We were exceptionally fortunate to secure The Right Honourable The Lord Heseltine as keynote speaker. Lord Heseltine was captivating and spoke at length about the differences and similarities between politics and business. He also gave his personal observations on the economic outlook and what this meant for marketers.

His speech, plus other impressive speakers from businesses like Kyoceta Mita, Pearson, Fujitsu and David Brown, can be viewed at www.brandordemand.com, where you can also weigh in with your own opinions.

I think it’s fair to say that the question of Brand v Demand is something of a false dichotomy, and it was interesting to see some quite strong opinions as to the merits of each. When put to the vote, I think unsurprisingly the consensus was that brand expenditure was more worthy, yet a passing look at market expenditure would suggest otherwise. There seems to be some dissonance between marketers’ espoused views and their own actions.

I’d also add that brand spend isn’t as vulgar or extravagant as some might assume, and while it’s not easy to measure, it can be done. Debates like this will continue until marketing can drag itself up the business food chain: some of the most successful businesses in the world are run by marketers.

As you’ll see, there is no easy answer to the Brand v Demand question, but it made for a fascinating and exciting day. Look out for other similar events in future.

Danny Turnbull
Managing Director, European B-to-B practice leader
GyroHSR North

1/ 0.02mm is interesting in the right hands. Especially if those hands are the D&AD award winning team behind Sagami’s ‘Love Distance’ campaign

2/ Markets can behave irrationally. How else can we explain UK bookmakers making England second favourites for the World Cup? (Yes I know, it’s the punters not the market that are behaving irrationally).

3/ We’ve gone real time. We’re texting, twittering, facebooking like …. It’s all about ‘Now’. Admittedly Vodafone cottoned onto that a while ago but Samsung tapped into that nicely with ‘impatience is a virtue’

4/ Hash can be bad for your health – hash tags that is – as Habitat found out earlier in the year when trying to use coverage of the Iranian election to sell sofas.

5/ The success of a campaign can be judged on recall of a TV execution? That was the argument some experts made to explain why an ad by ‘Confused.com’ had performed better than one by ‘Compare the Market’. Missing the point I think when you see that Mr. Aleksandr Orlov now has well over 600K facebook fans.

6/ That being said, TV advertising is far from dead. Comcast proved that without question – simply genius

7/ There is more than one way to skin a cat. Or launch a new car. As VW showed with the Golf GTI in the US

8/ You really are only as good as your last burger. See Fallon + Sony + Balls.

9/ Baku is interesting the first time you visit. On each subsequent trip it is blustery, dusty and a long way from home. Bakcell were doing well when we left them though.

And finally, one other thing that I now know all too well:

10/ Nappies are easy. Not pleasant, but easy. Thanks for every one Avie x.

Richard Mabbott
Group Head of Planning
GyroHSR

Perhaps if I explain the choice we all have to make, you’ll forgive the hyperbole. We’re all familiar with the current status quo, the received wisdom on integration. Consumers have access to more channels. They engage with different disciplines in different ways, and the TV spot is no longer king in the way it used to be. That much is recognised. So, until now the solution has been ‘take a brilliant brand idea (usually from a TV or press ad) and replicate it across all these brave (if slightly scary) new channels.’ Big Ideas, usually straplines from big brand campaigns have been simply handed down to other channels and expected to fly in the same way. After all, a big idea that doesn’t travel is a dead idea, right?

Well, yes. And no. A big idea must travel – but that doesn’t mean it must simply be slapped on a direct mail piece or a viral and expected to deliver in the same way as a 30-second TV spot. For too long, the ad agencies have created something beautiful, and once they have envisaged how it will deliver to a mass audience –they’ve chucked it back to their below the line friends and expected the same creative to translate virally, digitally, experientially. It won’t. It never will. And now, our world is divided into people who accept this and embrace it and people who won’t, who can’t.

This brave new approach should be about understanding the communications challenge and then feeding it through to everyone from every discipline at the same time. That way you aren’t pushing an idea into the confines of one discipline or another. Rather, you are celebrating and respecting each and its ability to deliver the big idea. Give everyone the challenge at the same time, no artist every delivered the masterpiece from a Paint By Numbers canvas – they always start with the raw materials. Change the way you look at your role. You aren’t the Creative Director, or the Marketing Director. Rather – you are curator, a facilitator – you bring the elements together and let them sing in the loudest, most relevant and exciting way possible.

