2010: What lies ahead

2010: what lies ahead

1. Advertising will go mobile. We've been seeing this trend being talked about a lot, but this year it seems it's going to finally happen. Accurate measurement of mobile and the exponential growth of the medium (blame it on the iPhone app explosion?), combined with mainstream agencies and brands finally understanding the potential of the 'third screen' is bound to see growth in advertising spends on that platform.

2.Online advertising will certainly (need to!) get more creative. This will mean that the 'banner' – plain, flat, just there waiting for a click – will die out. Consumer demands will drive increased creativity and content within the framework. Attention seeking content, including video, forms-within-banner, banners with built in games, total page takeovers and other interactive advertising on banners should become the trend.

3.Social media and networking portals will emerge as new marketing and sales channels for brands. Commercial possibilities across many social media portals will allow brands to play a far more active role in not just engaging in conversations about their brands, but also pushing sales.

4.Crowdsourcing, and not just online. Crowdsourcing – or mobilizing consumers, interest groups and followers to develop brand communications across multiple online and mainstream channels is emerging as a clear trend across the marketing world. Whether for research, developing consumer driven content on video platforms and viral channels, or brainstorming on brand ideas, consumers in a crowd out there are becoming involved - and at huge cost efficiencies across the board. From politics (Obama did this rather well) to software development, people journalism to activism, crowdsourcing is going to become a key resource for both agencies and marketers.

5.The world is flat and so will media content be. With the increasing absorption of media across digital channels, content will become 'channel neutral'. So, a tv spot will emerge on YouTube and be shared on Facebook and tweeted about. If the content is interesting to the consumer, these will take viral flight on multiple social media channels. In order for this long tail to happen, formats need to be easily convertible and accessibility for the consumer will become key. Borders and boundaries of format will give way to seamless usability across channels.

6.Analytics and performance measurement will emerge as crucial players in how brands will require agencies and suppliers to be transparent and answerable. And, no, this will not be limited to online. So, soon enough, brands will be asking what works and what doesn't, and often tying in sales to marketing efforts as KPIs. Online advertising and media planning has theoretically always been measurable. The dynamic shift will happen in mainstream media, where, increasingly marketing managers will look at connecting ad bursts and campaigns to direct effects on products moving off the shelves.

7.Cheaper. Faster. Better. And then some. The differentiator will need to be something beyond the obvious. Brands will need to compete at all levels for consumer attention, purchase, retention and loyalty. With consumers sluggish in recovering from a fairly big meltdown, and their purchase patterns affecting everything else in the business side, brands need to bring a lot more to the table than just cheaper, or claim to be better, or deliver faster. The 'and then some' factor will be crucial. These may include superb after sales service, attention to detail, consistent track records, consumer engagement in product definitions etc. But there will have to be an edge.

8.Advertising in traditional media channels will continue to rule – specially in our region here in the Middle East. While, yes, there has been a lot of conversations on the 'shift to digital', the most cost effective mass-reach model will remain in the broadcast and satellite driven tv channels. While consumers are looking for the convenience, the customization and the delivery of internet driven content, one cannot ignore the fact that while the consumer wants more, the desire for 'better' is yet to outdo the desire for instant. So, with the advent of HDTV, and the possibilities of 3DTV coming to our region by 2010, advertising spends in traditional mass mediums will remain hero.

9.Sponsored content and placement might rear its head as a big player. With many consumers channel surfing during ad breaks or TiVO-ing out ads to watch pure content, brands will increasingly look at 'placement' where their products are woven into the fabric of the programmed content. This has traditionally happened in movies, on tv programs and serials, and it will grow in the online domain as well.

10.The consumer will emerge as the true brand spokesperson. With market shattering news like the Tiger Woods issue, what with John Terry, and God alone knows who else, the consumer might emerge as a strong contender to the brand personality throne. More companies may start to opt for the average guy on the street and his positive reviews, his peer group pressures and his influence, rather than depend on the Tigers and the Terrys.

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Cancel the Dubai Obit

I had emails from all over the world. Some were of genuine concern, some were of the told-you-so kind, and some were just keeping me in the loop. But most of the reports they quoted, most of the news sites I went to, and most of the Word of Mouth (or Mouse) I heard was all very schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. The ultimate payback for all things hubris that Dubai is all about.

