Žereme reklamu

Řekl bych, že existuje několik druhů vztahu k reklamě. Jedním z nich je absolutní pohrdání až nenávist, dalším potom částečná akceptace, dalším výběrová akceptace (dávám pozor když se v reklamě objeví něco co mě zrovna zajímá), dalším pak vyloženě vstřícný až pozitivní vztah. Koukám prostě furt a jsem schopen o reklamě i diskutovat a rozebírat s kámošema reklamu dobru (vtipnou nebo zábavnou) a děsnou (trapnou nebo kýčovitou). Asi takhle nějak funguje většinová část populace. Zkrátka normální lidi. No a pak aby to bylo zajímavé tak existují i jedinci, jejichž vztah k reklamě je dán specifickou duševní deformací. Takoví lidé se nejčastěji nacházejí v přímém nebo nepřímém vztahu k tzv. produkčnímu procesu reklamy. Jinými slovy bývají to lidé zaměstnaní v reklamních agenturách, komunikačních odděleních firem (vztah přímý) a samozřejmě známí / rodina / partneři / přátelé těchto nešťastníků (vztah nepřímý).

Jednotlivci fungující ve vztahu přímém působí na jednotlivce ve svém okolí různými rafinovanými prostředky mezi kt. patří např. „strategie tlaku“ (v marketingovém slovníku najdete pod výrazem „push strategy“, ale nejspíš tam bude uvedena jiná poučka, ta je však nesprávná). Čili o strategii tlaku mluvíme v případě, kdy nutíme (dosl. tlačíme na.. – odtud „push“) své okolí aby např.:

- aktivně sledovali reklamní spot na jehož vzniku se dotyčný podílel
- aktivně sledovali reklamní spot na jehož vzniku se dotyčný vlastně nepodílel, ale vznikl v reklamní agentuře, ve které spolu s dalšími „pushery“ pracuje
- aktivně sledovali celý reklamní break s tím, jestli náhodou nepoběží daný reklamní spot (viz body výše)
- aktivně se vyjadřovali (samozřejmě v max. pozitivním tónu) o kvalitě takového spotu (opět viz body výše)

Dále sem patří jedna zvláštní kategorie, a sice to, že ostatní nutíme k tomu, aby se s námi postiženými účastnili zvláštních akcí věnovaných reklamě. Jednou z takových akcí, populární také u nás, je např. Noc reklamožroutů (anglicky "ad eaters") a AICP Show. Obě akce jsou vlastně komponované večery pouze a jen o reklamě a obě jsou mezi onou posledně popsanou skupinou lidí mimořádně populární. Na AICP jsem sakra dlouho nebyl, zato Noc reklamožroutů jsem si nedal v pátek 10. 11. ujít.

Centrum Prahy, multiplex, kousek od metra. Co chcete víc. Neváhal jsem ani na chvíli a řekl jsem si na rovinu mediálce o dva lístky k narozeninám (v tomto ohledu to máme my – ti na klientské barikádě – jednodušší než ti na agenturních barikádách). No ale zpět k věci. Ten druhý lístek byl určen, jak jinak, mé předrahé polovičce. Ta se mnou statečně vyrazila po celodenní šichtě a plnění svých auditorských povinností.

V multiplexu Slovanský dům nás přivítali moc příjemné a k tomu polonahé hostesky. „Tohle nezačíná špatně“, říkal jsem si a neohroženě si razil cestu kvanty mladých lidí, odmítaje přitom nesčetné žádosti o vyplnění tazatelských dotazníků a samplingových nabídek. „Ježíš já se sem přišel koukat aspoň 3h v kuse na reklamy a nikdo mi v tom nezabrání.“

S úlevou jsme se konečně dostali do toho správného kinosálu abychom zjistili, že je obsazený asi až někam pod střechu. Což jsme vyřešili manévrem „najděte svůj vlastní prostor...na schodech.“

