Atomic Ideas - Helping You Sell More Stuff!

Occupy Wall Street -- an example of bad branding!!!

Okay, so they had a chatchy name and they got thousands to follow. But then what? If they had better utilized the basics of brand-building, they might still be in business. Let's see how they did:

1. BRAND IDENTITY: This is where you differentiate your product or service. Calling themselves the 99% does not differentiate. The designation is so broad as to be nearly meaningless. Who are these people? Well they say it's 99% of the U.S. population. So I guess their group includes all kinds of people, including rapists, thieves, serial killers and the criminally insane, etc. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be grouped with those people.  -- FAIL

2. BRAND MISSION:  At the end of the day, what do they want to have happen? They can't tell you in one sentence or in a two-minute elevator speech, but even months after the movement has been in place, not one single person has even been able to outline their mission in any coherant fashion. (Now some might say that their mission was to gain publicity. But publicity is not a mission. It is a tool to help achieve a mission lke change minds, foster action, etc.) -- FAIL

3. UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP):  If you want me to "buy, join, or support" your product, service or position, you have to tell me how, in a simple way, how my life will be enhanced or my problems diminished if I do so. Hmmm, I can't think of a single part of my lfie that is enhanced or simplified when people invade pulic parks, deficate on sidewalks, refuse to shower, steal from each other, rape each other and make senseless and contradictory statements to the press. (If you can think of a benefit in there for 99% of America, please comment below!)  --FAIL 

4. VALUE PROPOSITION: Here is where you show me how your product, service, or movement will help me attain one of my personal goals better, easier, or more cheaply than available alternatives. Since we have no idea what the goal of Occupy Wall Street is, how can they possibly convince us that their way is the best path to make it happen?  (In my humble opinion, living in tent villages, spreading disease, and basically posing a danger to themselves and their target audience (which is 99% of us, after all) is not the best way to achieve ANYTHING). --FAIL 

5. BRAND ICON: This is where you develop a character, graphic treatment or logo that is recognizable to everyone. Like the Nike Swoosh or Speedy Alka-Seltzer. Our only visual touch-point has been unwashed, stinking, bum-like people living in tents. If I'm not mistaken, that's already the logo for "Squalor."  --FAIL

6. BRAND FILTER: These are  "focus words", the words you want your brand to conjure in the minds of your best postential customers. Talk to anybody about the Occupy Wall Street movement and one of their first thoughts is of....confusion!  -- FAIL

7. BRAND VALUES: What are the core values of Occupy Wall Street. Some say it is "justice" -- getting a fair shake for the 99% of us. But is invading and befowling a public park justice? Is spreading disease, rape and theft, justice? Brand values can't just be stated, they have to be exemplified. And the brand values that Occupy Wall Street exemplifies and lives everyday are not justice, they are, if anything, criminal.  --FAIL

8. TAGLINE: This is the catchy phrase that sums up what your product, service, or movement is all about. Occupy Wall Street Doesn't have one. (May I humbly suggest: "We won't be happy until everyone's not happy!)  -- FAIL

The result of good branding is selling more products, services, or getting people to take a clearly defined action. Now you may disagree with our assessment of Occupy Wall Street's branding efforts above, but you can't argue with their results, which are....none! 

Photos courtesy of Daily Mail Online:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046586/Occupy-Wall-Street-Shocking-photos-protester-defecating-POLICE-CAR.html

 

 

Where are your best customers? (Maybe not on Facebook or Twitter!)

Where your customers are is an important question. As the articles below point out, nearly 25% of Americans still don't use the Internet. Only about half use Facebook and only 7% use twitter. That's why we at Atomic Ideas continue to bang the drum for starting with a sound strategy. Even the right message is wasted if you're not using the right media. Just because everyone else is using a specific medium doesn't mean it's right for your brand...or maybe it is! 

Nearly Half of Americans Use Facebook; Only 7% Use Twitter [STUDY]

February 24, 2011 by Jolie O'Dell195

 

A new report from eMarketer finds that most adult Americans with Internet access use Facebook at least once a month, and a full 42.3% of the entire American population was using the site as of this month.

By contrast, Twitter‘s penetration rate was much lower, sitting at around 7% of the total population and 9% of the Internet-using population, according to the report.

