Do you know why some companies are performing better in the crisis than others? And do you know why those same companies will emerge from the crisis in an even healthier position than before? It’s because they have strong cultures.
It is about having a vision, a belief system, an attitude and a worldview that is shared by the entire company. More than a simple guideline, it is a set of values. When a company has a strong culture, everyone in that organization not only supports decisions made by the CEO – but could have made the same decision in his or her place. In our digitalised, open-sourced society the culture is the brand. You cannot fake it.
Some of our clients have the strongest cultures of all. I have to mention Apple, because it’s such a great example. Thanks to the vision of Steve Jobs, Apple has a culture of creativity and innovation. ‘Think different’ was far more than an advertising slogan. It went to the heart of a way of thinking that has transformed the company. By thinking different, Apple shrugged off the notion that it was a mere computer maker and embraced the idea that it was a provider of tools for creative people. The result, of course, was iTunes, the iPod – and later the iPhone. These were radical new departures for Apple, but they were perfectly in tune with its culture.
Apple is well known for the loyalty it engenders among consumers. Needless to say, its employees are equally evangelical. When you go to an Apple store, you can tell the staff love working there. Why? Because a strong culture attracts the best employees. And when the economy crumbles, you want those people by your side.
So how do you build a strong company culture? For one thing, it takes time. You can’t just bolt it on. When you start a company, the culture is already taking root. In fact, very often, company cultures are created by strong leaders. The system may stay in place long after that person has left, but usually it can be traced back to a single inspiring figure.
At TBWA our culture is based on Disruption, which is all about questioning conventions in order to find a new path. But when we organise Disruption exercises (we call them ‘Disruption Days’) for our clients, we do not ask them to change their cultures. In fact, we ask them to look deep within their cultures and identify their key points of difference, a vision and belief-system that sets them apart, makes them likeable or creates a campfire. In this way, we can unlock untapped potential. Companies often tell us that they have ‘found themselves’ after going through the Disruption process. It’s a liberating experience for them.
Take Kraft, who we recently invited to attend a Disruption Day when the company was reviewing the strategy for its Tassimo hot beverage maker. We transformed our Berlin office into an apartment, with a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, a kid’s room. We staged Tassimo‘s reality. The convention we identified was that every hot beverage system had a similar positioning, which could be summed up as “the moment”. In other words, the machines delivered a single cup of coffee that the recipient then savored – alone. Our insight was that Tassimo was more about sharing. It delivers many different beverages, including tea and hot chocolate, so there’s something for everyone. Everybody gets what they want. It has a campfire appeal, with people gathering around it make their favorite drink. This led directly to the brand message: “Together is better.” Now Tassimo is building a culture of togetherness that will have an impact on many aspects of its behavior.
You can’t tell the world a company stands for one thing if its employees know that, internally, that isn’t the case. Employees have blogs now – or friends with blogs. The corporate world has become transparent. As I mentioned at the start: the culture has become the brand.
That’s why TBWA aspires to being more than an advertising agency. I like to think that through our work we contribute to our clients’ company cultures. That’s why our relationship with them usually remains strong for so many years: we have played a role in the creation of their culture and our very own. In that way, we help to provide them and ourselves with a sustainable future.
By Ulrich Proeschel
If you have an questions or suggestions, simply send me an eMail.
Thanks to David Carr from The New York Times, this is the first article I have read in ages that talks about the future of our industry in a forward looking way. The media industry in the broadest sense has always been a melting pot for some of the most interesting individuals. Yes, I know with a lot of dinosaurs still around it felt sometimes like the end of the world, but it is not. After reading David’s article, I am more than confident, that there is an exciting future. A future for disrupters and a future for the ones who understand how audiences digest media today.
What David describes for Manhattan is probably true for the rest of the world as well.
“For every kid that I bump into who is wandering the media industry looking for an entrance that closed some time ago, I come across another who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery. The next wave is not just knocking on doors, but seeking to knock them down.
Somewhere down in the Flatiron, out in Brooklyn, over in Queens or up in Harlem, cabals of bright young things are watching all the disruption with more than an academic interest. Their tiny netbooks and iPhones, which serve as portals to the cloud, contain more informational firepower than entire newsrooms possessed just two decades ago. And they are ginning content from their audiences in the form of social media or finding ways of making ambient information more useful. They are jaded in the way youth requires, but have the confidence that is a gift of their age as well.”