Už o první přestávce jsem zjistil, že na obdobné akci člověk určitě moc dlouho anonymní nezůstane. A tak jsem se pozdravil s kolegy ze studií, z agentur, z bývalého zaměstnání dokonce, s bývalými kantory z univerzity. A také s kamarády Petrem a Ivou, což patřilo k jednoznačným pozitivům večera. Mezi ta další pozitiva patřilo několik hodně vydařených spotů, po delší době chlazená Plzeň, dobrá atmosféra a rychle ubývající diváci. Čili čím více hodin, tím více hard-core publikum. Ach jo, nebýt nutnosti chytnout alespoň poslední metro, vydržel bych klidně až do konce :) Hergot nejsem já taky „ňákej divnej“?

TG

Links:
Noc reklamožroutů 2006
Mezinárodní site - adeaters.com

Další motivy na téma Žereme reklamu :)

Word Watch

I´ve recently found one article describing how English developes over time and, especially, nouns are being used as verbs.

Nowadays, when we are given duties by the boss, we are tasked with things to do. You might also be asked by your boss "Can you action that campaign by Friday?" We no longer just come up with solutions, we architect them. And along the way, we bin our mistakes and back-burner less promising ideas :) With some luck, we finally brand our products..

Particularly in the area of the internet and telcom, many new nouns are used as verbs too: we text (send an SMS) and message (send a text on icq / chat), even blog ;o) and podcast. Or we bookmark a web page. And thanks our notebooks with an email or internet connection to our outlook, we can now office everywhere..

Any more hints???

TG

Client Fired By Its Own Agency

I don´t know if some of you´ve registered the message that went on air last week - the message about the Czech top creative advertising agency KASPEN having dumbed its biggest client so far - Vodafone. Exactly said, they cancelled the service contract between them and Vodafone, the 3rd large mobile operator in the Czech republic.
For me, this decision not only demonstrates the high degree of self confidence built upon the internal strength of the ad agency.It has also created a precedent by which KASPEN is to be remembered as "the agency that fired Vodafone". Ain´t that a self-promoting line? Ain´t that a positioning that speaks for itself? You bet it is. Consider this - it´s really huge - how people or other businesses perceive you depends often on what you do. Not merely who you are. Isn´t that relevant in our personal lifes too? Can a child that was born in a happy, rich family grow up and become rich and happy automatically? What about the others then? I know it´s rather a cliche, but life is full of choices. Some of them you do with joy, some of them you do without. Yet making them in our personal lifes - that´s a necessity. Making them in business, well, that´s a matter of future growth and longterm prosperity. To illustrate this on the KASPEN example, let me say the following: somebody enough smart at this company, obviously somebody with a clear vision and some real guts had seen what had made KASPEN the most admired agency in the czech market. Somebody had recognized the type of businesses they had been working for before the cooperation with Vodafone started. Somebody there had asked the right question and found out the big thing about what does it mean to be a fox, or a hedgehot (see one of my previous posts). Somebody had understood the positioning golden rule number one: you´ve got to stand for something, dear. If you try to be everything to everyone, you may end up with being nothing to no one.

Kaspen has always been known for their innovative approach. They´ve been known as the small big agency - small in number of people, but big in terms of the branding and marketing know-how. They´re calling themselves experts in the marketing warfare. They´ve got their own DNA (transparently described on their web page). "Focus on challenger brands" is a part of the DNA stuff of the agency. Good, pretty clear, so now what? What should we do with a company that´s probably gonna allow us to chop quite a lot of green grass in the jungle which will feed our more of our people and surely bring us finantial stability over a certain period of time. F..k mate, but what if we find out we´ve choped in the wrong f....g jungle?!

Vodafone is everything, but a challenger brand. It´s a goddamed Goliath in the telcom industry, a global player, a juggernaut with centralized decision making. Was that compatible with KASPEN? You already know the answer.

Good night, and good luck.

