Much was made at last week’s Grocer Conference – How to have a purpose: The role of ethics for your business and your brands – of the new dynamic in business: that making profits for shareholders is no longer sufficient as a corporate purpose and that there is a whole heap of societal benefits that companies should be striving to achieve too. Of course, the room was full of believers, and out in the real world I am sure there are still many businesses that rarely look beyond the bottom line.
If that’s the case now, it is set to
change. Regardless of the impact of coronavirus, people are increasingly
looking to business to show social leadership, to contribute to the greater
good beyond the nuts and bolts of day-to-day commerce.
Some brands have lofty ambitions,
though none less worthy for that. We heard from Tony’s Chocalonely on its
remarkable mission to abolish slavery in chocolate production – that’s all
chocolate production, not just for its own brand. Others are more modest, but
all share the qualities of empowerment and enablement, using business success
to achieve a greater benefit for all.
I made a brief appearance onstage to
comment on good and bad purpose-led marketing (and was gratuitously rude about
one of the earlier speaker’s campaigns; apologies Pot Noodle) and the
difference between the two is usually pretty clear. Good purpose is embedded
throughout a company, and if it emerges as part of a marketing campaign, it’s
because it’s integral and not an add on. Ineffectual, or even damaging purpose
marketing usually comes when a current social theme is grafted on to a
marketing campaign without any apparent reason.
Over the next few weeks and months, purpose for some companies and brands will be tested as never before. When it’s a fight for survival in a chaotic market it must be easy for all those touchy-feely principles to seem like a nice-to-have rather than a must-have. My bet is that companies with genuine purpose will fare better than the profit-at-all-costs merchants. They will treat their employees with respect and dignity – even in the most difficult of circumstances – and as they emerge from the other side of this crisis, they will retain, and even build on, the loyalty of their customers and suppliers.
The recent BCB London brought together the bar and beverage world for two days of spirits, sampling and some serious trendspotting. With a mix of established names and emerging producers, it was a great temperature check for where drinks culture is heading next. From gin brands fighting their way back… Read more
Let’s talk #Bieberchella. At a festival built on spectacle and showing up to show off (I said what I said), Justin Bieber did the opposite. No massive production. No ‘pick me’ energy. In short, it was a lo-fi masterclass, right? He literally used a laptop on stage, pulled up YouTube… Read more
There are some projects that feel like a neat tick on a to-do list. And then there are the ones that quietly tap into your own history, take over your calendar, your camera roll, your group chats, and remind you why you wanted to work in culture-making in the first… Read more
It ought to be a brilliant time to launch a new political
movement. Pretty much every commentator has spent the last two years
highlighting popular dissatisfaction with our politicians, our parties and the
system that sustains them. We are supposedly, as a nation, desperate for
leadership, for clarity, for politicians who believe in something, have a
vision, can articulate what it is and intend to deliver it. Neither Theresa May
nor Jeremy Corbyn ticks these boxes.
But in communications terms The Independent Group of 12 (at the time of writing) disaffected MPs who have left their parties, has got off to a disastrous start. The name is the first issue. As The Independent newspaper found when it tried to launch The Sunday Independent, there are already plenty of independents out there. Indeed, there were eight independent MPs sitting in the House of Commons before TIG was formed. So we have an Independent Group which doesn’t include all of the independents. This only highlights that if you are properly independent you surely can’t be part of a group anyway.
An oxymoronic name is compounded by a lack of policy. Being
united by what you don’t like is fine for a protest group, but pointless for a
political party. An effective launch would have presented some positive
(non-Brexit-related) ambitions. One or two would do, if only to provide a sense
of direction. At the moment, TIG looks likes a group of misfits (among their
former parties and each other) without a unifying idea in their collective
heads. Objecting to anti-Semitism (assuming that they all do) isn’t that idea. Everybody
should object to anti-Semitism.
But the worst communications sin of this group is its overbearing smugness. When we provide media training for senior spokespeople we usually want them to be confident, positive, forthright, even bold. It is presentational death to come across as pleased with yourself, superior, smug, self-centered. The public forgives much of its politicians (it has to), but I doubt that voters will treat the Soubry smirk as anything other than poison at the next election.
There is still plenty of room for a new political force at
the heart of British life. A NOTA (None Of The Above) party could present a
progressive, centrist raft of policies that would put the old guard of British
politics to shame. But unless The Independent Group gets its communications act
together very quickly indeed, it won’t be them.
