With so much on the line, why is most POS work so lazy?

By Michael Mark, creative director/ceo @NYCA 

There’s no more intense drama anywhere than at the point of purchase, including most bowl games and bedrooms. And yet Point Of Sale work too often is a dull, sleepy afterthought.   

Shakespeare’s got the pretty words but when customer meets products meets choice – that is magnificent theatre. When we do POS at NYCA, we like to think of what is at stake. It focuses our work on the specific task at hand: stop and sell. In fact our first piece of work we ever did at the agency for a global client that wanted a TV campaign was a piece of POS. That device made the product the number one seller in the world.  

Look at the characters: there’s The Customer – searching for something satisfying, not often sure what, even after having searched online, after reading the blogs, listening to her friends, being bombarded with the ads, she still has to see it, smell and touch it for herself. She needs to experience it to believe it.  POS can help answer her innermost questions. “Is it really what I have heard?” she wonders “Is it for me?” Doubt, confusion, hope.  

Now all around The Customer you have The Store just pulsing with the hungry, encroaching competition.  The attractive merchandise surrounding and beckoning the weakening Customer. She came in with one thing kind of in mind but now, hmm this looks good and that seems like it could be nice, too. Ah the heart thumping of opportunity!  

And yet with all this tension, with the entire transaction on the line, we see Point of Sale materials that are flat and boring, worse, acting like they have no role in the outcome.  They are just standing there like limp spectators who have no understanding of the customer in her vulnerable state and seemingly no desire to win her over. And, worse, some that just mumble irrelevant nonsense to themselves when the customer is right before them. 

Too often POS is just a take-down of the brand work that ran in other mediums when the customer was in the gathering state. Good POS knows and talks to the customer in her “buying mindset.” She is in front of you – you are already in the circle of acceptability with others. Now you need to make her your own.  

Bad POS talks to the customer as if she is still at home. It’s just like we speak differently to people who are across the street than we do when they are in arms reach, we need to adjust what we say and how we talk to customers at retail. When we are up close, we’d better recognize her exact needs at that moment or she is gone with the other goods (rising music for emphasis) and we are tragically abandoned. (SFX: lonely wind blows)  

At those moments you need to know your customer well because generalities won’t get it done.  Her “buying mindset” needs rational information over the emotional because POS doesn’t work alone – the item she is considering is the emotional element. You have to double team her. And you better get your part right with the persuasive details, said fast. STOP and SELL. Do the research to understand her ‘buying mindset’ and turn her from a shopper into a cash paying customer. POS stand up for your product and yourself and sell her why you are the best choice. That will get her 40 feet down the aisle to the cash register. That will make the story worthwhile.  

That’s how you should be thinking when creating POS: like everything is on the line.  

And then Ka-ching. The sale is closed. A happy ending. Curtain falls.

Find time to be inspired by each other

By Dan Henry, Senior Business Manager @NYCA 

In a prior life, I was in a band.  We worked hard, had fun, and at times made decent music.  Unfortunately, our regular practices weren’t always as productive as we’d have liked.  The stress of staying up all night getting ready for the next show, or trying to put the finishing touches on the new song before a recording session made us crazy.  Once, when we were at each other’s throats and things were close to a breaking point, we decided to try something new – spending time together outside of the garage.  It had an amazing affect.  We got to know each other outside of the instruments we played and when we sat down to prepare for the next show we did it with more patience and passion.  We even came up with ideas for some of our best music when we weren’t plugged in.  

Naturally all of us buy into this idea – we make sure to have lunch with friends or catch a dinner and a movie with our significant others when we can to stay close. But what about our clients?  

Today we are lucky to offer instantaneous service to clients who are located 1700 miles away and beyond.  Our relatively small agency can coordinate with far-off branches and vendors to launch global campaigns. Even more important, brands can work with the right agency team without having to worry about their office locations.  

But email, or cell phone video, or 140 character segments can’t replace the need for real human connection.  