TG


kaspen´s web pages:

The Only Simple Difference Between a Boss and a Leader

Hi. Two good friends of mine - Petr and Iva - arrived yesterday. I took them into a pub called Sportovka. The only pub here in Boleslav where you find some very good mixture of food, beer, service, and relaxed atmosphere to chat (this is called word of mouth marketing :) )
Anyway, we sat there for abour an hour and half and talked about how things are going in work, what sucks, what doesn´t.. Petr hit one very interestign thing when he was explaining his relationship with his boss in the office. He praised his boss for being able to inspire, teach, and coach himself, quite often amid incredibly busy days at work. You must be very happy about it, I said. You bet, Petr replied. It allows mi to learn new things and have enjoy the work I´m doing.

It remainded me of a simple theory by John Maxwell, the leadership expert and author of several international bestseller on this topic. Maxwell points out in his theory that there is one and easily recognizable difference between a BOSS and a LEADER (or at least a boss with a leadership potential..) you can find out by asking yourself "what if my boss lost his or hers formal power he or her has been given to boss me? Would you still feel like working with him? Would you still vote for him as your team leader? Would it be a bad thing to happen for your own personal development" If not, your boss does not have leadership abilities and there´s no reason why to stick to your boss for a longer period of time.

Before thinking about it, consider this: there are companies in USA where you can actually dismiss your own boss. Absolutely! One in a certain time period, you´re given the right to judge his or her own ability to lead your team. If the team ain´t satisfied, the manager is dismissed by a senior manager. So it´s not a fantasy anymore.


TG

One Night In Buda-fuckin-pest

Have you ever been to the capital city of Hungary? Not yet? Then give it a try. I did - together with my girlfriend Zuzanka - we went down there on the 19. 7. to see the only Robbie Williams concert in central europe. 60 thousand screaming Slovaks, Czechs, Polaks, and, of course, Hungarians. What an amazing concert, what a great show, what a perfectly delivered marketing experience we saw. No kidding! Robbie Williams is for me one of the world´s biggest motherfuckers in today´s showbusiness :) He´s an egoist, a crazy guy, megalomaniac, macho, and a fop, all in one perfectly branded package which undoubtedly deliveres on the brand promise. Some might say his concerts are more an entertainment (even a comedy) than musical performance (singing). It´s definitely a mixture of both - the fun and the musical art. Some may love it, some may quite hate it. But if you want to be successful, to be recognized and loved by the crowd, you´ve got to win the crowd. And the best way how to do it, how to win the crowd is to work with it, to interact with people. That´s valid no matter if you´re a pop-icon or if you´re giving a presentation. Robbie Williams knows the drill very well indeed, so being at the stage and performing live suits him (not surprisingly) well.
As for "Buda-fucking-pest" itself (Robbie´s own words :), one can get lost quite easily there I assume. One has some hard time to even pronounce names of some of the streets, bus/metro stations etc. Let alone remembering those names... We were lucky we found our decent hotel without major "recon" activities in the enemy territory ;) But then we were a little bit surprised at the end of the day anyway, since we had to face the Hungarian reality of not providing the after-concert crowd with enough public transport capacities. Subway just didn´t run after 11 pm. Hereby I´d like to thank an unknown taxi driver who got us safe to our hotel for a bargain price of 15 EUR. God bless this wise man.

T

Here some pics from the concert.

Zpátky do reality?

Přestěhoval jsem se po opravě elektroinstalace na naší ubytovně přespolních robotníků zpět do svého původního pokoje s čímž je také spojen jeden příjemný benefit ve formě fungující přenosné televize s úhlopříčkou asi tak 10cm (nejspíš víc, ale zdálky to tak vypadá) a veškerou bohatou infotainmentovou i entertainmentovou nabídkou která to s sebou v těchto dnech obnáší. Nemohl jsem si mimojiné nepovšimnou jedné divné věci, nevim jestli jste si všimli taky, ať už pustím bednu v kteroukoliv denní dobu, dávají tam nějaký fotbal. Na českou ligu to rozhodně nevypadá, ta už podle mě dávno skončila, a tak jsem nabyl podezření, jestli se náhodou někde nehraje nějaký větší turnaj přespolních družstev (např. včera Petr Čech vs. Ghana, což je rozhodně přespolní manšaft). Ale ne, vážně, ještě k tomu našemu druhému zápasu - přemýšlel jsem, jestli nezačít dnešní příspěvek ve smyslu "svět se zbláznil, Ghana zvítězila nad Českem 2:0." Ale to by byla blbost, vždyť to jenom my si často a často dost naivně myslíme, že jsme mistři světa amoleta a pak brečíme nad tím, jak si nám ti škaredí, zlí Ghaňané dovolili dát gól hned nazačátku, takže nás tím dokonale překvapili a my jsme tak "nemohli hrát svou hru." Že se fotbal hraje celých 90 minut už nikoho v našem týmu evidentně nezajímá. "Fotbal Češi hrají kvalitní. Nesmí teda dostat prvního góla."

