Kia Ora TiVo

Mike Carney from the Media Council writes about the launch of TiVo in New Zealand.

Although TiVo won’t start operating in New Zealand until Christmas this year (actual launch date not yet specified, but we’re picking early November to tap into the pre-Christmas gift-buying season), the company and its one-third shareholder TVNZ are keen to drum up support for the TiVo from the advertising industry. That might seem a forlorn hope, given that TiVo and its ilk are viewed in some sectors of advertising as industry-destroyers and home-wreckers — but clearly TVNZ et al. don’t have the same point of view. read more

Most interesting, but not surprisingly, he observes that understanding your audience is still the most vital component of effective advertising.

In a live study of 55 US national ads, TiVo and Innerscope found that TV viewers are 25 percent more likely to fast-forward through ads with low emotional engagement than those with high emotional engagement. The data clearly suggest that ads that are more emotionally engaging are more likely to be viewed in their entirety even in a time-shifted environment. The findings, presented in March at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Annual Conference, show that sustaining viewers requires an understanding of their emotional engagement with an ad.

Fast strategy from the gut

IF has listed some some hot tips from Adliterate writer and planner Richard Huntington.

I fundementally, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically agree with Richard's point that great strategy is about having an opinion and point of view. So often, there is this unsaid assumption that we are required to find the "right" answer - this is an impossibility. Doing so, is looking for a prescriptive truth that can never be proven. Input from others can be valuable, but in the end it's just their opinions we are seeking. Right or wrong? Who knows? What does your gut say?

Here's Richard's hot tips.

1. Time is not the problem in creating strategy, ideas are. If you can find an idea the time will find itself.

2. Ideas first, facts second. Facts only make sense in the light of an idea.

3. There are only two criteria for judging your creative strategies - are they simple and are they interesting.

4. It is vital to be interesting, it is merely important to be right.

5. If you look in the same place as everyone else you will never find something interesting, no matter how clever you are.

6. Every great solution comes from a great problem. Make sure you understand the problem behind the problem that you are trying to solve.

7. Anything and everything can help you. Take a walk and think about how every shop, sign, ad, conversation and observation might help you solve the problem.

8. Be prepared. Keeping reading the weird shit.

9. Keep your focus on finding out the things you didn’t know you didn’t know.

10. Call upon your latent strategies, the strategies that you have always wanted to use but have never had the chance.

11. Remember that the stale strategic idea of one category is the ground breaking step forward in another.

12. Jam with other people, online or face to face. But don’t engage that trojan horse of mediocrity, the brainstorm.

13. Ask yourself what the brand’s position might be about the something we all care about.

14. A position is an opinion. We live in an age of conversation and opinions are the lifeblood of all conversations.

15. Plan from within. How do you feel about the brand, category or the wider world? How do you explain your own behaviour? You are not unrepresentative, you live in the same brand landscape as everyone else.

16. Trust your instinct - its the most truthful resource you have.

17. Fast strategy is more about decisiveness than speed. Often we need strategic courage more than haste.

REKLAMKARAKTARER

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that REKLAMKARAKTARER means planner ... I'm not even going to Google it before i post this ... I am that confident!

Stroking the ego ... this made my day

Truth, Lies and Advertising : The Art of Account Planning

The book that began my career as a planner.

"Account planning exists for the sole purpose of creating advertising that truly connects with consumers. While many in the industry are still dissecting consumer behavior, extrapolating demographic trends, developing complex behavioral models, and measuring Pavlovian salivary responses, Steel advocates an approach to consumer research that is based on simplicity, common sense, and creativity--an approach that gains access to consumers' hearts and minds, develops ongoing relationships with them, and, most important, embraces them as partners in the process of developing and advertising.
A witty, erudite raconteur and teacher, Steel describes how successful account planners work in partnership with clients, consumer, and agency creatives. He criticizes research practices that, far from creating relationships, drive a wedge between agencies and the people they aim to persuade; he suggests new ways of approaching research to cut through the BS and get people to show their true selves; and he shows how the right research, when translated into a motivating and inspiring brief, can be the catalyst for great creative ideas. He draws upon his own experiences and those of colleagues in the United States and abroad to illustrate those points, and includes examples of some of the most successful campaigns in recent years, including Polaroid, Norwegian Cruise Line, Porsche, Isuzu, "got milk?" and others.

The message of this book is that well-thought-out account planning results in better, more effective marketing and advertising for both agencies and clients. And also makes an evening in front of the television easier to bear for the population at large."