Their goal: Make sure the marketing profession continues to thrive and that it contributes meaninfully to society.

Here are the 10 principles they suggested:

1. Marketing must become increasingly targeted, focused, and personal.

2. Marketing must build real, tangible, and enduring brand value.

3. Marketing must become more effective, creative, insightful, and accountable.

4. Marketing must become more integrated and proficient in managing expanding media platforms.

5. The marketing supply chain must become more efficient and productive.

6. The marketing ecosystem—including agencies, media, and suppliers—must become increasingly capable.

7. Marketing professionals must become better, highly skilled, diverse leaders.

8. Marketing must be indisputably socially responsible.

9. Marketing must be unencumbered by inappropriate legislation or regulation.

10. The marketing discipline must be elevated and respected.

Sounds like a good set of mantras to me. I particularly like # 1, 3, 7, 8 and 10. Wouldn’t it be nice if all clients and agencies lived by these simple, yet profound rules? I’d like to add a few:

11. Marketing people need to have fun and not over-think—in order to stay in touch with real consumer behavior, thoughts and motivations.

12. Creativity should be celebrated and revered—it accelerates the connection between brands and consumers.

What do you think? What other “write in” bylaws should be added to the marketing constitution?

Then I came across Lee Clow’s Beard. It’s a steady flow of insight of the “wish I said it that way” variety. Today’s: “Most people don’t have enough time to interact with their kids, let alone your brand. Respect that.”

Who on Twitter do you find uniquely worthwhile?

mj

Bottom line? I don’t care if it’s the best spot I’ve ever seen in my life. Show it to me 20 or 30 times a night for a week straight, and it’s gonna start to suck. Am I the only one who thinks a media buy the size you see during the playoffs would support, if not demand, multiple executions for a campaign? How does this not happen?

Here’s a helpful Playoff Baseball Advertising Formula, humbly submitted:
staggering # of time slots / limited # of brands / minimal # of executions = burnout

My thoughts on the work from Round One:

• I want to like the Blackberry ads more than I do. Maybe it’s the weird cover version of “All You Need is Love”. Maybe it’s that I only get to see the Blackberry actually doing something in, like, two edits of a 60-second spot. Maybe it’s the fact that I feel like I’ve seen this idea a million times before. Whatever it is, I wish it wasn’t a :60.
• Staying with the handheld device category, I have fewer problems with the myTouch work, other than the exquisitely uninspired product name (which I mentioned, incorrectly, in my last post). I like the SNL veterans ensemble (note to Chevy Chase – the one character you seem to know how to play was funny in the ‘70s, funnier in the ‘80s, a lot less funny in the ‘90s, and is now just excruciating). I like the music, too, but I have to wonder what Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam’s price was to sell out. Wouldn’t have expected that one. The first spot with Phil Jackson and Jesse James is also good, but they’re both pretty much saying the same thing: “See? Different apps in motion? White psych? The name? We’re just like Apple!”
• But speaking of Apple, they don’t always win. I’m not usually a huge fan of trying to call out a competitor’s advertising your own work, but the spot from Verizon taking on AT&T Wireless and the iPhone is great. They take direct aim at the iPhone’s singular competitive weakness – the painfully underwhelming 3G coverage from AT&T – and crush it with a payoff line that delivers a nice, big “eff you” to iPhone and its advertising: “There’s a map for that.” Love it. You sank my battleship.
• I’m not sure, but I think there’s a new George Lopez talk show coming on TBS. What happened, folks? Have a bit of time left unsold? Do you have anything ELSE to promo? Please? Isn’t there an upcoming re-run of “The Office” or a “Family Guy Weekend” you can tease me with? No?
• The new Marines stuff is pretty cool. Awesome editing. In fact, I do believe a Jay Advertising old boy named Justin Baum is currently working on that business down in the Atlanta. Go, JB!
• Like the Bing work, too. Great theater, meaningful payoff. The first time I saw it, I wanted to back it up so I could watch it again, but I correctly assumed that it would re-appear soon.
• This is probably worth its own blog, but can we talk about the Arby’s media strategy? I can get on board with a bookend strategy that shows me two spots at either end of a commercial break. Two different spots. Arby’s runs the exact same spot at either end of the break, and it’s a teeth-rattling retail number targeting everyone looking for four roast beef sandwiches for five bucks. I’m sure they have a good reason for the strategy, but I sure wish they’d produce a companion spot. They can’t be that expensive.

