If Ben sent you here..... There is nothing to see!!!

Agency see agency do two

Following on from an interesting post by Paul I've noticed another trend that has been sweeping through adland of late.

Whether or not it is herd theory or purely coincidental I don't know but as with the penchant for communist iconography that Paul alluded to, the fixation with the boffs down at the lab filmed in retro faux NASA style has reached epidemic proportions (well almost).

Examples include Yakult, Egg and Wrigley's Ice gum and I believe that the source might be the popular and everlasting Lost TV programme. In particular the cult following of the DHARMA Initiative and all the hidden truths, untruths and intrigue that goes along with it.

Perhaps those pesky nerds down at DHARMA have brainwashed me but I'm more inclined to think this is herd planning following an uber trend for pervasive techy behaviour that implies a deeper more knowledgeable set of beliefs behind the brand.

YOU SAY WE PAY

Two fingers up to middle England and the daytime TV institution that is Richard and Judy. I love the bit about Waffles the cat.

No Logo

My word, what have they done? Here are some the current suggestions of what the people down at Wolf Olins have produced in their quest to capture the Olympic ideals for the 2012 games:

* A long distance runner on the start line
* Mainland Britain
* Lisa Simpson giving someone a blowjob (my favourite)
* A broken swastika
* Car parks surrounding a small stadium in the middle
* Vicky Pollard in a pink tracksuit getting down with the Elephant Man in a pink tracksuit
* A window I recently kicked a ball through
* A pink Larry Grayson doing the "I'm a little tea pot" dance.

Design by committee me thinks. Surely there were enough people involved in this process to create something really great? To me it appears that one of the key rules of the wisdom of crowds has been broken in that not enough opinions were taken on board (or maybe ignored). Some of that 400K must have been used for market research which would have indicated a little diversity of opinion to say the least.

At the end of the day it reflects poorly on the advertising industry in this country and will cause me untold grief in trying to explain how our ideas and experiences are valuable commodities.

Signing up to the online petition probably won't change anything but it will be interesting to see the scale of beef on this issue.

Missing Pretty Girl

I've not seen many posts about the find madeleine campaign, perhaps it's a bit of a no go area in the blogoshpere. Having had a debate with some friends about the parents' recent trip to see The Pope it got me thinking about how this (let's be honest) unbelievable situation has arisen.

I don't want to get in to any sort of argument about the nature of how and why they are taking this hugely public route but I think it reflects a lot of the changes in modern communications and mass audience behaviour. This is probably the most obvious case of missing pretty girl syndrome where certain news stories (particularly abduction of young white girls) get disproportionately more coverage than other seemingly more newsworthy stories.

The interesting thing for me is the potential role of the media in creating and sustaining a false consensus effect. Through chatting with my friends I found a whole host of interesting and controversial beliefs about the abduction, beliefs that I had assumed were not widely held.

There has been a constant stream of coverage..PR, blogs, websites, TV, radio, sporting events (the list goes on) that has binded the collective belief that we must keep the search up personally. The perception is therefore of a huge national outpouring of grief and worry.Herd thinking would suggest that there is a more natural behavioural explanation. That there is a need to be part of a general consensus of empathy towards a complete stranger that we would never have otherwise come into contact with.

What fuels this need? What seemingly bonds this virtual herd together? Is it perhaps the collective fear that this could happen to any of us? Is the the vulnerability of the young girl and the herd instinct to protect? Does our relationship with the media and their weighting of new stories have more of an effective than our immediate social network?

These ideas bring into question the effectiveness of a mass publicity campaign such as this where ultimately the parents want people to act and generate an end result... finding Madeleine.

The danger is that the campaign is now so vast that it has perhaps become the real source of news as people buy into this false consensus for the need for action.

Ver e funny

Check out these e-cards that Rozza enlightened me with. My personal favourite is "Dad, you've always been like a father to me". Get sending now. It's much more personal than mail. Which begs the question, what is the role of mail in this age of instant social networks? Sure, there will still be a need for b2b informational correspondence and delivery but does a simple card still mean a lot more than a well thought out and expressed e-mail or poke?

Easy as 1 2 3....

There has to be an explanation, but nobody has enlightened me yet. Why during the majority of strategic planning does the phasing of activity or messaging always seem to fall into a 3 stage approach?

Above are some of the recent examples that I have used or seen. I know that for me I always seem to slip into this structure as a default way of ordering my ideas but I was wondering if there was a deeper more interesting theory? Is it simply that all brands need to create awareness, engagement and then add value, surely not?

I can think of a few permutations such as adding a 1a of seeding/guerrilla activity before the big reveal but I can't help thinking that in this era of prosumerism and the masses taking control of the media this formulaic approach is becoming more and more outdated. Will there even be a need for the big all signing all dancing brand launch (other than for marketers to justify themselves to their MDs)in the future?

Some brands are obviously already turning their back on the traditional campaign structures, for example DFT's teen road safety campaign had viral as its central strategy, but I can't help thinking that 3 stage approach or a slight variation has a lot more life left in it yet.

The problem is I've run out of different ways of presenting box 1,2 and 3 so I think it's back to the drawing board for now....