Just as the Old World was once transfixed by ‘media neutrality’ and ‘seamless execution’, now we must embrace new additions to our lexicon, and challenge the old ones as we do so. For years, we have chased Fool’s Gold, the dream of seamless, cross-discipline delivery. And what does seamless mean to us? It means no interruptions, no surprises, no joins. But if you don’t deliver these clear differentiations between channels, then how can you engage through each one? A viral and a TV ad can’t be ‘seamlessly’ joined. They are fundamentally different, and that difference should be celebrated. The joins, the moments of difference are what will surprise the market.

And indeed, we should challenge the notion of the ‘Big Idea’ itself. What does ‘big’ even mean? Where once it meant ‘easily transferred’, now it must mean ‘expansive’. A true big idea just keeps on giving, and can be ignited across any channel, in any way. For so long, we have thought of our big ideas as fireworks for instant gratification. But we have been all about the visual display, and forgotten about the big bang we should be leaving.

And this new approach works. It is living, breathing happening at this very moment, as we speak. In the US, telecoms brand Sprint had one aim in mind – to be associated with the one thing consumers really want from technology – immediacy. The brief was ‘help us to own immediacy’ – and it was issued to everyone. And the result? A beautiful, engaging mishmash of touchpoints that celebrated the concept of immediacy in the way best suited to their channel. So, the Big Idea expanded. It became a brilliant, throbbing, fact-filled TV ad, a revolutionary widget, an interactive Yahoo takeover. These elements weren’t seamless, they were linked but they had their own characteristics, they existed as their own celebration of the Big Idea…this became the “Now Network” campaign.

I have seen the dramatic differences when you hand someone an idea, not an execution. When I worked with the US’ Office of National Drug Control Policy to help combat habitual drug abuse, the team and I started by identifying the insight that the issue wasn’t exacerbated by drugs themselves, it was driven by the ‘influence’. We personified this influence as the enemy and called every agency together in a room – planners, media buyers, PRs, creatives. We asked everyone to come back with their interpretation of “the influence being the enemy” and in return, they showed us the power of letting a great idea breathe through an endless number of creative (and sometimes unexpected) collaborations and channels. It worked in print, it worked in film and it worked digitally. It didn’t roll seamlessly over every channel. This became the “Above the Influence” campaign.

If you can’t remove yourself from the mindset of ‘seamless’, ‘transferable’ and ‘adaptation’ then you will never champion the new version of ‘integrated’. If you think integration should be about taking an execution and applying it everywhere then you should be working somewhere else, in branding perhaps. After all, that is the branding approach isn’t it? Making touchpoints consistent, keeping a unified identity. Advertising and marketing must be about igniting, not soothing seams.

We must believe our ideas live longer than an awareness campaign – we must have faith that they can fly in millions of ways –not through careful adaptation, but through noisy, viral, visual ignition. Because if they don’t, they will fester in the seamless wallpaper of old-fashioned integration. Let us never forget who we should be talking to, and no consumer ever said “the best thing about that campaign is the way it looks the same on the posters and on the website”. Never did, never will. So you can keep chasing that reaction or you can become a curator and let each element bring the Big Idea to life. The time is now – you are with us or against us, in support of creative eclecticism or in opposition.

Choose wisely, the future of the brands you are looking to ignite will depend upon it.

By Christoph Becker
Chief Creative Officer
GyroHSR

I distinctly remember saying when I first started writing this blog that I would avoid talking about the recession as I felt that as much as anything business confidence was critical in perpetuating this. The research that we carried out amongst B2B practitioners showed that despite the fact that much of the hysteria that was around this time last year, that practioners in general felt cautiously upbeat about the prospects for 2009.

What transpired will probably be remembered as our anus horriblus, and although we are by no means the only industry to have been hit hard, marketing has traditionally took the brunt of any downturn and this one was no different. Whilst this subject is normally taboo, I know that many businesses have been forced to examine their cost base and to make hard operational decisions. Whilst painful at the time this period of introspection will have a beneficial long term effect, within marcomms.  I believe it will make us all appreciate the good times better when they return.

We have had oversupply issues in the industry for many years now and in that sense driving some of this out of the industry will be a healthy process. I know that many of our clients have found trading conditions as tough but this has been almost uniform across all of the geographies, disciplines and verticals that we operate in.

On the upside, it seems to be the general consensus that we have ‘seen the worst of it’ and we are starting to see the green shoots of recovery in many of our markets. All of the leading indicators are encouraging: all leading European economies officially out of recession (except the UK and Spain); business and consumer confidence returning; the housing market rallying; the FTSE and NASDAQ on the up; and a strengthening pound. Recent industry reports surveying agency outlook for 2010 shows a quietly cautious optimism about the year ahead, however, I don’t think it’s time to exhale, and any recovery will be slow and shallow.