V této fotbalové nečekané šlamastice lituji především naše voliče. Fakt... Co nadějí musí lidi u nás vkládat do hrdinů s křivýma nožičkama a číslem na zádech poté, co našim politikům před pár týdny rozdaly karty způsobem více než rafinovaným. Člověk se těší na to, že nebude muset myslet na politiku a užije si taky jiných, svátečních kratochvil a oni to ti naši hoši v zápase s Ghanou nějak nepochopili. Co se s náladou v národě stane ve chvíli kdy skutečně definitivně vypadneme, nastane-li ve čtvrtek tato situace, o tom můžeme pouze spekulovat. Byl by to asi pořádný návrat zpět do reality ve stylu "divné počasí" a v televizi hádky Paroubka s Topolánem o tom, co bylo dřív, jestli kuře nebo vejce. Nejradši bych dal oběma červenou kartu.


TG

Rozhodneteto.cz

Some of you maybe know, some of you probably not. There´s general elections in the Czech republic next month. Our relatively young democracy has been struggling with relatively low elector´s attendance, especially among the younger voters between 18 and 25 years of age. In my country, people are literraly sick of politicians, of their unrealistic promises, corruption scandals, and arrogance. Many just don´t believe one can really change something by going to the poll station and making his or hers vote count. At least we don´t HAVE TO go there, but we can go there. It´s up to everybody´s decision, whether he or she is going to use the right to vote. But could it really make a difference?

According to 3 czech top notch advertising and movie directors and also according to my own own believe, it CAN make a difference nontheless! Having this in their mind, the 3 artists have joined their efforts and came up with the project called Rozhodněte to (You´ll decide): voting is sexy. They´ve created 3 different commercials and placed them on the web under www.rozhodneteto.cz where everyone can either watch a stream video or download the commercials. The aim here is simple: to bring more people to polling stations, thus decrease chances of the far left or far right extremist parties (especially the Communists), as in the Czech rep. we do have a proportional voting system (the difference between a proportional and "majority rule" voting system is described here). (A proportional voting system means that political parties with relatively higher elector´s attendance disciplin could score better results if the overall attendance is low).

I can only tell you this - visite the site, give it a try, read through the case story behind this unique project, and have a look at the spots. You´ll laugh A LOT. I did. My sister did, and also my family to whom I showed the site too :) You can even place your own comment under each commercial. Maybe you´ll then see things differently, maybe not, but one thing is clear - this idea is a good one. In fact it´s the first proffesional atempt to make the elections a bit more sexier to the undecided and younger voters. Pity it has not received any airing time in the massmedia thus far (beside the local music station Ocko). It´s going to be aired in cinemas across the country though.

So what do you guys think? I´m quite looking forward to your opinions about this one :o)

"Rozhodnete to. On 2. and 3. June 2006 @ your polling station." ;-)

TG

Kinda Busy Time...

It´s been quite a while since I posted my last "article" here.. The reason is that I´ve been quite heavily engaged in work-related activities. In the last 20 days or so, I´ve overseen 2 major projects in 2 different countries, flown with 7 airplanes through 6 airports, been to cca 20 different shooting locations, met around 50 wonderful people--most of them production professionals--slept in 4 different hotels, and lost 1 sunglasses somewhere on the Fuerteventura beach. Shooting of the Roomster campaign. Quite exhausting, yet unforgettable and tremendous experience from which I will benefit quite significantly in the long run.

