Monday, February 26, 2007

IS IT OR ISN'T IT AN INSIGHT?

Consumer or customer insights remain as topical among marketers as ever. This is no doubt due in large part to the challenge of finding legitimate insights the brand and agency can actually leverage in its creative communications development process. Unfortunately, many creative efforts get underway without real insights, substituting things like Facts, Needs, and Accepted Consumer Beliefs for the real thing. This week we take a shot at differentiating harder-to-find-and-articulate Insights from these easier-to-come-up-with pretenders.

IsItOrIsntItAnInsight2007.pdf (PDF File)

Sunday, February 18, 2007

BREAK-WITH TO BREAKTHROUGH

This week's DISPATCHES is a little different in that after reading it we would especially like your feedback to our Blog. After reading the article and viewing the print ad within, we ask that you consider the following questions:

1) How would you define a breakthrough?
2) In what areas of marketing are breakthroughs most sought?
3) What areas or types of breakthroughs provide the best return on investment?
4) Who determines what is or isn't a breakthrough in your organization?
5) What, in your organization and/or experience, have you found to be the most significant barriers to generating real breakthroughs?
6) What do you think of the DOVE pro-age ad? Break-with? Breakthrough?
7) What do you think of the DOVE real beauty campaign and its departure from category practices?

We're looking forward to an interesting dialogue with you.

Break-WithToBreakthrough2007.pdf (PDF File)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

UPCOMING STRATEGIC POSITIONING & COMMUNICATIONS COLLEGE

Greetings! This special midweek DISPATCHES is a direct response to the many requests for more information about our upcoming program, Strategic Positioning & Communications College, to be held at the Hotel Orrington in Evanston, Illinois May 1-3, 2007. We hope that this information will be helpful to you and aid in your decision making.

As always, if there is anything we can do to help, please contact Lori Vandervoort at loriv@bdn-intl.com or 800-255-9831 (620-431-0780). We look forward to working with you in May.

2007 OpenInvite Ltr 02-14.pdf (PDF File)



Monday, February 12, 2007

ARE CAMPAIGNS DEAD?

Where have all the campaigns gone? Doesn't anybody do them anymore? Well, it seems that there are fewer and fewer true communications or even advertising campaigns out there. When we ask clients to name some, even from within their own companies, they often draw blank faces. This week we explore some hypotheses behind this apparent trend away from long-running, multiple execution campaigns and toward "one-off" single shots.

AreCampaignsDead2007.pdf (PDF File)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

SUPER BOWL OR DUST BOWL?

Super Bowl XLI is history. Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts for their victory over the Chicago Bears 29 - 17. Not to sound like "sour grapes" (since it is common knowledge that we were pulling for Da' Bears) but, other than the first quarter, the game was rather boring. But, perhaps we can find some excitement in the ads that were debuted during the game. Certainly, some will garner comments and ignite discussion when we marketers gather around the water cooler. Which ad(s) might you talk about? The controversial "Kiss" from Snicker's, "Marketing" for GoDaddy.com, "Cheesy" which Dorito's bills as the first consumer created commercial aired on the Super Bowl, "Salute" Coca-Cola's tribute to Black History or some other ad?

Before you partake in sharing your personal favorite(s), perhaps, you'll want to read this issue of DISPATCHES. It raises some interesting questions regarding whether these and other ads that appeared during the big game realized a Super Bowl or Dust Bowl in return on their advertising investment. Additionally, it shares our thoughts about how you might make your advertising score Super Bowl results any day.

SuperBowlOrDustBowl2007.pdf (PDF File)