Ant Hill Marketing

Companies spend a considerable amount of time and energy differentiating their products and services from their competition. But often times they fail to follow through with the imagery they choose to represent themselves.

Take these images from two successful brands:

iMac product shot. Photo courtesy of Apple.

Apple: The style is modern. The tone is cutting edge and clean. Obviously a computer for the rest of us.

adidas Soccer Ad

adidas: Style and tone combine to show the passion, individuality and action of sport.

Picture perfect.

We’ve all heard the adage “A picture is worth 1000 words.” Its true. The style, tone and subject of imagery all say something about a brand. And if you want the most out of an image – that “something” needs to support what your brand stands for. Not to mention that there is nothing more embarrassing for a brand manager (or a designer) than having your ad show up with the same stock photo as your competitor.

Granted that original art doesn’t come cheap, even for large companies, especially when measured as just one line item when developing one piece of collateral. But, when you consider its value to the overall image of a brand, its an investment for the long run. Original artwork also gives you the ultimate control over the message behind the image and adds to the uniqueness of a brand. The right image and visual language of a photo will communicate, engage and identify with your audience in ways that words can’t.

So I ask you dear reader, how have you made the case for original art? And what do you do when you can’t?

That oh so memorable soundtrack at 10:00 p.m. tells you to hold on and get ready for the one hour adrenaline rush through the eyes of our favorite Chicago emergency room. Who knew that this one hour slot of time was to turn into a TV and cultural phenomenon? In fact, several networks passed up on the ER pilot believing its mastermind, the late (and great) Michael Crichton, to be out of his Jurassic Park. Why would anyone want to watch an hour of drama focused on what goes on in an ER? The previously successful hospital primetime program was St. Elsewhere but that was more of a sitcom mix. This was something entirely different and the networks didn’t really know (or understand) what to do with ER. In the end, NBC bit (but not at first blush) hoping for another L.A. Law or Hill Street Blues.  What they got was much more.

Fast forward 15 years, 122 Emmy nominations, 22 Emmy awards, and we’re at the end of a very long (and profitable) series. ER’s developers, producers, actors, directors – the entire program team redefined the TV drama. One of the best program brands today. They didn’t take a cookie-cutter approach and try to pigeon-hole their script into an existing program format. They took risks. Were consistent. Had passion. Were courageous.  And built community.

Businesses might learn from ER’s success. Think about it. Do you have a distinction in your market? Are you unique? And do you have a community that supports you both internally and externally? In today’s extremely difficult marketplace, businesses must be true to their brand. While the business and CEO mantra today is retrench, it should be step up. Now is the time to take stock in your brand, readdress it and see if it is truly the valuable asset it should be.

So CEOs, business owners and marketers alike, when you sit down tonight to watch the final episode of this 15-year run, before you flatline, ask yourself, “Is my brand dying?” And, more importantly, “What am I going to do about it.”

Time to make the donuts.

As if it weren’t already difficult to select the perfect donut at the shop, Dunkin Donuts launched an online campaign, engaging customers to create the next, best donut. Sweet. While the concept isn’t necessarily original (taken from many a marketing playbook like developing the next M&M color, the next HaagenDaz flavor, etc.), it is engaging and like a single donut, makes you want more. With the dangle of $12K for the winning donut, it’s all but assured that Dunkin will get many a creation.

This type of effort helps highlight why engaging your brand with both your internal and external audiences is so vital.  Engaging both employees and customers energizes and invigorates both the brand and the people around you. It gets people excited. It helps build evangelists who continue to support your brand. Dunkin Donuts has more than 460,000 fans on its Facebook page and more than 11,000 followers on Twitter.  They also have YouTube channel.  And minus a few downfalls with this effort – website isn’t mobile friendly – it is fun. This promotional effort is part of a $100 million national campaign developed by Hill, Holliday in Boston, American Runs on Dunkin. Time will tell how many donut creations they receive but the endearment and trust they build with customers is worth much more than the next donut creation.  Unless of course it’s filled with chocolate kreme.

Wondering how Portland will push through the down economy and grow stronger in the future? Mayor Sam Adams spoke with creative industry folk at the PAF event on March 10. He outlined his Sustainable Economic Development Strategy that details a five year plan to promote economic growth and job creation for our fair city. There are lofty goals including building the most sustainable economy in the U.S. and creating 10,000 new jobs. To do so, we (the businesses of Portland) must be leaders in sustainable job growth, sustainable way of life and inclusive prosperity that doesn’t leave anyone out from reaping benefit to growth. 

Recognizing the strength of creative services industry and the subset that includes marketing, advertising, design, and interactive shops, he told those in attendance that he would travel to help local businesses grow and help gain focus on local firms pitching clients outside the city and region. He and his team are also working diligently to aid in bringing new business headquarters to Portland (read – new clients).

Currently the Mayor and his team are working on a “creative capacity” project strategy to be delivered in April. Based on what he explained, this strategy does not include creative firms and is mostly the arts (due to lack of funding and the need to stabilize the arts). However, the plan is to partner with Portland’s creative services industry to aid in – what many have longed to hear – developing a brand strategy for the City of Portland.  He followed by emphasizing that the goal is to be strategic, not simply develop a logo or a look. 

Our Mayor seems to get the benefit of brand development.  But, it leaves me wondering, why not include the creative service industry folks in the planning now? To deliver on the brand, it’s got to be infused into and aligned with all functional areas of our city and needs to be a part of the strategy now, not simply a piece of the delivery.  Just as a private sector organization must align its business and brand strategies in order to deliver on the brand promise throughout the organization, so too should government entities align city strategies and brand. If not, our fair city may miss the boat and wind up with just a logo and a look and another campaign.

For those of you who may not have heard, Skittles has recently launched a new website. Instead of bringing you a taste of the rainbow through a flashy site that offers product giveaways, colorful contests, and a branded interactive experience, they have chosen to leverage what YOU the consumer are saying about them by utilizing existing social media outlets, such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc…

To Skittles credit, in the past few years they have been very brave with their ad campaigns and branding. Some of their commercials rank among my favorites with their off-the-wall concepts. But I have to wonder what is this new risky venture into social media saying about their brand? Already I have seen attempts from saboteurs twittering racist rants coupled with the #skittles hashtag. Are they really going to hand over the reigns to us?

Their strategy so far has just been to point us to the conversations that are occurring at the moment about Skittles. That’s it. And to that, I say BIG DEAL…but what benefit does the consumer get from seeing your Wiki page, or becoming a Skittles facebook friend? Is there really a brand culture that exists for Skittles, where taking this type of approach is going to help foster their brand? They are certainly getting plenty of PR buzz by taking a page from Modernista‘s playbook. But is that sustainable? How quickly will this schtick become tiresome?

This approach is still new. What I hope to see is that they will carry forth that edginess that was in their campaigns and engage us! What off-the-wall innovation is Skittles going to bring to these conversations? How will they wow us? And what are they going to do with their products to BACK IT ALL UP!

I know you are watching, Skittles, but are you listening?