Late last year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company saw around 250 million daily users of its 500 million-strong user base. The young exec made the point that Facebook’s products — including Photos, Places, Groups and Messages — are features that people use more frequently than they use other, more established services with similar features because Facebook’s products are inherently social.

Twitter, on the other hand, is driven largely by so-called power users, and only 21% of registered users are actually active on the site. Another interesting and related Twitter usage stat: 22.5% of users are responsible for 90% of all tweets.

One important stat to note, however, is Twitter’s year-over-year growth. Last year around this time, Twitter’s penetration rate was around 7%, and by the end of this year it’s expected to be at 11% for American Internet users, or 16.5% of the population that also uses other social networks. In terms of the overall U.S. population, the numbers are still small, but the growth is steady.

An analyst for the firm said, “eMarketer’s new Twitter usage estimates are lower than our April 2010 forecast. Since then, Twitter has continued to gain traction but at more moderate levels than we had expected.”

The microblogging service celebrated 100 million new accounts created in 2010, and a lot of that growth was due to the company’s investment in official and device-integrated mobile apps.

What do you think it’ll take for Twitter’s growth to really skyrocket and reach more of the population? Or will this service remain a niche product for the web-using elite? Let us know your opinions below.

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS # Country or Region Population, 2011 Est Internet Users Year 2000 Internet Users Latest Data Penetration (% Population) World % Users 1 China 1,336,718,015 22,500,000 485,000,000 36.3 % 23.0 % 2 United States 313,232,044 95,354,000 245,000,000 78.2 % 11.6 % 3 India 1,189,172,906 5,000,000 100,000,000 8.4 % 4.7 % 4 Japan 126,475,664 47,080,000 99,182,000 78.4 % 4.7 % 5 Brazil 203,429,773 5,000,000 75,982,000 37.4 % 3.6 % 6 Germany 81,471,834 24,000,000 65,125,000 79.9 % 3.1 % 7 Russia 138,739,892 3,100,000 59,700,000 43.0 % 2.8 % 8 United Kingdom 62,698,362 15,400,000 51,442,100 82.0 % 2.4 % 9 France 65,102,719 8,500,000 45,262,000 69.5 % 2.1 % 10 Nigeria 155,215,573 200,000 43,982,200 28.3 % 2.1 % 11 Indonesia 245,613,043 2,000,000 39,600,000 16.1 % 1.9 % 12 Korea 48,754,657 19,040,000 39,440,000 80.9 % 1.9 % 13 Iran 77,891,220 250,000 36,500,000 46.9 % 1.7 % 14 Turkey 78,785,548 2,000,000 35,000,000 44.4 % 1.7 % 15 Mexico 113,724,226 2,712,400 34,900,000 30.7 % 1.7 % 16 Italy 61,016,804 13,200,000 30,026,400 49.2 % 1.4 % 17 Philippines 101,833,938 2,000,000 29,700,000 29.2 % 1.4 % 18 Spain 46,754,784 5,387,800 29,093,984 62.2 % 1.4 % 19 Vietnam 90,549,390 200,000 29,268,606 32.3 % 1.4 % 20 Argentina 41,769,726 2,500,000 27,568,000 66.0 % 1.3 % TOP 20 Countries 4,578,950,118 275,424,200 1,601,772,290 35.0 % 75.9 % Rest of the World 2,351,105,036 85,561,292 508,993,520 21.6 % 24.1 % Total World - Users 6,930,055,154 360,985,492 2,110,765,810 30.5 % 100.0 % NOTES: (1) World Internet User Statistics were updated for June 30, 2011. (2) Additional data for individual countries and regions may be found by clicking each country name. (3) The most recent user information comes from data published byNielsen Online, International Telecommunications Union, Official country reports, and other trustworthy research sources. (6) Data from this site may be cited, giving due credit and establishing an active link back to Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2000 - 2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved.

 

 

Smarter Thinking from Honda?

 

I saw this new Honda Odyssey TV spot the other day. I asked my colleague Greg what it meant and what just happened there. He said they were imitating the Ozzie Osbourne song, “Crazy Train.” Really? Why? Smarter thinking?

Usually when you imitate or parody a popular song in a TV spot you hope that it’s… well… popular and recognizable. Honda struck out on this one. It’s surprising because Honda has always been very solid in their concepts and cleverness over the years.

