Steve Ellis - All Comments

Microsoft ads #3 - an unexpected direction?

Steve Ellis — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:59:21 GMT

Having started this theme , I'd better follow the story through. The New York Times (thanks Steve

re: When social media is a little too public

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:26:13 GMT

test comment

re: The Google Story

Steve — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:27:09 GMT

Peter - thanks for the big comment and sorry for leaving you in the dark with the post.

I guess by using the phrase 'anti-marketing streak' I was saying: despite being CEO of a marketing agency, I can still have a questioning disposition, and am happy to be devil's advocate when confronted with the more outrageous examples of marketers BS.

Personally, I evaluate marketing with a critical eye, as I'm sure you and other good marketing professionals would. Hopefully, that is a good thing. It means I try to filter the bad and to promote more of the good.

To respond to your analogy of the Nutritionist/Sicilian peasant diet. I'd be very happy for the diet to gain all the credit. But if I knew that genetics, or healthcare, or better plumbing, were also significant contributors to local longevity, then I would suggest the nutritionist tone down their claims for the diet.

The point is that by reciting (incompletely) case studies of great brands, marketers often by default claim the credit to their craft, if not personally.

I have sat through a couple of presentations recently, where marketers and advertising professionals have claimed credit for their client's *business* success through a brand strategy or ad campaigns. In my experience life is seldom that simple. Usually many other factors (a great product, great timing, great distribution, etc) also need to come together. When they have touched on companies that I know well, I was equipped to push back on their claims with facts.

Google seemed to me a good example of a great brand to which traditional marketing contributed little. It was/is a great service, hitting the market with perfect timing, and super smart managers, consequently traditional marketing played a negligible role in its rise and ascendancy. So Google's early years can't be used as an endorsement of traditional marketing.

As the CEO of a marketing agency, I have no problem accepting that some companies - those with truly great products, perfect timing and super smart managers can get a long, long way without marketing. But they are very few and very far between. Most companies need guidance and advice and some sort of structured marketing, to help them along their journey.

And I'm with you 100% on <the industry still has plenty of people who work very hard to help their clients to achieve perfectly honourable - and sometimes even admirable - ambitions. >

Steve

re: The Google Story

Peter A — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:45:25 GMT

Steve,

I’m afraid that you’ve pretty much lost me with this one.

Isn’t the claim by someone who’s CEO of a marketing agency that he has an ‘anti-marketing streak’ actually itself a bit of quite clever marketing? It sounds rather like a Saint Martin’s Lane version of Sarah Palin’s pitch: “I’m not one of those jaded and cynical professionals. I’m fresh, different and free of the corrupt influences that dog insiders.”

As I say, quite clever marketing. But I’m not convinced that it’s wholly sensible for anyone to have an anti-marketing streak. Maybe I’m naive, but I see marketing as a fairly simple process whereby marketers attempt to discover how people react and respond to different stimuli, and then try to apply some of those stimuli to the benefit of clients.

In some ways, it’s not too different from economics. Economists try to identify patterns of human behaviour and then create and (if they’re not pure academics) implement models that benefit those groups who employ them or with whom they relate politically.

Certainly, one can say that economics can be used for bad ends. And, even more certainly, one can say that economists count among their number more than their fair share of tossers. But would one ever say that one has an anti-economics streak?

I’m equally confused about all these marketers and ad agencies who quote Google as a paragon of excellence. Assuming that they don’t claim credit for that excellence (and I’ve never heard anyone try that one on), why shouldn’t they?

If you were to visit a nutritionist, she may well tell you that the healthiest diet you can pursue is one that’s similar to a 19th century Mediterranean peasant’s. You know: not so much meat and dairy, but lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fish, and olive oil.

Surely you wouldn’t think that the nutritionist was claiming personal credit for the relative longevity of those few Sicilian peasants who survived war, pestilence and the mafia for long enough to be noticed by Victorian era health statisticians. Surely you wouldn’t object to her holding up a paragon for you to admire and at the same time advising you on how to emulate it.

