Last week saw KFC’s legendary bunless belly builder, the Double Down, reach New Zealand shores. Media commentators are describing it as a triumph of marketing, variously attributing it to an excellent public relations campign, social media campaign, or even suggesting there may have been some dodgy paid promotional shill type activity.

What I think they have failed to realise is that ultimately this is a marketing triumph because KFC had the balls to do something that was worth talking about.

People were always going to talk about a fatty, calorific, and possibly extremely delicious (depending who you talk to) burger. Not just a burger though, a burger unlike any you can get from any other fast food outlet. KFC New Zealand knew that by bringing it they would polarise portions of the New Zealand population. On one side you would have people crying foul at them pedaling a “heart attack in a box”, and on the other legions of adoring fans defending their right to eat anything they deem delicious.

Whether you think that the Double Down is a artery-clogging abomination or the pinnacle of protein provision, you have to admit that what KFC did well was to create a product that was worth talking about. On national news, on facebook, and around the water cooler. It truly is a remarkable piece of food.

This is what your marketing department should be thinking about. Not just your catchy new slogan, clever TV ad, or discount promotion, but how you can make your product or service something that is worth talking about. If they can do that you don’t need to worry so much about your advertising budget.

(For the record, I have yet to try one.)

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• John Kenn is a Danish guy that makes kids television. He also has an incredible talent for drawing monsters on post it notes
  (via Elly)
• Wooden sunglasses, why not? Check out the hotness from Schwood. About to put my pair on order
• This is a beautifully shot little slide show of some guys ripping at Whistler that makes me wish that I was back in Canada.
  
• More Whistler, this time helmet cam action from the incredible second place run in the Crankworx slopestyle competition.
  
  (via Spoke Magazine)
• Choi + Shine Architects recently picked up the Boston Society of Architects award for this project re-imagining high voltage pylons. Unfortunately the Icelandic folk who were running the competition in which they were entered didn’t like them enough to run out and build them. I would love to see these carrying the national grid here in NZ, imagine these set against the rugged central plateau landscape.
  
  (via designboom)
• A couple of awesome retro-photo collections: IBM catalogue photography from the 60′s & vintage interiors
• If, like me, you a appreciate a good Venn diagram check out the remix Venn from Olly Moss & the you + me = awesome Venn
  
• This multi-touch DJ interface, a senior degree project from Greg Werk, looks pretty neat. Think he may be overstating the problem a little (given any club worth its salt has gear already – never have I seen a DJ have to do a full gear set up while another plays), but still nice to see people pushing the boundaries a little.
  
  (via oneplusinfinity)
• If you are a marketing-or-advertising-type-person then you should read this letter, laugh, then actually sit down and think about it. If you aren’t, just read it, nod sagely, and feel free to point and laugh at us marketers.
• This image is awesome. I wish I could find out who is responsible for it, but haven’t been able to figure it out. That is all.
  
  (via Feltron)
• One day I want to live in this Japanese tree house.
• Telephoneme is a hybrid live-action/animated short film about the alphabet carrying secret meanings, based on ‘The Alphabet Conspiracy’ an educational film from the 60′s. Head over to the Telephoneme website and download the press kit to get the full background, or just check the super stylish film itself below.
  

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• Discovered this stunning set of illustrations from Richard Perez aka Skinny Ships. Incredible!
  
  (via Kitsune Noir)
• The Yes Men have released a special peer to peer edition of their latest film ‘The Yes Men Fix the World’. It includes a deleted scene from the full release (something about them being sued over it). Download it and flick them some cash to help them out with their next crazy project, it will be money well spent.
• Watching this video of Paul Basagoitia ripping his back yard as we tripped around Canada got me pretty pumped up (and also wondering how feasible it would be for me to buy a house with a good chunk of land attached). Also of interest, Trent Palmer shot this using a Canon 7D mounted on a radio control helicopter. How cool is that!
  
• More New Math provides a vast array of life lessons by way of equation.
  
