Mongrel Marketing

If you want a man to change, don’t hold up a mirror

2010-05-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

Men – particularly young men – do a lot of stupid stuff. Sometimes really dangerous stupid stuff. They drive too fast, get too drunk, get stoned, get high, get fat, fight, fornicate, often all at once. People get hurt, people die, and so governments have to do something about it.

One of the things governments do is turn to advertising agencies because we’re expert at selling stuff. But selling behaviour change is not like selling a tin of Milo. It’s about a thousand times more difficult, and quite possibly a task beyond advertising alone. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on advertising in Australia trying to get men to change, and for the most part it’s been a complete waste of money. Men don’t change much, and when they do it’s mostly in order to get laid. (In fairness to blokes, people don’t change much. One only has to watch The Seven Sins of England to see how the social problems that plague the UK today have been plaguing it for centuries, regardless of government interventions.)

We don’t pretend to have the answer. However, while chatting with some clinical psychologists about Aussie blokes we heard something that might help. They said the worst way to get a man who was behaving badly – drinking, cheating, shouting at the kids – to change was to hold a mirror up to his behaviour. Men respond poorly to criticism, so confronting them about it – “Look at what you’re doing” – usually backfires. They shut down, don’t listen, and keep doing what they were doing before.

Could this be why so many government campaigns fail? We think it might. Most of these “social marketing” campaigns – like the recent binge drinking one from NSW Health – show the bad behaviour. They hold up a mirror. Our psychologists would argue that’s the least effective thing to do. What would be better? In a counselling environment, it would be three things in combination:

1) show the impact of his behaviour not on himself, but on someone whose opinion he cares about (particularly his kids, his mum, or a woman he’d like to screw)

2) deliver a credible threat of losing something he values (this will be of no surprise to Nudge readers)

3) provide actions – men are doers, not thinkers, so give him new things to do

We recognise it’s nearly impossible to do all that in an ad. But an advertising campaign working in tandem with new government policy could! Imagine if the RTA’s fantastic “Pinkie” campaign (which showed the impact of speeding behaviour on women and mates) was accompanied by a law which impounded the vehicles of young speeders (a threat of loss), as well as an “arsehole zone” sticker sent to everyone under 25 to stick (something they can do) on their speedo at 80km – when the needle goes above it, you’re in the arsehole zone (reinforcing the new/better behaviour).

How do these three things – impact on others, loss aversion, and new behaviours – apply to your business? (They have application far beyond government campaigns alone…)

Is the internet killing traditional Australian masculinity?

2010-05-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Digital evangelists have long said ‘The internet changes everything’. Sometimes they’re right. Mostly it’s hype. But one thing that does seem to be changing as a result of the internet is the ‘Aussie bloke’. VB is in decline, soccer is on the rise, Aussie bands play synthesizers as often as guitars, Bonds have moved beyond the blue singlet, and Aussie dads are globally ranked as some of the best.

We recently went to The Easter Show for the first time in 20 years, expecting to see what we saw before: a sea of blokes in trackydacks, Bonds singlets, Blundstones with pushed-down footy socks, beating their brats with dagwood dogs. Instead we saw blokes with hair gel, Ed Hardy T-shirts, cool shades, fedora-shaped hats, smelling of deodorant and genuinely enjoying time with their children.

What on earth has happened? Where is the Castlemaine cliché that once ruled the roost?

Well, we don’t know for sure, but we think the internet killed him. Australian men – especially those under 40 - are plugged into a global culture as never before. They’re crafting identities from bits and pieces found all over the world, combined with what they have here at home. They’re walking into hair salons with pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo and tattoo parlours with pictures of Tim Cahill. They’re emulating The Situation one day, Ben Cousins the next. They listen to Kid Cudi and AC/DC, and wine and soccer are no longer for ‘wankers, fags and wogs’.

Planner-extraordinaire Dan Pancras has worked in the UK, US and Australia on brands like Lynx, Levis, Telstra and McDonalds. He has a fascinating take on the globalisation of Australian maleness that is well worth a listen. Click here and enjoy it with a fine Pinot Noir.

Tradies will pay big bucks on grooming (if you get the experience right)

2010-05-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Patrick Kidd was a young sparky who’d spend over $100 on a haircut. He moisturised, too. He knew to keep these things hidden from the older blokes on site to avoid the “poofter” jibes, but as Patrick says “to get the girl nowadays you have to look sharp”. And he realised he wasn’t alone. Patrick and his tradie mates were wedged between a $10 clipper cut that left you all looking the same, and a $200 style for which you left your balls (and wallet) at the door.

All this screamed “gap in the market” to Patrick, so he downed his soldering iron and opened Patrick’s Haircuts for Men. The place is tailored for blokes: free beer, a coffee table that invites you to put your feet on it, comfy couches, a motorbike, flat screen TVs and a “something for the weekend” condom when you leave. Three years later - despite everyone telling him it wouldn’t work - business is pumping. He’s about to open new stores and launch his own line of grooming products.

Nowadays tradies with waxed abdominal muscles appear on magazine covers. No more snail trails over beer guts. The ladies on RSVP wouldn’t stand for it! And as men change, grooming is exploding. In fact, male grooming is one of the fastest growing retail categories, hence ‘Dove for Men’. But in Australia, you have to get the experience right – you have to leave your customers feeling like a bloke after they use your product. This is why we’re dubious about Dove and Nivea for men in Australia – without significant rebranding, they’re simply too female. Our money is on entrepreneurs like Patrick launching new male grooming brands that get the bloke-vs-fag balance right for our market.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Patrick.

Want an Australian male to do something? Get his woman to do it first.

2010-05-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Recently we spoke with two clinical psychologists who work with couples. One of the interesting things they spoke about is how, unlike women, most men don’t have a “relationship agenda” – a mental list of things they want to get from the partnership (other than enough sex). Most men follow their woman, letting her agenda drive most of their lives together – where to live, what couch to buy, what colour to paint the kitchen, whether to get married, when to have kids, etc.

This reminded us of something a client, James Sykes, said when talking about how Australian men are adapting to the new expectations of Australian women: “In the fight for a mate… guys have to exhibit their sophistication more often, if not constantly. So increasingly what they buy are things that are endorsed by girls they know. Aussie guys are changing, driven by what’s happening with girls.”

That the real decision maker is often the women is not new – just talk to anyone who sells flat-screen TVs, cars or furniture. But it’s not something marketers tap into enough. For “male” purchases, it’s no longer just about “winning over the woman” at the end of the sales process. It’s about getting her on board right at the start. Because once she’s given it her stamp of approval, her man will follow.

Click here to listen to the full interview with James Sykes, the marketing director at Jim Beam.

The Rise of the Mobile

2010-01-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

8 billion people with mobile phones. An ambitious prediction or a realistic one? Prepare to be convinced. An interesting point of view.

Click here to listen

If you have the time...

2010-01-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

My wee bro made his first music video over christmas. The amazing thing is he's only 12 years old! A real inspiration and one to watch in the future. Check out Louis Blumh's video here.

Take a Quick Squiz

2010-01-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

WONDERWALL INC
Wonderwall is an interior design firm established by Masamichi Katayama. Interesting website that has a fluid-like main index that reacts to your mouse action. Feels like your screen is melting and really takes your interaction with the navigation to the next level. Very mesmerising. See it here.

BEHIND BOONEOAKLEY'S WEBSITE
We've all seen the website created by booneoakley. Over at thefwa.com they interviewed Bill Allen, Head of Interactive Development at BooneOakley who explains more about it. Interesting read.

3D ONLINE
Came across this fun website that brings 3D fun to the web. Not in english, but if you manage to get into the website, and you just so happen to have a pair of 3D glasses laying around, then you might be able to have some fun.

Jim Carrey’s Ambitious Website

2010-01-10T22:27:00.000-08:00

I’m not so keen on Jim Carrey but holy moly, his website is amazing. As much as we love our little blog, stop reading this right now and skip over to www.jimcarrey.com. He’s gone beyond simple bio and movie trailer affair, this website is like a trip inside his head, into his dreams.

It’s a re-toucher’s masterpiece mixed with full video, amazing sound effects and some very Monty Pythonesque scenarios. You’ve kind of just got to go there to experience it. I spent about 15 minutes discovering the site, trying to find all the little easter eggs and quirky effects. The site lets your explore his history, films, latest news, behind the scenes footage and all sorts of other things. Warning – it can be a tad slow depending on your computer, a mix of the load times and intense flash work.

A Standout Campaign for 2009

2010-01-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

I liked this campaign as it’s an example of a tangible benefits delivered by a social responsibility campaign.

