Storytellers Never Go Hungry

In many ways, "pitching" is at the core of advertising, persuading clients to see things like their customers do, or persuading media outlets and publishers to make their product more flexible in order to reach more customers.* It's a process called rhetoric, and it's all about communicating (called, in the ad world, "selling") ideas.

The cornerstone of the process is in knowing how to communicate in a way that engages your target audience and expresses your ideas in a way that all can understand.

I came across an article last week in which an anthropologist hypothesized that, in the hard times of the Ice Age, humans were threatened with extinction because nothing was as it was before. Due to climate change, animals no longer migrated as before, crops could no longer be counted on to mature in the same places and times. The result was humans had to adapt, to literally change the way their brain operated and one of these adaptations was the development of a more sophisticated language - a modern language, if you will.

And with language comes story telling, one of the most powerful ways we communicate.

Here's a how-to from this morning's businessweek.com called "Let Me Tell You a Story."

If you're a fan of Mad Men, you've seen this kind of pitching, especially the Kodak pitch in the final episode of season one - "The Wheel."

My favorite Mad Men pitch.

* and many, many more

TV's Road to Become Interactive Steers Twitter-ward

Not so long ago, television tried to become a player on Second Life. Anybody here still on 2ndL? Why do I always get the same hands?

And the fantasy world of Second Life wasn't TV's only failure at interactivity. Why?

Andrew Wellenstein, from the Hollywood Reporter appeared on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday afternoon and suggested, "Perhaps there's some fundamental disconnect between the passive experience of watching TV and the interactive nature of the Internet."

Here's where to hear the whole story.

Join LinkedIn or a Frat/Sorority?

This morning's economist.com answers that Social Media "is booming, but they have not supplanted more traditional business networks."

Read this.

Spike Lee on Creativity

Film maker Spike Lee, who launched his own ad agency called "Spike DDB," in 1996, is at the same time a sharp critical analyst of the advertising business.

He was recently interviewed on creativity at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and said - among other things - "they better start hiring some of these young people quick before they start their own agency and put 'em out of business." Here's the video highlights of that interview.

Here's a blog entry, written from Cannes, in which Lee asks the question, "With user-generated content, who needs ad agencies?"

Got an answer?

Marketing Strategy: Get Out of Town!

As the travel industry shrinks - like many other businesses in this economy - marketing strategies are going farther than ever.

Here's a story from today's New York Times that recaps three of the most clever ideas [free registration].

Two Brands, One Message

DDB West has created a set of TV spots that have " the same creative theme, music, look and feel for all," but which support two distinct brands - Wells Fargo or Wachovia. And some are said to trumpet Wells Fargo and Wachovia, which may constitute a third brand.

Here's the story in this morning's MarketingDaily, a MediaPost publication.

Is this the end of the Stagecoach, possibly one of the strongest corporate images in marketing? I doubt it. In the first spot following the acquisition of Wachovia, DDB cast a shadow of the famous Wells Concord Coach on both Eastern and Western landmarks.

Here's that spot:

Who Likes Advertising?

If you're in the 18 to 34 Demographic, research says you do!

Here's the results of a Harris Poll as seen this morning on AdAge online.

Any ideas why?

Creepy King Tough Competitor, But Not Fast Enough

Burger King's advertising - from the almost-always-brilliant Crispin, Porter + Bogusky - gets a lot of attention, but isn't closing in on the category leaders.

Here's the story on this morning's AdAge online.

Why doesn't good advertising always equate to more business?

Alert: Twitter Users

It was bound to happen, Twitter carries a fake invitation that carries a worm.

Details here.

'Interactive TV' Raises Its Head. Again.

I got my first advertising job in 1973, when cable TV was only in rural areas where an on-air signal couldn't reach. "CATV," now recognized as "Cable TV," was actually an acronym for "Community Antenna Television," and wasn't taken too seriously as a main-stream advertising medium.

Nonetheless, there was much speculation that, when cable came to the cities, it would would be a whole new game. The game was a little late in starting, however.

By the 80s, cable channels - especially MTV and CNN - made ad agencies take notice. When broadcasting met the computer age in the 90s, more of the promise of the medium came to life and broadcasters and ad people started to talk about the distant dream of "interactive television."

Now with all TV digitized in the US, interactive TV is, at least technically, a reality. See the story on this morning's MediaPost TV Board.

Student Campaign Identifies "Stupid Drink:" Wins National Competition

I was at the American Advertising Annual Conference two weeks ago - acting as an "official" at the National Student Advertising Competition - and saw the winning campaign.

A good concept, a great presention and a solid execution from the Syracuse University team put them on top.

This morning's MediaDailyNews has the wrap-up story.

MySpace Sheds 30% of Workers

Last week, I had lunch with a former student of mine who has worked with a subsidiary of MySpace for a couple of years. She told me that rumors were flying that big cutbacks were on the way.

