How often is it that in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we miss moments that surprise, inspire, disgust, and just make you go, "who would've thought?" I can be oblivious most of the time, but when I'm not, I amaze myself with the little lessons learned.
This is a recent pic I took at Washington Dulles International Airport on my way home from San Francisco.
No it wasn't really a great day to be flying. I was tired. I had a 24 hour turn-around. I wished I had give up my seat in an overbooked red-eye flight. I sat in the middle of a 5-seat row. My head-phone jack was faulty which meant watching Hairspray in silence. I was just spent getting into Washington at 6 am.
So once again, no it wasn't a great day to fly. Sorry Ted/United. It just wasn't.
While what I experienced is part and parcel of air-travel today, I can't help but wonder why Ted/United would think it was a great day to fly? Is it because they said so? Is it because they put a little sign thingy that suggested just that? Oh wait... it has to be the bright yellow that makes you feel happy... no wait, that yellow and blue is Ted's colors isn't it?
Here's what I think... how about some coffee at the airport next to that pretty sign? It costs you next to nothing and you probably dump more of it into the trash on every flight. How about a United TV channel so we get more choice beyond the CNN Airport feed. How about ... I dunno more cheap stuff to alleviate the stress of air travel that truly makes it a great day to fly...
... and which cumulatively might be cheaper than producing such a uselessly thick duty-free catalogue for even a 1 hour flight.
Earlier in the summer I had the pleasure of meeting up with Gareth Kay in Boston. One of things he mentioned during our conversation that stuck with me was that "humans are contradictory beings." It brings a smile on my face whenever I think about it. Our job as planners is to constantly analyze the behaviors of human beings and to make predictions about what makes us tick... even though "humans are contradictory beings."
Today I was led to a website by a family friend. The interview with God is an interesting site whose goal is to "create beautiful, inspiring presentations that make a positive difference in the lives of millions of people around the world."
Log on to the site and view the presentation.
I have pulled the parts that really struck a nerve with me.
“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered... “That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.”
“That they lose their health to make money... and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.”
"That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived.”
The recent events in the last few weeks as such have caused me much grief! If you aren't aware of what I am talking about, here's a quick update.
1.A profitable loss.
Russian world number 4, Nikolay Davydenko, has been involved in horrible accusations of match fixing and just last week, was fined by the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) for "not trying hard enough" in another match. Since then, a plethora of players have since come forward admitting that they have been approached to tank matches. ATP executive chairman and president Etienne de Villiers was quoted as saying that "match fixing could kill tennis."
This bugs me. I love the sport too much to see its integrity blemished so publicly! I am not stupid. Whenever there is betting in sport, there is bound to be some corruption. I believe that the ATP , WTA (Women's Tennis Association), and ITF (International Tennis Federation) are doing their best now to investigate and weed out the worms.
What I feel must be done is to shut the players up! Seriously! Till the associations have more concrete information, the players are only adding fuel to fire and not helping the sport at all. Oh and is it some sheer coincidence that the players that have since "come forward" are lowly ranked or attention hogging ego maniacs?
Stop the hemorrhaging and attack the cancer. Only then can recovery begin.
2. Hingis is no coke whore.
My favorite player Martina Hingis has announced that she is retiring from tennis for the second time. Not unexpected news considering her dismal season plagued with injuries. What is shocking is that she revealed that she tested positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. She maintains her innocence.
What's glaring to me is that WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott didn't know about the charges till Hingis announced it. This makes the tennis structure look overly bogged down with structure and jurisdiction. Greater channels of communication need to be established between the ATP, WTA, and ITF such that they are better able to respond to crisis and effective manage the brand of tennis.
I wish Martina all the best in her post tennis career and her fight against the allegations.
3. Up Sharapova's skirt.
If you're in the ad business, you must have heard about the juicy water-cooler fodder about former Dentsu US Creative Director, Steve Biegel's lawsuit against his former employer. What is incredibly juicy is this picture that was apparently snapped by Toyo Shigeta, chief executive officer of Dentsu Holdings USA.
Yes it's an upskirt shot of Maria Sharapova during a Cannon shoot.
Yes, why did Maria have to sit like that? She was kinda asking for it wasn’t she? But google Sharapova upskirt and you will find many more images in the middle of match-play! For years, women's tennis has gotten sexier and more glamorous which I have absolutely nothing against. I think they've brought much excitement and interest into the game which is awesome. It is much better than the days of all white, oversized polo tees tucked into pleated balloons skirts. The question is how far before we get into skankville and loose sight of the beautiful game?
That's just a summary of my rants. I hope the tennis organizations get it together, have a massive organizational retreat, and start to plot out how they are going to fix their brands. Hurry though, the new season begins in less than 2 months. I leave you with some tennis brilliance and why I fell in love with the game in the first place.
I was just looking at pictures from the US Open (which sadly ends today) when out of the wall of pictures, I spotted this one. Brilliant!
It's the Geico caveman just nonchalantly and unassumingly watching the match. No there was no mention of Geico or the new Caveman show on ABC. Just another tennis fan (remember he had a wooden tennis racquet in the airport travellator ad).
In fact, here's the caption... "Fans watch the US Open semifinal match between Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and switzerland's Roger Federer at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, 08 September 2007."
The caveman is already so ingrained in culture and has developed such a relationship with people that you no longer need to constantly beat a person down with brand messages. It's a free-flowing interaction with people. Seemingly unplanned, completely welcoming - just another part of culture.
Here's a succinct definition of connection planning I stumbled accross on Facebook. Special thanks to Callcott London . I have to get his/her real name.
"Connection Planning is the art/science of; firstly segmenting your audiences by business objective, deciding which message will excite each segment, deciding on the moment you should reach each group and then (and only then)developing the correct message (creative) and medium IN TANDEM (channel e.g. PR, ads, events, digital) to grow the business."
Here's an example of using media as a strategic weapon that Gareth Kay used during his session at the Adcenter's Advanced Management Training for Creative Directors program. I really like it. Simple and powerful at the same time.
I was really bummed during a recent trip to NYC because I was going to miss Amma . While the odds of breaking through the crowds to get a hug from her were really slim, I read that she does make the extra effort to give everyone a hug and I know that I definitely needed one following a bad interview.
That’s the funny thing about hugs. No matter who offers it, you always end up with a smile. It is a personal moment – one where an individual offers love and concern to another and says, “hey, I care.”
Which brings me to this story I saw on ABC. It involves the free hugs movement.
For those of you who already know about this, I apologize for old news. But isn’t it amazing that complete strangers offer hugs to you on the street. If you can get over hugging a stranger, then imagine what a surprising pick me up it can be after a long day of discussing ROI on a wild posting.
Even better, why don’t brands offer free hugs? Forget about ROI, tracking studies, and what-have-you, and think about a genuine offering of love. “It doesn’t matter that you buy our soap, here’s just a hug we wanted to give you,” says a brand. Imagine that.
It obviously isn’t a literal hug that brands give but more of the little things that you can do for an individual that doesn’t ask for anything in return, A free wash and blow even though you don’t buy our shampoo. A free cookie even if you don’t buy our coffee. A free oil change even though you didn’t buy our car… because it’s not customers who matter, but people. People matter.
So instead of creating great and lavish communication pieces, why don’t we offer hugs? Even if it’s not an entire campaign, it can be so much more relevant, but more importantly meaningful to people... especially if you approach them at that right time.
Now I am in Salem VA spending time with my family. My personal favorite activities include listening to my mom's futile attempts at barbequing ribs, spending hours practicing my tennis serve on empty courts, and breathing clean country air. Sorta.
But if anyone is offering a planning job, I would love to talk.
Or if the Food Network is reading this, call me! I will gladly change my career path to be a food taster. Ok, and perform some trend studies for you too.
Earlier this semester I worked on Heinz Ketchup. I struggled. It was hard to develop a new, exciting, compelling, and interesting direction for it. CPGs continue to stump me.
My team and I kept trying to create something that hit a nerve on a deeper level but often we got lost ourselves along the way. No matter what, it's still ketchup that we're talking about here.
In the end though, we did ok.
The point of this long intro is to set up an amazing TV Spot by BBH New York for Vaseline.
The strategy was so simple, clear and concise. The ad featured good and useful information.
But above all, it took information about the skin, which to some might seem mundane, and turned it into a most beautiful piece of storytelling.
I guess my takeaway is that perhaps I should have stuck with the original strategy. While seemingly dry in the beginning, it offered a clear and concise proposition that the creative team could have taken to a beautiful place had I not backed down.
Businessweek just published an article today regarding the launch of a new website, Honeyshed, aimed specifically at providing only branded content. It was announced by Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of Publicis Groupe (PUB) ; David Droga, creative chairman of New York City-based creative shop Droga5 ; and David Kenny, CEO of Digitas .
This dramatically changes the landscape of branded content. The hard sell is gone. No more "here's a piece of content if you watch my little 30 second spot first."
As we move towards a world of engagement versus attraction, this represents a seismic shift in the way we think of the way brands interact with consumers. If for the longest time we presumed that consumers weren't interested in brands and therefore we needed to be disruptive to get their attention, then now is the time to rethink that notion and consider that there is a possibility for brands to be engaging, interesting, and useful - i.e. like real people who we interact with on a daily basis.
Andrew Essex, CEO of Droga5 said, "this is totally transparent and completely entertaining. It's overt advertising based on the idea that people love brands. They just don't necessarily love it when brands interrupt or deceive them. This will make brands the life of the party rather than the uninvited guest."
I am currently working on a project for Yahoo! right now and we keep coming back to the notion of giving up some control and to develop greater transparency. If done right, this creates a symbiotic relationship where both brand and consumer can co-exist in a mutually beneficial way.
Publicis, Droga5, and Digitas have invested between $5 million and $10 million to develop this project and it will be interesting to see how it evolves and how it can potentially rock the way we think about online advertising, and even branding in general.
German artist Arnd Drossel designed a 265 pound sphere and built it out of stainless steel rods with the assistance of patients from a local psychiatric hospital.
Drossel, 38, who designs furniture for a living when not suffering for his art, will eat, sleep and move in the ball. He is walking (or you could also say rolling) 220 miles between the town of Dorsten and Raesfeld to raise money and awareness for psychiatric patients.
"I got the idea for this because, about a year ago, I hit a low and realized how little help there was out there," Drossel said. "I set about thinking of a way to publicize those who need psychiatric help and came up with this. Basically, the whole concept is about finding the courage to do something and inspire courage in those who have lost their confidence along with much else."
This is yet another example of using your talents to do something for a cause that you feel passionate about. All of us have talents and while seemingly unrelated to a cause, we can still use thse talents to create magic.
I really hesitated to post anything about the tragedy. The media disappointed me by breaking the cardinal rule of never asking "how do you feel?" during a time of mourning.
However, a week after the tragedy, I read an article that jolted me from my state of oblivion.
Josephine Kim, a mental health expert who emigrated from South Korea said, “I think our community failed him, the school system failed him, and definitely the immigrant life really failed him.”
She describe Cho Seung-Hui as part of what Korean Americans call “generation 1.5” referring to those born in Asia but raised in U.S. and fluent in English by the time they reach high school. They live in a cultural divide where parents struggle to make ends meet while their children Americanize.
This often results in some distance between parents and their children. Kim explained, “the parents really wanted to provide the American Dream for their kids, which required that they made superhuman sacrifices working really hard. That might have meant they didn't have enough time at home with their kids. It's often kids raising themselves.”
The thing that really hit me about this story is my own sense of guilt and search for identity. When I moved to America from Singapore, I wasn’t “Asian” enough for Asians from Asia but yet wasn’t “American” enough for Asian Americans. But yet I survived.
I had the good fortune of finding a close group of confidants and while it was a small circle, it was still a support group nonetheless. I had family who were blessed to be able to semi-retire here, working only to cover monthly bills but already had their nest egg well-tended to, and as such were always in touch with me.
Therein lies the guilt but I can only be thankful and feel blessed that moving halfway round the world didn’t put undue stress on me. I am proud of my Asian heritage and while I am not Korean, my heart goes out to the Korean community in Virginia.
This is not your shame. Your hearts are in the right places. I mourn with you just as much as I mourn for the families of the many people who lost family and loved ones a week ago.
Burkina Faso is not a famous poet. Burkina Faso is not a brilliant scientist either. Burkina Faso is definitely not an ancient philosopher.
Burkina Faso is a country in West Africa. The UN recently ranked it as the third poorest nation in the world. Burkina Faso has an estimated life expectancy at birth of slightly under 50 years of age. The median age of its inhabitants is under 17. Despite the economic hardships that are not foreign to the residents of this impoverished country, they have showed amazing resilience that can teach most of us a lesson in perseverance.
Only half of the population has access to clean water and experts claim that soap-washed hands can decrease diarrhea-like diseases by 40%. As such, many women and children in Burkina Faso have started sorting through toxic refuse from nearby factories, often protected (if at all) by just dish gloves and rain boots, looking for potash. Potash is a potassium salt, which the women and children boil in oil drums and mould the product into soap balls to be sold on the streets.
There are many time when I can whine and think that a situation is impossible to overcome. I can only shame myself when I think of the women and children of Burkina Faso. Through their resilience, creativity and determination, they have made the best of their situation. I am nowhere near their situation so I have no right to whine.
I can only tell myself to keep on pushing, keep sifting through the toxic waste, and create something good out of a rotten situation.
I'm a Jr. Planner in San Francisco by way of Virginia, Dublin and Singapore.
I love each and every day when I constantly learn new things about the world around me. Now if I can only remember to put those learnings here.