As we inevitably start the post mortem of the year, marketers are starting to consider what a ‘post recessionary’ world will look like. It’s fair to say that this year marketers have been forced to innovate and to change behaviours. Certain trends have been accelerated, such as the continued migration of online activity, and it will be interesting to see how much of this is longer term structural change.

Following on from some of our recent thought leadership work, we have been carrying out some detailed research within the B2B space to investigate this. Our Brand or Demand initiative seeks to examine the premise that recessionary pressures cause marketers to disinvest their brands in favour of short term demand generation, or whether this is indeed a false dichotomy. I guess this is a contemporary expression of the classic ‘RAT’ trap with Research Advertising and Training budgets being hit in any downturn. As many businesses have been in survival mode sales have been critical to recovery, and any expenditure which is seen as discretionary is deemed to be vulgar against a backdrop of operational cost control.

We are bringing our findings together at a summit in Manchester on the 23rd February where we will be debating this with the CMOs of some of the biggest B2B brands: HSS, BUPA, The CarbonNeutral Company and Pearson Vue to name but a few. For more information on this event check out the website at http://gyrohsrbrandordemand.eventbrite.com

I personally believe that while any recovery will be gradual that there is a pent up demand waiting to be released. There is a theory in marketing called the competitive saw which sees any downturn in marketing expenditure reflected in a downturn in demand which must be addressed by a corresponding uplift in activity. Some of the trends that we have seen emerge won’t reverse, recent figures from the MCCA show that it’s unlikely that we will see a return to anything like 2008 expenditure levels on print and display. Stakeholder comms and digital have been big winners from this year and that’s one of the reasons why GyroHSR has significantly outperformed the market this year.

In any case the environment in which we operate in is unlikely to return to how it was in pre-recessionary times and the future success of agencies and clients inevitably relies on their ability to adapt to the constantly changing challenges that businesses face on a day-to-day basis. In that sense nothing has really changed that much at all.

By
Danny Turnbull
General Manager
GyroHSR in Manchester

Contrary to popular belief, digital is central to b2b marketing. So much so that in GyroHSR’s B2B Marketing Insight Report, 44% of respondents felt that digital communications were the most effective method in B2B marketing, eclipsing that of more traditional tools, such as direct marketing.

It isn’t hard to see why digital is favoured over other channels. Direct response direct mail has produced a 0% response rate for almost half of the respondents in the research, compared with 27% for email marketing campaigns. Furthermore, the best response rates achieved were higher for email than any other communication channel.

But while the technologies being used in digital are at a similar level of development across business and consumer marketing, it is why they are used and what is deemed as sufficient return on investment which differs massively.  For B2B marketers, digital is treated as a tactical tool to help build a brand rather than a strategic platform for brand engagement and lead generation which consumer marketers have embraced.

So why does this disconnect between the application of digital exist? It can be because different digital tools available to marketers behave in different ways for the two disciplines.  Take Twitter, for example, which has a very different application in the B2B world than it does for consumer marketing. In B2B circles it is a highly targeted communication channel which allows individuals to network and share knowledge directly with each other. For consumer brands, Twitter is a broadcast medium which is effective in communicating to a mass market.

However, the main reason for the disparity between B2B and B2C is because B2B marketers are only measuring a fraction of what digital offers. Too many B2B marketers are still trying to convince themselves that digital works and as a result are failing to see the full potential of digital, which consumer marketers wised up to five years ago. This preoccupation with measurement of activity in place of measurement of return has led them to focus on short-term results, looking at the open and click through rates of email marketing as a barometer for brand engagement, rather than a consideration of the influence exerted after opening.

We know that B2B marketers are using digital channels to help with brand building, and that they are aware of the latest technologies available, with 78% stating in the report that they feel fairly or very well informed on digital developments.  But, crucially, they are failing to measure the impact of these efforts, with only 13% of respondents actively seeking to measure brand building as part of their overall marketing review, but instead focussing on website visits (82%) and e-mail open rates (66%) as benchmarks for success.

To combat this, marketers operating in the digital sphere need to adopt more sophisticated digital metrics for success and evolve from proving how it works to actually using it for lead and income generation.  B2C marketers have already shown this can work and B2B counterparts need to recognise this or risk falling behind the curve by not fully embracing the potential of digital.