She was right, the News Corp. owned division will - as Gavin O'Malley of Online Media Daily wrote today - drop the axe on 30% of its workers.

When I know, I'll let you know if my student is one of them.

Ad People Pull Together in Tough Times

When I was in New York in late March, I attended two advertising events that strained in different directions as if they were Dr. Doolittles pushmepullyous.

The first was held at a beautiful glassed-in meeting room at the New York Times that honored the 2009 inductees to American Advertising Association's Hall of Fame. This first event was a reception in a beautiful setting (the sun was setting slowly over Manhattan in winter and the renzo Piano glass box that is the NYT headquarters never looked better). I got nice wine and canapes plus a chance to meet and talk with some of 2009's - as well as past HoF - honorees.

These are all people who've been good for advertising and who advertising has been extremely good to (read $).

After 90 minutes among the elite I hailed a cab and went further downtown for an event in an Irish-themed bar on 3rd Avenue sponsored by AdAge "honoring" ad people who had been laid off in the current economic downturn. It was called "This Sucks... Let's Play." The bar was not quite as photogenic as NYT, nor was the event as festive.

These are all people who've been good to Advertising but who advertising has NOT been extremely good to, but had provided a good living, until recently.

I talked to several people who'd been let go before for economic reasons and many of them expressed a desire to finally leave the business and get into something "more stable." A bottom-line loss to the business of advertising.

I knew I'd blog about this sooner or later but didn't really know how to resolve my own conflicts with the two events.

Then, this morning I saw - or rather heard - a resolution. NPR's Morning Edition featured a segment titled "Ad Agency Finds 2 for 1 Deal in Downturn."

As the story states, "Ariel Horn, who runs The Horn Corp., a Manhattan ad agency, has found both a way to help the numerous unemployed ad workers in New York, and a new business model."

Yes, I believe this is what I was looking for.

This may be the business model advertising needs now!

Comments appreciated!

Raising Temperatures With Viral Marketing

Here's a pretty good example of the much-talked-about but misunderstood genre of "viral marketing."

One time Oakland A's batboy Stanley Burrell, known professionally as MC Hammer, was red hot from the late 80s to mid-90s. Since then, his career has gone cold enough to run a Popsicle plant for a week.

Recently Hammer has bathed in the warmth of both a blog and, the hottest thing online, Twitter, the combination of which was just enough to raise some heat at A&E.

Last night the cable network launched a "docu-drama" series called Hammertime, "which," says Online Media Daily, "chronicles the present-day life of '90s mega celebrity and current celebritwit,* MC Hammer."

Here's the story, gold parachute pants and all.

Don't miss the video.



*This is a new word for me. At first reading it seemed pejorative, reminiscent of the classic Monty Python sketch, "Upper Class Twit of the Year."

Twitter: on the other hand (Tevya said)

I just opened my latest edition of TIME Magazine (June 15, 2008) and found an article starting on page 32 titled How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live (in 140 characters or less).

So much for shark jumping.

Here's my checkered record on prognostication, so far:

- I said nobody will ever drink light beer.

After completely blowing that one, and several more like it, I hid behind a Dichotomy Strategy,

- I said I didn't know which way the internet would go (ca. 1997), it might be CB Radio or it might be TV. (Looks more like a form of TV every day)

Twitter, seems to me, will be either baseball cards on cigarette packages or a new form of the telegraph. I've written myself a note to find this post in the Internet Archive "Wayback Machine" in 2019. I hope I don't embarrass myself, too much.

Colorful, but Messy.

Today's AdRants has a pretty good review of a video for Ray Ban sunglasses.

Watch the Ray Ban video, read the review, then come back here to see the Sony Bravia spot that Steve Hall is talking about.

What do YOU think?

More Evidence of Shark Jumping

Yesterday I pondered the question: has Twitter jumped the shark?

This morning ReadWriteWeb asks: Are Trolls Ruining Social Media? Pretty much the same question.

Evidence is that celebrities are bailing out of the Big T because it's no longer fun to "hang out with people online," due to celeb-haters, says Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.

Get the story here.

While Commercial Radio Shrinks...

... more American ears tune in NPR.

Here's the story on this morning's Mashable.

Fun facts:
- NPR's daily audience is 11 times the size of USA Today's circulation.
- Almost all news NPR broadcasts is available via an "open scource" policy.

One More Twitter Thing...

Pepsi UK is about to print its Twitter URL on millions of cans of cola.

"Twitter has officially reached mainstream" writes Stan Schroeder on Mashable - though he also speculates that it may turn out that Twitter has jumped the shark.

What do you think?

Gone with the windy...

Here's a brand new viral spot for Breyers Ice Cream. Trite, but you can't help but have a love/hate thing for Jane Krakowsky.


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

I'm biased in that I hated the movie - tried to watch it several times and never went the distance.