Simple Rules

Moving from a closed circle of networked communications, that is, me and my friends towards one where brands come into play is transforming certain platforms, namely mobile phones and television. It is a fact.  There are two big rules in programme scheduling: choose your audience and sell advertising space that they are receptive to. This is why during the Rugby World Cup final,  AUDI showcased its latest powerhouse of an engine… wowing everyman in the pub. And our “Britain’s Next Top Model” is sponsored by a make-up brand. In the case of youth audiences, brands are beginning to segment more than ever. It looks like the battle of the sexes is up and you are either a fashion-crazed aspiring kitten or an mbox-addict/sports-mad dude. What is to happen to unisex brands, like music or design-driven brands, which is a harder kind to juggle?

I call these brands the “Life Soundtrack Brands”. They are not trying to sell me anything in particular, because the market is well aware of who they are and what they sell, but are reminding me of how great it is to live in this world with them around me/on me/ in my house. Perhaps their message to my phone is for me to come to one of their shops to checkout the new interior, their new stock of goodies - this is Apple’s super stores strategy, or download a mini video of their latest campaign, designed to interact with me on tv, the web and my mobile. Whatever it is that comes to my phone, I repeat, has to be under the following expectations:

(a) the brand is known to me and I like it;

(b) the brand is new to me but the ad is so cool, I actually like it;

(c) the brand is not known to me but their stuff rocks and I want to know more about them (and the ad is cool, too);

Most of the time, we get (d):

(d) the brand has no impact on my psyche, probably because they are using the same campaign on TV (and I’ve already watched their ads five hundred times whilst watching “Hollyoaks”) or the campaign is just lame… visually unengaging, boring creative, old advertising stereotypes…

It’s also about not bombarding the same ad a hundred times a week. A given ad is as good as its limited broadcast. Remember Budweiser’s “Wassup?” ads… they only got better when people began to do mash-ups online… eventually, the ones broadcasted on TV managed to annoy the whole nation… as half your friends began to greet you with such parody every time you’d show up at their place and rang the doorbell… I have little patience for this lemming behaviour, you may have noticed…

People like ads when they are good. They even watch them in youTube. Not every ad on TV falls under this category. Current washing up liquid ads are just domesticity at its worst. Or softdrinks. By the way, have you noticed there has never been a RedBull ad on TV? And you want to know why? Because they came to where their audiences were and built a presence there, sponsoring bmx events and creating a drink that would serve the demands of hardcore clubbers.

Brands have an excellent opportunity to make themselves loved and respected in the mobile sphere, but the same rules will apply here to that of niche sports events sponsoring:

(a) put your money where your mouth (desire to market to me & my friends) is;

(b) understand the rules of my game and how I will let you into my inner circle (see rules above);

(c) come to me with a product that truly will improve my lifestyle and let me know about that product with bespoke mobile creative output: this is my phone, not the public TV broadcast network…

… is that alright with you? It is that simple…

3 comments November 26th, 2007