What Does the LeBron James Decision Mean to Your Business?

Posted on July 15, 2010 by admin

Now that we have all begun to cope with the horrors of LeBron James leaving Cleveland, I thought I should do some deep introspection to see exactly what this change will mean for my business. As a small business owner, I am well aware that macroeconomic decisions will affect my business. The healthcare bill in Washington will either save me thousands in insurance cost or it will cost me a fortune (depending on which pundit I’m listening to.) I know that the value of the Yen could negatively change the cost of goods that I import from Japan. Not that I import from Japan, but I might. Maybe. Someday.

But this LeBron thing? It must be important to me or the media wouldn’t have spent weeks dwelling on it, right? So I have done a little of what a business associate calls “farm boy math” to see what it means to me.

There are currently 30 NBA teams and each team suits up 15 players. Add in a bunch of trainers and managers and overpaid owners; let’s assume each team has 50 on the payroll. That’s 1,500 people. Now just to be generous, let’s say that each venue where the teams play employees another 200 people. If each of those 7,500 people is part of the average family of 3.14, now we’re talking about 23,550 who will directly be impacted by King James.

There are about 309 Million people in the US, so if we look at this a little closer, this should really matter to only 0.00762% of the US population. The oil spill in the gulf is devastating the fishing and hospitality industries of five states. The war in Afghanistan is now the longest running war in US history and it continues to be more and more deadly.

Closer to home, Sioux City, just 75 miles away recently lost two major employers, totaling almost two thousand jobs in a community of about 85,000. That’s about 2% of all the people and 7% of the families. That is big news, but it gets little press.

I do business in Sioux City everyday. I have clients that stand to lose significant revenue from the loss of jobs in that market. That means I stand lose revenue. I’ve been to the Gulf Coast. I have eaten fresh Gulf oysters and shrimp po’boys and collected cheap plastic beads on Bourbon Street. I have friends and relatives who serve in the military and have spent time in Afghanistan. Those things impact my life and my business. Unless LeBron James decides he needs a small ad agency in South Dakota to help sell his merchandise, he will never change my life.

So what does LeBron James mean to you? Unless you sell Cleveland Cavaliers jerseys, nothing.

- Jim Mathis

Sometimes A New Ketchup Bottle Doesn’t Cut The Mustard. (And why not everybody needs a viral video.)

Posted on July 8, 2010 by admin

For many years a bottle of ketchup was exactly what you would expect; A bottle of ketchup. But that well known carrier of condiments had a problem, the design made it difficult to dispense the product it held. People developed several strategies for getting the ketchup out of the bottle. Some would hold the bottle horizontally and tap the neck gently on their hand; others would hold it upside down and shake the dickens out of it. Nothing worked well and most got frustrated and stuck a knife blade down the neck of the bottle to free the tomato nectar.

Fast forward a few years and the squeeze bottle seemed like the remedy. Alas, we still had to tip and shake before the squeeze bottle would produce any results. Then a few years ago, in a stroke of pure genius, someone designed a bottle to stand upside-down, with the cap at the bottom. With gravity as our constant friend, the ketchup bottle is now always at the ready to dispense its sweet, tomatoey goodness. Just flip the cap and squeeze.

With that in mind, I was pleased to see my favorite mustard—Grey Poupon—now available in an upside down squeeze bottle. My consumerist instincts told me that this would be the greatest product advancement since Listerine Breath Strips in Citrus Flavor!

But what I discovered was shocking. This was no stroke of genius. This was the packing equivalent to the Edsel. As Elvis Costello wrote “It was a fine idea at that time, now it’s a brilliant mistake.” You see, there is a big difference in the viscosity of ketchup and Grey Poupon. When you put Grey Poupon in a squeeze bottle—upside down, downside up, regardless of its orientation—it sticks to the sides of the bottle. Once the contents are half gone, no matter how much you shake and squeeze, it just makes farting noises as it burps out infinitesimal specks of mustard.

And so it is with advertising and marketing. When a cool new tool becomes available every advertiser, big and small, thinks it’s right for them. Then agencies across the world get calls asking for a Facebook/viral video/mobile app/Myspace thingy. The client doesn’t know why or how it will help their business, but if it works for ketchup, it must be right for ball bearings or donuts or snow tires.

That’s were we, the advertising professionals need to man up and just tell our clients that Grey Poupon is not Heinz Ketchup and rather than try to be what you’re not, you should be proud that you’re the best darn mustard out there, and the best way to deliver your product is in a small glass jar, just the way you’ve been doing it since 1777. Maybe the reason you’ve been selling mustard for more than 230 years is because Monsieur Poupon got it right way back then.

What do you think? Are there products you think were screwed up by being “new and improved?”

- Jim Mathis

Alex Bugosky Can Eat My Shorts

Posted on July 1, 2010 by admin

Note: I originally wrote this back in 2007 and it was published by the SDAF on the their website back in 2008. With the news of Mr. Bugosky announcing his resignation today, I though it deserved a revisit. Enjoy. Jim Mathis

Alright already, enough with the Alex Bugosky worship.Crispin Porter +Bugoksy is the hot shop in the US nowadays. Every time advertising wunderkind Alex takes a poop, somebody hands him a Clio. Frankly, just once I’d like to open ADWEEK without seeing AB idolized. So I am publicly coming forward and saying that Alex Bugosky can eat my shorts. If he wants a challenge, try fighting it out in the low-budget trenches of small market advertising.

Does that mean I think CP+B is doing bad work? Nope. Some of their stuff is downright brilliant, really breakthrough advertising. The Mini, IKEA, Truth… all outstanding creative, worthy of every bit of praise it has received.