With the first significant campaign in Germany since the company’s take over by Pernod Ricard, ABSOLUT VODKA is re-focussing on it‘s creative DNA. The world‘s largest photo exhibition in Cologne, Hamburg and Munich gives the audience of the brand a unique interpretation of the creative collaboration between rock photographer Danny Clinch and the rock band Wolfmother: IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD YOU‘RE WITH THE BAND.
Lichtstrasse in Cologne
In an interview with German trade-magazine HORIZONT Christian Seel, Marketing Manager for ABSOLUT in Germany, commented on the decision to rethink the former media mix, especially the departure from TV: „All other premium vodka brands are on TV, but we wanted to differentiate ourselves through creative thinking and behavior.“ He continues, „We are not convinced to be able to connect with our audience on TV. We want to be more efficient.“
The exhibition won’t happen in print ads or on traditional OOH poster-sites. Rather, the stars of the show are multiple 2,500 square-feet XXL posters on display throughout the selected cities, in the open space and not in a closed of museum. Flyers distributed in bars and restaurants point the audience to the exhibition, and iPhone users can listen to a mobile audio guide directly on their phone, including original comments by the photographers. All others can download an audio guide direct from the ABSOLUT website, to which an interactive banner campaign directs additional fans.
If you cannot travel to Cologne, Hamburg or Munich, make sure you check it out on the web.
In a series of seven posts authors from London – this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Ian Thomas, Managing Director Integer London.
We Londoners like to think that we have some of the best shopping around. And with over 40,000 shops to choose from, ranging from the boutiques on the local high streets to retail palaces such as Selfridges we’re certainly well served. But if you were to open a new store here tomorrow, would it based on the retailing conventions of today?
Retail is facing a revolution as shoppers switch to online channels and technology ranging from iPhone barcode scanners to comparison web sites bring transparency to pricing and make it very clear how much extra we pay for the pleasure of visiting these palaces .So any store being designed today would join the physical store and their online presence to enable a seamless customer journey. It would recognise that shoppers research in one channel, buy from another and then switch back to online channels for customer service post sale. It would incorporate the fact that other shoppers buy online but want to collect or return the product at a physical store. In short, you would design your offering to be multi-channel from the start.
You might not stop at this and incorporate some of the innovations that online retailing has brought – such as price comparisons (which keep customers from leaving your store), customer reviews (that can significantly boost conversion levels and average order value), offer home delivery or communicate current stock availability. And you might integrate your supply chain so that you get the manufacturer to ship stock directly to the customer, meaning the retailer only needs a display product in store and can display an extensive range to satisfy the “long tail” of niche markets.
On a recent trip to New York I saw one store which is already offering most of the above, possibly giving a glimpse of the future of UK retailing. The store was Best Buy – the largest electrical retailer in the US and owners of the Carphone Warehouse in the UK. They have embraced multi channel retailing like no other: you can browse in the store and order on line – from the store itself. All stock can be delivered the next day (sometimes the same day) and importantly installed and integrated to your existing devices by the Geek Squad (who they also own), giving them ownership of the much fought over “digital home”. Increasingly, they are bundling their products and services to make it harder to make comparisons with other retailers and adding other services such as online receipt storage and recycling of old devices.
The reason that this is of importance to the UK is that Best Buy is to launch here next year – and given that there are over 800 Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK (seemingly on every London street) and they have vowed to bring these innovations to the UK. Interestingly this is at odds with my own experience of The Carphone Warehouse, where their telesales team appear to compete with store staff for your business.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Ian Thomas, Managing Director, Integer London.
The expert is 15 years and seven month. Matthew Robson is a intern at Morgan Stanley in London. He described in his report his friends’ media habits and created a serious buzz among media executives and beyond. And created an essential piece of information for brands that believe in the Media Arts idea developed and refined by Lee Clow over the last years. It requires a deep understanding of how audiences digest media and the various crafts we can use to tell brand stories.