Yesterday, while our distant clients were in town, we shared assets and ideas and org charts, but we also shared good food and pictures of our kids. In all the rush to meet launch deadlines, there was a short pause where I remembered that business relationships, like our personal relationships, can grow stronger and richer when we don’t just share spreadsheets and text messages, but also time.  It is well understood that time is rare and valuable.  But so are the ideas and learnings that naturally bubble to the surface over a drink.  Ideas like how to communicate more effectively or how to better utilize the skill set of a particular team member. It doesn’t have to happen every day, but once in a while there’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned handshake or high five at the end of the day.  It’s good for the soul, and it’s good for business. 

It’s a busy business we’re in and too many issues begging for time.  While I’m not making music anymore, I still see the value of getting outside of the garage with your team when you can.  I’m reminded of all the good people I work with and for, and that invigorates me and makes me ready to face the next impossible deadline.

Gen Yers in the workplace: lots of work but worth it.

By Michael Mark, creative director/ceo @NYCA

Advertising is a young person’s biz they say. Our agency and our industry are teaming with Generation Yers – all born post 1980.  Warning, mass generalization about a generation: these 70 million working people are super smarties!

They have more general knowledge than any generation has ever had at their age.  But – and all you young NYCAers mind your manners with your elders now – these guys require lots of feedback and it better be in instant-web time – oh, and they like it positive. 

 Yes of course it’s my generation’s fault. Being helicopter parents, (my wife and I refer to our home as the heliport) we videoed our kids’ every drool string like they were pearls. It made them feel entitled. And then we overscheduled them:  the play date at 9, the tutor at 10, followed by soccer game at 11, lunch brought to them at 1, etc. and, guess what – they like it that way and don’t intend to have that behavior stop. With all those passions they have developed, they must now see work as one of them.  So just as they facebook at 10 a.m. in the office – they should be writing ideas at 10 p.m. wherever they are. They should be.

And so these talented staffers are an intense amount of work for their managers. They seem to miss self discipline that the latch-key kids before them had to learn on their own. It’s because they have gotten so much stimulation – constant interactivity is needed at high dosages. That means their manager’s energy has to be channeled so they can tap into it at all times – human wifi.

But I have found they’re worth the attention. An added helping of ‘you can do it!’ with very clear guidelines focuses them through all the distractions that their up-bringing and media present.  This bunch tends to be very open to making their goals. 

Here are some approaches, some even we have taken:

1. Time is tough to give – tough, give them your time. They need interaction and feedback so if you hire them you must work with them. Hallway reviews, ambushes really, are common, so be prepared for unscheduled ‘How’m I doing boss? What do I need to do to be promoted?’ And if it’s their year anniversary – they will be on your calendar 8 sharp. Also, here’s a benefit for their managers: interaction is a two way street – if you listen to them and stay open you will learn a great deal. In fact you can be more up to speed in your business in technology, communication methods just to name two. Hey you can extend your career – and with the economy you’ll need to! So pay them back with your attention.

2. The language of criticism is important. If you want them to do something beside roll their eyes and stuff their ears with their i-buds avoid comparisons to your past, “In my day we didn’t have lunch, we worked through the night and that includes Saturday.”  Be to the point and be as quantitative as you can be – they get this.  “I expect that work to be complete by 9 – not 9:30 and closing time is when the job is done. If that takes until 8pm, that’s what it takes. And by the job done it means you have completed these 12 tasks.”

3. ‘Making a difference’ is among the most popular phrase I hear from these people – a cause beyond profitability and growing the business will catch their attention and fire their desire to work because they are doing something besides work for the man. They are deeply connected to the world. Work is to support life, odd as it sounds, they don’t live to work.  At NYCA we have an outlet to “make a difference” inside the place that reaches outside to the community.  This cause grew from our NYCAers. 

4. Money matters. 49% of Gen Yers say retirement benefits are a very important factor in their job choices. A USA Today study showed that 70% of the Gen Y respondents contribute to their 401(k) plan.  They are living through a financial melt-down and they are wise to the ways of Wall Street. A job makes money and money invested well makes money. They get that. They demand that. When we started I was told we couldn’t afford the program we selected we did anyway and it has been attractive in hiring.

