More Related Content Similar to The Birth Of A Grand Strategist By Waqar Riaz (20) The Birth Of A Grand Strategist By Waqar Riaz2. for helping me challenge my thinking...
Thank you
In order of appearance (left to right) Rik Haslam Group Creative Architect, Rapp, Ian Haworth, Global Creative Director, Rapp, Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, Nick Kendall, Group Planning Director, BBH, Adam Arnold, Managing Director, Zag, Jim
Carroll, Chairman, BBH, Russell Marsh, Group Digital Strategy Director, Rapp, Amelia Torode, Planning Director, VCCP, Bob Jeffrey, Worldwide chairman and CEO, JWT, Lorna Hawtin, Disruption Director, TBWA, Bruce Sinclair, Course Leader, BNU, Martin
Runnacles, Former MD BMW, Dr Reg Winfield, VMC Tutor, BNU, Sarah Tate, Strategist, Mother, Ajaz Ahmed, Chairman, AKQA, Andrew Hovels, Planner, TBWA, Dr Paul Springer, Author of Ads to Icons, Stephen Maccrron< Planning Director, JWT Manchester,
Aisha Shafiq – My Wife
3. Waqar Riaz
December 2009
MA Advertising
Tutor: Dr Reg Winfield
Module Code: ADM02
Bucks New University
Faculty of Creativity & Culture
MA Advertising
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4. “
“
Unless you are prepared to give up something
valuable you will never be able to truly change at all,
because you will be forever in the control of things
1
you can’t give up.
Andy law
1. Peter Fisk, Marketing genius,, 2006, Page 23
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5. ...the Journey I took My journey into the realm of strategy began with a singular thought:
What's Planning all about? I commenced with the next stage a few
days later, travelling to the UK, having decided that I'd have a better
chance of answering my questions on planning in its place of origin.
The reaction on the thought was immediate. It was the result of my
years of interaction with the communications industry at JWT (Pakistan)
& DDB (Bahrain) as a creative and a planner respectively.
From 2006 - 2008 I spent my time in the UK as a layman whilst trying to
understand the "whats" and "ifs" of my new audience, whilst consulting MTN
South Africa and USAID AED as an Online Brand Planner.
At the end of 2008 I had enough ideas and understanding to begin my MA in
Creative Planning at Buckinghamshire University to broaden my thinking and
My first interaction with the London ad industry was of BBH. It was
gain a good understanding of the industry.
great! The place taught me how to create great communication
stories and how to bring integration into my thinking. Call it
Innovation Planning, Engagement Planning or just Planning... It all
results in one conclusion - real, simple and relevant solutions.
My addiction to advertising then took me to learn and understand
the digital thinking of VCCP - and how to create useful and
And then came "Mother" into my life offering her love, care and affection innovative communication connections with the audiences.
which helped me to understand the fundamentals of creativity and how to
inspire creatives; explaining how to challenge Big Ideas with Rich Ideas...
and the ways to add magic to a product to turn it into an exciting brand.
I think that I should stop here at the moment and not take too long explaining
the wonders and magic of disruptive thinking (which I practised at TBWA).
Just to let you know, I am currently working at OMINICOM (RAPP) in Strategy &
Enablement. This is a newly-born discipline which combines the thinking of
Data, Creativity, Technology and Media and encourages 'T' thinking to
establish useful connections with the audiences. *
* T-Shape Thinking: One area of specialisation with an understanding of multiple disciplines
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
6. One can’t be practically right
if one is conceptually wrong
In the times of Twitter phobia, YouTube craze, Farm Ville quest presentation’. Instead what I want to discuss in the next few
on Facebook, Blogging adventures, 3D digital environments, chapters are the concepts which direct our actions, as I cannot
Mobile purchases, iPhone apps, Flickr effects, Google imagine an action that can be conceptually incorrect and
integration, Wiki wonders, Second World possibilities, Podcast practically sustainable.
revival, Verizon Twitter and Facebook cable, Sidewiki’s threats,
iPlayer’s experience, Digital data systems, Amazon’s This journey is to learn about and understand models and ideas
commerce, iTunes distribution and so on... you would expecting that are great enough to trigger our thinking, and may help
me to talk digital, as I believe this is the new Mantra nowadays. us to imagine what is possible with what we have.
One way or another we all are trying to own digital – as if digital
is not a language but a territory. This effort has been exerted in an attempt to understand the
grand concepts of planning and how it can help to strengthen
Please note that I won’t certainly be talking ‘cool’ as above the future for brands, people and communication companies.
because if I were to do that then I would be making you aware
of the stuff you already know too much, or you will know too
much about by the time you prepare your next ‘trend
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9. (Honda book of dreams)
ORIGINAL
Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?sa=3&q=pears+soap accessed on 12-11-2009
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10. THINKING
(Charles Darwin) (Einstein) (Aristotle)
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12. O
R
I
G
I
N
A
L
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13. IDEAS
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14. 2, 3
One thing only I know, and that is I know nothing .
Socrates
2 Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, January 1953, Page 6
3 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.entelechy-magazine.com/images/socrates.gif - searched on 21st October 2009
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15. Ask an expert to define a planner’s role and the chances are that you will get a very
vague answer. At least, this was true in my case. I was fortunate enough to meet some of
the gurus of my field. Unfortunately, none of them ever gave a clear definition of what a
PLANNING
planner was actually supposed to do. Hmm… Well, you can’t define a planner, can you?
That’s the best answer I got anyway.
However, I strongly believe that there has got to be a definition for the subject – everyone
IS else has one for theirs. It’s time to challenge all those no-definitions “definition” of planners,
and maybe learn something useful on the way. Let's start this discussion by giving planner a
defined role. But, where to begin?
PROACTIVE First of all, planners are not just in advertising. In fact, advertising stole planning from the
pre-existing services i.e. military, architecture etc.
NOT Let’s look into the finest details of the subject and understand what planning does.
Planning in any industry or sector, prepares the businesses for forecast potential risk factors
REACTIVE
and then recommends solutions to counter them whilst developing new areas for them
e.g. A new sector, service, category or goal.
I think we are getting somewhere defining planners and planning… Do you think I would
be wrong to say that…
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16. …a planner is a person who projects his
thoughts forward in time and space to influence
events before they occur rather than merely
responding to events as they occur?
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17. Great planning
Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=egypt+history&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 14-11-2009
18. Though it was built in around 2630 B.C.E., We
can still learn some valuable lessons of
planning from the great pyramid of Djoser.
4
Think big, give some space to your mind and put that seven what would appeal to the masses and who could add lasting
points communications brief aside for a little while. Once you beauty to clay and sand for generations to come.
have done that, try appreciating the science and art of
pyramids. Indeed, it was a mind of a planner who thought
well about everything and its placement, who exactly knew
4 Yahoo answers - available at http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/7357/unaslayout_n.gif - searched on 26th October 2009
5 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_year_was_the_first_pyramid_built - searched on 26th October 2009
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19. You could ask what architectural planning has in common with communications planning. I would say everything – The job of
planning is to design solutions for potential problems and then add sense to them by making them relate to human nature. It’s
not all science, but a balance combination of sense and creativity. The architect of the pyramid of Djoser could have made a
simple massive hall which would have perfectly served the purpose to the given task i.e. “bury the dead king”. However, the
genius thought of turning it into a brand known as...
‘The It was
pyramid not just
of Djoser.’ the idea
which made Djoser different, but the whole experience it offers . Building a rectangular structure is not a very difficult task , but
mastering it with the enclosure wall, the great trench, the roofed colonnade entrance, the south court, the south tomb, the step
pyramid, the burial chamber, the north chamber, the serdab court and the heb-sed court is something not every rectangular
shaped building can have. Adding all those details made it into something which holds value and recognition after all these
6
years.
6 SOURCED FROM WIKIPEDIA, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Djoser - searched on 26th October 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
20. 7
PLANNING IS A STATE
OF MIND NOT MERELY
A DISCIPLINE
Imhotep (the man who built the pyramid of Djoser), the first architect,
engineer, physician in history known by name, didn’t just spend his time
understanding and finding out facts on different kinds of burial chambers
for the kings all over the world. He may well have done, but one thing for
sure is that he didn’t just finish working at that point. The point at which
planning is today is not just being creative with what we have, but totally
forgetting what we know and making things different from what we
already have.7
7 SOURCED FROM WIKIPEDIA, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep - searched on 26th October 2009
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21. Military planning
Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=military+planning&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 14-11-2009
22. Let’s now look at planning from a rather
different perspective, let’s now look
from the eyes of great military leaders
who routinely face situations or problems where they
have to decide which actions to take. I hope to learn
how usefully they implement planning to grow their
collective successes. In a literal sense, military leaders
inescapably make all decisions in advance of taking
action. Therefore, military planning as discussed here
refers to situations where there is sufficient time to
8
employ a decision making process.
(EFFECTS BASED MILITARY PLANNING)
8 Source - Paul K. Van Riper, PLANNING FOR AND APPLYING MILITARY FORCE: AN EXAMINATION OF TERMS, March 2006 – Page 2
9 SOURCED FROM GOOGLE IMAGES http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/~cvrl/EBO/ebo_files/image001.gif - searched on 268h October 2009
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23. When it comes to discussing strategic planning in the military and its grand
concepts there could be no one better than Clausewitz to quote. Prussian
military thinker Carl von Clausewitz is widely acknowledged as the most
important of the major strategic theorists. Despite the fact that he's been dead
for over a century and a half, he remains the most frequently cited, the most
controversial, and in many respects the most modern.
In his classic ‘On War’, he wrote, “No one starts a war—or rather, no one in his
senses ought to do so without first being clear in his mind what he intends to
10
achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it.”
He was the man behind the thinking and theory of concepts such as ends, the
means model, and selected terms to support more detailed and explicit
planning. That is, he recognized how the methods or ways, and means are
employed is important. Thus, the current ends, ways, and means paradigm. In
trying to understand where to focus the available means, he created concepts
such as centre of gravity and decisive points.
(Carl von Clausewitz)
10 Carl Von Clausewitz, On War, Michael Howard and Peter Paret, eds. And trans., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976, p. 579.
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24. (JWT Planning cycle)
Several contemporary scholars of strategy broadened the basic Clausewitzian ends-means concept. For example John
Collins (a military writer), described ends, ways, and means based on the names Rudyard Kipling provided his “six honest
serving men.” Collins set them forth this way:
• “What” and “Why” correspond to perceived requirements (ends),
• “How, When and Where” indicate optional courses of action (ways),
11
• “Who” concerns available forces and resources (means).
If we look at the diagram above which shows the planning cycle Stephen King at JWT created in 1969, then we further
realise that the points he touched upon were already in discussion at a much greater level way before his time.
11 John M. Collins, Military Strategy: Principles, Practices, and Historical Perspectives, Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2002, p. 3..
12 JWT Planning Cycle – JWT Planning Guide available at http://www.slideshare.net/williamtheliar/jwt-planning-guide accessed on 29th October 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
25. In its true sense, planning is not a domain like marketing, finance or even physics for that matter – instead, it’s something universal,
applicable to all fields and categories (Figure 1). A good lawyer is the one who plans his case effectively, does research thoroughly
and then finally has the courage to work his magic in the court room, based on facts and findings. and the story won’t be much
different for a military general , a good financial officer or a chief executive of some fortune 500. “Planning is the origin of success ”.
MILITARY
LAW
Figure 1 - Universal Model of Planning © Waqar Riaz
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
27. Okay, too much business. Let’s talk some learni
The Story of William Lever
14 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 52
Images scanned from The King of Sunlight, accessed on 14-11-2009
28. The man who makes
no mistakes usually
makes nothing.
13
William Hesketh Lever (William Hesketh Lever)
13 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 118 Line 11
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29. We now know for certain that planning is a fundamental early days then it may help in understanding the real meaning
element in making solutions for any given potential problem. of the subject.
We have also identified that in the past, people have used
planning in many different ways. Now let’s get back on track –
back to the subject of communications. Let's try to understand
planning from the perspectives of people as great as William
Lever and of brands as unique as Lever brothers . If we try to
understand how usefully they implemented planning in the
Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
30. Did you know that William Lever, the founder of Lever Brothers (now
Unilever) and one of the most successful and wealthy men in history,
came from poor beginnings?
It's true. He was born on 19 September 1851 in Bolton, a town
described seven years earlier as one of the worst in Britain by no less
of an authority than Friedrich Engels. William joined his father’s
grocery business at the age of sixteen, starting right at the bottom,
as an apprentice. He was put in charge of preparing sugar and
soap. Both of the products arrived as foot-long, solid bars, which had
to be sliced into manageable quantities and individually wrapped in
greaseproof paper. You can imagine the tediousness involved in the
process. However, William, the ever improver, couldn’t stop thinking
that there had to be a better way. Soon William was moved to
another department where his talents were put to greater use as he
15
looked after the company’s accounts.
Eight year old William (top, sitting on the right)
poses with his brother, James Darcy, and their
oldest sister, Elizabeth Emma, in 1859.
15 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 16, 17, 18
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
31. William’s Bolton House
(Left). William’s open
air Port Sunlight
bedroom (Right).
The company’s account system was a mess – much of this of his modernised system granted the son new respect and
15
was due to the old way of working. However, William saw an increased voice in the company.
potential problems that this system could create in the
future and that this very system could become a threat to
the company’s growth. He put his mind to creating an
alternative, more efficient, robust and effective method of
book-keeping. Creating the system was one part of what
he did and selling the idea to his conservative father was
another. William used all his strategic sense and before
attempting to sell the idea to his father, he worked on
winning the trust of his fellow clerks. Eventually, the success
15 Images and text Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 16, 17, 18
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
32. By the age of 23 William was married to Elizabeth and had something wonderful, but believe me, there is much more
transformed his father’s company. However, he claimed money made in doing something better than ever it was
16
that he hadn't done anything revolutionary. In his 1915 done before than in doing something new – far more.”
‘Secrets of my success’ speech, he mentioned, “There is a
general impression that in making money you have to do
16 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 27, 29, 31
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
33. He always remembered this self-created golden rule (which
we discussed on the previous page) which he kept with him
during his 1884 cruise. Even on a leisure tour, Lever was thinking
of business ideas, remembering how successful ‘Lever Pure
Honey’ was (their own patented product) – which made them
loads more money than a normal honey could. I imagine Lever
standing on the deck of his ship and asking himself – What’s
Next, William? And it was one of those moments when he
thought of the killer idea – why not make a branded washing
soap? Clearly, there was a need in the market as washing
clothes wasn’t as easy as it is now - It was a long, laborious task
for women. And William exactly knew how to make the
process easier, quicker and more enjoyable.
16
Sunlight was born and Lever Brothers took off.
16 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Page 27, 29, 31
Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 17-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
34. Do you know what soap is made of? Me neither and frankly Warrington and started to produce his own brand of soap,
17
speaking nor did William Lever . When he founded his the ‘Sunlight Self-Washer’.
fortune on it, he claimed to be, “as ignorant of soap-making
as baby in arms”. What William was doing was nothing
normal. He was actually thinking of manufacturing his own
soap and then patenting it with a brand called “Sunlight
Self-Washer”. He took his stance against all odds and he
began to turn his dream into a reality. He knew his audience
would want his product and so he leased a soap works in
Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009 17 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004,
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
35. Gone were the days of the foot-long soap bar. Sunlight (William’s biggest
Invention) was cut at source and each tablet was wrapped individually in
bright, colourful packaging.
William was a unique man. There was no part of the business that he wasn’t
directly involved, even advertising – especially ‘Advertising’. He specifically told
his staff to let children inspect the brightly coloured Sunlight Boxes as they would
then insist their parents to buy the product. Things as small as closing the house
gate after a sales pitch were part of William’s staff syllabus.
He created cookery books, direct marketing material, story books for children
and so on. He was the first man to think of railways as a medium for advertising in
his age and entered into a £50 contract with London and North-Western Railway
company as part of Sunlight’s first advertising campaign. He then personally
selected the spots where the ads should be displayed and he even wrote the
17
slogan himself. It read, ‘Sunlight Self-Washer: See how this becomes the house’.
17 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
36. In doing what he did, William actually solved all the audience. Very soon people across the UK loved Sunlight
communications problems many companies still struggle and by the end of 1888, just after two years of the product
with. launch, they were producing 14,000 tons a week. Sunlight
boxes soon started to advertise a common phrase ‘has the
17
He didn’t go to a media house to buy a big ad space; he largest sale of any soap in the world’.
didn’t even visit an ad agency for creative inspiration. He
simply did what we all forget to do today – he followed the
17 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
37. (Port Sunlight)
Lever brothers was now a business generating £50,000 profit a year.
This made Lever more conscious of what he was doing, He started to think that he
had the same works, the same soap boiler, the same manager and the same staff.
The question he asked himself was ‘whose is that money?’ In answering his own
question he totally changed the concept of how businesses would run by building
a town for his employees and named it as ‘Port Sunlight’.
Much of the architectural credit of ‘Port Sunlight’ goes to William Lever as he paid
attention to detail with the look and feel of the town and its social values. He
introduced the concept of large houses for communities with gardens, he built
cafés, gyms, pubs and restaurants within the town, and school for the children of
18
his staff.
18 Text and Images Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004,
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
38. This may not be the right place to highlight William’s every success and achievement. However, by the time Lever died in 1925, the
company had evolved from one brand to several, it had 187,000 shareholders, and 85,000 staff ‘living and working in almost every
country in the world’. Lever Brothers issued capital was some £57,000 million and 18,000 of his staff were co-partners.18
18 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=sunlight+soap&meta=&aq=0&oq=sunlight+s&start=0 accessed on 15-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
39. The key to William Lever’s success was his unique approach to opened. Established there and making money I opened up in
things in general. He always tried making sense of the processes William Hesketh Lever
London, Scotland and elsewhere, and covered the United
and their surroundings. Be it a sales boy selling soap to a lady at Kingdom.” This was the strategy William used for his impressive
her doorstep, a retailer taking stock for the local market, the success.
mayor of Bolton representing his people, a wholesaler opening
his doors to the international market or an employer living in ‘Port He involved planning in every stage of his selling channels. He
Sunlight’, William was focused and useful for everyone around used strategic techniques for every single business process he
him. went through. Whether it was launching a new system for
managing the company accounts, growing a happy door-to-
In his 1915, Secrets of my Success speech, William said, “I started door customer base, selling his products by the power of a brand
locally and when I got it established there and making money, I called ‘Sunlight’, or leading Lever Brothers successfully from
ventured forth to Liverpool and Manchester. Established there challenging times, he never stopped adding creativity to the
and making money I ventured as far north as Newcastle and as subject. Maybe Lever wanted us to know something. Maybe he
far south as Plymouth with the intervening country more or less was trying to tell us to think rich and instead of creating
19
integrated systems, to become integrated individuals.
19 Adam McQueen, The King of Sunlight, 2004, Images courtesy of Google Images available at ; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=william+lever&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 20-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
40. (Fig 2)
PEOPLE (CUSTOMERS/BUYERS)
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
William Hesketh Lever
MANUFACTURER DISTRIBUTOR RETAILER
The times of Lever were simple and focused. Every system was totally integrated.
Thanks to Lever’s command everyone was working for the people, without creating unnecessary additions in the process of
manufacturing the product to selling it to the end user (Fig 2). The benefits of the services and products were communicated
exactly when, where and how people required. The thinking was totally integrated and everyone involved in the process, knew
exactly what the business was doing.
20 Fig 2 © Waqar Riaz 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
41. Just five years after the death of William Lever, Lever so they totally misunderstood the William’s secret; it wasn’t
brothers became Unilever as a result of an international about owning the audience in different domains, instead
merger. Whilst the merger brought benefits for both understanding their life in general and addressing their
parties, it also had negative implementations. The biggest different needs by introducing products, services and
of all was ‘disintegration’- not so much in the way things useful interactive communications. Nobody understood. It
worked, but in the thinking of the business. wasn’t about segmenting people as if they were a species
from another planet; rather, considering yourself as part of
Then started the war of share, one way or another their community and addressing the needs of your
everyone wanted to own the end user. However, in doing community.
William Hesketh Lever
1935 – LUX Ad (Ain’t the William Way) 1932 – Sunlight Soap Ad 1932 – LUX Ad
21 Image courtesy of Google Images, available at http://www.adclassix.com/images/35luxsoap.jpg , accessed on 8-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
42. (Fig 3)
William Hesketh Lever
However, instead of continuing with integration what we got a strange concept – I wonder where this portal was when
was ‘champions of consumers’. I hate that word - William was selling millions of tons of soap without consulting
‘consumers’. Anyway, no matter what you were selling, these consumer-geniuses?
these were the guys you had to go through (Fig3). Because
apparently they knew everything about the customers. They
created a universe which was more like this;
The Manufacturer is on planet Zoron, the Customer is on
Planet Delta, and these geniuses know the secret portal that
the seller (Manufacturer/Retailer/Distributor) can take to get
closer to the buyer and eventually make a happy sale. What
22 Fig 3 © Waqar Riaz 2009 Think...
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
43. The point is...
Planning
has no
limits
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
45. “Obviously everybody wants to be successful, but I
want to be looked back on as
Sergey being very innovative, very
trusted
ultimately
William Hesketh Lever
and ethical
making
difference in the world.”
a
and
big
Brin
Peter Fisk, marketing Genius, Inspiration Google, 2004
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
46. “In a world filled with
despair, we must still
dare to dream, and in
a world filled with
distrust, we must still
dare to believe.”
Michael Jackson
William Hesketh Lever
Image scanned from the book, Micheal Jackson – Life of a legend, accessed on 8-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
47. “Somehappen. it to happen, some wish it would happen, others
people want it to
Some people want
make it
happen, some wish it would
happen, others make it
happen.” Michael Jordan
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=micheal+jordan&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
48. “It is not the strongest of
the species that survives,
nor the most intelligent
that survives. It is the one
that is the most
adaptable to
change.”
William Hesketh Lever Charles Darwin
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=charles+darwin&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
49. Ahhhhh.... It has been a long Let’s stay loyal to our subject
and intensive journey. Though, and jump straight into the
I hope that it was enjoyable PLANNING IS 1960’s. Oh yes, the time when
and worth experiencing – we Stephen King and Stanley
started from understanding
the grand definition of
NOT ABOUT Pollitt had their ‘Planning-
Wars’. The time, because of
planning and how in different which I am able to write and
fields and times people have
used it. Then we fast
ANSWERING you are able to read all this.
Let’s discuss those precious
forwarded to the times of moments when Planning was
‘Sunlight’ and learnt that WHAT’S sticking its neck out in the
planning is not just about William Hesketh Lever Communications industry, ‘by
finding the target name’. Let’s make an
audience and effectively RIGHT OR attempt to understand all
communicating to them, but those intelligent concepts
designing the whole business King and Pollitt introduced
around people. On our way, WRONG, BUT and if we are lucky enough to
we analysed Planning from cover them, then we’ll try to
different perspectives and
points of views. However, I am
WHAT’S understand the current
disintegration and the myths
glad that there was one thing of specialisation in the
common
endeavours:
in all
Sense
our
and
RELEVANT subject. Let’s learn
‘relevant’ and delete the
the
Creativity. ‘stupid’ (from our memories).
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
50. ‘It’s all in the The mantra
brand, every
brand, marketer was
brand’. singing.
I am afraid, but in order to understand King’s and Pollitt’s advertising’. The second possible reason could be too
effort we have to go a little back in
William Hesketh Lever
time – as the much specialisation in the communications discipline. It
development of planning department is directly linked with also made it difficult for the brands to decide between
the evolution of brands. right and wrong communications partners because
everybody was saying the same thing – ‘I am the
Before the Fifties or even the Forties, ‘Marketing’ as a consumer-genius you need’. Therefore, brands needed a
23
department had no existence as far as companies were neutral voice within the company (FIG 4, 5).
involved. However, when companies started to realise the
importance of brands and sensed the increased control of
advertising agencies on their businesses, they immediately
thought of a counter strategy which was to open a
marketing department within their corporations. Thus, the
marketing department was born in companies as a
‘second wife, married to the husband (Client) of
23 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
51. (Fig 4) (Fig 5)
Research Research
ATL ATL
Brand
MARKETING
Brand DEPARTMENT
BTL BTL
MEDIA MEDIA
William Hesketh Lever
The example of the birth of marketing department scares me planning as a department is obvious: the disintegration within
a lot and forces me to think. The specialisation/disintegration the advertising industry started to take media away from the
in the Advertising / Communications business forced clients large advertising agencies and other jobs e.g. production
into having a marketing department, so maybe the same and printing. In order to recover from this situation, a common
thing could happen to planning. In recent years we have bridge was needed immediately to help integrate the
added too much irrelevant material to the subject. There’s systems and make things make sense for everyone i.e.
just too much disintegration in planning – We have taken ‘P’ agency and client.
‘L’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘N’ ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘G’ out of planning and started to call it
whatever we like it to be. And still we complain, why don’t the
clients trust us?
The other reason that made King and Pollitt introduce
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52. William Hesketh Lever
Before we advance with our discussion, we must understand Bernbach is a good example to consider. The campaign
that the birth of planning in advertising doesn’t, by any was delivered before the times of Planning. Yet it had all the
means, mean that advertising before Planning was not ingredients of planning that any brand could ever have. It
planned. Good advertising has always been planned and helped the company to develop a philosophy around the
campaigns have always been post-rationalized. People like brand and business whilst achieving all the business
James Webb Young, Claude Hopkins, Rosser Reeves, David objectives, both in terms of volume and value.
Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach were all superb planners. What was
new was the existence in an agency of a separate
department whose primary responsibility was to plan
advertising strategy and evaluate campaigns in
24
accordance with this.
The revolutionary Volkswagen ‘Think small’ campaign by Bill
24 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 4
25 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://mootee.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/11/1113.jpg, accessed on 10th November 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
53. Officially, the origin of account planning occurred at about the
same time (in the mid to late 1960s) in two of the leading British
advertising agencies, and was in each case the product of a
single, dominant thinker.
The agencies were the J Walter Thompson (now JWT) London
Office, and the new, very small agency Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP),
now BMP DDB, also in London. It is also worth mentioning that the
two dominant personalities involved were JWT’s Stephen King and
the late Stanley Pollitt of BMP. Apart from a shared emphasis on the
consumer, the approach of these two agencies was very different,
William Hesketh Lever
representing two distinct ideologies. However, both were useful and
have had a profound influence on subsequent advertising
practice. Inevitably, there has been some dispute about which
26
came first, and which was the better.
26 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 5
24 Images courtesy of Google Images, available at http://mootee.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/11/1113.jpg, accessed on 10th November 2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
54. Okay – now briefly, let’s look at the
development of account planning in JWT and
BMP.
William Hesketh Lever
The Thompson T Plan (today widely known as ‘The Planning planning and the responsibilities of an Account planner, as
Cycle’ and recently strengthened by ‘The New JWT defined by Stephen King, were (FIG 6).
Planning Model’ by Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning
Director, JWT) was developed in early/mid 1960s. However,
in 1968 the agency realised the potential of The Thompson
T Plan working, and thus decided that the approach should
be integrated in agency thinking which gave a reason for
the birth of a new department (which was later named as
Account Planning). The reason for setting up Account
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55. FIG 6 – JWT ACCOUNT PLANNING
Implications for the Agency Account Planner Responsibilities
Set objectives for Plan
Integrate Develop Link technical creatives, media buying commission Plan
Campaign specialist skills planning and and scheduling,
and Media in research its information merchandising and help
and plan advertising
develop objectives into advertising experiments
Objectives and planning sources
action research
William Hesketh Lever
Account planning
Evaluate Present work
advertising to account
and groups and
experiments clients
27 Extract from Stephen King’s Internally Circulated Document, 1968
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56. Ultimately, this system became the reason for a new kind of working and
team setup. JWT created an integrated, new, three person team for each
of its accounts (fig 7).
William Hesketh Lever
Guy Murphy, Worldwide Planning Director at JWT, defines JWT theory works as a grand business consultant for the client and
planning by quoting Stephen King “strategic imagination on agency, is actually working as a logical connection between
the grand scale”. By definition, this sounds impressive and creativity and sales.
highly appealing. However, it seems as though this ideology
has been somewhat compromised in the formation of this
team structure, which has been in practice at JWT since 1968.
We suddenly realise that the job of a planner at JWT, who in
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
57. (Example of JWT Creative Brief)
However, this doesn’t mean at all that JWT didn’t benefit by the
introduction of this discipline. Of course, there are plenty of
campaigns where planning played a very significant and
important role and actually made things happen for both the
client and the agency. But unfortunately, the influence of
planning has never on anything beyond campaigns
Nevertheless, I wondered why the role of a planner has always
been limited to a communications problem solver? What
Stephen King introduced was a business consultant, a grand
strategist; someone with the ability to take a holistic view of
William Hesketh Lever
every single business process and then design solutions around
success. Someone who could see all the potential problems
and address them before they occurred, rather than simply
responding to problems as they occur.
As an industry, we are not currently encouraging the kind of
thinking that we need – every single brief has a very dominant
‘what’s the problem?’ part. Why are we always addressing
problems and why can’t we stop being so negative? I wonder
when will we start thinking of brand opportunities instead of
brand problems?
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
58. From 1965, Stanley Pollitt, then at Interpublic Group agency
Pritchard Wood & Partners in London, drew similar conclusions to his
contemporaries and friends at JWT. His legacy to the advertising
industry would be a new agency structure revolving around a set of
principles which also attracted the title ‘account planning’.
There’s the potential of
writing a complete book all Pollitt’s ideas blossomed when, in 1968, he helped set up Boase
about the magic of King Massimi Pollitt and established what he called a ‘consumer
alliance’, openly adopting the phrase from JWT. The new account
and the superiority of JWT, planning department at BMP was quite different from that at the
but I guess that’s not the London office of JWT. BMP was a tiny agency with no international
point of this primer. So let’s connections at that stage, but it was soon to develop a reputation
William Hesketh Leverwork, thanks to the efforts of the young and very
for good creative
look at the other side of talented John Webster. The aim of BMP was to show that its
planning – Pollitt’s way, advertising was both accountable and effective. Martin Boase was
which took place at a very once quoted as saying that he did not accept that there had to be
a choice between strategically relevant and creatively original
small agency, BMP (now advertising. This remains something of a mantra at BMP DDB.
DDB). Planners at BMP mainly got involved in the following principles:
- Advertising research, and often fieldwork.
- Working with creative teams and researching rough creative
ideas.
- Using consumer research to clarify the issues and enrich the
28
advertising development process.
28 Henrik Habberstad, The Anatomy of Account Planning, accessed on 10th November 2009, Page 7
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
59. (Example of BMP DDB Creative Brief)
FIG 8 – NEW BMP TEAM STRUCTURE
William Hesketh Lever
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60. To conclude, BMP and JWT both realised the importance of planning in the advertising process and introduced
a new department into their agencies. However, the role played by planners at BMP was more focused on the
development of ‘creatives’ while JWT encouraged its planners to look at the bigger picture ‘The Grand
Concepts’.
To better understand the relationship between planning and communications, let’s study some brand
communications. We’ll look at examples where agencies and brands used planning (intentionally or
unintentionally) and benefited from it.
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=charles+darwin&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009
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61. It all started with “1984”, the Big brother voice-over:
groundbreaking Super Bowl For today we celebrate the
commercial that introduced first glorious anniversary of
the Macintosh and is still the information purification
directives.
talked about two and half
decades later. Director Ridley We have created, for the first
Scott paid homage to time, in all history, a garden
of pure ideology, where each
George Orwell’s classic tale
worker may bloom secure
by creating a vision of a bleak from the pests of
conformist world, in which a contradictory and confusion
lone heroine rebels against truths.
the automatons by throwing
Our unification of thought is
a hammer. The ad only ran more powerful a weapon than
once, but it helped change any fleet or army on Earth.
the world of computers, and
William Hesketh Lever We are one people.
of advertising. With one will.
One resolve. One cause.
Our enemies shall talk
themselves to death. And we
will bury them with their own
confusion.
We shall prevail.
Announcer voice-over:
On January 24th
Apple Computer will
introduce Macintosh.
And you’ll notice why 1984
won’t be like “1984”.
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63. Long the pacesetter in the business machine sector, IBM had become the
company for Apple to beat. Before IBM entered the personal computer
market in 1982, Apple had more than 40 percent of the sales. By 1983 IBM
had gained first place, capturing 36 percent of the market, while Apple's
share had fallen to 25 percent. Industry analysts were not sure how Apple's
Macintosh would fare against IBM. The Macintosh could not run programs
written for IBM personal computers, and most new programs on the market
adhered to the standards set by IBM.
The Macintosh would be a test of Apple's ability to compete head-on with
IBM while remaining true to its own design criteria. The new product would
sell only if Apple could convince users that IBM compatibility was not all that
29
important when a big enough company was behind the computer.
William Hesketh Lever
It first happened a little over two decades ago, on a Sunday afternoon
Macintosh, welcomed
in January of 1984. no one expected it, which was part of what made it
people to a new age of
so powerful. As millions of people sat before their television sets,
watching a football game and shifting their attention to snacks and computers.
conversations when the commercials came on, something round
about the third quarter – a kind of tremor. But it was above ground and
right on the TV screen, in the form of a woman charging full speed,
wielding a hammer and preparing to fly. Once she did that a lot was
shattered the way people thought about big business and
entrepreneurial brands, the way people thought about computers,
and most of all the way people thought about a company named
Apple. 30
29 Robert Schnakenberg, Apple Computer, Inc.: 1984 campaign, Encyclopaedia of major marketing campaigns, Volume 1 2000
30 Warren Berger, Disruption Stories, 2004, Page 16
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
64. William Hesketh Lever
Commissioned to provide the advertising strategy for the Macintosh Apple was actually following a time-honoured rule of advertising—grab
launch was advertising agency Chiat/Day. The creative team the consumer's attention. The company was aware that whenever a
assembled in the ad shop's San Francisco office consisted of executive new product is introduced the first thing its maker must do is make
vice president and creative director Lee Clow, vice president and people aware of it and its brand name. The Apple ad did so in a
associate creative director Steve Hayden (who wrote the final spot), fashion quite innovative for its time.
vice president and associate creative director Brent Thomas (who
served as art director), and producer Richard O'Neill. These people Also part of the marketing strategy for the Macintosh was a partnership
worked for more than a year—"65-hour weeks, without vacation," with Microsoft, the Richmond, Washington-based personal computer
according to account director Paul Conhune—to produce what would software company. On the same day Apple unveiled the computer,
become one of the most talked-about spots in the history of Microsoft introduced five new programs for the Mac in ads in the Wall
advertising. The spot, entitled "1984," began a six-day ran in January Street Journal. "Apple's new baby has our best features," read the
1984 that concluded with its final airing during ABC's telecast of Super copy. "It's called Macintosh. And it has our brains and a lot of our
Bowl XVIII. In foisting the elaborate "1984" on an unsuspecting public, personality." The one-time-only ad was created by Microsoft's ad
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=mac+mouse&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 accessed on 13-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
65. agency, Keye/Donna/Pearlstein (KDP), which worked in tandem with Thirdly, the communication strategy for the new Macintosh, which
Chiat/Day on the project. The ads went on to describe the five new insured the presentation of the machine as different as the company
programs that Microsoft planned to release for the Macintosh over the representing it and as innovative as the product itself. From the
first few months of 1984. selection of media channels to the inspiration of creative theme from
controversial novelist George Orwell, it was made sure that nothing
As a result of “1984”, early sales of the Macintosh were brisk. Industry looked, sounded or felt like anything people had experienced before.
sources estimated that in the first six hours on the product's launch day The most fascinating thing of the story of “1984” is the consistency in the
200,000 consumers visited the country's 1,500 Apple dealers. The dealers overall transaction of Macintosh for the Apple Business i.e. from the
reported selling $3.5 million worth of Macs and making of the product to its actual sale. Of course,
accepted cash deposits for another $1 million. In the the credit of Macintosh success goes to many minds,
first two months of the new computer's availability, however, if I have to select the ‘Grand Strategist’
31
an additional $8 million in deposits was taken. among those, then that would be, without a doubt,
the inventor, the strategist, the thinker, Steve Jobs.
Fast forward to 2009, and you can’t name a single
thing used in “1984” that didn’t have the rules of Jobs didn’t just think of the product proposition to be
planning embedded in it. the machine ‘For the rest of Us’, but also carefully
built the brand world around the idea. As a Grand
First of all, the product was designed with the user and their needs in Strategist, Steve Jobs made sure that everything went according to the
mind. Thanks to Steve Jobs, intensive planning work took place in product idea, his focus was on building a long-term personality for the
actually creating and designing the machine. It featured a fast Apple, by delivering consistent, innovative solutions for people in need,
processor powered by a Motorola 68,000 chip and had 128,000 than merely executing what technology was offering at that time.
characters of memory. No computer jargon was needed to operate the
machine. To carry out a particular function, the user simply moved a The point which differentiated Macintosh from the rest of the
pointer, or mouse, to a symbol on the screen and pushed a button. The competition was its ability to have a balance combination of logic
screen could also be broken up into windows, thus allowing several and creativity. Without a doubt, Steve Jobs realised that it was
functions to be handled at the same time. possible to defy convention and put forth a completely original
vision, and to create the machine that was designed to adapt to
Secondly, the penetration strategy adopted by the product. A smart the user (instead of the other way around).
move of including Microsoft as a technology partner, which insured the
superiority of the machine, both in its looks and working. 31 Robert Schnakenberg, Apple Computer, Inc.: 1984 campaign, Encyclopaedia of major marketing campaigns, Volume 1 2000
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
67. Peter Fisk, in his book Marketing Genius wrote, ‘the blurring of In Google doing what it does, it truly understands the following;
boundaries, of virtual and real worlds, and fusion of previously • Customers: "They only want what they want."
unrelated industries, is a daunting challenge but also a • Advertisers: "They want low cost and low risk."
fantastic opportunity’. • Media/Publishers: "They need to engage customers and they
want to do so at a low cost and with low risk.
With a doubt, the modernisation within the technology
discipline introduced countless opportunities to the business In a traditional world, for each to get what it wants, someone
world. Today, it’s possible for any brand to work with or against has to sacrifice. If a publisher wants to make more money, an
any other. It’s no more about finding what the technology has advertiser has to pay more. If an advertiser wants lower risk and
done, instead it’s about realising the potential it has for us. It’s still get out in front of customers, the customers may not get
an open book, easily accessible to those who have the what they want.
dreams, brains, confidence and persistence to benefit from it.