Check out what The Guardian reported about the Robson’s document and check out what the 15-year old has found out about the use of radio, television, newspapers, gaming, internet, directories, viral/outdoor marketing, music, cinema and the role of TV, mobile phones, computers or game consoles in the life of todays teens. Click here for full story.
Within the given context The Guardian published the following two lists:
What is hot?
• Anything with a touch screen is desirable.
• Mobile phones with large capacities for music.
• Portable devices that can connect to the internet (iPhones)
iPhone Apps. A global phenomenon. A global success story. Never before, I´m sure, has one technology brought that much creativity to break out of so many different people. In such a short time. And merely 2 years after introducing the iPhone apple used the explosion of iPhone apps to create art.
Read all about the pulsating wall of apps at the WWDC conference in San Francisco earlier this month on techcrunch.com.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Stefan Schmidt.
Is digital drawing the next big thing in arts? Could be. Is it a PR stunt? Could be. Or is it an expression of brand behavior? Yes, it is.
Jorge Colombo drew this week’s cover of THE NEW YORKER using an iPhone application. And guess what? He did it while queuing to get into Madam Tussaud’s Way Museum in Times Square.
Some people send text messages with their iPhone, others play games or simply talk to friends. Jorge Colombo created a cover artwork. nyt.com reported that Colombo bought his iPhone in February, and the $4.99 Brushes application soon after, and said the portability and accessibility of the medium appealed to him.
In our extremely well-connected world this lucky combination of an artist, The New Yorker and technology delivered through the iPhone, great things become even greater and the PR value for all involved brands is tremendous. Check out the film and read the story in the website of THE NEW YORKER.
And, do one experiment: Google “New Yorker” +iPhone. Amazing.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Ulrich Proeschel
As revolutionary as the iPhone was when it was introduced, the ultimate potential of this all-display device was realized when apps came along. Those amazing downloadable programs that sit on your screen are transforming the iPhone from a really great mobile phone into a device that can become virtually anything you need it to be. In the words of NY Times technology writer David Pogue: “they make the iPhone (or the iPod Touch) do absolutely amazing things…stunts a cellphone has no right to perform.” And apps not only make the device more functional and fun, they make the iPhone a device that changes around you — the things you like, your hobbies and interests, your career, your sense of humor. Although everyone has the same hardware, the apps people choose to add make every phone unique and personal.
While the selection of apps is wildly diverse (from dog whistles to apps that find your parking spot) what makes them great is surprisingly consistent. The best apps are all about looking and acting simple while leveraging the iPhone’s “senses” (multi-touch interface, accelerometer, GPS, camera, mic) in interesting ways. They’re like technology amplifiers that can help you make plans on the go (Fandango), get you out of a jam (Urbanspoon) or just make it more fun to waste some time (Rolando). And now as downloads top 800 million worldwide, they are also becoming an entirely new medium for brands.
The best branded apps are about finding the part of your brand that can become a great mobile experience, whether that’s providing entertainment, utility or social value. These bite-sized brand experiences show how technology can actually change audience behavior, and provide marketers with the chance to flex new creative muscles. Success though can’t just be about how cool it looks, or even how many downloads it’s gotten — success should be measured on the audience’s terms: good reviews and ratings, blog chatter, tweets and ultimately whether people find a use for them in their everyday lives.
While other mobile companies are beginning to throw their hat in the app ring, the iPhone App Store has a sizeable lead and will soon be the single largest distributor of mobile content. But, with over 30,000 apps and counting, the challenge for marketers is both to make a great app, as well as help people discover it.
When done well, branded apps will help customers interact with your brand in a more meaningful way because it becomes an extension of the brand, not simply an extension of the marketing.
As revolutionary as the iPhone was when it was introduced, the ultimate potential of this all-display device was realized when apps came along. Those amazing downloadable programs that sit on your screen are transforming the iPhone from a really great mobile phone into a device that can become virtually anything you need it to be. In the words of NY Times technology writer David Pogue: “they make the iPhone (or the iPod Touch) do absolutely amazing things…stunts a cellphone has no right to perform.” And apps not only make the device more functional and fun, they make the iPhone a device that changes around you — the things you like, your hobbies and interests, your career, your sense of humor. Although everyone has the same hardware, the apps people choose to add make every phone unique and personal. 