22.5 million tomato seeds were given away in a recent campaign by Campbell’s soup in America.

With every can purchase, the free seeds were given away to remind customers of the source and quality of the ingredients in Campbell’s soup.

Campbell’s partnered with Future Farmers of America and built the campaign on environment and education.

An improvement could have been a more social site with credibility delivered by stories from restored Barn owners in the Community Projects or farmers being helped by the $250M donation from Campbell’s as part of the Help Grow Your Soup campaign.

Corporate Social Responsibility is an interesting one for 2010 and beyond.

For large companies, in an increasingly transparent world, and given the power these companies can exert on Government, CSR policies will be essential to get right.

This article discusses the trends and includes recent reports on the topic.

More is more?

2009-12-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

I always thought that less is more but I’ve noticed these days, that more IS more. Fifty years ago houses were modest and backyards were big. Now we have fewer children but houses are getting bigger. Meals are now a lot bigger, drink sizes are larger and the coffee is stronger. Food is now more processed, contains more cholesterol and more salt – are we really healthier with more in our diet?

We want more from the products we buy too – smallest mobile phone, thinnest laptop, highest definition TV. Our insatiable appetite for more has pushed us to want more in business too. We all seem to work longer days, with no lunch break and take shorter holidays. Why do we want more freedom and more time to ourselves yet fill our spare time with more tasks and more routine?

We are constantly seeking more information, more analysis and more content so the internet has become the primary source of information for many people. We use the net to run our businesses, manage our finances, to communicate and as a source of knowledge. We are so reliant on the web that accessing it has become a new area of innovation. No longer are we content to only view the net via our computers and mobile phones, we are now surfing the net through gaming consoles like Wii and online streaming internet TV channels. We want easy access to more information, more media and more entertainment and web providers and technology companies have taken up the challenge.

Along with providing easy access to content through the internet, companies are now earning a lot of money in the process. Google is the main player in this field and is the most visited website on the internet. Google has expanded its empire from just a mere search engine to online maps, social networking, video sharing and applications. Google are now set to break even more boundaries with their latest release; “Goggles” – software that allows people to search the web using images taken with their mobile phone camera. This allows for even quicker access to information and revolutionises the way we obtain it. Goggles will have a huge knock-on effect for businesses as people can simply take a photo on a mobile phone and use that image to search for a café, bottle of wine or music CD and the results will be immediately served to them. The creation of this new Goggles arm will also add to Google’s massive profits and further cements their dominance in this field.

With breakthroughs like Goggles, it’s hard to conceive of where we might end up in two years time, let alone twenty years time. One thing that is certain is that our perpetual need for more - faster, thinner, more memory, more taste and more convenience will encourage us to continually innovate and improve the way we live our lives.

Click here for related article.

The Complex Web of Social Media...

2009-11-19T23:00:00.001-08:00

So what is social media? Is it the blogs that have taken over the cyber world as people decide that they need to voice their opinion? Is it Facebook? The never ending tweets of bored celebrities? Or is it more?

Take a look below to see the new world that we now know as social media. Sure, there are there are all the common programs that you would expect, but my discovery of foreign words such as "life streams" and "crowd sourcing" suggested that this web is far more complex than I gave it credit for. click here to link to the diagram and accompanying article.

Facts still matter: The Death and Life of Television

2009-10-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

This is a story about a story. A story that has been repeated so many times, in so many places, with so much zeal, that it has taken on a life of its own -- despite the fact that it is false.

The theme of the story is that television is dying.

It is a story built on shabby journalism, ad industry buffoonery, and the willful suspension of skepticism on a scale unprecedented during my time in the advertising business.

What to Measure? Only 16% of the Web Is Clicking Display Ads

2009-10-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

The number of people online who click display ads has dropped 50% in less than two years, and only 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks, according to the most recent "Natural Born Clickers" study from ComScore and media agency Starcom. As the pool of people who click on banner ads rapidly decreases, it begs the question: Is the long-used click-through rate now officially useless?

Click here for full article

An abundance of ideas beats the song and dance man

2009-09-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

Sadly our world is becoming increasingly ruled by the performance not the words in a speech or presentation. If you think about the greatest speeches in history you are likely to land on either Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 or possibly Winston Churchill’s ‘We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches’ speech in the House of Commons in June 1940.

click here for full article

When reassuringly bland delivers ROI

2009-09-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Located a short drive from Manhattan, clad in brick, limestone, granite and cast stone, it is the new landmark of sporting greatness in the US. Citibank is rumoured to be spending $400m dollars on buying the naming rights to the new Mets Stadium, an interesting move when you consider they have recently received $350 billion in US Federal aid.

click here for full article.

Marketers get the MASH?

2009-09-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

The world continues to embrace web 2.0 tools at an extraordinary pace, but marketers are often left

scratching their heads as to how to make web 2.0 work in their own day to day marketing efforts.

One of the hottest web 2.0 trends that has great promise for the response driven marketer is the

web Mash Up.

Click here for full article.

Google Launches Fast Flip Content App

2009-09-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

This may very well be the new way to find news, articles and relevant content. Google Fast Flip is like flicking through a magazine, just online with endless volumes of content to flick through. Find what you like, follow that topic and you’ll get more of the same or just browse away and create your own custom magazine. The big thing about Google Fast Flip is that you can flick through lots of websites with out ever having to visit them!

Earning brownie points with the consumer

2009-09-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

"Marketers have to be living in a deluded state. Do we really believe the consumer doesn’t know what we are doing? Do we really think we can pull the wool over their eyes? Our problem is that often we believe we have a god given right to sell to the consumer. There lurks an arrogant expectation that the consumer is always listening..."

Click here to download entire article.

The ugly truth about marketing rules

2009-09-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

"We live in the most over governed country in the world. A full three layers of government, with public servants paid to endlessly navel gaze about how to standardise business and society. They are intent on improving our lives with a confusing set of labyrinthine rules and processes that drive us all wild with frustration..."

Click here to download entire article.

CTR's for Various Industries...

2009-09-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

A nice little goldmine - Clickthrough rate benchmarks for various industries.

Take a gander.

Social Media is here to stay..........

2009-08-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

ok. check this out. Wicked video!

all about social media, some seriously mind blowing facts in a short video including things like:

Social media has overtaken porn at the #1 activity on the Web.
Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV took 13 years, Internet took 4 years, yet Facebook took less that 9 months to add 100 million users.
If Facebook were a country, it'd be the world's 4th largest following the U.S., India and China.

Crazy....
check it out here.
It was posted on the 18/8/09 so you may have to scroll pages to find it.

over and out. gerri.

The ladies’ recession: champagne, lycra and tradies prosper

2009-08-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Great article I found.

In a nutshell, it sums up why a recession has significant advantages for all the women out there.

1) Online dating is on the rise. As the recession hits, men are looking for that special lady to share the winter with

2)Men are trading in their cars for bicycles to save on petrol costs. Yes that means men will be fitter and more muscley (yet also dressed in lycra!??hm.)

3) Champagne and chocolate sales rise in a recession so be prepared to be showered with gifts.

4) Finally, as mining production slows, men are turning to the Defence Force. Yes that's right, that more men in uniform!

check out the article.

Why 58% of consumers aren't reading your emails

2009-08-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

There was a time that email was a fresh, new medium for businesses to use to reach out to their audiences. Then, like other traditional media that came before, it became inundated with those who abused it (causing a whole new definition for ‘spam’ to enter our vocabularies).

While still a viable and inexpensive means of marketing communication, email needs to be approached with care and precision. Marketers need to have strategies and solutions to make their emails more targeted and relevant in these days of overstuffed inboxes.

Watch the Emali Relevance and Inbox Clutter webinar below that will show you:

MarketingSherpa’s research about today’s marketing email dynamic
How gourmet popcorn distributer, Dale and Thomas, used triggered emails and analytics data to send relevant and timely messages
3 best practices to provide more relevant emails

Viral - Changing peoples' perceptions

2009-08-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

A viral campaign aimed at getting people to vote yes to daylight saving. Not because of daylight saving alone but to encourage people to be more open minded when it comes to conservative legislation – like extending shopping hours, and opening Perth up to more cultural experiences. Figures show that every week WA loses thousands of educated young people to the eastern states with the lure of better jobs and more vibrant cities. Conversely the state gains thousands of uneducated, lowly paid young people to fill gaps like labouring and mining jobs. The result is cultural resistance.

Giving Up Control To Prepare For Search In A Social World

2009-08-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

An interesting article reminding marketers to keep "people" at the forefront of their SEM strategies as opposed to "keywords". Putting people in the middle of the strategy requires not only building relationships, but also considering their intent.