5. Your business is everyone’s business. These guys share financial information that Boomers consider private such as their salary. They share their feelings about the company freely. And when they share they share with hundreds and even thousands of friends through their networks. Your company ‘private laundry’ information is blowing out there in the wind of mass conversation. The good part of that is when they are saying good stuff the word travels fast and far. Their peers could soon be your next talented staffer.

6. They want their lives in their work lives. That’s why our workplace is pet friendly. Though it’s difficult and sometimes expectations have to be reiterated – the more we embrace their lives, the more they will bring their work into them. We have found it a breath of freshness – aside from the pet odors.

Above all it’s the connection; it’s on us, old analogers, to put in the time. Different as we are, our mutual success depends on sharing common ground and pushing each other so all can grow.  It’s certainly keeping us young.

I just hope they remember to take care of me when I’m drooling.

Two pieces came out in Adage.com just this morning that deal with this generation.

http://adage.com/talentworks/article?article_id=137692

http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=137701

Love and fear of metrics

By Michael Mark, creative director/ceo @NYCA

 
I have a love and fear of metrics because I am a story teller. It’s because I care about my audience, even more than my work.  I want to know how they feel, think, what they want to do once they get touched by my work. This is the real creation – the change, what we call at NYCA: the grow!

That’s why I love good advertising.  We use ideas, pictures, words, media to connect to millions on behalf of our clients. And the best part is the analysis to see what happened.

“How are you feeling, honey?” That’s a tender and perhaps worrisome moment – as you listen for the reaction. In advertising it could be the verdict on the campaign you worked so hard on for months.

It’s the most dramatic of pauses as we wait on the answer – far more telling than the unveiling of the strategy or creative idea. Unfortunately, that is where too many agencies stop – and I can understand why. It’s scary to hear the news.

But it would be a lonely, unfulfilling lie if we didn’t know how people reacted to what we put out there. How can you have a healthy nurturing relationship if you don’t have intimacy?  So we have to find out. Sometimes we ask our lover, “How does this feel?” (really, really scary). Same thing at work – kinda. We need our connection points, our messaging, to be well-directed, true in intention and hard-data effective.  It is a professional, personal and emotional matter. In truth, it is all that matters.

John Harris’s talk on TED is remarkable. He has done some great work on following people’s feelings on the web. See how it makes you feel.

What the flock is up with Twitter?

By Dave Huerta, VP, Associate Creative Director @NYCA  

Have you ever wondered how flocks of birds are able to change direction in unison like they do? It’s amazing.  They’re all going one way and then all of a sudden, on cue, they all go a different way.

You might think it’s some highly evolved bird-brained telepathy, or that there is a leader in the group sending out signals to all the other birds to “turn left NOW. “ 

Actually, it’s a much more democratic process that happens millisecond by millisecond. As birds fly together, individuals within the flock make decisions resulting in the collective direction the flock will travel.  

If a bird in the group senses danger, for example, it flies away from the potential danger. All the other birds then react eventually changing the direction of the entire flock.  

That same kind of interconnectivity that’s shared by a flock of birds is shared by millions of others who use Twitter. And, it’s this social aspect that allows information to go from one member to another that gives it its power.  

As its millions of users are following links or videos or tweets about what you’re doing right now, like the birds flying in a flock, they are collectively changing the course of how information is shared and used. 

Imagine if advertisers and marketers worked this way. Imagine if their products and services were conceived and sold with the same input that a flock has from the birds in it. 

The smart ones are already working this way. Little by little, other companies are following the flock. They’re finding relevant ways to have honest dialogue with their potential customers through sites like Twitter. Access to new products or promotions, live customer service, and customer involvement in new product development are all ways consumers can feel valued and closer to the brands that choose to listen to them.  

The smart ones will understand the strength consumers have when they’re part of a network like Twitter.

And that a comment from co-workers and peers will have more weight than a trophy from J.D. Power and Associates. 

