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The United Kingdom's Labour party has recently appointed agency Saatchi & Saatchi to handle its advertising for the next general election. "not flash, just Gordon." was Saatchi's winning pitch. Gordon Brown is the newly appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, rumored as planning to call a snap election.
Saatchi has had previous political experience, most notably they are credited with aiding Margaret Thatcher win the 1979 general election. "Labour isn't working" was their winning slogan for that campaign. Saatchi has ironically chosen to work with Labour party member Gordon Brown in a move that has been said to be "laced with irony and interest".
The campaign created for Margaret Thatcher turned Saatchi & Saatchi into a well-known agency, but founding brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi have since left to set up rival firm M&C Saatchi.
Additional comments regarding the new account, delve into the company's move from Thatcher's conservatism and the liberalism of the Labour party. An editorial comment stated, "the idea of the agency that packaged Thatcherism turning its hand to Brownism is incredibly provocative." It seems that the motives for this move were probably not rooted in political ties. Representing a large general election means an incredible amount of exposure for an agency; although there is not much money in political accounts, the publicity generated is very valuable.
Robert Senior, Saatchi and Saatchi cheif executive, in comments made regarding the appointment said, "We have the opportunity to take the strength and conviction that Gordon Brown has shown as prime minister and apply our creativity to that to do the right thing for the country."
Read more on this, and other world news.
Marketing to a multicultural audience is no easy task. If you take a look to past campaigns and their attempts to fit a diverse group into a 30-second spot, you might be pleased to see that American advertising does have some ethnic variety. But take a closer look at multiple campaigns trying to make it work and you might start to see a pattern.
In the June 2007 Washington Post article, The Potholes of Multicultural Marketing, author Warren Brown points to current flaws in many American companies' attempts at expanding markets to reach a more international consumer. American companies attempting to make their products global are getting into trouble because, although there is diversity in advertisements, portrayals of our "melting-pot" society tend to look the same after a while.
Brown used cars to illustrate this point. Think back, if you can, to the last car commercial you saw. Now try to remember if the commercial featured racially mixed occupants driving in the car or truck. If yes, who was driving? Most likely, the driver was white and male. If the driver was female, she was probably white. Black or other occupants of color usually sit in the front passenger's seat, or they sit in the rear. Rarely do they sit behind the wheel.
This not so subtle but frequent attempt at inclusion has been called "Multicultural Marketing 101". Monique Tapie, communications director for Global Advertising Strategies, explains multicultural 101 as the marketing assumption that "all Asians are alike, that all African Americans are alike, that all Spanish-speaking people are alike, that we are all alike, which means that we're all mainstream, with "mainstream" still considered to be white."
We live in a country that doesn't want to offend anyone through mass media messages, which, in advertising, translates into, for lack of a better word, a formulated seating chart -- a woman here, man there, black person there, Asian here, Latino there. The purpose of this seating chart is an attempt to send the message that this company can be for anyone.
"We're being fair. We've included everybody. Buy from us."
To many, these types of ads are turnoffs. They are not being fair, and if one were to look deeply it could be seen that this seating chart places certain groups in a symbolically subordinate position. Multicultural Marketing 101 assumes that all Asians are from Japan, China, or Korea and all Spanish-speaking people are from Mexico. This method obviously does not yield the best results, and for those who have spent most of their lives trying to overcome discrimination, it can be aggravating to still be stuck in the passenger seat.
There are other strategies, which companies like Global Advertising are attempting. They rely on in-depth studies of cultural groups, differences within the groups, and how lucrative market segments can be found in these groups. It's a good idea to actually take a look inside these groups, instead of just considering them one entity with the same ideas, interests, and values. Ethnic marketing is not a matter of exploitation for profit, says Tapie. "It's simply a recognition that differences exist."
To make any marketing campaign successful, it's necessary to immerse yourself in information. Learn as much as you can about what you're selling and who you're selling it to because almost every humorous (or not so humorous) marketing mistake made through global campaigns could have been prevented through a bit more audience research.
Tapie finished her interview with The Washington Post pointing out that America is composed of different cultures. "If you plan to sell to those cultures," she says, "you better try to do a better job of understanding them."