• Pilot Magazine is without doubt the hottest print publication here in NZ right now. They also run a great little blog that is worth keeping an eye on in between the visual feast that is each of their issues (if you can, get hold of a copy of their latest issue). Apparently it is temporary and a ‘real’ site is coming… If that is the case then I can’t wait to see what they have in store.
• How to Write an Advertising Manifesto (aka The Manifesto Manifesto) is an outstandingly astute and witty observation from Kim Mok.
  
  I have to admit though, I do still really want to write a manifesto at some point. The point at which I feel strongly enough about something to write a manifesto about it. Just the word manifesto gets me all fired up. (via Fishing for bats)
• Beautiful print from Anthony Burrill for the intriguing ‘Do Lectures‘ which I would be all over if I was in the UK. Might have to just buy myself a print in the mean time.
  
• Diesel’s new ‘Be Stupid’ campaign includes some of the freshest work I have seen in a while. Up until now the stuff I have seen has mainly been clever copy & killer photography, but they took it experiential with Diesel Facepark, Facebook in the real world. Why? Apparently digital is smart and analogue is stupid, and Diesel says be stupid.
  
  (via Digital Buzz)
• My good friends Matt & Dayna make kids television here in NZ that is often really funny for (kinda) adults. Want proof? Check Matt’s alternative version of BoB feat. Bruno Mars “Nothin’ on You”…
  

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I am stoked to have been asked to participate in Steinlager Pure’s Pure Futures campaign as a mentor.

What is the Pure Futures campaign? Well, Steinlager Pure is recognising Kiwis who have uncompromising visions for New Zealand’s future by helping them realise those visions. They have $100,000 to give away, along with help and support from mentors like Dan & Steve at iconic Kiwi clothing label Huffer, awesomely talented industrial designer Jamie McLellan, the great team down at Auckland’s internationally acclaimed business incubator The Icehouse, single handed trans-Tasman rower Shaun Quincey, the team behind mega-successful Kiwi fashion brand Stolen Girlfriends Club, and me.

All you have to do to get involved is register and share a brief summary of your vision and what you think you need to make it happen. The community is then invited to vote and comment on your vision, and the most promising visions will then be given the resource they need to get them underway.

I am really looking forward to working with some big ideas, and hopefully helping people realise their visions by helping them develop brand and/or communications strategies to spread and promote their idea.

To get a flavour for the kinds of visions that they are looking for check out this interview with Emily Harris, who has a vision for a greener community through rooftop gardens:

Head over and share your vision at purefutures.co.nz

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If your son or daughter (or anyone for that matter) asked you this question I hope you would have a better answer than “we advertise, they see our advertising, then they come and buy from us”.

If you can’t think of a simple reason why your existing customers would tell other people about your products or service then you probably need to rethink your strategy. People don’t talk about good products at a reasonable price, they talk about outstanding products, unbelievably cheap products, unbelievably expensive products, products that do something unique or unusual, service that is orders of magnitude apart from anything else they have experienced, or products that have amazing stories behind them.

Your products and services should be an integral part of your marketing strategy, not an input into it.

Think about the stories you want your customers to be telling other people about your products and services, and then design them to make that happen.

Great photo of a stork in flight from Bruce Tuten on Flickr.

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Over the years the poor innocent asterisk has become the reluctant workhorse of every lazy marketer in the world. Instead of directing the reader toward a simple explanatory footnote it has, and continues to be used and abused as a weapon of mass deception.

If your offer or headline could be reasonably misconstrued by a regular person then you need to rethink what or how you are advertising. Particularly if you have added your footnote in 12 point font on the bottom of your spectacular size billboard.

Using asterisks is like dressing your brand in a trench coat; it makes you look dodgy, and makes us wonder what you are hiding.

*Seriously, stop it.

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Recently I have had the pleasure of using the Northern Gateway Toll Road traveling North from Auckland. I like it because there are no toll booths, the collection is all electronic, the toll seems reasonable (at $2 per trip for a car), it is a nice piece of road, and it gets you where you are going faster than you could before.

They offer 3 methods of payment:

1. A reasonably nice, easy to use online system (sure, it could be better, but it isn’t hard to use)
2. Over the phone, via a free call 0800 number
3. At toll ‘kiosks’ at either end of the toll road

For the operators of the Northern Gateway Toll Road, the New Zealand Transport Agency, surely the best of these option is for people to pay online. The more people paying online the less kiosks they have to have (I imagine that their electronic payment kiosks aren’t cheap to build, let alone ongoing maintenance and running), and the less staff they have to have in the call center.