The marketing model of the past where a company would create a product, create a need and sell it to a customer is growing stale fast. If advertisers want to stay relevant, they’ll have to develop a new model that works in the reverse order: listen to your customer, understand their need, and then provide them with a solution.

You can’t get away with nothing these days. And that’s good news.

By Michael Mark, creative director/ceo @NYCA

Big Brother does exist. No, it’s not the government. It’s us. And it’s a good thing. With the ubiquitous capacity to take a photo or capture video from your phone combined with the ability to communicate in an instant to millions on Twitter, we have 24/7 surveillance. We are being watched while we are doing the watching while sharing and it’s for our own good.  Who better to do it?

Personally I believe human nature is good. Yes, that even goes for most ad people.  The universal camera that is trained on us all will show that to be true. In our emails we get more good stuff than ever; like this video about people who commit random acts of kindness.

The first images I saw from the United Airlines emergency landing in the Hudson came to my phone via Twitter.

But if you happen to be trying to pull something Mr. Naughty – well then, just like Tom Joad said in The Grapes of Wrath, “I’ll be there.” The 2009 version of the book will add “and I’ll tweet my 25,000 followers and they’ll tweet their followers….” The point is, if one person sees it, instantly millions will see it.

The election in Iran proves this.  The outpouring was immediate and gripping. Twitter lists showed a steady stream of updates and links to photos and videos all making the developing turmoil clear and irrefutable. It’s still going on despite threats from the Supreme Leader. The communication will not stop.  And it’s not only in government that this is happening, of course. When Amazon seemed to be censoring books, the Twitterverse was on them fast as you can “oh no you didn’t” and Amazon used Twitter right back to react to the protests. The books are up for sale again. 

Twitter had approximately 17 million unique U.S.-based visitors in April, and about 24 million worldwide, according to Nielsen. Its number of users has grown by more than a thousand percent over the last year. Are they all good guys? Maybe not, but their followers are watching them, making sure they behave – a mass deputizing.

So if you’re a bad guy, take this as a warning because bad news travels faster than ever. Don’t do it — because it’s wrong.  But if that isn’t enough, don’t do it because you will get caught. Because you are being watched. 

Good news, though perhaps a laggard in making the rounds, will still get passed around and will inspire more and more good.  I’m convinced of it. And that makes us all better, don’t you think, my Brother?

Art of Transition

By Lynne Roswall, VP and Director of Production @NYCA 

Transitioning an advertising agency into the fast-paced new media landscape is a little like becoming a new parent.  As with parenthood, one can never know what it is like until that fateful day when birth arrives– you can read about it, talk about it, gain some exposure through taking care of nieces /nephews, but it will never be like the real thing.  And it is irreversible.  One day you aren’t doing much in digital and then the very next day you are moving dozens of diverse digital features through production. 

Transitional experiences take guts and a little naivety.  Not able to rely on the ‘old standards’ means what is in front of you is uncharted territory.  Embracing possibility is something we creative entrepreneurs do naturally, and yet there is still struggle to get out of our own way.  For seasoned professionals to think with a beginner’s mind is a part of transition that’s both exciting and uncomfortable.   

The art of transition is facing those crevices of having no idea how to move forward – not for lack of smarts, talent, or inventiveness – but because it’s never been done.  Those who have an incessant need-to-know embrace becoming a beginner again, not being perfect and not having the answers.  The great thing we found is that prior experience – those faithful systems and experiences our folks had in their general market advertising careers - are critically important for solving problems in new media. It’s challenging to learn how to engage consumers in an ever-changing digital media landscape. But you have to start not with mechanical knowledge, but with great consumer engagement skills - period. The right mechanics are nothing without a create idea as a spinal cord. 

The art of transition lies in balancing the fever of exploration, development of a new business model and the acceptance that transition takes time.  We now tell expectant digital parents to enjoy the journey, bring what you have learned, rely on your successful core, be open to imperfection and just DO.