The recent BCB London brought together the bar and beverage world for two days of spirits, sampling and some serious trendspotting. With a mix of established names and emerging producers, it was a great temperature check for where drinks culture is heading next. From gin brands fighting their way back… Read more
Let’s talk #Bieberchella. At a festival built on spectacle and showing up to show off (I said what I said), Justin Bieber did the opposite. No massive production. No ‘pick me’ energy. In short, it was a lo-fi masterclass, right? He literally used a laptop on stage, pulled up YouTube… Read more
There are some projects that feel like a neat tick on a to-do list. And then there are the ones that quietly tap into your own history, take over your calendar, your camera roll, your group chats, and remind you why you wanted to work in culture-making in the first… Read more
As has become traditional, around this time each year I have taken a look at the latest batch of retailers’ festive TV commercials for The Grocer magazine. My unedited thoughts are below, but the overall conclusion is that this year’s efforts are a bit thin on both creativity and selling power. Perhaps like Woolworths, which started off the whole Xmas ad-a-thon in 1981 (‘Have A Cracking Christmas’), Christmas advertising has run out of steam. (Incidentally, if you want to see that original ad, have a look here. It is, for all the wrong reasons, extraordinary.) Among the class of 2018, Iceland has tried something different, but probably too different for most of its customers. Morrison’s hasn’t even bothered and is just running last year’s ads again. At least Aldi has made a new ad, even if it’s terrible… Aldi The loathsome Kevin returns. Aldi has made yet another pointless ad featuring the hateful little vegetable in the mistaken belief that they have created an endearing and campaignable character. They haven’t. It was a thin idea in the first place and stretched to year three with the nonsensical introduction of an evil parsnip it makes even less sense than before. One improvement – last year’s ‘joke’ about urine has been replaced by one about testicles. Oh how we laughed. What has this to do with Aldi? Nothing. And will they see any sales benefit as a result? No. Pass me the grater. 2/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Cg_ez7d1U Argos It feels as though Argos worked backwards from its ‘Foolproof Christmas’ tagline and created this overblown ad to justify it. Basically, evil little creatures (‘fools’ – neither impish nor endearing, just nasty) will destroy your entire Christmas unless you get the delivery man from Argos to squash them. At a time when peace and goodwill are supposed to be in full flow this comes across as rather unpleasant, and probably quite frightening for young viewers. Did you know that you can buy Christmas stuff from Argos and they will deliver it quite quickly? You did? Well this was a waste of money then wasn’t it. 5/10 Asda You are going to like this ad whether you like it or not and we’ll keep chucking things in until you do, seems to be the creative ethos behind this bonkers festive onslaught from Asda. Like a rogue state run by Santa it is shelling us into submission with rocket propelled Christmas missiles that explode unmitigated Yuletide all over us until we give in. Its epic, very silly and rather fun. There may even be enough happening to keep it interesting in the long run-in to Christmas, it’s got yetties, a Trabant and synchronised skiing waitresses, just like every proper Christmas should have. 8/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIKutiqMlw Iceland Well we’re a million miles from Peter Andre’s party platters. In fact so far, that it’s not a Christmas ad at all. More a short NGO propaganda film with an Iceland message tacked on to the end. The animation is sub-Disney schlock but the message is powerful enough, especially for children, who are clearly the main target. A cynic might think that Iceland would be relieved that its non-Xmas Xmas ad has been ‘banned’, thus whipping up social media fury and tens of millions of views without paying for all that expensive TV airtime. But do Iceland shoppers really care about palm oil? Or is the CSR tail wagging the marketing dog? 2/10 (for not being festive) John Lewis Differentiating your Christmas ad by not making a Christmas ad is clearly the future. Iceland has done it and now John Lewis is spending its seasonal budget on promoting next year’s Rocketman Elton John biopic for no obvious reason other than that they both have ‘John’ in their names. This is not a good reason. The ad looks expensive and feels cheap. It also appears wildly out of kilter with the real world. Sure, the gifts you give can change people’s lives, but not many people will be handing out pianos this year. It’s a great ad for the atheist Elton John and a rotten ad for Christmas at John Lewis. 5/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNbSgMEZ_Tw Lidl Nigel is an idiot. Not just the usual TV advertising ‘aren’t men stupid’ idiot, but a fully fledged arse/elbow, don’t know what day it is, surely snow doesn’t melt when it’s warm kind of idiot. And he shops at Lidl. Perhaps that’s what this feebly unfunny ad is telling us. Buy your party time chicken breast skewers and crispy coated prawns from us and you can be recognised buy everyone as an idiot too. Oddly, this counts as “upgrading Christmas” according to the ad. Poor Nigel, He doesn’t look like a bad bloke and his friends seem to be having fun. But he shops at Lidl and he’s an idiot. 4/10 M&S M&S has apparently travelled the country to find people willing to pretend that they get excited about M&S food at Christmas. They sell turkey. Woo. And sprouts. Yay. And Christmas pudding that doesn’t look or taste like Christmas pudding. This is narcissism taken to a new level driven by the absurd delusion that anyone outside the fevered imagination of M&S marketers might have seasonal “M&S favourites” and be so excited about them that they want to go on telly and share. In the real world nobody cares that much where their sprouts come from. All of which has the, presumably, undesired effect of making M&S shoppers look a bit weird. 4/10 Sainsbury’s Ploughing on regardless, Sainsbury’s apparently ignored the fact that John Lewis had already made a similar but better ad three months earlier and delivered its own bells and whistles souped up school show. There are many nice moments and plenty of tugs at the heartstrings, but it’s not as inventive or as much fun as the JL version. And it doesn’t say anything at all about Sainsbury’s. Even the tagline suffers by comparison. ‘We give all we’ve got for the ones we love’ is patently not true. ‘We’re a second rate John Lewis’ would be more appropriate. 6/10 Waitrose Pinpoint accurate in its humour – who wouldn’t rather have a posh mince pie than listen to an amateur seasonal choir? – this nicely delivers festive fun alongside a hero product. And unlike the undifferentiated sprouts and turkey of other retailers – for which the phrase ad nauseum was probably invented – it’s a product unique to Waitrose. Blimey, a Christmas ad which might even sell something. Who’d have thought that TV advertising could be so daringly commercial. I hope the others in the series are as well written, made and acted as this. 8/10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYffYO9RZwc
The recent BCB London brought together the bar and beverage world for two days of spirits, sampling and some serious trendspotting. With a mix of established names and emerging producers, it was a great temperature check for where drinks culture is heading next. From gin brands fighting their way back… Read more
Let’s talk #Bieberchella. At a festival built on spectacle and showing up to show off (I said what I said), Justin Bieber did the opposite. No massive production. No ‘pick me’ energy. In short, it was a lo-fi masterclass, right? He literally used a laptop on stage, pulled up YouTube… Read more
There are some projects that feel like a neat tick on a to-do list. And then there are the ones that quietly tap into your own history, take over your calendar, your camera roll, your group chats, and remind you why you wanted to work in culture-making in the first… Read more