The majority of large corporations are run by board members who are either from accountancy, economic and/or engineering backgrounds.  Therefore western businesses like making “rational” decisions based on logic; understanding problems by analysing numbers, and generally using the attributes associated with the left hand side of the brain.  These organizations are also sceptical about things which are difficult to measure or hard to quantify.  Things like culture. 

 However, in Chief Culture Officer, Grant McCranken, argues that these are the very corporations that need to put cultural understanding at the heart of their senior management team.  This is an interesting and easy read in the style of the popular economic books made famous by Malcolm Gladwell et al.  It is full of intriguing business stories that support McGranken’s theory that organizations need to be living, breathing corporations that are fully plugged into all aspects of culture. 

 I am a sucker for self-improvement books, so I loved the bonus section entitled A Tool Kit for the Rising CCO, which is a practical guide to improving cultural knowledge.

 Overall I enjoyed this book, although I am not so sure that the CCO position will become a permanent fixture in all board rooms in the near future.  However I definitely agree that those businesses that understand and anticipate cultural change will have a huge advantage over those that don’t take it seriously.

 As with all successful business books these days, the brand is much bigger than just a mere book.  Check out the website to find more about the author and the community he has created:  http://chiefcultureofficer.ning.com/

 This is an very interesting business book, which at times is inspiring.

The Old Spice Manmercial series has been responsible for some of the funniest, most memorable ads of recent years.

Their unique style mixes vintage pitchman hucksterism with irreverent comedy, testosterone charged product testimonials, and a catchy whistley jingle.

Oh and uh they’ve been pretty effective too.

The rebranding has helped raise the Old Spice brand out of grandaddy’s coffin and into the armpits of the cool kids (Who tend to carry more disposable income).

This series kicked off about three years ago, but the real breakthrough didnt happen until this year’s Superbowl when Wieden + Kennedy unleashed their opus, ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ starring, former NFLer, Isaiah Mustafa.

It’s pretty damn good, but when you see the rest of the ads you’ll realise it’s just one of many.

So without further text, here are ‘The Other Top 8 Old Spice Manmercials from W+K’ in descending numerical order (because that’s what the pro blogger fellows say)

8. Arm Wrestling

7. The Will Ferrell ‘Jackie Moon’ Series

6. Dumb

5. Is it right for me?

4. Sliding ad

3. Armpit Mountain

2. Centaur

1. Different Scents For Different Gents

Didn’t waste enough time watching all of these? Check out some more at Old Spice’s YouTube Channel here

Or perhaps you think a different rebrand has been more successful over the past 5 years…

State your case as a comment below or I’ll assume personal victory.

I spotted this ad by Chevrolet in one of the Sunday papers (not the News of the World before you ask) and couldn’t help thinking that it was based on this great pic that’s been doing the rounds online for a while.

I don’t think the ad execution is quite as entertaining as the original version, but it goes to show that creative inspiration can be taken from all of the irreverant content that flies around every day.

On closer investigation, it seems that the original pic has become a bit of an ‘internet meme’ and has spawned several spin off versions: like this, this and this.

Harnessing internet memes can be a great way to create engaging work. A superb example is this from Poke which merged the great LOL Cats meme and the credit crunch crisis.

Reassuringly, this of course now means that we can all spend hours trawling through the internet for a cheap laugh in the name of ‘creative research’.

With the current focus for brands on social media, it seems that as an industry, we believe we have cracked the more ‘traditional’ forms of digital marketing. Well, I beg to differ. Our industry has a habit of chasing the possibilities that latest technology allows, often losing site of what a good campaign really looks like. With that in mind, here are my top tips across digital sectors to improve both results and value:

SEARCH
Revolution’s recent feature, “5 Brands that Suck at Search” was well-timed. Many FMCG brands focus purely on PPC because of the short term nature of campaigns. A more strategic, SEO approach can provide better results using a lower budget.
eCRM
Most FMCG brands are very poor at eCRM, despite customer retention and loyalty being at the heart of marketing. eCRM is definitely worth the quality focus to retain the customers who are so hard to recruit.
ONLINE ADVERTISING
Online ad spend continues to rise as it offers fantastic branding opportunities through rich media. Campaigns with significant budgets should consider pre-testing of campaigns (see http://www.dynamiclogic.com). With a live test, brands can run multiple campaigns to test which copy, images, etc produce the optimum results.
SALES PROMOTION SITES
Many FMCG companies continually build new sales promotional sites for their portfolio of brands – an expensive approach in the medium to long term. Its better to build one technical back-end for all brands and all promotions but needs the right execution to be flexible to deal with future opportunities.
USABILITY TESTING
FMCG brands spend huge sums driving uers to their online activity but generally not enough on the usability of their websites. Testing should be given at least 10% of the budget in order to ensure the execution is spot on. Like anything in life, you only get out of digital what you put in.
COPYWRITING
Great ‘onbrand’ copywriting is a real skill and can make a huge difference to the success of a digital campaign. Both clients and agencies do not allocate enough time and/or budget to this crucial part of the mix.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Too many brand managers assume that ‘doing’ social media is a cheap and easy option. But while they think in campaign lengths, consumers don’t have those boundaries. To do social media well requires a carefully planned programme, thought and ongoing commitment. As human nature never changes, the same rules of engagement apply: be polite, have a purpose.

All too often, viral is considered with all too little strategy. Brands need to think about what would be genuinely useful and relevant to the audience and then ask if a viral is relevant.

The common theme in most of these points is that there are still too many tactical campaigns and not enough strategy. While some tactical stuff is well executed, this ON-OFF approach to digital marketing ends up alienating consumers in the long-run. If brands really want to build relationships with consumers via digital, then more commitment, both in budget and planning terms, needs to be given.

Start Thinking Soldier has picked up a few more trophies – this time at the Creative Circle Awards, where it won Bronze honours for Best Viral Marketing and Best Multimedia Campaign.

In above the line categories, it also won a Bronze Best Press Ad for ‘Football’ and a Silver Best Public Service Ad for ‘Girlfriend’ and a handful of commendations, so congratulations to the creative team of Matt Anderson and Steve Nicholls of Publicis, who were also responsible for the four TVCs.