With this in mind, why is there no discount to encourage online payment?

I bet that if they offered a 10% discount for online payment they would see a marked decrease in people choosing to use either the free phone option or the kiosks.

Bonus thought: Once you have registered your car license plate details and a contact email address why does the system not send you an automatically generated email asking you to pay your toll when it records a trip from your vehicle? They could probably cut their average days until collection down, and avoid pissing people off when they forget to log in and pay and their non-payment then becomes an offence.

Photo credit:

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The other day I was thinking about toothpaste. Specifically my parents toothpaste. Don’t pretend like you haven’t.

The thing is, my parents are completely loyal to Colgate toothpaste (and toothbrushes too, but not to the same extent. Odd). I remember asking them about this when I was young, “Mum, why do we always buy Colgate?” I think at the time the question came about because I had stayed at one of my friends houses whose parents bought Macleans toothpaste, and I thought it tasted good. However, I am still fascinated.

I don’t remember the exact answer, but don’t think I am paraphrasing too much saying that it was something along the lines of “because we have always bought Colgate.”

I would guess this is probably one of Macleans biggest challenges as the second largest brand in the category. People are afraid to step outside their comfort zone and buy something they don’t know. It is not that people aren’t aware of Macleans, it is just that they are unwilling to give it a go. I guess this is something like the old ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ adage.

The other thing that has been bothering me lately has been that hotels don’t seem to ever provide toothpaste. They provide a tiny shampoo, tiny soap, even tiny conditioner. Some of them even give you a little sewing kit, shower cap, and a couple of cotton buds! But never any toothpaste. This is a problem for me, because if there is one thing I always forget, it is toothpaste. If a hotel was to provide toothpaste it would almost certainly be enough to convince me to stay there over the otherwise identical alternatives. I don’t understand this random personal hygiene product discrimination.

Bringing these two threads together I suddenly realised that this represented an oppourtunity for both Macleans and Ibis. Macleans should be dying to get sample packs of their toothpaste in hotels, what a great way to get consumers to trial their product. The Ibis should be dying to get toothpaste in their rooms, because I bet I am not the only one who forgets their toothpaste.

Why hasn’t this happened yet?

Toothpaste pic © alles-schlumpf

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However, I think the bit that he left out, and the bit that truly separates amazing businesses (and people) from just good ones is that for an amazing business there are no downhills. It is all uphill.

Just because you are beating your targets, you are outstripping your competition on all your key metrics, or you have just been promoted doesn’t mean you sit back and relax, enjoy the downhill run for a while, and wait till you have to tackle the next big climb.

Some examples of great climbers that spring to mind:

• As Apple reached the crest of the MP3 player hill, dominating the market (actually it’s still climbing that one by releasing new models, just not as fast) they didn’t stop. They turned and began climbing the mobile phone hill. You can also bet they are already well into the preparation for the next climb.
• 37signals took their hill climbing technique from enabling project management and applied it to storing contacts, live chat, and organising your business. They even tackled a book somewhere in there.
• Closer to home those cheeky folk at 42Below were only just starting up the Everest sized mountain that is the international vodka market when they took on a couple more hills for good measure: bottled water and gin.

Climbing hurts, but climbing is when you make big gains, and really break through. Keep climbing, and learn to love the climb, there are no downhills.

Pic of the cyclist digging deep from JaymezB on flickr.

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Is your brand trying to attract customers, or build a fan base?

• Customers are fickle. Fans are loyal (so long as you reward their loyalty).
• Customers don’t forgive you. Fans do (so long as you make it up to them of course).
• Customers have to be acquired, one by one. Fans recruit more fans.
• Customers are suspicious, and take everything with a grain of salt. Fans trust you, and will hear you out.
• Customers will rush to join the angry mob. Fans will defend you, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Of course all of this only happens if you take care of your fans. And when they can do all this for you, why wouldn’t you?

Awesome photo courtesy of notsogoodphotogaphy on flickr

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