The hypocrisy of growth

By Michelle Edelman, President @NYCA 

I heard Alex Bogusky speak this week at the AMIN network conference. Once you get over the fame and the looks, he really is just a sweet and well-spoken, kick-ass creative guy. 

He said he joined Crispin Porter back when it was 16 people and he was a senior Art Director. It’s now 1,000 people. 

He said he loves when Crispin ‘gets small.’ When the agency opened up a location in Boulder, the plan was to take 50 people. This was energizing to him. CP+B has just acquired a small digital shop in the UK which is also 50 people. The nimble entrepreneurism and we-can-do-anything optimism of a small team is what he craves.

That’s what we have at NYCA and it’s so funny – we seek growth. We long for new challenges and to explore the horizon we know is out there for us. 

The irony is that at a certain size, we will no longer be small. And we love the feeling that small brings. Our teams are like little schools of fish, supporting each other and swimming to protect each other and the marvelous ideas that get pinned up every day. 

It’s an unsolvable puzzle: how to get bigger without giving up our smallness. Let me know if you solve it and we’ll write a book.

Relevance is cool.

By Michael Mark, creative director/CEO @NYCA 

What is the future of advertising? Selling stuff.  Yeah, still. How: Relevance. Not fancy self promoting cloudlike techno-marcom-digital-social-speak. Delivery systems will relentlessly evolve, but the only thing that will ever get to and hold the consumer’s heart and credit card is dramatic relevance. Only through relevance in product, messaging and media context will advertising do its good work – and it’s not enough to engage only, or to educate, or to tickle a remembered laugh out of them. You have to sell. Selling takes empathy and trust, and you can’t get there if you are not taking the superhighway of relevance. Now, you might say, relevance isn’t sexy. There’s no award show category for relevance. Relevance is not the first one asked to the marketing dance floor, sadly overlooked in search of the new hot trend. But relevance touches you deeply. Your mom is relevant. Your home is relevant.   The iPhone has apps that people want, like a counter that tells them how many calories they are ingesting. If you’re a dieter, that’s so relevant. That’s why it’s selling so well.  Wal-Mart is cheaper and has lots of stuff in one place so you can check off your list all in one stop without wasting gas or time. That is so relevant. That’s why people are shopping there now who weren’t before when luxury cool was “in.” But what’s “in” now is relevance.  Take relevance for a spin. Be brave. Drop the attitude, walk over and just ask.  Selling is the new cool.

US auto makers show their stripes

By Michelle Edelman, President @NYCA

The economic crisis looks back at us in the mirror every day and asks: who are we? What do we really need in this life? What of our happiness is monetary? What of our very survival? 

Brands and companies are no different than we are – just a lot more public. The US auto companies are visibly melting before our eyes. What will reform from the molten metal when all these companies emerge from their bankruptcies, closings, and mergers? Hopefully, innovation will emerge. That’s the American spirit, after all.

That’s what GM wants to capture as its own spirit:

 

It’s always hard to tell whether the target audience on these briefs was you and me, or Wall Street. Or the thousands of GM employees, ex-employees, subcontractors, suppliers and retirees that are promoters or detractors of this brand. It’s a TV commercial that’s meant to preserve our faith in a time when truly, we have no idea what a government-run car company will yield. I sure hope the resultant cars don’t turn out like the other things the government makes, from buildings to tax forms. 

Despite its 1-way omniscient nature, this GM spot does espouse a positive message for consumers: that of hope. But consider this one too:

Hear that? Hyundai is speaking to you. In a year when every auto maker will take double digit sales hits, Hyundai still found a way to innovate car ownership and a relationship with the dealer. Whereas GM is banking on our hope for the future, Hyundai is giving us something to hang onto today. 

Don’t get me wrong. I believe the GM spot is beautiful, uplifting, and may even be successful. But it’s just an ad. Agencies can do better. We have a programmatic responsibility to our clients. Reassuring words are important – but they aren’t the same as commitments. 

My hope for NYCA is that we always help our clients act on behalf of their consumer – not just speak to them. Sure, sometimes we make ads. But we’d rather make promises.