Here we are in Dubai. Bust boom bust time again. Dubai owes a hundred billion. Dubai has sold this, traded that, and left the building. Click on google maps and you'll find no Dubai. Just a big hole – a drain down which we saw a lot of money just go down, right? One hundred thousand people left on the Airbus 380. On Thursday night. One helluva plane huh?

Anyway, it all boils down to work. To bread on the table. To accounts in the bank and clients in the boardroom. 'How are you guys doing?' I've been asked a dozen times in the last few days. Well, truth is, we're OK so far. Touch wood. We've still got the world's top three brands – Google, Coke, McDonald's (top by brand recognition survey, I didn't make that up guys). We've still got digital work coming our way which we are slowing down, because we don't have enough bench strength. We haven't quite heard yet about the death of Dubai. And, I'm no betting man, but I'm guessing we won't. There'll be a lot of chinese whispering, a lot if rumor mongering, gossip, tales, but the truth will be that the fundamentals in Dubai are pretty strong, and no, Dubai may be has a virus, but isn't dead.

On one of our agencies, we had a couple of clients say, they might need to be cautious for 1Q 2010. Hell, yes, of course. No problem with that. We're going to be cautious too. We're going to be watching every penny. But not because Dubai has a cold or had sneezed, but because we haven't quite come out of the R word yet – globally. Let's face it. We are a regional agency network. We're across 16 countries. Yes, Dubai is HQ, but we clock a lot of food miles as far as our bread basket goes. And it's the same with most of our larger regional clients. Their regional steam ahead plan may blip a bit because HQ has a speed bump installed in the parking lot, but frankly, it won't be a big negative hit.

Already, the negative waves across the world have eased. Markets have bounced back. Sentiment is a funny thing. It forgets the bad, the pain, the tough times, because optimism is a healer, a balm. So, no folks, Dubai is OK. Business is fine. People are great. Work is wonderful. This is just a note to say, cancel the obit on Dubai you media folks around the world. The news of the demise was an exaggeration.

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Upsize. Downsize. Tweetsize.

I've been driving around lately in Dubai with one eye on the road and the other on OOH. I can be bipolar and split like that at the same time without really losing focus on the road ahead. Well, usually. And, the reason behind this is my ongoing research project into how creative is being resized from print for outdoor without any concern for readability.

Back when I was a CD, we always did a wink-and-blink 3-second test when developing artwork for billboards – the ones you whizz past on the highway, or even crawl past on the streets. Because, the window of exposure is short. When adapting from a print ad, we would normally strip most of the copy and details, keep the main call to action and that was it. The headline, the logo, the product – say it all in like 3 seconds. Either art directors have gotten lazy, or media planners aren't even looking at what they're putting out there – but I am seeing a lot of outdoor ads with a lot of totally unreadable copy in there. Essentially, I am seeing a lot of outdoor where the artwork as simply been stretched or upsized. Like fries at McDonald's.

Some attempts are made for large billboards, but a lot of mupis out there, specially the ones on middle-of-road dividers are replicas of the 1/4 page ad, re-done in a different resolution output. Unreadable. Undecipherable. Waste. Come on folks, all it takes is a little bit of attention, and it's totally possible to have one campaign executed in slightly different artwork templates because the mediums are different. Trust me, and it will stretch your client's ad dollar. He deserves it. As does the Joe on the street squinting to decipher your message.

And my final rant, while I am at it. I came across a series of tweets last week where the ad was tweeted – not as a link (perhaps they didn't quite know how to do that?) but as a series of 140c tweets. The headline first. Which was pretty much ok, and should have ended with the brand name and would have been a pretty much acceptable (although lame) brand driven tweet. But then they started to unravel the paragraph of body copy in tweet after tweet. Until they were a complete abuse of the very existence of twitter. And stupid, meaningless waste of time and space. Yes, it's fine to drop in a link to your ad and have your tweeple share it with you, but you cannot tweetsize an ad verbatim. That's lazy.

