if they are lucky no one will go to jail. I’m all for risk taking but come on folks, grow up! There have got to be ways of getting attention without calling out the bomb squad.

Suspicious packages part of Turner Broadcasting marketing campaign

By Mac Daniel, John Ellement, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Turner Broadcasting acknowledged late this afternoon that the suspicious objects that ignited fears of bombs across Boston today were magnetic lights that were part of an outdoor marketing campaign for an adult cartoon.

Turner was promoting Adult Swim’s animated television show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” in Boston and nine other cities, according to a statement e-mailed by Shirley Powell, a company spokeswoman.

Here’s a part of the Reuters story today on the subject with quotes from yours truly:

Still, while Turner Broadcasting may have successfully reached the audience of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” it likely faces a broader public relations headache, said Drew Neisser, the chief executive of Renegade Marketing Group.

“They got a lot of P.R.– but they are probably not happy on the corporate level,” said Neisser, who has overseen viral campaigns such as using an old checkered cab with HSBC’s logo to give free rides to the bank’s customers in New York.

“The question becomes in all this does the marketer have any responsibility to the world at large? Obviously my perspective is they do,” said Neisser. “You should be able to sell your products without making the world any worse.”

I’m a little behind on this one, but so is Victoria’s Secret. According to a Wall St. Journal story back in early December (I told you I was behind), Victoria’s Secret mails about 350 million catalogs a year and just recently decided to shift to paper that is either 10% “post-consumer waste” or has 10% of its content certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The WSJ article first paragraph explains why Victoria’s Secret is suddenly seeing green:

After enduring protests by an environmental group over the past two years, Victoria’s Secret will stop using catalog paper made with pulp from a Canadian forest that is an important wildlife habitat and will move toward buying paper certified by a group that scrutinizes logging practices.

350 million catalogs a year and they are just now thinking about recycling paper? Holy melons, Batman, what have they been thinking about? It is a shame when companies don’t have the foresight to implement socially responsible behavior prior to being attacked. I think last week’s announcement (also in the Wall St. Journal) by top business CEO’s calling for caps on CO2 emissions was a smart preemptive move by big business to address a growing global problem. That said, once a company is caught napping on the sidelines, smart marketers seize the opportunity and embrace the issue with a vengeance. Wal-Mart has taken this approach with their “sustainability” and energy-conservation initiatives. Perhaps Victoria’s Secret will get pumped about recycling and ride the eco-friendly wave with the best of them. Maybe we all just need to give them a little tug.

Speaking of tugs, the folks behind this change of heart at Victoria Secret are ForestEthics, a group which developed a website called Victoria’s Dirty Secret (never underestimate the power of a few activists and a reasonably well-crafted website). This isn’t their first success either. In the last five years they’ve persuaded Williams-Sonoma, Dell and Staples to increase their use of recycled paper for catalogs. I imagine that the catalog managers at J. Crew, Sears and Lands’ End are examining their approach to paper a little more carefully right about now…

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