ml haynes design

The new integrated campaign for Dickies launched via online video “tough tests” last week. This initial offering — the first round of work from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners — shows 874 Work Pants taking a beating, literally, as they’re ripped apart by squealing choppers, torn and shredded by massive wrecking balls, and rolled down a meticulously groomed hillside.

Each black-and-white clip is a combination of the old “don’t try this at home” instructional film and “don’t try this with stuff you’ve paid decent money for” product demonstration. Taking what has been a staple of skaters, surfers, hirsute tradesmen, and wannabe rockers, the GSP team brings this brand to the hard core. You know those guys and gals: the ones with the biker chain clipped to their belt loop, the steel-toe boots, and the compostable lunch bag in their recycled rubber messenger bag.

Watching the series, I couldn’t help but think brand loyalists aren’t the type to be sold with old-school show-and-tell demos like these. They’ve been trained over a lifetime to be skeptical of these well-choreographed tests and product performances. Folks new to the brand are probably in the same place in regard to what influences their purchasing decisions. The rough characters who star in these films aren’t buying it either, and they certainly are not watching videos online. Hell, they’re still rocking classic rock radio in their pickup trucks for a good time.

What’s going on here? Choppers pulling a pair of pants apart. Levi’s denim tags sport a mule team doing the same and have been for decades. Product is attached to a swinging steel ball and aimed at a thick concrete wall. Check out classic commercials of the ’60s and ’70s, and you’ll see this has been a staple for more than half a century. It didn’t get more tough than a Timex watch attached to an arrowhead, shot through a pane of glass by a gentleman wearing a plaid flannel shirt.

What was that last “test” again?

That’s right. Those tough twill pants are worn by a gravity-loving, bearded hipster who simply cannot resist the urge to rock, roll, and bounce down a beautiful hillside obviously landscaped by a professional film crew and production team. Parkour, I think not. This guy likes a good tumble it would appear, and, well, it just isn’t that easy to get yourself a chopper at the last minute, let alone a wrecking ball without calling ahead. What better way to show the world that you — and your new pants — have earned the badass Dickies label?

It’s funny how things come to you at the oddest times and in the strangest situations. I’m getting used to it, but ideas and solutions can still strike me when I least expect it. I had one of those experiences recently, as I worked to find the Holy Grail of “selling social” to clients — and even colleagues — that aren’t there yet in understanding the how and the why of it.

If you pitch pixels you know what I’m talking about. You’ve got a Marketing Director, an exec out of the C-suite, maybe even someone out of biz dev that hasn’t yet seen the shining light of their first badge or felt the rush of a retweet. You can throw all the stats you’ve got like so many Ninja Stars, but they just don’t get it. One too many of these meetings and I realized I needed to pull it in and rethink my approach.

Then it hit me. It was really quite simple. I broke it down into four simple steps. Take a look. Try it out. See what you think and let me know if you don’t agree that sometimes (and this is one of those times) it’s best to go low-tech and keep on truckin’!

Step 1: Get In
Social Media should be experienced. If you want to know what’s going on, join in. Reading, researching is no substitute for total immersion. Sure there’s the obvious — and the ubiquitous — but maybe you walk in slowly at the shallow end. Just get off that chaise lounge and get in!

Step 2: Sit Down
Get comfortable too. You’re going to be here for a while. If you’re going to make this a worthwhile venture — and meeting business objectives is certainly worthwhile, to say the least — you’ll need to take the long-view on this. And you’re going to need to be present, actively present, when you’re here too.

Step 3: Hold On
The ride can get bumpy, so reach up and grab that handrail when you feel the need. Remember, this is why you’re here — to take in everything. The good. The bad. The ugly. The “hell-I-had-no-idea-they-felt-like-that.” Social Media is like a focus group on some really good stuff. And once you get your bearings, you’ll be glad you rode it out.

Step 4: Shut Up
This is sometimes the hardest part: the listening part. There’s a reason why we call these intentional communities “listening platforms.” And this is where the gold is. That tripped out focus group I mentioned earlier — they come up with some great stuff. And if we take the time to let it soak in, inform our thinking and insights, change and improve our perspective, then it’s a ride that’ll take us to some very interesting — and fruitful — places.

This post also appears on Talent Zoo’s new media blog this morning. Check it out; there’s some great content there. More great pix (like the one above) can be found at NotStock Photography.

One of the more interesting, and creative, areas of work for me is in naming — products, services, events or companies. The challenge is to conjure something never-before-heard-of yet comfortably familiar and resonant. Add to that the fact that any and all of these “things” must survive and thrive on the Internet and the project takes on more complication.

Being around long enough to have survived the time when clients insisted on names that began with the ubiquitous lowercase “e” and later the lowercase “i,” I remember (and not fondly) the painful twist the web put us all through. Thank goodness folks came to their senses — persuaded by the likes of me, another interesting aspect of this work — and adopted a more long-term view of the import and influence the process and outcome of naming has upon both brand and business vitality and longevity.

I’ll come around to visit this topic again, as I’m certainly keen on this type of work and the process required. That said, I had a good chuckle when I came upon this decade-in-review article from MarketingProfs and thought I’d share. Knowing your history — the good, bad and ugly — and taking the lessons learned is invaluable as I continue to find myself in this game of “name that company.”

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27 jan 2010 2pm

As if to prove my point, Apple announces what will be one of the most talked about — and laughed about — names yet. Kudos to MadTV for having conjured this years ago.