Round Two starts tonight. Fox coverage joins the party tomorrow. Here’s hoping for some great games. And new spots.

A leader in the PR and social media world, Peter Shankman suggests that brevity is among his four “rules” for communications practitioners in effective social media engagement. If today’s average attention span is 2.7 seconds, then long gone are the days where journalists are reading much beyond your headline!

Surely strong writing helps to crack this nut. The trick is to balance brevity with clarity, as shorter may not always be better. Another challenge is to be brief without compromising captivation. It’s tough when you want to paint a full picture while filtering words that may give your pitch that “oomph” to sell in your idea.

It really boils down to basics for all communicators, not just PR practitioners. Strong writing is clear, concise, and balanced with compelling punches. Condense your idea(s) into a short but sweet message.

Well it was a valiant attempt to practice what I’m “preaching” here. My post was not quite as brief as I had intended, but hey—I’m not on Twitter now, am I?

Anyone have Twitter-esque thoughts on the importance of being brief in communications?

So I was happy to come across Christopher Kimball’s piece in Thursday’s NY Times. Mr. Kimball is the publisher of Cooks Illustrated. The article reflects on Gourmet’s demise, but goes on to offer a smart and contrarian reaction to the dominant theology of our day: digital democratization.

The whole article is here. Think it over the next time you price your services or read about a national brand soliciting ideas through crowd sourcing.

Here’s a quote:

To survive (digital democratization), those of us who believe that inexperience rarely leads to wisdom need to swim against the tide, better define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do, and refuse to climb aboard this ship of fools, the one where everyone has an equal voice. Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks.

Advertising, the business of commercial communication in all its forms, is a craft. Experience matters. I wonder if the ad business itself believes this.

Cheers!
mj

But just as my grumbling was starting to bug even me, I came across a remedy that I think offers real value. The Simon School of Business recently (I think) redid their site, and their homepage caught my attention big time. What looked like another series of feature profiles is instead a series of hard facts that clearly define the Simon advantage. You still get the nice engaging people shot, but what’s behind it has a lot more tooth and relevance.

Today’s audience is more discerning than ever. Tell me what I need to know, and tell me why I should care. Once I’m engaged, the story telling can take me further, but I think we need to do a better job of making our case up front.

Tim’s evangelism lasted another year perhaps. The Saturn brand meanwhile soldiered on, right up to this past Wednesday when GM announced that a planned takeover by auto mogul Roger Penske had fallen through. It appears the Saturn division will close next year.

Even before the current auto slump, Saturn had become a staple of MBA case studies on how to kill a promising business. Conventional wisdom has it that the meddling execs of GM killed the quirkiness in an effort to lower costs. The predictable cycle commenced, with loyal owners spun off each year.

I’d like to introduce an alternate theory: Saturn was dead on arrival. That it even got off the ground is a testament to brilliant advertising from Hal Riney and a decent dealer network. The problem was the cars – uniquely styled at times, but nothing special in performance, quality, or safety. Saturn created a compelling brand narrative, but not a good product.

Saturn has failed spectacularly, but not uniquely. Countless brands try to create a “brand experience” before doing the hard work of legitimate differentiation. My favorite category is airtravel – remember Song or Ted (we want to be like Jet Blue, can we do it without actually changing?).

Sadly, agencies and marketers are often asked to create the story and then canned when it doesn’t connect. Wish I had a more uplifting message. Cheers!

mj

P.S. while appreciating some of Hal Riney’s Saturn tv work, came across his work helping to elect Ronald Reagan. Politics aside, far more memorable than anything I’ve seen lately from candidates.

Glimpses of improvement
Krista shared that the Consumer Confidence Index, which is a barometer of the “collective cultural psyche,” is continuing to trend upwards after bottoming out in February. However, unemployment is still high; a full economic rebound won’t happen until unemployment goes down, which is not expected until next year.

Mintel has identified an interesting and under-served segment: The “Under-Employed.” Of those 90% of Americans still employed, a third of full-time workers have taken a cut in hours or income, and over 40% of part-timers have lost work hours.

There’s no place like home
Despite these conditions, 70% of Americans are spending the same or more on home food than last year, because they’re eating at home more than ever. This means spreading the food budget farther – leading to a more engaged and experimental consumer. With this comes jumps in sales, and loyalty to private label brands as well as basics like Spam and Macaroni and Cheese.