Believe me or not, I´ve also begun to like "my" car ;). The new Skoda Roomster. True, when I joined Skoda Auto almost a year ago, I wasn´t even 100% convinced that Skoda´s aim to launch a new carline in an MPV segment and expand the brand in areas it had not been operating and had not have any experience whatsoever was the right thing to do. Then I first saw the car itself, I think it was in autumn 2005, and it came to me as I was looking at an ugly piece of design in which 2 completely distinctive concept "sort of" mixed together in one "gestalt". But you know what? I´ve been with this car for quite some months now. I´ve seen it standing in the studio in full light, driving by down and up the hill, parking under the Table mountain in Cape Town, making curves on a reef during sunset in Fuerteventura - with its cornering fog-lights turned on. Having realized it fits perfectly to Skoda brand and the direction towards the brand is heading, I´m now very much happy with the distinctive design of the car, for there is one think I learned some time ago: it´s better to have the crowd devided than to have a crowd that doesn´t care.

Anyway, presenting the car in a way the customer would like to see it and (possibly) like it at first sight, that´s exactly my job. That´s why everything have to fit together from the marketing point of view. From the car´s benefits through its positioning to how it will be communicated and "sold" to our prospects. I can´t tell you more details at this moment, but what I can tell you right away is look forward to a top-notch campaign, with the nicest print and tv ads in the 2006 advertising buzz.

The Hedgehog Concept

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
Archilochus (7th-century b.c.e.)

Basically, human beings are categorized as either "hedgehogs" or "foxes". Hedgehogs' lives are embodiment of a single, central vision of reality according to which they "feel", breathe, experience and think - "system addicts", in short. Examples include Plato, Dante, Proust and Nietzsche. Foxes live centrifugal than centripetal lives, pursuing many divergent ends and, generally, possess a sense of reality that prevents them from formulating a definite grand system of "everything", simply because they "know" that life is too complex to be squeezed into any Procrustean unitary scheme. Montaigne, Balzac, Goethe and Shakespeare are, in various degrees, foxes.

In his famous book--Good To Great--the leadership expert Jim Collins argues that those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used their hedgehog nature to drive toward what we came to call a Hedgehog Concept for their companies. Those who led the comparison companies tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent.

I've been thinking a lot about the material in Good to Great by Jim Collins. I'm wondering if his theory of a Hedgehog Concept, as he calls it, can be used for corporate strategy as well as personal decisions. Collins is sure of it and has devised his own theory built upon the hard and soft data he´d gathered before writing Good to Great.

Here´s the deal:

















"To quickly grasp the three circles, consider the following personal analogy. Suppose you were able to construct a work life that meets the following three tests. First, you are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent. (“I feel I was just born to be doing this.”) Second, you are well paid for what you do. (“I get paid to do this? Am I dreaming?”) Third, you are doing work you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake. (“I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work, and I really believe in what I'm doing.”)
If you could drive toward the intersection of these three circles and translate that intersection into a simple, crystalline concept that guided your life choices, then you’d have a Hedgehog Concept for yourself."

For better understanding, Colling continues by stating the following: "to have a fully developed Hedgehog Concept, you need all three circles. If you make a lot of money doing things at which you could never be the best, you’ll only build a successful company, not a great one. If you become the best at something, you’ll never remain on top if you don't have intrinsic passion for what you are doing. Finally, you can be passionate all you want, but if you can’t be the best at it or it doesn’t make economic sense, then you might have a lot of fun, but you won’t produce great results."

For me, the above mentioned hedgehog x fox theory is not something one has to take for sacred truth. It is clever and provocative though. Take it or leave it. I´d recommend to simply sit down for a while, think, and then try to draw your own three circles. A bit of your time and inwards thinking, that´s all it requires. Good luck!