You don’t have the option for dialogue.  You don’t have the time for ad copy.  You need to get people to understand your brand and the concept behind it in the blink of an eye…  You need to tell a story that is so unique and dramatic that words alone just won’t work.

What do you do? Hire a photographer (and a creative production team to tell the brand’s story).

Brands, especially media-driven brands need to be visual.  Movie posters and the promotional collateral that comes out to create pre-buzz about the show MUST dynamic.  They MUST, in a split-second, tell you the brand story.

The new season of Mad Men starts tomorrow night.  I’ve never seen more than 10 minutes of the shows from previous seasons, but with the passion and excitement I’ve seen / experienced around the coming of the third season, you can rest assured that I will be camped out on the couch with my beverage-of-choice at 10:00pm. But in my fanboy-to-be research for season three, I came across a pretty cool ‘making of’ video for this year’s promotional poster.
(feed readers and Facebookers, click here to see the video)

Visual Branding Gold!

It’s the perfect marriage.  Branding, story-telling, and creating excitement for the brand with one, simple (so-to-speak) image.

Don Draper would be proud.

I hope you join me, AMC and Mr. Draper Sunday night for what looks to be a pretty freakin’ cool season premere!

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

It’s happened again.  Another failed attempt to reformulate a dysfunctional communication model has been rejected by readers, commuters and, well, basically everyone on the planet.

Back in January, I found an interesting fact on journalism.org that illustrated dramatic declines in readership of traditional newspapers, magazines, as well as viewers and listeners of Television and Radio.

My answer for the declines in readership, viewers, and listeners: “Blogs, baby. Blogs! (of course I went into more detail than that…)

But one story eeked out a glimmer of hope for this “old fart.” It was The Printed Blog.

On January 27th Joshua Karp (Twitter: @theprintedblog) launched a twice-daily free PRINT newspaper in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City. The content he published was solely from BLOG content!

This was a venture that I’d invested a tentative faith into – something that just might start the traditional media ship to turn… nope.

On July 7th, Mr. Karp published a letter on The Printed Blog stating,

Despite a significant personal investment on my part, and the additional support of six or seven credit cards, we were unable to raise the minimum amount of money required to reach the next stage of our development. This was a difficult decision for us, but the financial reality of the situation demanded that we suspend further publication immediately, and indefinitely.

Read the full post here.

… AND ALL IN SIX MONTHS? Wow AND Ouch…

What went wrong? Were there ever benefits to having blog content republished in print in the first place?  With the ease of access to social media channels, via G3 networks and wireless expansion, did Mr. Karp continue to move forward with his model? Or was his grip to traditional print simply a mistake?

When asked “What would you do different…” by Nicholas Kinports, over at Admaven, Karp’s myopic response summed up his trouble quite clearly.

I would launch exactly the same business, but I would focus like a laser on one neighborhood, … I’d make a local … edition successful, and prove that I could generate revenue to cover my costs. Then, I’d expand, slowly …, until I was putting them under windshield wipers of cars in the Google parking lot.

And the crux to his failed plan…

The only, reluctant tweak to the concept I wish I had included was a social network. … I was wrong. That’s a component that was missing from my plan.

Certainly was…  He didn’t strategically target and plan for exponential growth…   and didn’t plan that his target as well as his source was constantly moving…

But you have to give Karp credit for his attempt to marry traditional media with an ever-changing, ever-expanding monster like blogs and social media.  I’m sure it was something like lassoing a hydra.

What do we take from this?

Can traditional media survive?

I live in a pretty “traditional midwestern city.”  Des Moines, Iowa is feeling the pinch from the online world and making GREAT strides with converting traditional channels to emerging media outlets, but sometimes, I fear, not fast enough.

The news sources I grew up on are dwindling faster than my hair line; and even my parents (in their mid 60′s) have canceled their subscription to our only daily print newspaper in lieu of “newer” media and news-on-demand sources.  I haven’t listened to anything but satellite or streaming radio for over three months.  My kids have NO idea what the nightly news is, nor do they seem to care.  Wikipedia and their MySpace accounts keep them as informed as teen and pre-teenagers need to be (they think).

So where do we go from here? How can traditional media like print newspapers, magazines and radio survive the change?  Do you have a solution?  Should we just watch it die, or is there a light at the end of this tunnel? (don’t go into the light, Carol Ann!)

Food for thought.

Until Next time…

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Politicians… I hate ‘em. They offend me. They make me want to punch something – like a shih-tzu (although they already look like someone got there before me). Politicians spew, expound, wax poetic, twist, massage, and congeal the language that I cherish into convenient, little, sound bites and slogans that, from a branding and marketing standpoint, make me want to puke.

Today, my ire turns to *Hillary Clinton and her cronies…

At her Senate confirmation hearing, Ms. Clinton defined her (intended) approach to diplomacy as “Smart Power.” Describing it as, “…using the full range of tools available to the United States, including diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural tools.”

After some thought – and a little digging – this slogan, this “catchphrase” Ms. Clinton and her staff so strategically thought up sounded like more of the same regurgitated crap that lost her the presidential nomination bid. And it is.

Case in point:

“Soft Power,” (notice the subtle difference) first theorized and then published in a book by the same title, by Joseph S. Nye, Jr., professor of International Relations at Harvard, outlines his position as,

“The kind (of power) preferred by certain thinkers and political scientists… (that includes) ideals, diplomacy, moral authority. All about hearts and minds.”