However, this is where Google differentiates itself from the rest
William Hesketh Leverby coming up with a ‘Grand Solution’, something
Very similar to this was the realisation of Larry Page and Sergey of the world,
Brin back in 1995, when they created Google in their Stanford which only the brains of Page and Brin could realise. In the
University bedroom. What Google did was not a one off magic case of Google, the searcher types in a query; advertisers, in
performance, but a simply a case of focusing the business advance, bid on a click because they assume a click
around people, and not the other way around. translates to interest; and, with each click, publishers
presumably make money. This model of working is something
Within five years, Google had started to deal with 100 million all three want i.e. (People, Advertiser, Publisher): Something is
internet searches every day, and made Brin and Page multi- exchanged at a price that's market-determined.
billionaires in less than a decade. Similar to this is what Steve
Jobs did for the Apple brand. For Google their vision is simple, ‘
to be the perfect search engine’ or, ‘one that understands
exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you
want’.
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=google+logo&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 on 28-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
68. FIG 9 – Google Search Model of Working
PUBLISHER ADVERTISER
DIGITAL/ONLINE
RESOURCES OF THE
USER RECEIVING
RELEVANT CONTENT
GOOGLE WORLD
In reality, Google’s (search) model of working is extremely In whatever Google does, it’s always the ‘searcher’ who is given
simple (FIG 9). Google as a brand understands the value of utmost priority. Whether it’s an advertiser using Google
William Hesketh Lever
keeping the audience ‘on your side’. In all its operations whatAdWords to promote its products and services on the web with
Google sells ultimately is, ‘You’. You, ‘the audience’ that every targeted advertising, or a website manager taking advantage
brand and publisher is looking for and Google makes it sure that of the Google AdSense programme to deliver ads relevant to
everybody gets what they really want. In simple words, Google the content of his website, the whole Google system works
is the web’s library: archival, organized and oriented around around customer democracy. Google search rankings are
research. determined by the most popular sites amongst global internet
users, assisted by those sites that encourage more open
Now you must be thinking, what on earth this all has to do with networking, linking one to another.
Communications Planning? But if you look deeper, you will find
Google as the champion of planning. As planners we stand for It’s no accident that Google’s New York office has more
‘champions of people’, we celebrate the fact that it’s the end humans than servers. This conviction in the power of people is
user whose voice is heard and listened, at all levels in designing also truly reflected in how Google creates awareness for its
a business proposition. brand. Until recently, no one had experienced a traditional
piece of advertising from Google.
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
69. In terms of its value, Google stands at number one in the world, William Hesketh Lever – tell it to an advertising agency and they will
ridiculous, I know
above Coca Cola, Microsoft and many others who spend think you are crazy, and would like to stay as far from you as
millions of advertising dollars in creating their brand value. But possible.
for Google, the case is different. Anyone who uses Google
products automatically becomes its advocate. And if my But then try asking Google, and they might tell you how
memory serves me correctly, then it wasn’t very different when successfully they did it when they thought of promoting Gmail.
Google revolutionised the e-mail world with the launch of The month was August, the date was 28th and the year was
Gmail. 2007. This was the day when Google broadcasted their Behind
the Scenes video on YouTube, which to date has received
Okay, so how do you launch a global communications 5,634,302 views – not really a bad reach for an advertising piece
campaign for a global brand, that caters to all cultures and that lasts for two minutes and nineteen seconds. The video was
markets, whilst using the power of single idea and then created by Gmail lovers from all around the world based on a
broadcast it to millions of people – with just one condition , that simple communications idea, ‘Help us imagine how an email
you don’t have any advertising budget? It sounds message travels around the world’. The execution platform was
Image courtesy of Google Images, available at; http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&sa=1&q=top+10+brands&meta=&aq=f&oq=&start=0 on 28-11-2009
© All Rights Reserved Waqar Riaz
71. even simpler, ‘Take a look at the collaborative video we started, and
then film what happens next. We'll rotate a selection of the clips we
receive on this page, and add the best ones to the video. The final
video will be featured on the Gmail homepage and seen by users
worldwide’. And there it was – all the world out with their video
cameras and letter ‘M’. Hats off to the thinking of Gmail Labs.
If we look at this activity from an advertising effectiveness point of view,
then we come across some amazing results. Thousands of blogs across
the world wide web, started to talk about Gmail’s clever stunt – it them successfully, then I wonder what need for an advertising/media
reached a worldwide audience of millions, and represented the partner will they have in the future?
multicultural, global outlook of the brand in its communications. All this
at apparently zero media, production and advertising budget. So, what was actually that thing which made people so interested in
doing what they did for Gmail? In my opinion a good product is a
It is indeed a very innovative case study, but also a bit scary at the ‘product’ of focused thinking. Thinking, that is planned and actually
William Hesketh Lever
same time. If advertisers are able to produce such effective brings benefit to the people, is more effective for any business, than
communications on their own and then have the ability to execute selling people dreams and hopes, without a tangible benefit. Google
doesn’t sell dreams – it simply brings utility to all of us. And that’s why we
believe that whatever it does, it’s doing for our benefit.
The product ‘Gmail’ has been bombarded with utility, whilst using a
very commercially viable model – which again satisfies the three point
criteria that we discussed for Google Search earlier i.e.
• Customers: They only want what they want.
• Advertisers: They want low cost and low risk.
• Media/Publishers: They need to engage customers and they want to
do so at a low cost and with low risk.
The advertising within emails is targeted and focused, and there won’t
be any advertising displayed that is not relevant to the email text.
Image accessed through taking screenshot of personal email account – accessed on 22-11-2009
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