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The Ramadan drop

The decision makers haven’t come back from holiday. Summer’s still around. That recession thing hasn’t really gone away here. We’re consolidating. And, the worse one yet – it’s going to be put up for a pitch.
Having come back from a brief break, I arrived with renewed mind and refreshed body hoping to see some sort of an uplift. Ramadan usually comes with bags of media spend. And the creative and content to go along with it. Traditional media planners find this time of the year – in our region – a bit of a bonanza. But apparently things look different this year (AdNation headlines a story on Saudi spending going AWOL).


I touched base with a few seniors in the business (not just at our agencies, but across the board) and it’s pretty much the same story. They haven’t come back. They as in the clients who went off to cooler climes, shopping trips and family hols. They as in the ones with direct access to the purse strings. So, no major spend decisions are going through, unless of course someone planned way, way ahead and had the foresight to get approvals, budgets and plans locked in before the cruel summer set in.


This year, Ramadan has sneaked into summer, and most every one who can, have either extended their summer holidays deep into the month of Ramadan or have taken a few extra days off and are planning to come back after. One client I know is holed up in London until Eid. One other will only come back in early September. So, Ramadan ad spend plans are on hold. Meanwhile, I watched on the Beeb how London High Street stores are extending hours and hiring Arabic speaking staff to meet the faithful summer rush from the region. Lucky them.


All this because summer’s still around. It’s still hot and humid, and avoiding coming back here when work is often at a slower pace isn’t top priority it seems. But the industry cannot grind to a halt because the mercury hasn’t ebbed and the fast is on. Consumers have for the most part returned from their summer sojourns – although rumors abound about a summer exodus (in Dubai) and a near permanent drop in the expat population.


And the recession/correction thingie is still around – always available as the first or last resort when it comes to pointing to a reason why ad spends are down. Business news is also rife with talks on major consolidations (read as corrections of earlier business gluttony). What we knew as X is going to be absorbed under Y and then branded as Z. And there’s no word on what’s going to happen to staff in those companies. Bit of a go figure situation.


Finally, friends of mine in the industry are telling me that the latest new ‘staller’ is the pitch. Clients are not signing off on plans, approving campaigns and holding out on all things good for the agency balance sheet because ‘the account may be up for pitch’. That’s the one that causes jitters, doesn’t it? You could recover from a recession, you know where’s there’s summer there’s a Fall (that came out badly, sorry), you know the decision makers will eventually have to end their short term lease in Portobello Square. But a pitch? That’s a whole different bridge.

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The Turkish Airline Digital Pitch

McCann Turkey in part of innovative digital pitch

We blogged about interesting pitches by agencies earlier. Here's one about an interesting pitch process opened up by Turkish Airlines. Our colleagues in McCann Istanbul are working on this pitch, and we our digital guys – Innovations – working closely with them.

There's a lot of buzz on twitter on the pitch already, and McCann are working on making this a digital winner. Here is a report on that pitch from a blog...

We’re working on the Turkish Airlines pitch, a company that completely understands what thinking digital is. The brief was designed like a digital treasure hunt, spanning across social media.

It’s obvious that the e-commerce team of Turkish Airlines wants to emphasize their digital know-how, as well as they want to create a viral effect months before the intended digital project goes live.

The first thing we got in our hands was nothing but a 2 page “treasure map,” which looked like a simple mind map with the keyword “thybrief” at the center and the most important social media sites linked around.

It’s been easy to collect planted hints on Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, FriendFeed and Slideshare. With so many geeks around us, we discovered the password for the thybrief Gmail account hidden in the HTML source code of the thybrief blog. Then we seized Gmail, Google Docs and Mindmeister accounts for the user thybrief. So the puzzle is solved.

Now what’s left is only finding the idea to impress a client with such a broad understanding of digital media, along with the perfect implementation. If you guessed we already found the idea, then you know us too well. Please join us wishing good luck to our competitors; that’s what they are going to need badly.

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The Film Before the Drama

I was reading on BBC Sport how triumphant Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola showed a specially made film 10 minutes before the final in Rome. The film featured highlights of his players' finest moments – featuring every member of the squad – and was set to the soundtrack of Gladiator. We all know what happened afterwards. Great Men made Rome Great (awesome ad before the Champions League final by Nike, and now they’ve changed it to reflect Barca as winners, and it’s even better!).

