Grown Up Thinking

The Mr Youth Creative team was in good company Friday night. As guests at the One Show Interactive Awards at New York’s Terminal 5, we were both surrounded and inspired by an eclectic and talented crew of colleagues. Each year, the One Club recognizes the agency teams behind the most innovative and buzz-worthy advertising of the last 12 months.

Here’s our personal compilation of the “wow”-worthy winners that made us applaud hardest:
 
Kindling a community of composers…

“Sounds of Hamburg” | Client: Philharmoniker Hamburg
Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Services

Because at the end of the day “it’s just advertising”…

“Pink Ponies” | Client: john st.
Agency: john st. advertising, Toronto
Award: Gold Pencil, Online Films and Video: Self-Promotion – Single

An awareness-builder of a different kind…

“The Girl Store” | Client: Nanhi Kali (K.C. Mahindra Education Trust)
Agency: StrawberryFrog, New York
Award: Bronze Pencil, Websites and Microsites: E-Commerce

Comedic gold for the cause…

“Devin & Glenn” | Client: Overturn Prop 8
Agency: Furlined, Santa Monica
Award: Silver Pencil, Online Films and Video: Public Service/Non-Profit – Single

Crowdsourcing creativity to honor the Man in Black…

“The Johnny Cash Project” | Client: American Recordings/Lost Highway
Agency: @radical.media, New York
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Social Networks/Community

Some other favorites:

“Fastball” | Client: Google | Agency: BBH, New York

“UNIQLO Lucky Counter” | Client: UNIQLO | Agency: Dentsu, Tokyo

“Pay With A Tweet” | Client: Innovative Thunder | Agency: R/GA, New York

“I Am Not An Artist” | Client: Elisava | Agency: Soon in Tokyo

“Nike+ GPS” | Client: Nike | Agency: R/GA, New York

“The Fun Theory Winner – The Speed Camera Lottery” | Client: VW Sweden | Agency: DDB, Stockholm
 
A hearty high-five to all of this year’s winners. Keep our seats warm.

According to a new Forrester Report, only 6% of 12- 17 year olds want to be friends with a brand on Facebook. This presents a major challenge, and opportunity, for brands when trying to interact with one of the most prized demo segments. The report goes on to state that the segment doesn’t think brands should be on social media and, if they do have a presence, should serve a passive role by listening and responding to their requests as they come up.

I say phooey. Well, to be clear, I think it’s incredibly important to listen to the segment and respond to their needs in social media but, more importantly, I think there’s fertile ground in social to proactively interact with them. I remember reading that Henry Ford once said something like “if I always followed my consumer research a car would have never been invented because they would have asked for a faster horse.”

I think the same approach should be applied to the 12 – 17 year olds in regards to how they engage with brands in social media. The challenge is determining how your brand can be relevant since, as we all know, all brands are unique. Some brands have an easier job than others – I’m talking to you Skittles – because what they offer is inherently sought after by 12 – 17 year olds. I mean, who didn’t like candy as a kid?

But for others, achieving relevance is more challenging which makes it that much more rewarding when you achieve it! And I’m not talking about the relevance from a marketer’s perspective. I’m talking about relevance from the 12 – 17 year old’s perspective which can be much different than the former.

In order to be relevant, gain Facebook fans and ultimately maintain ongoing interactions with this segment, brands must answer one very simple question: Why should I care about you, Brand XYZ?

Here are five ideas for how to achieve relevancy and make them care about your brand on Facebook.

1.       If humor aligns with your brand’s personality – USE IT. One time-tested approach that’s worked over and over with this segment is that they respond well to humor. This however, needs to be tied into your brand in a way that only you can use that humor.

2.       Add to the experience. This segment is primarily on social networks to stay connected with their offline friends and I guarantee that they’ll appreciate it if you help enrich that experience.

3.       Ask yourself “why do I think they should care about me?” Once you get that answer find a way to bring that to life while adhering to all the spoken and unspoken rules of social (that’s another post for another day) and this segment.

4.       Make their friends care. Cart before the horse, right? Well, kind of. But, if you can make groups of friends care than they will influence the rest. So, create ideas that micro-target groups of 12 – 17 year olds through interests that they might share.

5.       Get some FUN all up in here! Yes, it’s true they are primarily online to connect with friends but they also want to have FUN while doing it. Create a game for them to play – if done right, that will give you the ultimate level of interaction that all brand managers dream about.

Follow through with some of these ideas and you just might be welcomed into the exclusive 6% Club. Got any other ideas for how to reach this segment? Would love to hear them!

We’ve found a lot that is inspiring and LOL-worthy this week (and it’s only Wednesday!) Here’s a shortlist – our spring gift to you, dear reader.

The @bronxzooscobra: Ok so it may be scary and awful that a 20-inch, pencil-thin, extremely venomous cobra is missing in the Bronx Zoo, but it is hilarious for us that our slithery, parseltongued friend is tweeting about her adventures.  Let’s hope that the zoo will find the amusement in this amidst their dismay, as 120k+ other Twitter users are.

Kraft Mac and Cheese “cnt sleep” Spots: With a speedy production turnaround reminiscent of Old Spice, these new clips (all are featured on the Kraft Facebook page) were inspired by consumer tweets about mac and cheese. One spot aired on Conan and Lopez Monday night, and it was so successful that agency CP&B repeated it again on TBS last night.

Stella Artois – Triple Filtered: From a gritty and sobbing Adrian Brody to this newest shabby and love-struck gentleman, the male cast of Stella ads play on a fun egocentrism that describes the brand itself.  In this London-created TV/Cinema campaign, our leading man finds himself chasing after a girl out of his league.  In three smooth steps he goes from scruffy to sophisticated.

Ashley Boo Facebook App – A take-down from the Hunter Shoots a Bear campaign, this Flash integration to promote Rounds (a video chat service) is intended to show the spirit and capabilities of the brand.  The fake profile of Ashley Boo gives you a taste of what you and your friends can do together using the service.

What’s on your radar this week?  Let us know in the comments!

Very interesting panel this morning on how brands can be proactive and reactive to extinguish ASAP. Key takeaways:

- Come up with a strategy in the beginning – are you or are you not going to allow consumers to engage with you? Brands should really allow consumers to engage with them, but set ground rules up front so consumers know when their posts might be taken down.

- Absolutely use a suite of social listening tools so you can be proactive in detecting and addressing potential crises before they become detrimental.

- The most credible thing out there is consumers who jump in and help you solve your problems. Ideally consumer support should happen organically, you don’t want to have to rally. This will happen if you foster your consumer relationships and create consumer loyalty from the beginning.

- Everyone loves to write on a wall so that their feedback – positive and negative – can be broadcast. Know that creating a customer support tab will not stop this. Brands need to accomodate how their consumers want to provide feedback.

- If you have a specific call to action to “Like” a page when a consumer arrives there for the first time, the fan conversion jumps from around 25% to around 45%.

- DO NOT hire an intern to run your Facebook page. You need to have one experienced person who knows the social media ropes to run your page on a daily basis. It is a full time job that requires someone who knows your brand and consumers inside and out.

Panel information: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7900

MTV’s new show, “Skins,” has been dominating my Twitter feed lately and creating what seems to be the largest social controversy since the Starbucks logo announcement (which likely indicates that most people will stop caring by the time this is published). I read the tweets, articles and comments, and after being inspired to find out more, I took to my favorite research tool, Crowdtap, to find out just what teens were thinking about and what that says about Skins “pushing the envelope.

I started by tapping in to a crowd of 450 teens just to see how many of them had heard of the show (78%) had heard of it) and built my line of questioning from that subsequent group. The results, as you’ll see below, brought some interesting new insights into play while also reaffirming some existing ones.

#1) They didn’t judge brands by where they advertise. The majority of respondents did not respond negatively to brands that advertised during the show, because they only saw it as the brands trying to reach them as an audience during a teen-targeted show.

#2) What seems controversial to older audiences is not as controversial to them. One-third of teens who had seen the show agreed that MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” which has now grown into a four-season show, is more controversial than “Skins.”

#3) They weren’t as impressionable as we tend to think. The majority of respondents who’d seen the show did not think it was an accurate depiction of teens, and 93% said that watching “Skins” did not make them want to act that way.

#4) They weren’t hearing about it through social media. MTV’s in social and traditional channels, but used more traditional channels to drive reach. Only 9% of respondents had heard about “Skins” through social channels (Facebook, Twitter or YouTube), with most citing TV as their source.

I wasn’t completely surprised to see that the majority of teens did not find the show as controversial as everyone else does, which at the end of the day makes it seem like teens aren’t as quick to react or engage, and as a result are harder to access.

Looks like the premiere of the new MTV show, ‘Skins’, is stirring up a lot of controversy, both from the Parents Television Council and advertisers alike. With allegations sparking that the show is breaking child porn statutes, brands like Taco Bell state the commercial time is not “fit for their brand”. Now other advertisers are following suit, with brands like Schick, Subway, General Motors, H&R Block, and Wrigley no longer purchasing ads during ‘Skins’ programming. The Parents Television Council is trying, and effectively so, to get other brands to opt out of that commercial time, as well.

It’s apparent that although corporate brands will not want to be associated with the show, the bulk of the series’ commercials will come primarily from movie studios and TV networks. The irony lies in the success of the show in the U.K., where it originates. Some of the U.K.’s largest brands still air their commercials during ‘Skins’, and it is a very successful show overall. Abroad, the show initially stirred up some controversy, but has just confirmed its 6th season. In the U.S., everyone is talking about it, everyone knows about it, but brands don’t want to be involved. Even with millions of viewers watching the show and talking about it both online and offline, it’s still a dangerous investment for a corporate brand to make when teen sex, underage drinking and drug use are the rampant themes of the series.

Is buying a car what’s going to come to mind when watching a show about teenage drinking and drugs? Not so much. I can understand why companies like GM or H&R block would not want to affiliate their brands through a graphic show such as ‘Skins’, it clearly doesn’t talk to the brands message and doesn’t make sense. At the same time, the target audience of Taco Bell and Subway, for example, are watching and they are passing up the opportunity to talk to that consumer. Is it worth abandoning that air time?

MTV is clearly pushing the envelope here, but people are watching; about 3.3 million viewers watched the premiere this week, and 1.2 million were underage, according to Nielsen stats, even though the program is rated for those 17 and older.

We all knew it was coming – the day when “Go Green” would blow up to a precarious balance between conscientious and meaningless.

On Tuesday I attended the “Marketing Green without Greenwashing” panel for Advertising Week, and came away with some interesting, if disheartening, facts about the spectrum of green.

Whether deliberate or not, companies in every industry are making false claims and committing the Sins of Greenwashing.  This 2009 study showed that 98% of “green” products committed at least one of these sins (they analyzed 2,219):

1. Fibbing

2. No proof

3. Irrelevance

4. Hidden trade-off

5. Vagueness

6. Lesser of two evils

7. Worshiping false labels

So what do we look for?  As we wait for better standards and the new FTC Green Guide, we need to educate ourselves.  Here are some starters:

- Read the fine print on packages with eco labels and certifications
- Beware of claims insinuating a general or vague environmental benefit
- Look for specific facts about what makes the product a greener option
- Words like “natural” and “biodegradable” can be meaningless due to chemical processing and controlled testing, respectively

My mom used to tell me all the time, “Every dollar is a vote.”  This power to determine what is most important and relevant in environmentally-friendly products will shape future policy.  If false labels and misleading claims reduce the efficacy of consumers – companies making valiant efforts and presenting authentic, transparent information will suffer under the bulk of fallacies.

So no matter what hue of green you’re going for, be smart and deliberate in your pursuit.

What do you think about the current state of Greenwashing?

This article first appeared as a PROMO Xtra Editor’s Pick at promomagazine.com

There is a cultural identity crisis occurring among consumers and brands, with each wanting to emulate the other. The byproduct of this shared admiration is an exponential opportunity for word of mouth and social media marketers to play a central role in the facilitation of this ongoing shift.

Brands as People
Brands are finally starting to realize that they can no longer act like the faceless logos they once portrayed. They now need to establish a persona that is approachable and opinionated. Brands need to strive for relationships with consumers and learn to listen so that a two-way dialogue can be established. They need a face and voice that can fully express their multi-faceted product or service offerings. In short, brands need to emulate people.

Honda and Ford have done a nice job humanizing their brands as evidenced by their respective Twitter handles @alicia_at_Honda and @ScottMonty. These players are learning out how to build personas out of well-known brands that are approachable, distinct, and warm.

Both Alicia and Scott have mastered the art of seamlessly integrating their personal opinions with factual product information to serve as a human element to the historically bureaucratic automotive industry. Accessibility, humanity, and responsiveness are no longer traits people expect from just a trusted friend, it is something they demand from a trusted brand.

Click here to read the full article and learn how to morph your brand into a person.

No matter the budget, when brainstorming for a client the eager minds at Mr Youth always start by thinking BIG. We toss around ideas of wild, dream executions to introduce or promote a brand, imagining that money is no object. (“Let’s send one person from every single country to the 2010 World Cup!” or “Let’s build the world’s largest piñata!” –don’t laugh, it’s been done! Well, sorta.)

Typically, reality sinks in quick and we regroup to develop a program that has the same strategic and creative chutzpah our client wants, but that fits more in line with their proposed budget and timeline– to sparkling and dynamic results, no less!

Derrick Borte’s new film, The Joneses, presents a concept that sounds as far-reaching as some of our initial wild and crazy marketing ideas. Embed a fake, envy-inducing family into a wealthy, materialistic neighborhood, outfit them with all of our clients’ newest and hottest products, and get them to get their “neighbors” to want it all? GENIUS… maybe.

The concept here is compelling on a few levels. We know for a fact that consumers trust the opinion of their family, friends (and in this case, neighbors) more than any claim a company itself can make. The Joneses may have something to say about how far some brands are willing to go to get you to buy what they’re selling. Is this an example of word-of-mouth gone too far? Are you swayed by strategic product placement as much as some brands are hoping you are?

Watch the trailer and let us know:

You thought that your car could keep you safe from advertising as long as you ignored the billboards, but it’s 2010 now and it’s time for change! As we move into the next decade of technology, consumers can expect to see more integration between marketing, social media, and their daily commute.

Companies like Ford are coming out with new cars that will deliver popular mobile features to their navigation systems like turn-by-turn directions, streaming music, and Twitter. Google Maps will even start featuring paid advertising layered over existing billboards. This is big news for businesses like gas stations, restaurants, fast-food chains and hotels which will now have the opportunity to offer special discounts and promotions to drivers.

I don’t mind this new presence so long as there’s an added benefit for the consumer. Maybe while on vacation my navigation system could show me a promotion for a hotel discount, or let me know where to get cheap gas. Perhaps when I pull in to fill up the tank, a virtual billboard could remind me how much I’d love some McDonalds for the road (just so long as my Twitter doesn’t automatically post that I’m breaking my new year’s resolution.)