Lunch Beat - mid day dancing today in 15 cities

Today I´m going to a very interesting event called Lunch beat, where you get your food and go to a mini club at the same time. It´s like clubbing for parents, grownups, those who no longer want to be up until 5 in the morning, sweating on the dance floor, getting covered in beer by some drunk teenager. Ah well, for people like me that are "over the club scene" but still love the vibe of a huge bunch of people swinging to music, this is a brilliant idea. Can´t wait to feel it at noon today at Kulturhuset.

It was created by Molly Ränge in Sweden June 2010, and during the autumn of 2010, the underground movement organically kept growing, and had to find new locations as more and more people started to attend the event.

Today, Lunch Beat Stockholm attracts more than 600 people to the monthly events. Lunch Beat has about 25 international branches.

This is the quirky manifesto for Lunch Beat:

1st rule: If it’s your first lunch at Lunch Beat, you have to dance.

2nd rule: If it’s your second, third or fourth time lunch at Lunch Beat, you have to dance.

3rd rule: If you are getting too tired to actually dance at Lunch Beat, please have your lunch at some other place.

4th rule: You don’t talk about your job at Lunch Beat.

5th rule: At Lunch Beat everyone present is your dance partner.

6th rule: Any Lunch Beat are to be no longer than 60 minutes long and set during ”lunch time”.

7th rule: Lunch Beat always serve their guest with a 1 Dj-set and 1 take away meal.

8th rule: Water is always served during a Lunch Beat for free.

9th rule: Lunch Beat is a preferably drug free environment.

10th rule: Lunch Beat can be set up anywhere by anyone as long as they are announced as public events, are nonprofit arrangements and are directed by this manifesto

The event today is special, since it´s going on at 15 places at the same time! Are you coming with us to dance? If you can´t join you can click on these links and watch us go nuts on the dance floor!

LUNCHBEAT EDINBURGH
LUNCHBEAT STOCKHOLM
LUNCHBEAT MIDSOMMARKRANSEN
LUNCHBEAT GÖTEBORG
LUNCHBEAT NORRKÖPING
LUNCHBEAT UPPSALA
LUNCHBEAT COPENHAGEN
LUNCHBEAT OSLO
LUNCHBEAT PARIS
LUNCHBEAT HUMBLE
LUNCHBEAT MANCHESTER
LUNCHBEAT HAMBURG
LUNCHBEAT HELSINKI
LUNCHBEAT BERLIN
LUNCHBEAT PORTO

Positive bank campaigns

The last weeks there Australian ad agencies have created two interesting campaigns about financial services.

One is for an insurance company: Freedom means being well insured claims Swann Insurance in new TV spot via CumminsRoss who has put to air a new spot for Swann Insurance featuring motorcyclists enjoying freedom, knowing they're well insured. 

From Campaign Brief:   

VIEW THE SPOT

The other campaign is from my favourite agency in Sydney, M&C Saatchi, who a couple of months ago won the Commowealth bank account and created a "Can" campaign. Unfortunately I can´t (!) watch all tv ads from Sweden due to some technical problem, but I´ve understood the campaign is focussed on possibilities, not fears. Read about the campaign here:

http://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/can/

http://mumbrella.com.au/cant-campaign-turns-to-kittens-and-twitter-92819

http://www.bandt.com.au/news/marketing/turning-can-t-into-can-as-commbank-rebrands

One part of the ad is a poem, read by the actress Toni Collette. 

There's a four lettered word
As offensive as any
It holds back the few
Puts a stop to the many.

You can't climb that mountain
You can't cross the sea
You can't become anything you want to be.

He can't hit a century
They can't find a cure.
She can't think about leaving
or searching for more.

Because can't is a word with a habit of stopping
The ebb and flow of ideas
It keeps dropping itself where we know
in our hearts it's not needed
And saying "don't go"
when we could have succeeded.

But those four little letters
That end with a T
They can change in an instant
When shortened to three.

We can take off the T
We can do it today
We can move forward not back
We can find our own way.

We can build we can run
We can follow the sun
We can push we can pull
We can say I'm someone
Who refuses to believe
That life can't be better
With the removal of one
Insignificant letter.

Too many financial service companies believe that if they only spook their customers enough, people will come running to protect themselves, but what actually happens in people´s brains when you fill them up with more negativity? They will most likely stick their head into the sand, trying to avoid and ignore you.