I like Honda. I’ve owned many over the years and currently drive one. But I have to ask, whom were they targeting in this spot? The worldwide fan base of Ozzie Osbourne? No offense intended, but just how big could that be? Is this a song tune people have stuck in their heads throughout the day? Or maybe Honda just wanted to tie in the song’s title with Honda’s unique mini-van attributes – a weak tongue-in-cheek connection. The visual production value is good - it’s the audio that stumped me. I did not understand what was going on until Greg told me it was an Ozzie Osbourne tune, (Hmm... how did he know that!)

By the way, I later discovered there’s a 90 second version on the web that features a lot more of the Ozzie song performed by all of the Honda’s eight passengers. But it’s the thirty second TV spot that’s the measure for successful selling. One shouldn’t have to rely on the rarely aired :90 to substantiate or fill in the blanks of the :30 concept. However, it’s still not clear what Honda is trying to say here. The new Honda Odyssey is a crazy train?

This is one of those spots where you wonder how it was presented to the client. Was it acted out? Did they go so far as to test it as an animatic? And, who said, “Go for it” on the client side? - An Ozzie fan?

The spot wraps up with the line, “Smarter Thinking from Honda.” I’m sure there was smarter thinking for the new Odyssey vehicle, I’m not so sure there was for the commercial.

On my Steeb-O-Meter (a rating system for evaluating projects on film, video, music, television and print on a scale of 1 - 63), I’m giving this spot a 26.

 

10 Reasons to Blog When You Have Nothing to Say!

1. It keeps the spiders who search for new content happy , so your blog maintains a high ranking. 2. It keeps your fingers limber as you type out some semblance of an idea. 3. It keeps your audience,who looks to you for entertainment, slightly happier than if they had reached a blank space. 4. It allows you to fill in your time sheet with something more productive than, say, nothing. 5. It gets your brain moving (although not very far) on a gray Monday. 6. It gives you that semi-pride of semi- accomplishment. 7. Coworkers see you typing and assume you are working -- or Facebooking.  8. Keeps your audience from saying, "Hey, doesn't anything new ever happen around there" even though that is what they are still thinking. 9. Everybody else does it, so it must be okay.  10. There is no 10th reason other than research shows that people like blogs with lists. Especially lists with the number "10."  As in "10 Ways to repurpose your chewing gum" or  "10 things to do while waiting for your oil to be changed," or  even "10 ways to do lists about 10 ways."

Happy Monday!

 

What we have here, is a failure to communicate!

Advertising and marketing in general is getting tougher. Not just because of the increased channels of communication, but in the ever-changing way in which people actually choose to verbalize their thoughts.

 

Monday Musings - Radio Advertising Still Works

 Over the holiday weekend, the topic of radio advertising came up. I heard someone actually say, "Radio is Dead." Sure regular broadcast radio has some competition from satellite radio and iPod recordings, but for a good percentage of Americans, their car is still "a radio on wheels."  And to say Radio is not a viable medium for advertising is just as wrong as saying Social Media is the only medium to advertise on. They're both just tools and both excell at reaching certain types of customers at certain times, and at certain points in their purchase cycle. A well written radio commercial can be every bit as effective at reaching a target audience as a well written TV spot or a well written web video 

In any advertising effort, the first step is to develop a sound advertising strategy which is simply identifying a company's best customers, then reaching them with a message about the company's marketable truths, through the most appropriate medium(s) -- which often includes radio. 

The radio advertising bureau's website contains many interesting and useful articles highlighting the advantages of Radio Advertising  including "10 Reasons to Advertise on Radio" http://www.radioadvertisingfacts.com/10-Reasons-to-Advertise-on-Radio.html. 

In short, Radio can create, enhance and build a brand or drive traffic as well as any other medium -- provided it fits with the individual company's aforementioned strategy. It can also be one of the most entertaining and cost-effective advertising mediums.

Here's a few radio advertising classics for your listening enjoyment:

 

 This campaign was so successful they put visuals to it:

 

Atomic Ideas and Belle Tire Launch New Real People, Real Stories Commercials.

A.I. recently teamed up with production company Rare Medium/Well Done and Director Steve Witham to shoot a new three spot package for Belle Tire featuring real customers and their stories. Editorial was completed by the competent gang at HD Studios/Grace & Wild.