This spend-“at-home” phenomenon is also associated with downward trends in eating at restaurants, traveling for vacations, and entertainment outside of the home. It also explains the staggering data that shows 34% of Americans are thinking about buying a flat-screen TV by the end of the year, as well as the positive trends in “simple” home improvement like painting and gardening.

Great brand value prevails
Mintel shared some great trend-busting brands that have thrived despite the marketplace, thanks to a focus on a quality product and experience at a great value. Terrific examples are Panera Bread, JetBlue and Old Navy. Good to see the principles of great product at a fair price can still prevail.

• Rochester is an ad community in dire need of a softball tournament, a battle of the bands, something – anything – to remind us that a community is exactly what we are. Seeing each other at the ADDY show and the occasional RAF social event isn’t enough. We need more. Friendly competition is good. Bragging rights are even better. This really needs to happen. I can put a softball, bowling, badminton, or water polo team together if you can. Okay, water polo might be tough, but you get the idea.
• Too many clients are mistaking social marketing websites for free places to park their logos instead of opportunities to give their brands meaning and bring them to life. From what I can tell, too many agencies nationwide are failing to educate and inspire them to think otherwise. Prove me wrong. Please.
• Any creative who says he or she hasn’t looked through creative annuals for inspiration is either a liar or a fool. Any account, production, PR, or media person who says they’ve never looked through a creative annual is probably telling the truth and is definitely not giving themselves an important tool for success.
• Rochester is without a doubt the most jingle happy community I have ever lived in. Professionally produced jingles don’t bother me; they’re effective as hell. Half-assed TV or radio station-produced jingles do. Got a favorite (or least favorite) jingle?
• Admit it, Fucillo Hyundai ads have made you laugh out loud at least once, even if you hate yourself for doing so. Say what you want – the spots may be stupid, but the guy selling more Hyundais than anyone else in the country is not.
• Local students who are aspiring art directors – get a copywriter to write the ads in your book. Aspiring copywriters – get an art director to art direct your book. All the kids coming out of programs like VCU and Miami Ad School do, and the difference shows.
• TV and the art of doing broadcast are not dead. You just have to go online to see what’s being done.
• iPhones are sweet. iPhone apps are sweet. iPhone apps that do something which is already programmed into my iPhone are stupid. Skype for iPhone? Why wouldn’t I just text you?
• I actually think I like GM’s new tagline, “May the best car win.” Big and bold, just like they want to be. Hope they can live up to it.
• Just noticed that America’s Funniest Videos is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Why is this show still on TV? Haven’t we already seen the funniest videos from America (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) on YouTube?
• There’s a new iPhone knockoff called the “myPhone”. Really? myPhone? That’s the best they could do? Reminds me of Cleo McDowell in “Coming to America”: “They got the Big Mac … I got the Big Mick.”
• There’s some fantastic work getting done in Rochester. Let’s do more.

Comments?

Struck by the overwhelming sameness? Like a template was handed out at a 4 A’s conference. Right down to the “proprietary approach” and 3rd person bios (“Our clients describe Mike as quietly brilliant. So they’re surprised to learn he fronts a local punk band on the weekends”). I selected two for fodder, one bad and one good:

McCann NY (bad)
I defy you to discover anything relevant about this agency in 30 seconds. Eventually I found the “what we think” section, and have concluded that concealment was intentional (summary: they’re really really open to ideas). And moving links, still, in 2009?

Full disclosure, I used to work at McCann NY prior to emigrating to Rochester. Met my wife there. Loved the place. They are better and smarter than the site suggests.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky beta (good)
In certain circles, it’s very 2005 to openly admire CPB. But when faced with conventional challenges, they continue to think and behave unconventionally. The beta site is the latest example. Video, feeds and news about CPB and clients. Not just the sanitized PR stuff either. So it captures the impact the work is having rather than assessing work in a gallery. Time on your hands? Watch “Brokaw meets Bogusky” video.

Let me know examples you admire, local or otherwise. Love to see more of the good stuff. Or tell me how wildly off-base I am.

And the announcement:
When introducing the new blog team a few weeks ago, I neglected to mention P&N CMO Sarah Hanson. Not a minor oversight. Sarah arrived in Rochester from Boston’s Digitas with a ton of digital experience. More on Sarah here. Look for her to light up the blogoshere later this month.

mj