It´s like many in their private life run instead of communicate around a conflict... Instead of taking a fight, causing pain, feeling pain etc they slam the door and go for a drink. It´s human. It´s irrational. It´s just the way we work...

Why would we be so different when it comes to money? Money, cash, dollars... it´s an emotional area rather than a rational one. We all know what we should do, but we don´t. When a bank or insurance company tell us we are in trouble and should take responsibility, many will hate them rather than book a meeting with the financial planner. It´s human. It´s irrational. It´s just the way we work...

I once worked with a bank whose ad agency (I represented the media agency) wanted to create a campaign telling people they were unhappy and poor. They wanted pictures of people who had no money, copy about how irresponsible we all are yada yada. Psychologically that approach would have been a disaster for the bank. You can´t be loved if you´re the one lecturing, telling people they have failed!!!

I´m not sure it´s enough to show some dudes on motor bikes or say "yes, you can" like you were the president of America, but it´s a good start.

Simple and brilliant insight leads to clever Ikea campaign

Sometimes you don´t need to complicate things, create advanced apps, entertain people to constant laughs or shock them into looking at your brand for a second. Sometimes you just need to understand what normal people would like to have in their everyday life, and offer them this. An excellent example is Ikea´s moving boxes campaign. Well done! 

From The Inspiration room: 

IKEA in Quebec and Leo Burnett Toronto have won a North American Gold Effie for “Moving Day”, an experimental media campaign providing people with boxes for moving house on July 1, 2011. Many people are required to move house on July 1, due to the number of leases beginning on June 30. Finding boxes can be hard in the weeks leading up to Moving Day. IKEA provided branded boxes that people could take with them, printed with moving tips, checklists, a dinner offer for those yet to set up their kitchens, and a discount offer for IKEA furniture. Boxes could even be transformed into a chair for moments of exhaustion. Boxes were posted all over town, hung flat on walls and designed to be the hardest working posters ever. When the boxes were taken, we had messaging underneath telling people to keep coming back for more. 14-foot pyramids of boxes were placed at giveaway sites around the city and at the Ikea store. IKEA also sponsored a radio playlist of songs.

 Ikea needed to help Quebecers in a way that was relevant to their situation at hand. We saw a huge opportunity to tap into the cultural fuel of urban communalism – peoples desire to return to a time when neighbor helped neighbor, and a sense of “we” versus “me” was felt around the block. In doing so, we could help move our Anxious Urbanites from a feeling of disorganized desperation to a state of composed and organized optimism.

Store traffic increased +14% from the same weekend the previous year. Sales increased by +24.5% compared to the previous year. The only variable in this year vs last was the Moving Day promotion. For Ikea, the sales increase from our ‘cardboard box’ was equivalent to building, stocking, and opening an additional 300,000 sq. foot store in that market.

Credits

The Moving Day campaign was developed at Leo Burnett Toronto/a> by chief creative officer Judy John, creative group head/art director David Federico, creative group head/copywriter Morgan Kurchuk, account director Jennifer Kelly, producer Anne Peck, working with IKEA deputy marketing manager Hilary Lloyd and communications manager Mathias Karlsson.

Media was planned at Jungle Media by connection planning director Brooke Leland and media planning assistant Graham Campbell. Other agencies were Optimum Events, Grassroots Advertising and Titan Outdoor Advertising.

Invisible ad, only seen with silly glasses

Once again, this Australian ad is getting attention. I just love the curiosity behind it, that it´s presenting a new way of wowing people. A brand like Lynx of course stays true to it´s core of sex, even when wearing silly glasses This is from Psfk:

To introduce its new range of deodorant, LYNX created the world’s first invisible ad in Sydney, Australia. The concept used an abandoned terrace house where the windows were replaced with special LED screens. For the usual passers-by, the screens would appear blank. However, for those who are wearing sunglasses, they were able to see the raunchy videos of couples making out.

LYNX gave out polarized sunglasses to people who walked by, who were mainly its target market of young party-goers. The digital campaign is a clever way to get consumers’ attention that deviates from traditional marketing channels like posters and billboards.

From The Drum: Strategy is dead. The big idea is dead.

This is so good I just post it in full: 

25 APRIL 2012 - 12:28PM| BY RICHARD DRAYCOTT | 88 COMMENTS

"Marketing is dead" says Saatchi & Saatchi CEO

Kevin Roberts

The chief executive of one of the world’s largest marketing groups has today declared that marketing and strategy are dead.