The commercials range from heartwarming to dramatic and are recreations of stories told in letters sent by customers to Belle Tire thanking them for going above and beyond their expectations. The actual customers introduce and narrate each commercial.

The first spot just hit the airwaves and we're proud to showcase it right here, right now!

  

Where's the Government Bailout for Advertising???

With the first Chevy Volt rolling off the assembly line today in Hamtramck, Michigan (gateway to Detroit) -- which incidentally, requires a government incentive of $7500 per car to have any possibility of selling -- I have to ask the question, "Where's the government incentive to buy advertising services?"  

I know it sounds silly. Why would the government support a for-profit business, like advertising?  

To which I ask, "Why would they support a for-profit business like automobile manufacturing? Or a for-profit business like banking?" 

I know, the argument goes something like, "if the car companies (and/or banks) go under, so does our economy." Well, what happens when advertising goes under??? How will companies sell more stuff? This is an important point because if they don't sell enough stuff, they go under -- and so does the economy!!!!

Advertising has lost (by several estimates) over 160,000 jobs that will probably never come back. That's 160,000 people not paying taxes, or buying cars, or putting money in banks. And you know what happens when people don't buy cars or put money in banks? That's right, the government bails them out!!

Where was the government when Doner cut hundreds of jobs? When BBDO cut thousands of jobs? When Campbell-Ewald cut hundreds of jobs? When the networks, newspapers and radio stations cut thousands of jobs? I could keep going, but you get the jist.  Advertising agency blended rates have not increased in more than 10 years (and in some markets have even retracted), while at the same time, clients are cutting budgets and squeezing agencies to provide ever more service for the same dollar amount. 

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying, as Sally did in A Charlie Brown Christmas, "All I want is what I've got coming to me. All I want is my fair share!"   I'm not asking for a government bailout, just a government incentive for advertising. Maybe a tax break for advertisers who could then use the money to pay their agencies more, or at least use it to advertise more! 

The Volt and Leaf get government subsidies because, "they help reduce our dependance on foreign oil and (supposedly) cut greenhouse gasses." A government subsidy for advertising would reduce our dependance on word of mouth which would (supposedly) cut CO2 (a greenhouse gas). 

At Atomic Ideas (a Michigan advertising agency and idea factory), we're doing everything we can to stoke the fires of capitalism by supporting advertising in all it's various forms -- from :30 TV spots to Magazine Ads to Billboards to Social Media campaigns. Or as we like to say it, "Atomic Ideas, Saving Advertising, One Tag Line At A Time!" 

 

 

 

 

If you're boring in real life, you will be boring in social media, too!

What does your company stand for? What is it's "marketable truth"? If you haven't figured out your communication strategy in the real world, chances are, you will not be engaging in the social media world, either. That's because social media is just a tool, like a TV commercial is a tool, or a print ad is a tool. They are all used to communicate your unique selling proposition. So if you haven't figured what your unique selling proposition (or marketable truth) is, you are throwing your money away.

"But social media is free!" you say. Well, not when you do it right. It takes strategic planning, and people to implement that strategy. People and planning cost money. And without a strategy, stapling fliers to random telephone poles will likely be just as effective for you.

In a nutshell, social media is...media. As in traditional advertising, the proper message needs to be developed first, then the proper strategy for getting that message to your customers (media) needs to be developed. 

As with traditional advertising, you can't bore someone into buying your product or service, so the message has to be engaging. But no matter how slick the presentation (or the media in which it is presented) the message is what really matters. As this video so humorously demonstrates.

 

 

 

 

 

Blog, blog, blah, blah, blah....

 
It's Monday, a tough day for thinkers everywhere. So where do lazy thinkers go for ideas for their blog? They google "blog ideas" and up pops no less than 380,000,000 articles with titles like "101 Blog Ideas", "13 Great Blog Ideas," "100 Blog Writing Ideas." 

I thought a blog was about getting vital information across, or expressing a burning opinion. But in this information age, I guess a Blog is just about reshaping and repackaging information that's already out there. Some of it, as much as 380,000,000 times!

(And yes, I just googled "Blog Cartoon" to find this, er, blog cartoon)