This reminded me of agency pitches. Major pitches are big games to use the metaphor. But how often do we prepare properly? How well are we rehearsed? Do we as a pitch team get shown the movie (metaphorically) – to inspire, to charge us up, thin the blood, make the adrenalin rush to our heads to we can go flat out and conquer?

Having been to more pitches over the last few weeks than I would like to remember, I see this as an area our whole industry can build on. Some of the pitches are spot on, the content is great, it addresses the brand, answers the brief, but sometimes the team is so lifeless, so listless, so yawn boring, that you wouldn’t buy peanuts from them, let alone give them your brand to handle. And on other occasions, the prep work is so poor that the clients are astounded at how off-brief the presentation is. Either way, it isn’t a winning scenario.

I believe winning pitches is about chemistry. If you have your ingredients right, it all boils down to who’s in the room and how well they can sell the stuff. Wizards pulling rabbits out of hats. That’s what we need.

I believe only the best presenters should present. The rocket scientists who engineer the space shuttle stay behind in Houston, and NASA finds their best of breed astronauts to do the moon landings. That to me is the winning formula. In the pitch room – the moon landing phase – we need to find the astronauts who will go that one small step that becomes a giant leap for all.

Finally, there always needs to be a Guardiola for every magic trick that Barca did this year. The pitch team needs a leader, a coach, a go-to guy who mentors the team, checks the moves, drives and makes the content coherent and finally, who can stand there and make it all look credible. He’s the guy, or she’s the gal, who strategically is sound, is credible in front of the client, and who is passionate about the art of winning. He can change his team, change tactics half way through the pitch, and who coordinates the players.
He’s the one who plays the movie for the team. And he’s the one who helps unfold the drama.

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Medal of Dishonor: The new Playstation Customer Service Game at Jumbo Electronics

There’s a new game out there from Sony and Jumbo, and it’s about the fine art of post-sales customer rip off. I’m calling it the Medal of Dishonor. If you have mastered the art of using fine print, know how to really, really have dodgy customer service, have inventive ways of ignoring every rule in the Customer Relationship guidebook, and play Big Bad Bully because the poor customer has no choice – this game is for you.

The Sony/Jumbo Game is easy – and potentially, it comes free with every PS3 you buy here. This is what is apparently written in the Terms and Conditions of the Warranty. Buy a Playstion 3 here in the Middle East region, well, actually, here in Dubai from Jumbo and keep your fingers crossed. If perchance you have a Power Supply failure (my unit just went bust with a pop noise, similar to a silencer-fit handgun – gamers are familiar with this sfx), all you need to do is take it in to Jumbo for a fix-it. As luck would have it, my PS3 unit went bust literally a week after the 1-year warranty expired – so I am one of the lucky few who are playing this game!!.

I took it in to Jumbo at the Mall of the Emirates, and sure enough a couple of days later, I got an SMS message saying that the estimate amount for the repair was AED 1010. Imagine! The power supply unit cannot be costing any more than $20! And a whole new unit costs Dhs 1600!

I have asked the Jumbo guy (Ahmed on +9714 285 1485 xt 103) why it was so expensive. Surely a power supply unit couldn’t cost that much. He said, “no as per the Sony policy no PS3 units are repaired, but a new unit is given instead”. Now, why on earth should I have to pay for a new unit because I think a power supply unit went out and Sony won’t or can’t fix it?

I asked what the problem was but was given no answer. Apparently, no matter how small the problem was, the only thing Sony would do for me would be to replace my unit with a refurbished one. For Dhs 1010. That’s the cleverest, dirtiest, dodgiest way of after-sales revenue generation that I have ever come across in my 20+ years as a marketing professional.

Endgame: I did get resolution – not from Jumbo, but from Sony. I called and emailed Sony, and I am glad to say, they immediately actioned a follow up, and apparently have now arranged for a replacement piece (a refurbished set). I am astounded that I heard nothing from Jumbo. NOT A WORD! That's the WORST customer service experience I have ever had.

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