By
Danny Turnbull
General Manager
GyroHSR in Manchester

Ferruccio’s secret? Realising that a simple element he was selling as functional, effective and reliable, could expand outwards into something that was beautiful, awe-inspiring and world-famous. Now, of course, Feruccio could have stuck to turning out his tractor clutch for tractors. But he didn’t. He realised he was only selling a percentage of what his product was actually worth, and went after the remaining potential.

It’s a lesson direct marketers would do well to learn. No, it’s a lesson direct marketers must learn, or risk finding themselves staring into the abyss. For too long, we have marched into pitches talking about data, targeting, response, measurement – all that solid, commercial stuff that we know budget-conscious clients want to hear. “Don’t spend your cash on those beautiful, but intangible brand awareness ads”, we urged. “Go for DM. It works, and here are some cold, hard (if boring) stats to prove it.”

And, for the most part, that approach has worked. Who wouldn’t want to engage with consumers in an intimate way and be able to track where every penny is spent? But the landscape has changed. The consumer has changed. And if direct marketers don’t learn to sell everything else they can deliver, then they can kiss a share of tomorrow’s marketing spend, goodbye.

So why now? What’s changed?

Well, the direct marketing industry has been focusing on the clutch – the fundamental cornerstone of its heritage. We’ve been selling our targeting and measurement. Which is great. Only now, everyone else is starting to walk the walk – or they are at least talking the talk. We all know that with a long history of understanding customer data, direct marketers are those best placed to navigate the new digital landscape for clients, but it’s unquestionable that other disciplines are staking a claim on cross-channel targeting and measurement.

Add to that the lightning speed at which consumer channels have fragmented and multiplied and the ensuing land-grab this has created. Where direct was once a one-to-one channel, it has fast become a one-to-many channel, and this has fundamentally changed the way we must operate.  We predict that we won’t see disciplines drop off, but we will see them continue to multiply.

Taking this new landscape into account forces us to reassess the way we view disciplines and channels within it. Contrary to what some may think, direct marketing is not just a tactical tool, it is a strategic approach. It can build brands and it can create an intimacy that no other approach can. Believe it, because if you don’t, you can’t sell it. And if you can’t sell it, you might be left to turn the lights out as everyone else embraces a new era somewhere in the future. This is an approach we had to adopt when launching a US campaign for agricultural and construction equipment giants John Deere. (If only these essays were themed ‘DM…and tractors’…).The challenge was clear: John Deere wanted to enter a new digger category. The audience was contractors, landscapers, farmers and dealers. So a simple offline DM piece, targeted and tracked, might have done the job.

It might have done. But then, it might have gone down as another classic example of the real potential of direct marketing going well and truly unexploited. Instead, we created a campaign that incorporated the stalwarts of direct marketing and used them to create something much, much bigger.

“Smackdown” involved staging a series of head-to-head battles featuring the top machines in a ‘robot wars’- style duel. The events—the hill climb, visibility test, power lift and serviceability—were based on real-world situations that drivers experience and were staged in front of a live audience.

Initially, the audience was engaged via offline mailers, but that was only the beginning. At the heart of the programme was the ‘SkidSteerSmackdown.com’ microsite, featuring videos of digger battles. The site was fully interactive, enabling visitors to engage in a number of ways. For example, fans could create e-postcards which could be customized and distributed to friends and co-workers. This simple tool converted dealers and operators into the campaign’s strongest advocates. A series of eDMs were distributed to alert both dealer and prospects when new content was available on the site, and finally – traditional elements such as print ads were also incorporated.

And through this activity, John Deere gained a cult following. Since the site launch in April 2008, the microsite has had more than 150,000 visitors with 125,000 unique views and more than 350,000 page views.  Smackdown videos have garnered more than 100,000 views on YouTube. Offline, the Smackdown-themed lead generators yielded a 4 percent response rate, outpacing many other similar mailers during the year. Drive-to-site banner advertising had click-through-rates of approximately 3 percent, and eBlasts promoting the site had response rates of more than 7 percent.

This was a campaign that had direct marketing at the heart – there was an identifiable audience, a clear proposition and a measurable response. But to encapsulate it in this way does no justice to the true reach of the activity. We could have sent out the mailers and waited to track the sales. But we didn’t. We took the brand to a new marketplace and created a following populated by genuine advocates. We drove awareness, created buzz and instigated WOM. And if I’m starting to sound like a traditional adman, then I make no apologies.

