Big In Japan

Good to see our Fujitsu brand campaign getting good reviews this week. The teams have worked hard on it.

It’s a campaign designed to kick off the process of building the Japanese company’s profile to better reflect its market position. Fujitsu is the fourth largest IT company in the world - up there with the likes of IBM, HP and Accenture – but does not get the credit (read brand awareness / consideration scores) it deserves.

It is a tough time for many of their CIO customers, something we learned all about when we spent time with a number of them earlier in the year, We saw budgets under massive pressure, too much resource and energy being spent on day-to-day maintenance and operational tasks and as a result those technology leaders who aspire to be viewed as more strategic, business leaders becoming increasingly frustrated. They feel stifled.

So, this was a nice insight and what also became clear is that this feeing is driving the beginnings of a sea-change in the category as people begin to search for new models of IT and technology delivery that take out cost whilst enabling IT to have a more strategic influence on the business rather than being an internal service function.

Fujitsu’s technology leadership and service innovation differentiates them in many areas, especially in the emerging area of cloud technology. As a result, we realised that they could lay claim to the promise of enabling the CIO to get away from his frustrations and reach his ideal future sooner. Hence the campaign idea of ‘Get There Sooner’ that has been executed solidly in print, outdoor, digital outdoor and online so far with more to come.

Love the Vuvuzela. Hate the Generic.

I am not sure if the consistent droan of the vuvuzelas annoys me anymore. Or in fact if it ever did! But listening to colleagues today and Five Live on the way home this evening I know I’m not speaking for everyone.

The BBC team in particular was lucky enough to encounter some very passionate advocates of a complete ban on these most exotic of wind instruments.

“They’re annoying ...” said Mick from Bristol.

“It’s like a mosquito in your ear...” said Tony from Leeds.

“It sounds like a schoolboy international...” said Matt.

And my particular favourite: “I can’t hear the England fans singing and chanting on TV ...” said Fabio (OK. I didn’t quite catch this chap’s name).

Now I live close to the Heathrow flight path in TW1 so I probably get used to background noise quicker than most BUT surely, surely, surely the noise and atmosphere created will be one of the key elements that will make this World Cup what it will become –special and unique.

The alternative - to ban the vuvuzela - is to celebrate the generic. To long for a World Cup just like the last one and the one to come.

Think about it. Ban the vuvuzela? Where would we go next? Or perhaps more pertinently, what would our memories be made of if we had previously thought like this?

Let’s take to our time machines, go back to Buenos Aries in 1978 for example and outlaw ticker tape. We could then set a course for the Azteca stadium in 1986 and stop people from standing up and throwing their arms in the air.

Yes it’s a simple point yet I’m amazed to see the volume of counter arguments running rampant on twitter and the wires.

This World Cup will be great in spite of global brands that sponsor it and the global media owners that cover it. It will be great because of a 30-yard pile driver from someone we least expect, a dazzling piece of artistry from a Messi or Kaka, a crazed celebration from Maradona and inevitably a penalty shoot-out for England.

But more than that it will be great because of what Africa and African culture brings to it. It will be great because of the vuvuzela!

A little over two weeks ago I stepped on to one of Stellios’s flying Orange machines and left these fine shores for a two week break in Crete (where, just for reference, cash is king and restaurants on the south coast have a lower propensity to show pictures of the dishes on their menus).

Reflecting on a few of the things that happened whilst I was away:

> Ash cloud returned, blew over, returned, blew over …
> Greece went bust
> Greece was rescued
> The UK voted
> The UK was thrown into political turmoil
> The Eagles sent the Owls down

Oh, and one other thing - The World Cup bandwagon got well and truly rolling!

Back in London this week and I feel I can’t move for brands getting in on the act of hyping both the event and England’s chances (2nd round exit to Germany?).

For some brands the link to World Cup 2010 is clear. Adidas? Check. Carlsberg? Yes I can see their relevance to the competition too and the “teamtalk” execution is certainly rousing if it fails to quite get the hairs on the back of my neck standing as high on a second viewing.

But Kit Kat and Mars though? C’mon! Give me a break …. (sorry!)

Anyway, the brand that has executed a World Cup idea most beautifully has to be Louis Vuitton. It’s here and it’s cool. It has Zidane, Pele and Maradona in it so how could it not be? Even if their link to the beautiful game is tenuous at best!

http://www.louisvuittonjourneys.com/legends

The Planner’s Psyche

A couple of weeks into a search or a new Planning Director for our London office I am already tired of hearing that ‘planners just aren’t moving jobs at the moment’.