I’ve been around marketing for too long to have many illusions about the morals, ethics or effectiveness of all too many of its practitioners. But the industry still has plenty of people who work very hard to help their clients to achieve perfectly honourable - and sometimes even admirable - ambitions. I don’t have an anti-marketing streak.

re: No end in sight to the BBC's Pestonathon

Steve — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:16:15 GMT

The guys at HitWise have also explored the phenomenon that is Pestonmania - http://tinyurl.com/52t7k6 - unlike me they have data to back it up :-)

Sadly though, it looks like the ubiquitous Peston is not everyone's cup of tea, checkout the top ten searches:

1. robert peston
2. robert peston blog
3. robert peston bbc
4. robert peston wiki
5. “robert peston”
6. robert peston annoying
7. credit crunch robert peston
8. i hate robert peston
9. “robert peston “
10. “robert pestons blog” “pestons picks”

re: Microsoft ads #4 - I'm a PC

Rachella Sinclair — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:13:34 GMT

I think I'm one of the few who liked the Gerry Seinfeld ads.

However, even I have to admit that the New Microsoft Ad, I'm a PC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi1se9rH7S8 is better. One of the things that I noticed when I first moved to the UK, was that the English I'm a Mac. I'm a PC ads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfqgK7izc4g were a bit more mean spirited (though funnier) than the US version. With its latest ads, Microsoft has counteracted this approach by going in the opposite direction. Humanising the "I'm a PC" concept exposes it as the stereotype it is.

re: Is social media in the enterprise taking a step forward?

Peter — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:37:45 GMT

Steve - as a marketing/advertising type of many years' standing, I scarcely have any lip left. Nowhere outside an agency is the old expression more apposite: success has many parents but failure is an orphan.

Still, the most important thing is that progress is being made, and the potential of this sort of marketing recognised.

Microsoft ads #3 - an unexpected twist?

Steve Ellis — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:10:23 GMT

Having started this theme, I'd better follow the story through.&nbsp;
The New York Times (thanks Steve)...

re: Is social media in the enterprise taking a step forward?

Steve — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:06:40 GMT

Peter - more granular segmentation would be good. I'd also be fascinated to know where the projects started out? I have had to gnaw my lip in a few situations as marketing / advertising types have claimed a position of social media leadership for their companies, when the projects in question grew out of grassroots or personal initiatives almost in spite of the company's official communications depts.

re: Is social media in the enterprise taking a step forward?

Peter Kim — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:32:20 GMT

Steve - I am in complete agreement with you about the list. You can see in the comments that some people suggest iPhone applications and promotional contests are "social media." I've been adding them without judgment for now...but I've got a take very similar to yours: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2008/09/226.html

re: Is social media in the enterprise taking a step forward?

Peter Andrew — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:48:39 GMT

In the Washington Post recently there were some interesting examples of companies using the blogosphere for marketing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/24/AR2008082401517.html?wpisrc=newsletter

K Street Cafe » Blog Archive » Daily Headlines

K Street Cafe » Blog Archive » Daily Headlines — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:49:12 GMT

PingBack from http://kstreetcafe.com/daily-headlines/

re: Gates & Seinfeld advert #2

Steve — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:32:02 GMT

Michelle

- Old Microsoft wouldn't have hired an agency that uses Macs, so its 'a good thing' that they are more open to ideas from all quarters these days. Have they changed at CP+B? I doubt it. It takes more than a couple of adverts to change fixed habits and get people to reinvest in understanding new tools - but let's stick with it for a few more episodes before making judgements.

- Not sure if Mojave was what I'd call a campaign. Seemed to me to be an eye catching one off experiment. One of my hopes with these ads is that they do evolve into a proper campaign that builds consistently over the long term (and I mean years). I think one of Microsoft's weaknesses in recent times has been short-termism in its different advertising strategies. I'm hoping they have found something that works, and they stick with it.

re: Will SpinSpotter save us from 'the spin epidemic'?

Steve — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:10:30 GMT

UPDATE: BusinessWeek reviews SpinSpotter http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_38/b4100104499274.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech

re: Gates & Seinfeld advert #2

Michelle — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:11:10 GMT

Another point. Why hire an ad agency that has stated they are in love with Macs? http://valleywag.com/5039939/microsofts-ad-agency-says-it-exists-because-of-the-mac
Sacks then asked if CP&B plans to force employees off their Macs now that it's Microsoft's agency. Rob Reilly, Bogusky's executive on the Microsoft account, answered: "It's not a matter of forcing people. It's getting them to want to use it. If you can't, you're not going to do great advertising."
So have they?

A great Microsoft campaign, and a recent one, was their Microsoft Mojave Experiment (you have blogged on previously). Why not continue with that. Remember Pepsi's 'It's your choice' campaign? Why not do the same with Microsoft and Mac?

In a perfect world MS Software might and Mac's hardware brilliance should just live together in piece and stop these expensive ad wars.