More Technology for Less

Ok, after watching this and next to laughing my ass off, it made me thinking again as well. And when certain things make me thinking … well, you guys are stuck with it. Sorry guys, really appreciate it.
If you don’t know the official commercial by Apple for Siri, watch that one first (click here), since this clip is a damn funny parody not only on the commercial itself but on the entire costumer experience and focus of this new iPhone software everybody is talking about.

EDIT: They removed the video from Youtube.
Watch the video here: siri-argument

It’s a paradox, isn’t it? A new revolutionary software system for one of the most popular communication platforms today, that actually makes us communicating with each other less. As this clip shows, Siri is not only a provider of content and useful, practical information; it is also the middleman in a conversation. Actually, I feel it is a step further away from communicating. Communicating as in the ‘original’ way, remember? Between people, using your verbal or non-verbal human communication skills to interact with one another.

I once wrote here before by quoting Dutch stand-up comedian and actor Theo Maassen who pointed out the idea if it would be possible that because of these new technologies, people would lose their ability to communicate? Same as we saw people losing their ability to calculate since the introduction of the (automatic) calculator. Back then I wrote I was afraid for this but I didn’t think it was happening already. Well, I think today it made me realize we are getting a little bit closer to that conclusion (note that post was written not even a year and a half ago).

I also notice it here at the office. We send each other internal emails (addressed to people less than 50 meters away from you) daily. This is of course for many varied reasons. Emails can have attachments to save; all people in the feed and on the project need to be informed for new updates; we don’t have that much time on our hands (welcome to China?); we want to ‘keep’ the conversation for later review, … etc. But it still feels odd I think.

Perhaps we have become lazier? Or perhaps we do are losing bit my bit that essential capacity to walk over to somebody to ask a certain specific question? Or perhaps there’s absolutely nothing going on and I should go back serving drinks to the people who do know how to handle the world? But I believe there is something going on, whether it’s good or bad, whether it’s an opportunity or a treat … I don’t know, yet.

2 Girls 1 Band

Now here’s some music I would like to share with you: Azure Ray.
I recently discovered them (shame on me), although they’re being active and popular already for quite a while (first official release in 2001).

Ok, people who claim I’ve started to listen to emo or whatever they don’t know about great crafted music, think again. This is simply brilliant, elegant and has so much passion it makes me want to be alone and rethink everything I’ve learned and done so far.

I like it for many reasons. First of all, because all real emo’s, goths, metal junks, hipsters … can learn how you do can portray sad music without sounding OR absolutely lame OR absolutely ridiculous and pathetic. If you check the youtube page from this clip you can read the lyrics which are pure poetry of which I could only wish my English (or Dutch) was that well. And; how with those simple words you can bring such a breathtaking story.

Second reason because they’re girls. I am so sorry to say, but for me, there’s few music out there that really touches me, created by girls. There are a few singers (Beth Gibbons, Édith Piaf, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Justin Bieber* …), but really not that much and especially not that much where (almost) the entire band consists out of women.

Third reason … I actually don’t really know. You love certain music or you don’t. For me, great music is always the one that brought you to a next emotional level. A level words couldn’t reach or even bring you close. The fact there are (great) lyrics involved here, only brings it better to the surface, makes it more understandable, from the artist’s perspective.

 

 

*Obviously kidding. Of course I don’t like her music.

Non Funeral Invitation

Ok, so for the non-Dutch speaking readers: This is a Belgian announcement out of a public newspaper for the decease of Madam Mariëtte Lumbeeck. Like any other announcement, it contains some information such as the name, family, date of birth and death … etc. So people not as close as family can be informed as well. But what’s pretty original and let’s say funny about it, is that the text in the middle of the paper says:

“As she has wanted herself, there will be no coffee table(*), nor funeral letters or prints. For all those who wished to have coffee, Mariëtte assumed they had time enough to do that with her while she was alive.”

This is a perfect and very original angle to catch on the idea there are always lots of people who suddenly tend to show up at a funeral but when somebody is sick, or alone in his last days, or in any kind of need; they never bothered to give him a call, come by in the hospital or house, even just send an email or text to ask how it’s going. My family has been there as well and the only thing you can do is ignore that kind of behavior (because that’s actually not of your concern at that moment), or simply do it like this family. Genius.

 

 

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(*) A ‘coffee table’ is what we call in Dutch a simple meal or some drinks family and invited guests can get after the funeral ceremony in the church.

What Planners Can Learn from Academics

Never thought I would write that sentence (title). But then again, planners can and should learn from EVERYBODY, right?

I recently came to the understanding that academic research can be a very usable guideline in the development of meaningful insights in advertising as it holds a lot of parallels. For people not familiar with the advertising world: there’s a lot of confusion and bullshit about what exactly an insight is. By writing this post, I’ll use my college experience and what I’ve learned there so far, in trying to clarify a little bit.

An insight is not an idea. Great ideas come from great insights. And great insights come from great research. That’s basically the middle step why there is such a thing as a career in planning and why they get paid by an agency. An idea is mostly the task coming from the creatives. And the research mostly is outsourced to research firms and agencies that are qualified and have experience to produce valuable market and consumer research. Often do you hear people say “Then what the fuck do planners do?” Planners are supposed to be the ones coming up with the insights. Let me try to explain through a few examples I got in contact with through my education in psychology which is indeed an academic scientific course.