It’s a cool role with a great team, great clients and a generous package for someone doing a similar ATL / Integrated / Digital role today (or wanting to step up from a Senior Planner position) but the CVs just aren’t flying in.

Apparently it’s all down to the economic environment and a natural tendency of planners to be more cautious as a result. Really? I thought Sir Martin had called the bottom?

Anyway, the hunt goes on ……. richard.mabbott@gyrohsr.com

Brand v Demand - Summit, Research and Lord Heseltine

Last week over 100 delegates attended our (Gyro:HSR's) first B2B Marketing Summit in the UK.

The event was held in Manchester Town Hall, a fantastic venue which – Danny our Manchester MD assures me - harks back to when the city was last a commercial power house. We had some fantastic speakers from some great brands including Fujitsu, Google, HSS and Pearson along with our own Rick Segal and the legend that is Michael Heseltine.

I had the pleasure of sharing the stage (albeit a good hour or so after he spoke) with Lord Heseltine to host a panel debate on the theme of the event:

Brand v Demand – do brand custodians too often disinvest their brands in favour of short term demand generating activities?

We had conducted qualitative research with clients and contacts through 2009 and used the findings to stimulate the debate. In my mind the question is somewhat of a false dichotomy but there are still interesting views from both sides of the fence.

We have produced a summary report of the findings which people are welcome to download at:

http://www.brandordemand.com/

There is also the opportunity to share your point of view should you fancy.

Ten things ....

As the Sunday papers clamour to provide us with their predictions for the year ahead, I had a think about a few things the past 12 months have taught us / me.

Here are ten to start with:

1/ 0.02mm is interesting in the right hands. Especially if those hands are the D&AD award winning team behind Sagami’s ‘Love Distance’ campaign http://awards.dandad.org/2009/categories/onln/online-advertising/25046/love-distance

2/ Markets can behave irrationally. How else can we explain UK bookmakers making England second favourites for the World Cup? (Yes I know, it’s the punters not the market that are behaving irrationally).

3/ We’ve gone real time. We’re texting, twittering, facebooking like …. It’s all about ‘Now’. Admittedly Vodafone cottoned onto that a while ago but Samsung tapped into that nicely with ‘impatience is a virtue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8tWLEsLpxs

4/ Hash can be bad for your health - hash tags that is - as Habitat found out earlier in the year when trying to use coverage of the Iranian election to sell sofas. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5621970/Habitat-apologises-for-Twitter-hashtag-spam.html

5/ The success of a campaign can be judged on recall of a TV execution? That was the argument some experts made to explain why an ad by ‘Confused.com’ had performed better than one by ‘Compare the Market’. Missing the point I think when you see that Mr. Aleksandr Orlov now has well over 600K facebook fans.

6/ That being said, TV advertising is far from dead. Comcast proved that without question – simply genius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYAOLKSAaBM

7/ There is more than one way to skin a cat. Or launch a new car. As VW showed with the Golf GTI in the US http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/golf-gti-iphone-usa-2009-10-29

8/ You really are only as good as your last burger. See Fallon + Sony + Balls.

9/ Baku is interesting the first time you visit. On each subsequent trip it is blustery, dusty and a long way from home. Bakcell were doing well when we left them though.

And finally, one other thing that I now know all too well.

10/ Nappies are easy. Not pleasant, but easy. Thanks for every one Avie x.

The Jam used to tell us that the bitterest pill was hard to swallow.

But as I watch the political landscape here in the UK develop it seems our current and future political leaders no longer feel that holds true.

As the parties set out their respective stalls ahead of next years’ contest, I wonder if ever before an election has been contested on the basis of ‘vote X, it’s going to be much worse with us’!

It tells us something about the world we live in today I guess. That the levels of trust we have for our leaders have fallen to such a low level that they now feel the only course of action is to be honest with us.

Research Gyro conducted a year or so back showed that in the midst of the credit crunch less than 17% of us (believe we) trust advertising…. . if you’re a bank brand I doubt things have improved.

Marketers of course know all this. They also know that consumers are savvier, more informed and – in theory at least – should have more control over their choices.

And as such the best brands and agencies are responding. Day after day we see, dream up and argue over various brand attempts at collaboration, co-creation and participation.

So as we move forward into 2010 and beyond, we will undoubtedly see more and more stunning ideas in this area as we all become used to these changing times.

We’re going to see more openness, more honesty and less spin. And personally, I think I look forward to it. It can only be good for the soul.