Addressing an audience of senior business leaders at The IoD’s Annual Convention taking place at London’s 02 earlier today, Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, claimed that in today’s crazy world strategy is dead, the big idea is dead, management is dead and marketing, as we know, is also dead.

During his colourful presentation, which followed on from a speech from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Roberts said: “I am a radical optimist, I don’t buy into all this recession talk. I do not think we are in a recessionary environment, but we do have too many recessionary leaders. To win today we all need to power things up and speed things up.

“We don’t just live in a VUCA world - a volatile, uncertain, ambiguous and complex world - we live in a super VUCA world. We live in a vibrant world where our kids are connecting to each other and to brands across the world with no money involved. To us this is a world that’s gone crazy.

“Strategy is dead. Who really knows that is going to happen anymore in this super VUCA world? The more time and money you spend devising strategies the more time you are giving you rivals to start eating your lunch.

“Management is dead. To win today you need a culture and an environment where the unreasonable power of creativity thrives. Ideas are today’s currency not strategy. Martin Luther King did not say ‘I have a vision statement’ did he? He had a dream. You have to make sure you have dreams and your brand also needs a dream.”

He went on to outline how successful business leaders need to harness creative thing in the future, saying: “Business leaders need to become creative leaders. We need to change the language of business. Who wants to be a Chief Executive Officer? It sounds like you work for the government and who would want that? Being a Chief Excitement Officer would be better, don’t you think? The role of a good CEO is to get people to buy into their dreams and their company’s dreams.”

Roberts also went on to say that the age of the ‘big idea’ has gone.

“The big idea is dead. There are no more big ideas. Creative leaders should go for getting lots and lots of small ideas out there. Stop beating yourself up searching for the one big idea. Get lots of ideas out there and then let the people you interact with feed those ideas and they will make it big.”

“Leaders need to become emotional thinkers. The difference between rational thinking and emotional thinking is that rational thinking leads to conclusions and meetings and more meetings. Emotional thinking leads to action.”

“There are three secrets to emotional thinking – mystery, sensitivity and intimacy. It is a lot about story telling. Brands need to tell stories on their websites, on their packaging and so on. Make sure your brand and company has a smell, it has a sound, it has a feel and an intimacy with people. Think about how you can build empathy. It is the small things that count and how consumers feel about our brands that count today.”

“Marketing is dead. The role of marketing has changed now. There is nothing new anymore. If marketers are just hearing about something going on then it is already old in today’s world. The further up in a company you go the stupider you become and the further away from new things. Speed and velocity is everything today. Marketing’s jobs is to create movement and inspire people to join you.

“Everyone wants a conversation. They want inspiration. Inspire people with your website. Don’t just interrupt, but interact. Asking about Return on Investment is the wrong question today. You should be asking about Return on Involvement.”

This was the second time in four years that Roberts had addressed the audience at the influential IoD Convention. It was at the IoD Convention during the Nineties that Gerald Ratner’s comments about the jewellery his stores sold being “crap” devastated the Ratners brand and wiped millions off its value.

Surface builds self esteem

These are data from Sweden on how girls expose themselves online. It´s very sad to see how 18 percent of young girls (15-24) have exposed themselves in a sexual way. 69 percent have done it to someone they know, perhaps a boyfriend, but 41 percent say they have done it to someone they don´t even know! 

The main reason is that it´s considered "fun and exciting" (55%). What´s most interesting is that 22 percent say it´s to get comments on how they look. Too many are building their self esteem on what others think of their surface. 

We trust nurses but NOT car salesmen!

A new study from Roy Morgan Australia shows that a large majority, 90% of Australians rate Nurses as the most ethical and honest profession — the 18th year in a row since Nurses were first included on the survey in 1994.

Other professions that also gained high ratings for ethics and honesty in 2012, including Pharmacists (88%, up 1%), Doctors (83%, down 4%), School Teachers (76%, unchanged), Dentists (75%, down 1%), Engineers (70%, down 1%), High Court Judges (70%, down 5%), State Supreme Court Judges (69%, down 6%) and Police (69%, unchanged). 

Ministers of Religion (43%, down 8%) recorded their lowest ever rating for ethics and honesty since being included on the survey in 1996.

The lowest ranked profession is once again Car Salesmen (2%, down 1%) — a position they have held for over 30 years. The next lowest were Advertising people (8%, up 3%) and Real Estate Agents (9%, up 2%).