And neither should DM as a discipline. It is perfectly poised to tell complete brand stories through this brave new media landscape. But if DM professionals hide behind data and measurement without talking about the inspiring creative, groundbreaking online innovation and power to build genuine brand experiences, then they will be selling themselves short. They will be moaning about their Ferrari clutch, whilst never looking beyond to the potential of their own product. Go forth and sell it all, sell it now. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about

By Christoph Becker
Chief Creative Officer
GyroHSR

Links: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/944635/PROMOTIONAL-FEATURE—Direct-marketing-round-table/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH/

Ferrand, a former Media Strategist at Naked Communications and Maxus Global, where he was group head, oversaw the media planning for clients including UNIQLO, Timberland, FT and Fujitsu-Siemens. He is responsible for driving GyroHSR’s growing media planning division, with a particular emphasis on London Business School, NXP, Nuffield Health and Tate & Lyle.

Swann meanwhile, who spent five years at JWT and several years in brand consultancy before moving to creative ad-boutique Mother London, has been behind the brand and communications strategy for clients including HSBC, PG Tips and Boots Opticians. He is tasked with driving the development of stronger planning and strategy across the GyroHSR network and elevating its creative product, and will work across the T-Mobile and Shell accounts.  Adam was instrumental in winning the recent Nuffield Health account and building closer ties with existing clients.

The additions are part of a raft of recent senior appointments at GyroHSR, which has been investing heavily in its creative output following former DraftFCB creative head Christoph Becker joining the agency as Chief Creative Officer in June.

Richard Perry, Chief Operating Officer, GyroHSR says: “Agencies need to think harder and operate faster than ever before, and GyroHSR is committed to investing in the best talent to meet this changing landscape.  With the addition of Adam and Luc to an already strong team, we are confident we have the experience, insight and creative skills to drive the best results for our clients. Attracting talent of such a high calibre is testament to the growth of our business and ongoing commitment to our creative output.”

In April, Gyro announced its merger with US agency HSR to meet the scale and reach of client requirements. GyroHSR now has 17 offices in 15 cities spanning Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Links:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=gyrohsr

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Discipline/Advertising/News/939779/GyroHSR-expands-its-planning-function-hires-Mother-Naked/

http://www.marketingdirectmag.co.uk/news/939779/GyroHSR-expands-its-planning-function-hires-Mother-Naked/

GyroHSR has been tasked with the next stage in the development of the Nuffield Health brand following its acquisition and integration of Cannons Health Clubs last year. Our work will support the ongoing implementation of Nuffield’s  innovative, integrated healthcare strategy.

Activity will focus on positioning the organisation as the leading destination for healthcare, fitness and wellbeing across its wide network of hospitals, health clinics and centres. The first phase of the campaign, which is set to launch in this September, will use online, direct marketing, guerrilla and above-the-line advertising to promote Nuffield Health’s unique offering and to attract people to one of the organisation’s 50 fitness and wellbeing centres.

Richard Perry, of  GyroHSR, said “We are delighted to have been appointed by Nuffield Health and excited by the opportunities this brief presents. We know that we have the integrated services and creative talent that will truly help deliver results and bring a different way of thinking to the healthcare sector.”

Mat Hart, Group Marketing Director, Nuffield Health, said “GyroHSR’s interpretation of our brief demonstrated its excellent understanding of our objectives and its superior creative thinking set it apart from the competition.”

Creative partnership Ross Garden and Russ Garn join GyroHSR as a Senior Creative Team, whilst James Mountain and Hywel Thomas, formerly group heads at Proximity, join as Senior Art Director and Senior Copywriter respectively.

The appointments come just two months after former DraftFCB creative head Christoph Becker took up the role of Chief Creative Officer, tasked with driving the creative agenda across all of GyroHSR’s international markets.

Mountain and Thomas are an award-winning creative team and have worked together for over 14 years at agencies including Proximity London, Publicis Dialog and EHS Brann. The pair will be in charge of the creative output for many clients, including T-Mobile.

Garden and Garn’s combined experience includes time at Grey Worldwide, WCRS and M&C Saatchi before joining forces at FCBi and going on to become group heads at Joshua. The duo will work on accounts including HP and New Zealand Lamb.

Christoph Becker, Chief Creative Officer, GyroHSR says: “We are committed to placing creative excellence at the centre of everything we do, and these appointments will help ensure that we provide our clients with the big ideas that will drive commercial success. It’s a major coup for us to welcome both teams to GyroHSR, and further evidence that we are becoming a career destination for the best talent in the industry.”