An insight BEFORE research is done
I’ll underline this one with one of the most inspiring research mankind has ever known (in my humble opinion) and I blogged about before (click here if you don’t know it): The Milgram Experiment. Milgram found an astonishing fact that marked the birth of some amazing social psychology: Almost 65% of ordinary people are conforming to give another innocent participant a shock of 450 Volts. This 65% of all participants conforming is a research fact.
The INSIGHT however is the fact with what Milgram came up with after World War II and Nazi Germany: How far can regular, ordinary people go in conforming to a perceived authority (the experiment leader) in order to hurt another innocent human being? No other research had been done (not in that quantity and quality) about this conforming behavior and Milgram was the very first one asking himself this question. The IDEA in this case is how he would study and observe this kind of behavior. A brilliant idea came up to him: a fake participant that should be learning word pairs and will be punished with an electric shock every time he’s wrong. The idea (the setting of the experiment) came after the insight (questioning how conform people really are). The research is the setting, the methodology and the results: 65 percent.

An insight AFTER research is done
In an academic environment, research always will be done in order to study an a priori formulated question. Market research is being done on constant base just for the sake of being up-to-date with everything. Obvious. But once in a while psychological research can produce content out of which great insights can come which are different from the initial set-up from the experiment. This is what should happen in advertising as well: seeing through the research data and finding the brilliant ‘why’-question.
For my example, I will use The Hawthorn Studies: In the 1920’s – 1930’s, Henry A. Landsberger wanted to study and measure the productivity from factory workers in whether higher or lower light levels. They manipulated the levels of light for a while at a working place and measured the outcome in productivity. The results were at first sight very strange: over the entire range of experimented manipulations and levels, all productivity was increased compared to regular working days before the experiment. Here, the INSIGHT came after the entire research, namely: People become more productive when they know others are watching / observing them. This is something advertisers should be good at: trying to find the WHY into the data, even though that data was not measured for that final purpose.

An insight WHILE research is done
Apart from being valuable, correct or unbiased research, I’m thinking about the psychoanalysis stream in psychology and of course it’s well-known guru: Sigmund Freud. He basically came up with his insights through listening to his patients, asking the right questions, observing behavior and writing everything down the moment he heard something of which he believed had value for the theories he set out for himself.
I’m posting this because I think planners can learn from him or any scientific approved interview content adaption when they’re working with focus groups and interviews. Interviews are a very nasty thing in psychology as they are so easily biased by lots of factors, but for advertisers that doesn’t hurt the planning as much as it does the research: only one participant needs to say something valuable to make you approach the manifested problem from a different angle, and you can find yourself suddenly on a complete new and interesting track to follow and dig into further. I think this definitely comes down in great anticipation on what’s happening right in front of you and what people share with you. I could be wrong on this, as I have to confess I haven’t been involved yet in focus groups or interviews for advertising purposes. I do have for psychological research purposes.

Where It All Began

I was eleven, sitting in the class room of my primary school and for some reason hanging on the lips of my teacher. I didn’t like the teacher that much, but most of the time he did manage to grab my attention with one of his life relevant and interesting stories he shared with us a lot. This time it was about the truth and honesty in advertising. And this was also the very first time I got introduced with advertising as being an industry. He talked about the ‘do-s and don’t-s’ in the scene. Not the commercials consumers would like or dislike but what was legally approved and what was not. He shared with us the case of the how you can’t lie in your ads about the quality of the product: Samsonite suitcases that are strong but not strong enough to resist the twenty ton weight of a truck (that ad had to be pulled down back then) and some glue brand I don’t remember that actually was able to hang a guy upside down on the ceiling (and so the ad could stay on).

He had my attention.

Then he came to the case of Benetton and how the CEO was so rich and didn’t give a fuck about regulations. How the guy laughed at those regulations and made it into some kind of game to see how far he could go with his Benetton communication. And how he spread so much controversy with the ‘United Colors of Benetton’ ads. This was one of those brands to live on the idea that bad WOM among lots of people could be good WOM among others and for your company sales and brand personality.
I L-O-V-E-D it. The idea you could create controversy and help your company grow with it? Brilliant! In those days I wasn’t physically able yet to have an organism but if I would have been able, I think I would have gone home with wet pants. As far as I can remember, that was already the moment I realized there could be a future for me (in that environment).

And here we are today … But I’m not going to give you the story about “all my life I have wanted …” because that’s simply not true. As an adolescent I HATED brands. I didn’t hate the companies, but I hated the people how would pay a shitload more for a Polo shirt instead of an H&M shirt. I simply didn’t see the point. Do I now?

But enough about me.

I had to think of this story yesterday as I saw the brand that got my very first interests in advertising doing again what it used to do: sparkling controversy.
Finally after years of silence Benetton released this week a new campaign ‘Unhate’. The focus is on world tolerance and spreading prints showing world leaders kissing. Because I’m in Shanghai I suppose my favorite one is Obama kissing Chinese President Hu. But I definitely love the one where we can see our holy pope pressing his old man’s lips against those of Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb (the current imam of the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo) which by the way has so far been the only party treating with a trial and labeling them as ‘totally unacceptable’. So Benetton already pulled this one down. Once again, we see who’s evolving and who’s not. Never been a really good combination, the church and evolution.

I already read a lot love/hate statements on the new campaign from in- and outside adland. To me, it’s pure nostalgia. And apart from that I have to confess: I just love them. Perhaps because of the reason I’ve always been attracted to the controversial side of communication.

See all the ads and learn more about the Unhate campaign on unhate.benetton.com/ and watch the campaign video here: