The rules of engagement

If the blogs I’ve seen in the region are anything to go by, about 20 people from Kuwait are sure to be responding with insults about my taste in everything, probably accusing me of stealing my heroes from others, and having a bit of a rant about expats and how they don’t understand the region. On any other day, I would reply with something along the lines of “I understand the region better than you understand advertising.” But not today. Oh no. Today is a day for tempers to be shelved. In fact, I’d encourage all of you to try to refrain from a barrage of insults and ill-founded accusations on this forum. Unless they’re funny. Because that excuses everything.

Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.

About 10 years ago, I saw Trevor Beattie deliver a talk to a room full of creatives. Big names in the industry generally have a well put-together presentation that’s available for whenever they need to give a speech, so presumably many people got to see it over the period of a couple of years. The content is usually: This is the work I’ve done; this is why it’s great; you too could be like me if you follow my lead (well, probably not); thank you very much; I’ll be feigning interest in anyone who wants a chat afterwards; and no you can’t have a job.

I guess true to who he is, Trevor’s was a little different. He talked about his heroes. From what I can remember, they were the following: John Lennon, Muhammed Ali and Buzz Lightyear. So, for this inaugural post, I thought I’d do the same. Albeit more in the form of a list than a talk about each of them. “Why?” you say. Because it generally makes for interesting reading, you get to know a little bit about the writer, and I hope it’ll help to kick-start this blog. Consider it an open invitation to add your own.

Here goes:

Books/Writers: Norman Mailer, Salman Rushdie (particularly Midnight’s Children and The Moor’s Last Sigh), Gore Vidal, Martin Amis (Time’s Arrow is the work of genius).

Music: (could be a long list, this one) The Velvet Underground, Orange Juice, The Smiths, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, The Jam, Echo and the Bunnymen, John Lennon, Prefab Sprout, Bruce Springsteen, John Cougar Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Bee Gees, Pale Fountains, Bob Marley, Glasvegas, Joy Division.

Films: Truly, Madly, Deeply, Taxi Driver, Rocky, Scarface, The Godfather, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Happy Gilmore, Bad Santa, Groundhog Day, The Big Lebowski, The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction, True Romance

Comedians: Bill Hicks, Jerry Sadowitz, Spike Milligan, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Louis CK.

TV: The Wire, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Californication, Weeds, Lost, 24, The Office, The X-Files, Cheers (I’m forgetting some).

Inventions: The phone, the telly, the internet, the Wonderbra.

Sportsmen/women: Kenny Dalglish, Danie Gerber.

So there it is, Andrew in a nutshell. If I had half the talent of anyone, or anyone responsible for anything, on the list, I’d be a happy little camper.

General ramblings

The thing about people who work in agency creative departments is that they could all do better on every single brief than those who actually worked on it. Truth is: some could, most couldn’t.

The other thing is that we’re very competitive. There’s nothing we like more than to see others produce bad work:

“Oh, they should’ve done this.”

“Nice idea, bad art direction.”

“First thought.”

I’ve seen rubbish work praised and great work slated, usually by the same people. Maybe it’s personal.

Something that gets trotted out, time after time, is that we have a pool of very talented people in Dubai. Well, no we don’t. We have a handful.

As an industry, we are under-performing.

Our good is quite good, rarely great. And our bad is as bad as it gets.

Are we just settling for mediocrity? Do we know the difference?

I include myself in the list of under-performers. I don’t have a pencil or a lion from the last year, and that’s not good enough.

Edward Boches on why brands need friends and an eco-system that attracts them.

Building brands has changed in a big way. Once it was all about what a brand said: the promises in its advertising. More recently it was about access: websites that let customers and prospects come and interact when they wanted to. But now it’s about what might be called “marketing through relationships.”

I’ve talked about this in a number of presentations, mostly in an attempt to explain that social media is not about technology or platforms, but rather about how brands can create long lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers.

A couple of days ago, poking around on some of my favorite blogs, I came across a presentation on BBH Labs’ site that included another smart way to think about this.

In a recent presentation that a couple of its strategists gave to students at VCU, the skunk-workers suggested that if a brand focuses on behavior, conversation, innovation, and utility (among other noteworthy qualities) it might actually make friends. A pretty good idea given that friends listen, share, support, forgive, come back and maybe even stay loyal when someone else has a better price.

Some pretty successful big brands — Panera*, Zappos*, Apple, and American Express come to mind – along with plenty of smaller companies — Timbuk2, the messenger bag maker, and AJ Bombers, the Milwaukee burger joint, for example– have also demonstrated the value of this approach.

These companies do it through their physical environments, interactions in social media, products and innovations, even their content and advice. What they all have in common is this: the experiences they create, digitally and otherwise, are mutually beneficial. They give their community as much as they hope to get back in the form of sales and business: Panera with its community involvement; Zappos with constant engagement and its knack for delighting; Apple with its one-to-one classes; and AMEX with it’s customer service. (If you’ve ever tried contesting a charge or fee with CitiBank or Chase versus American Express, you know what I mean.)

Timbuk2 treats its customers with genuine appreciation, taking advantage of everything from its website to personal thank you notes. And AJ Bombers continues to set examples with its innovative use of social media.

Behavior – what these brands do, not what they say – results in their winning friends, at least in the loose sense of the word.

In the BBH Labs presentation, the assignment to VCU students goes on to ask for an eco-system — presumably based on insights and an understanding of how the community-to-be-engaged (I like that better than the term “target audience”) uses technology, media and content — along with propagation tactics for how the word will get spread.

This is yet another smart way to look at marketing. After all, if we’re trying to make friends, the last thing we need to do is blabber at them. Better to create a warm, welcoming, entertaining environment where they might want to come and hang out rather than an ad they’re likely to tune out. Heck, they might even buy something while they’re with us.

We all know this is the new way to market. Every agency and CMO is starting to think this way. Granted some are getting there faster than others. After all it takes a different kind of team, a revised approach to strategy, and willingness to throw out the old way of doing things.

But I think the BBH Labs approach offers a good place to start: attracting friends (rather than targeting an audience) and building an eco-system instead of crafting a message.

Is that what you’re brand is doing?

Read more: http://edwardboches.com/brands-need-friends-and-an-eco-system-that-attracts-them#ixzz0r0QHAaUn

Tonic Young Lions team goes to Cannes

The UAE Young Lions Gold winner, Tonic team, will go to Cannes to compete in the Cannes Young Lions competition. Congratulations to the teams Impact BBDO and FP7 Dubai for winning Silver and Bronze respectively.

Creative Club to participate in Portfolio Nite 8.

Creatives wishing to participate must register themselves to http://bit.ly/cFloXY. See you there.

Creative Club to judge UAE Cannes Young Lions.

Competition for the UAE Cannes Young Lions begins today and ends tomorrow. The Bronze, Silver and Gold winners will be announced on Tuesday evening at 6pm at the Dubai Media City Offices, Building 2.

Creative Club to judge Campaign Photo Awards.

Date to be confirmed.