Curious Flip

A BAD BRIEF

I saw this at the Hippodrome de Lonchamps at the Prix de l'Arc Triumph - France's biggest horseracing event. It was at the back of the racetrack between a cashpoint and a shop selling merchandise, towards the exit. 

There was no notice accompanying it. A very open brief.

I guessed that if they put it there, they believe they could improve the current event.

I thought I'd be helpful and suggeste:
"Add diversity. Try alternating horseraces with other animals' races - dogs, pidgeons, camels, hampsters."
 
I think I missed the point. I blame the brief.

DESIRED POSITIONING: DON'T SAY IT, SHOW IT

On a recent trip to Hungary, in my hotel room I finally found a magazine that I had never seen before and that I would not be able to buy: Diplomata. 

Most of its content were interviews; either with foreign diplomats in Hungary, or Hungarian diplomats stationed abroad. Many of the articles' titles listed in the Contents page were quotes from some of the people interviewed. Maybe it was the jet lag and lack of sleep, but the statements made by those diplomats reminded me of many of the statements I see brands make in their communication. They seemed designed to fit with what they thought their audience wanted to hear.

On page 14 I came across an interview with the British ambassador's wife. The only picture is the one below. He looks fairly relaxed. She looks tense; a bit too unnaturally straight and does not seem relaxed - it can't be easy being the ambassadors' wife. Above the picture her quote states: "being natural and spontaneous get the best out of people".

I blame her agency.

TWO CULTURES, TWO WAYS TO BE OPEN MINDED

Liberation, decided to treat its readers to the subject of 'plaisir feminin'. On the first weekend of august, its summer insert focused on the differences between clitoral and vaginal orgasm. In the third pages it evolves female orgasm to the anal, culinary and literary variety.  The bande dessinée (comic strip) style turns it into tongue in cheek french style. No better reading when relaxing with the family. 

In Amsterdam the media is more public, arguably more original (an old Fiat 500) but a lot more direct (no softening of the message through a comic strip execution). The targeting is also a lot more focused, as the car was parked outside a gay club.

STORYTELLING

As I have just come across my notes from my best use of 4 days in 2006, I feel like sharing them.

Last April I enrolled on a four day workshop of STORY – the scriptwriting course that Robert McKee has been teaching all over the world for the last 20 years.

Here’s three thoughts that I found particularly useful when thinking about designing brand stories:

1. All good stories take place in rich but small PERSONAL worlds - if not they end up being clichés/stereotypes. As he says they need to be at the same time CULTURALLY SPECIFIC and UNIVERSALLY HUMAN.

2. Any story of interest is born from a GAP : the moment when the protagonist is at risk of loosing something as his expectations and reality don’t match up.

3. A story can only exist when the protagonist has a clear ‘Object of Desire’ he/she is trying to reach.

FOR SOME IT'S WEB 2.0. FOR OTHERS IT'S THE NEW STILL LIFE

Or maybe I should say 'the new Campbell soup can'.

When I decided to go to SLICK - the new art fair grouping some of the hippest young contemporary art galleries - in the depth of the 20th arrondissement, I was not expecting to find that the most eyecatching artwork there would be a simple acrylic painting of the Google home page.

The artist - Valery Grancher - told me that he finds the icons of the virtual world a more inspiring universe than landscapes, still life or the human form.

The following week I came across a gallery where an anonymous collective had covered the walls with the results of typing 'art' in Google.fr

The Italian elections' poster ads

Sadly risk taking and innovation were not part of the Italian elections' advertising. From what I have seen, the outdoor communication of this Italian election has not produced anything like the famous 'labour isn't working' campaign. The content of their message is not only dull, but it's totally predictable and pretty empty. I guess their only ambition is awareness.

When I saw some photos of the same posters in italian cities, they finally become more interesting. They seem to become more engaging. Context is what seems to have boosted many of the posters' effectiveness and not their content. Context seems to be so powerful that often it even overtuns the advertiser's message.

Here's some examples sent in by readers of La Repubblica . Shame all of them are accidents, rather than clever marketing.

When the right leaning Casini and his UDC created their 'A different idea' poster, they cannot have imagined the meaning it would gain when placed next to an ad showing two men pushing a pram.

When Fini, the leader of the AN right leaning nationalist party, had his picture taken for this poster and proudly looked left, he would never imagined he could be outstaged by Lou Reed on tour in Ravenna. If he had I am sure he would have at least looked for some cool sunglasses.

When his slogan 'the future to the right' is placed to the left of some bins the effect is bad. But when it is next to the same party's other slogan 'the past is to the left' showing a picture of the 'enemy' left wing canditate; you are working for the opposition.

And how can Berlusconi's Forza Italia only worry about the quantity of media buy, when context can be so cruel to the ads' final effectiveness