Then there’s the creepy guy in plastic Burger King helmet. Breakthough? Hardly, they dusted off an old tag line and put a guy in Mardi Gras costume. The only stroke of genius—hiring Mark Mothersbaugh to recut the tagline, thus harkening back to his Devo* days—was lost on the average consumer. It will make a nice trivia question 10 years from now. But I have yet to talk to a soul who didn’t find the guy waking up next to the King creepy. I tried hard to think of another word to describe the plastic-headed King, but creepy just seems too right.

What about the Subservient Chicken, you say? No one can deny that was some really out-there advertising. But in an ADWEEK article as well as an article in Fast Company, reporters dared to ask whether or not it worked. Nope. Cool creative, but it didn’t make anyone buy chicken sandwiches.

Despite Alex’s hard work, BK is continuing to get their asses handed to them, not just by the Golden Arches, but perennial also-ran Wendy’s. Had it not been for a finger in a bowl of chili, the little girl in pigtails would have wrestled the number 2 slot away from the King.

I should admit a little bit of bias. ADwërks is a regional McDonald’s shop. But “I’m lovin’ it!” works! And Mickey D is kickin’ ass. While quick service restaurants in general are growing, the King flounders.

Here’s the thing. In the end, if all of our clever marketing and advertising doesn’t make the cash register ring, then we are in the wrong business. If ads are entertaining, but don’t sell products, they are bad ads.

Many of us here in the SDAF spent the month of December preparing our ADDY entries. Feverishly sifting through a year’s work, picking out the pieces worthy of the $41 entry fee, but the awards don’t matter. My clients would much rather sell a few more widgets than get a framed certificate proclaiming their Silver ADDY.

So on the odd chance that Alex Bugosky Googles himself and stumbles across this article, I’ll say it again. Eat my shorts, Alex. You may have a shelf full ofGold Lions, but if you want to show us what you’ve got, spend a month selling hamburgers in Sioux City in January. The vast majority of the hard-working advertising professionals out here are working with small budgets in small markets. Give any of us in Sioux Falls a big-ass production budget and a cool client like IKEA and we’ll make magic. The challenge we face everyday is making small budget magic for a used-car dealer in Topeka, Kansas. Now that takes some creativity.

Every year I get to spend a weekend or two judging ADDYs, most often in markets similar to Sioux Falls. And every time I see work that amazes me. In places like Waterloo, Iowa and Great Falls, Montana there is outstanding work being done. And when I look at what’s being produced here in South Dakota, we are doing work that truly competes on a national level. And frankly, I think it’s a much bigger challenge to make a local Volkswagen dealer stand out than to spend millions of dollars shocking us with a “Safe Happens” campaign.

Come to think of it, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the whole Wendy’s “finger thing” was another shocking promotion idea from Alex Bugosky! Now that would be clever marketing.

*For those too young to remember, Devo used to do a really hot rendition of the Burger King Have It Your Way jingle in their live concerts. The irony of having the Devo front man re-sing the tag was a great inside joke.

- Jim Mathis

Certified Advertologist^TM

Feeding the Hunger for a New Identity

Posted on July 1, 2010 by admin

Every rebrand is different. Sometimes it can be as simple as a “brand refresh” – update a logo here, pull together some new print materials there…you know the drill.

But sometimes a rebrand will change the face of an organization forever. It is more than a new logo or a touched-up brochure. Sometimes a rebrand takes a long-standing and respected organization and gives it an entirely new identity and a resurgence of purpose.

When the Community Food Banks of South Dakota wanted to make their efforts as a statewide hunger relief organization more recognizable, they came to us at ADwërks with the hope that we could help them find the new identity they were looking for. We were definitely up to the challenge.

After carefully considering the CFBSD’s feelings on their “current” (at that time) name and their long-term goals and vision, we knew we needed to come up with a new identity that brought to mind not simply the local community food bank, but inspired a greater vision and a greater purpose for this state.

And so, Feeding South Dakota was born. In an age when we have more causes and foundations to support than ever before, we wanted an identity that left no room for ambiguity or confusion. We wanted a name that told people, “When you join our fight against hunger, you are Feeding South Dakota.” It also lets this state build off of the success that Feeding America (Feeding South Dakota’s parent organization) continues to experience nationwide.

Since announcing the new identity to the public, the reception has been fantastic. Numerous major news outlets covered the story statewide, the Feeding South Dakota staff has been invigorated by the change, and volunteers and supporters couldn’t be more excited to join Feeding South Dakota’s efforts in relieving hunger across the state.

Along with a new logo and branding materials, ADwërks had a chance to work with ClickRain and build a new site that truly reflected Feeding South Dakota’s forward-thinking vision. As you’ll be able to see in the screen shots below, the new site is a much-needed upgrade and will play a major role in Feeding South Dakota’s continued success over the upcoming years.

Between the new website and the community-building going on over on the Feeding South Dakota Facebook page, Feeding South Dakota has plenty of ways to reach people and fight hunger statewide. With this post, we simply wanted to highlight what a unified vision, purpose and strategy can do when creating a new identity for an organization.

We’re proud to be a part of Feeding South Dakota. Our hope is that you will also join them in their efforts to end hunger in the state of South Dakota forever. If you want to find out how you can help, jump onto their new (and in our opinion, gorgeous) website and see what you can do.

P.S. – Here are the aforementioned screen shots of the OLD site. Take a look at the new website and you’ll see why we’re proud of the difference. What do you think?

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