Other Professions to record a fall included Public opinion pollsters (28%, down 6%), Bank Managers (37%, down 3%), Lawyers (30%, down 8%) and Directors of Public Companies (20%, down 4%).

So funny from Droga 5/Unilver (very brave client...)

From Bestadsontv.com 

Droga5 Sydney has created a film featuring Phill Pace, a contender for the Mr Australia bodybuilder title, to launch Domestos' new toilet cleaner.

The film follows a typical day in the life for Phill as he eats his way to the title

Credits

• 
  Director
  Fiona McGee
• 
  Art Director
  David Nobay
• 
  Copywriter
  David Nobay
• 
  Producer
  Claire Richards
• 
  Business Director
  Liz Ainslie
• 
  Sound
  Nylon
• 
  Agency Producer
  Paul Johnston
• 
  Editing Company
  THE EDITORS
• 
  Editor
  David Whittaker

Other credits

Statistics on how we use Facebook and other social networks

Brian Solis recently presented in his newsletter an analysis of how social media interacts with TV and movies. The people studied seem to be heavy users, but aren´t those always the ones leading the way for others...?

"The Hollywood Reporter recently published an exclusive poll (of 750 social network users aged 13-49) about social media led by market research firm Penn Schoen Berland. As the report opens, THR notes, “There’s a sea change afoot in how Americans discover and consume entertainment.”

According to the study, 88% of respondents view social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a new form of entertainment. Hours Spent Each Week Doing Online Activities Social networking and listening to music top the activities for Generation-C and each is greater than the time spent watching full-length movies or television shows on a weekly basis. - 8 Hours: Visiting social networking sites. - 8 Hours: Listening to music - 7 Hours: Watching full-length television shows. - 4 Hours: Watching full-length movies. - 4 Hours: Watching video clips (e.g. YouTube) - 4 Hours: Instant messaging Here are the infographic from the study. If you want all the text (repeating the infographics...), check Brian Solis blog.

Is your customer seeking pleasure or avoiding pain?

Sometimes I meet communication advisors or so called experts who claim they can interpret consumers from what they read in data bases filled with demographic facts and responses to quant studies. It always frightens me to hear them say they “know for sure” how people think and feel because they can back it up with a number or a handly little %. You can´t. There is a huge difference between facts and insights. There is a huge difference between what people say and what they do. There is a huge difference between the rational and the emotional. Databases are great to back up instincts, but they are useless on their own, and building a marketing campaign based on what your target has told you in a survey is dangerous – and lazy.

ScienceDaily presented the other day a study that is of interest for marketers who wish to reach people with different personalities, and at least understand that one person differs from another on a deeper and more complex level than age, neighbourhood or gender.

“Murray and co-authors Remi Trudel of Boston University and June Cotte from the University of Western Ontario found that when it comes to our basic consumer motivations, how we experience a good or bad service experience or how we react to a superior or inferior product depends on whether we're prone to seeking pleasure or avoiding pain. This translates into two groups who show very different levels of satisfaction for the same consumer experience.

The pleasure-versus-pain principle

The researchers studied people's reactions to two consumer experiences: tasting a cup of coffee and choosing a digital camera. In both studies, there was a quality product and one that had been altered to affect its quality. Test subjects were asked to rate their satisfaction with the product's quality. The researchers discovered that respondents fell into two categories: promotion-focused (pleasure-seeking) or prevention-focused (pain-avoiding). "These two types of people respond very differently to having the same kind of service encounter or having the same kind of problem with a product," said Murray.

"People who are promotion-focused tend to get a lot more hurt when something goes wrong, but they're also a lot happier when something goes right," he said. "The prevention-focused people are less upset when something goes wrong -- when they buy a product and it breaks or they have a bad service experience -- but they're also less happy when something goes right."

Can't get no satisfaction? It may be a conservative bias

Murray notes that although the prevention-focused response was far less extreme than the promotion-focused response, the pain-avoiding group appeared less able to enjoy a positive consumer experience. As a consequence, their controlled reactions left them feeling less joy when something went right -- a phenomenon the researchers labelled a conservative bias.

"That conservative bias changes the way they see the world," he said. "They're a little bit more constrained in all their responses, at least in the realm of satisfaction."

The study was published in the March 2012 issue of the International Journal of Research in Marketing.