We are now living in a world that is more connected and instant then ever before. We are constantly being bombarded with media messages influencing almost all of the decisions that we make on a day to day basis. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported on media multitasking and America's youth and found that today's youth uses media in a much different way then any other cohort. This generation is all about media multi-tasking, using multiple forms of media and balancing more then one message all at the same time. For example, I am right now typing into my blog, listening to i-tunes, and checking my e-mail, all while the t.v. is on in the background. Now it may sound like a lot, but a media multi-tasker would not be that impressed because this is their norm. Introduce generation 3.0, as Peter Lauria calls them in a February 2007 issue of Media Magazine. Generation 3.0 is the new group of media multi-taskers growing up in our fast paced world, and they don't look like consumers at all. They are as much a creator as a consumer, as Lauria states, "Consumer 3.0 writes, edits, splices, shoots, and manipulates original or reproduced content".
Media is being used as a tool now to create identities for this generation's youth. Most kids have a myspace or a facebook, which instantly connects them to millions of people all over the world. On this page they can create, explore, or explain through their words, music, videos, and pictures their own personal identity.
So how do you reach or even just learn about an audience that knows how to use media maybe even better then you? I would say instead of learning how you can target this audience and make them listen to you, the industry should listen to them. Involve their work in projects, get them involved. This is a generation that doesn't just want to read about what's going on, they want to act, create, move. What better way then to stand aside and let them?
We all live in the same world, and it is a world that is constantly becoming smaller and smaller. We have become increasingly globalized in almost all aspects of life. Business, Technology, Knowledge. In just one day, a person can take off in a cargo plane filled with chickens off of a dirt runway in one of the poorest countries in the world and 15 hours later land in New York City, one of the busiest wealthiest cities on this planet. No longer do we live isolated in our homes, our towns, our states, or even our countries. We have the option to be connected to any person from every small corner of the world to share our views, interests, experiences, and feelings on any subject we see fit to divulge.
This is a blog on global advertising. It is my purpose to inform you on what it is that's going on over there, wherever that is. In an expanding marketplace, advertising has the potential to create ties that can bond and networks that can connect. Here, I will show you how the industry is attempting just that.
We are members of the world and we should all embrace our citizenship, spread our compassion, and truly step into this globalized society.
About a year ago iTunes began to feature a new download: podcasts. Seeing that it was free and not knowing what exactly this new feature was, I checked one out. I wasn't sure where to start, or what I wanted to listen to, so I quickly just choose to hear one fan's reaction to the season finale of the show "24". My original podcast experience did not leave me hooked on these homemade radio shows: I found them long, hard to follow, and too opinionated to have any real credibility. I also couldn't get the image of a lonely prime-time t.v. obsessed man sitting in his basement talking into a computer microphone, hoping someone would just listen. I was not impressed, and have not streamed a podcast since...
However, I was very recently asked to listen to an industry podcast (Marketing Edge byAlbert Maruggi) and really examine this quickly growing method of obtaining real industry information. I was ready to really see (or hear) how this new communication now fits into our constantly changing and expanding world. This experience gave me a different, more positive opinion of podcasts. I listened to two casts by Maruggi, and after spending the first few minutes wondering "what is this guy talking about?", I actually started to follow what he was saying. Maruggi has a very enthusiastic and easy to follow voice, and it is obvious he comes from a position of experience in the business. I also liked that he incorporated interviews with other experts, offering a dialogue that I could easily follow, while introducing multiple ideas and views on whatever topic he was discussing.
If I were to become an avid listener of podcasts, Maruggi offers an easy to follow option. He has broadcasted episodes on many topics ranging from health care to youtube, so he is obviously well informed. The casts I listened to were also relatively short, so I wasn't left bored and itching to close the tab and move onto something else. Finally, I liked how this information only required my listening ears, leaving my hands and eyes free to do other work while I listened. His information was very useful that I would go as far as suggesting listeners take notes.
So I may not be hooked on podcasts yet, but my second experience has definitely surpassed my first. I can now see how this new idea fits into the industry and adds to our ever evolving search for new information and ideas. Who knows, in a world where anyone can be an internet star, by my third listen I may start my own.