What the hell? Am I wrong thinking that Hillary (and every other politician) needs to stop trying to speak in “marketing-eze” and that they really need to start thinking for themselves?!?

You know what, Hillary; the Senate is a group of pretty smart folks. I don’t think you need to dumb it down for them. Or are you so unsure of your ability to perform the job, you need to create these nifty little catchphrases to gloss over the facts? Just do your damn job already.

Rob Frankel, a branding expert and author of “The Revenge of Brand X.” said, “Essentially, ‘smart power’ is just more evidence of how bad the communication coaching Hillary Clinton gets and probably cost her the (presidential) campaign.”

And Alan Siegel, founder and head of Siegel + Gale, a considerably credible branding, marketing and communications consultancy, described “Smart Power” as an “unfortunate choice of words.”

Amen. (my choice of words)

From a marketing and communications standpoint, this was a bad choice. Unoriginal. Uninspired. Trite. Redundant. From a political and, may I say, professional standpoint, I’d suggest firing your communications advisers and simply getting down to the task at hand…

Maybe I’m just sick of the rhetoric. Maybe the recent campaign was too much. Maybe after another cup of coffee, I’ll see the advantage of using slogans and tag lines in politics.

Then again, maybe not. ‘Cause politicians and the sort make people disregard – no, dare I say HATE what I do for a living… Stop trying to market and do your damn job already!

That’s it in a rant… what do you think? Politics and marketing. Do they make good bedfellows?

Until next time…

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
–The Brand Chef

*Spineless Disclaimer – I’m not anti-Hillary, and this is not intended to be a direct assault on Ms. Clinton. I think she is incredibly intelligent with MUCH to offer our country as Secretary of State. So, please comment accordingly.

Fact: Newspapers can’t survive unless they change the paradigm in which they practice. Customers, including yours truly, are jumping ship for digital media content that is more up-to-date, accessible and relevant. Long lost are the days when newspapers produced engaging content and – in turn – sold ad space to generate revenue to support what (once) was a tremendous source of public information.

Why?

Newsgathering has shifted from being a passive act—tell me a story—to a proactive one—answer my question.

According to journalism.org,

“…Pew Research Center survey. The figures for almost every traditional media platform are now at historic lows. For instance, the number of Americans who said they read a newspaper “yesterday” has fallen by 40% since the 1990s—to 34%. The number of people who watched the nightly network newscasts yesterday has fallen even further—by half—to 29%. Radio news is at 35%. Regular readership of weekly news magazines is down to 12%.”

So, what does that mean for us? Where is that 40% going to get their news?

Blogs, baby. Blogs! Not to mention podcasts, vlogs and heavy-handed translations of traditional media to online, user-driven sites, and micro-sites.

With that, yesterday, I ran across this story: On January 27th, Joshua Karp (follow on Twitter: @theprintedblog) will be launching a twice-daily free print newspaper in Chicago, San Francisco and later in New York City. The content he will be publishing will be solely from BLOGS!

“So what,” you say, “Nothing novel there?” Hold on. Joshua has a little twist for you.

His intent is to aggregate local content from blogs and print them in tabloid form in time for the morning and evening commutes… The advertising – focused to reach targeted, local audiences – supports the newspaper (of course). It will also include classifieds (of course).

From Joshua’s venture, The Printed Blog web site:

“The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In such a way, The Printed Blog revolts against the top-down, ‘one size fits all’ model of newsprint, as we know it. Instead of one paper serving hundreds of thousands of people, as is often the case, The Printed Blog publishes hundreds or even thousands of highly-localized editions based on what a community declares is important to them. The papers are distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, and will incorporate rapid turnaround reader comments.

… As our society moves towards individualized information, The Printed Blog has the courage to respect our readers. We recognize the value of what individuals have to say, we publish the information they create, and provide them with the information they demand.”

News = information relevant to the people. When traditional news sources become irrelevant, or self-serving, people go to their community for relevance.

I’m interested in Joshua’s new venture. The online community will drive content. Readership will be driven by the local community. Advertising will benefit from a more targeted audience. Hmmmm…Where can this go wrong? Market? Content? Commuters? Advertisers? Classifieds?

Can you combine the past with the present? Why not just keep it all online? Why take it to press?

What do you think? Take a look at his formula and give me your thoughts.

Until Next time…

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
- The Brand Chef

After 25 Years? Can you believe it?

It’s scary out there. As we’ve seen, even locally, Editorial Cartoonist, Brian Duffy (a rock star in my eyes) was let go last week, causing quite a buzz in the local blogosphere and Twitter. Below is a re-post from The Daily Cartoonist with an interview with Duffy from our local NBC affiliate.

Former Des Moines Register editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy was escorted out of the newspaper’s building after learning that his job was being eliminated in a cost cutting (slashing?) move by the paper’s parent company Gannett. He was not allowed to return to his office to collect his personal belongings, he says in an interview with the local television station. Duffy worked for the newspaper for 25 years, and as he recollects, never missed a deadline.

Here’s the interview.

What do you do when the economy threatens to jeopardize the standards you have come to trust? Has your company felt the pinch, like Duffy and The Des Moines Register? How, from a business perspective, have you chosen to deal with it? How, from a personal perspective, have you chosen to deal with it? Does the approach differ?

It’s scary out there. Look and plan forward. Work on stabilizing existing relationships. And always strive to foster new, exciting ones.

God Bless.

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Thank you to The Daily Cartoonist and Alan Gardner for the original post.