Much has been written about AOL’s new logo, debuting December 10th. Just weeks away, this Internet dinosaur will attempt its third re-branding.

Common wisdom has it that the first logo was an inside job; no one has come forward to claim that iconic pyramid with mirrored swooshes and Mistral-like typography. The first logo re-design was done by Desgrippes Gobé, a 3D pyramid-to-pointer-effect and script-to-rounded-sans-serif and the identity went boldly, if not generically, into the future. Next month, as the brand spins off from the Time Warner mothership, the logo will see another reinvention.

The first, and most obvious, change is in the typography. Enough of a household name to go by three letters alone, AOL will now be represented by title case, sans serif letterforms followed by a period. And much has been made of this period, for sure. Sam Wilson, managing director at the Wolff Olins New York office — AOL’s go-to branding agency — claims the period in the logo was added to suggest “confidence, completeness… AOL is the place to go for the best content online, period.” Completeness, yes, when used at the end of a sentence or within an abbreviation. I’ll even go for the end of a phrase, heck, it’s advertising. But at the end of three letters? I would’ve loved to have been in that pitch and heard that rationale hit the fan.

The second change is in the visual representation of the brand, the changing images and backdrop to the letterforms. Counter to the plain and accessible typography, these images represent everything from finger-paint swirls to vignettes of fish. The type knocks out of each of these images in varying degrees of legibility and logic. I get the metal fist (AOL does music) and the scribble (AOL does self-expression) but I’m still wondering what AOL’s going to do with that fuscia blob of brain matter. Or is it bubblebum? Jordan Crane, Wolff Olins New York CD, describes it as “a mix of do-it-yourself and high production values, crazy stuff and elegant stuff… simple and engaging and bizarre — all the things the Internet is.” Again: rationale meet fan.

Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO, in an interview with paidContent.org, supports the decision to launch this unorthodox identity program as an expression of corporate creativity. “The hardest part about brands is everybody’s got an opinion. What really matters is how well you like our products and services… We looked at a lot of different brand treatments. We felt this was the one that captured what was happening at the company underneath the surface. People see AOL as a big turnaround, but there is so much creativity at the company now.”

A campaign rollout is still under consideration. You’ll need to go to the AOL web site to see the changes as the transformation takes place the evening of December 9th and into the 10th. This revolution will not be televised. Instead it will go out to the already converted who will be looking, as Armstrong suggests, for improvements in service and product offerings. If that means that they’re greeted by fish and rockers, and their email is announced in some auto-tune robotic tone, so be it. For the rest of us — and clearly those of us interested in the process and politics of corporate identity — this could be an interesting way to ring out 2009.

We’re well into Movember and I’m honored to be working alongside some very hairy, big hearted — and creative — guys. It seems the creative community embraces the opportunity for self-expression and selfless giving. I, myself, am enjoying the opportunity for good humor and bad 80s fashion.

Check out the official Movember USA web site. Encourage and support any gentleman you know who might be a part of this wonderful and whimsical endeavor. Consider a “grow your own” plan for next year. Enjoy!

Much has passed since Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Games, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to pass along this invaluable resource and blow-by-blow description of what goes into such a weighty pitch. The author and advertising veteran, Jon Steel, caps 288 pages of how-to with an insider’s perspective on “the perfect pitch” — London’s winning bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business is a human and humorous examination of what feeds the advertising agency: new business. The pitch that can ignite new business and become a spark for a fruitful relationship doesn’t happen in a hasty planning meeting and certainly not if that meeting takes place mere hours before the presentation and in the car on the way to that presentation. Been there. Done that. To read Steel describe the strategic planning, tireless practice and enthusiastic performance — combined with respect for his audience and his team — is to re-engage with what can make the process so exciting and enjoyable.

In the course of his storytelling, and he has some great stories, he not-so-gently points out the pitfalls of Powerpoint, the importance of taking time out and time off, and the value of engaging and entrusting team members to do their best and shine. Steel’s scorn for the slideshow crutch that so many marketing folks lean on is keen and shared by those who sit and agonize over this unwelcome part of any presentation (much less new business pitch). He gives more than lip service to satisfying the need to return to our real lives and refuel with the precious energy that comes from time spent with family and friends. And his gracious reminder that we do best when when both stirred and supported by our peers is compelling in the truest sense of the word.

Webtrends, the granddaddy of web analytics apps, launched Webtrends Open Campaign. According to their mid-August press release, Open Campaign is “a transparent look at digital marketing today through the execution of an integrated multi-touch campaign.” In other words, the folks who brought us traffic stats and other under-the-hood goodies are showing us how it’s done. Promises to be an interesting ride.

Using a broad blogging platform, social media APIs and a cast of in-house and partner characters, we’re invited to not only watch but participate in the digital marketing campaign for new product, Analytics 9.

Webtrends, once *the* analytics and measurement tool for web dev and marketers, was put into deep shadow by Google Analytics. Like so many other pay-to-play apps, this once standard tool was pretty much forgotten by most web dev and managers I knew. Google just made it so darn easy. And who can argue with free?

The Webtrends Open Campaign will pull back the covers on a comprehensive initiative. Marketers will no doubt appreciate the transparency and opportunity to poke around someone else’s plan and execution. I’m curious to follow the effects of audience participation on the process and the follow-through on transparency.

With an all-access pass to a new online campaign, I’m going to give it a whirl. How about you?