Online newspaper display ads: shit yeah

I went back to look at an old article I was quoted in. No problem. Ego stroke. It was the free version of a News Limited publication. And the ads were slapping me in the face:

How cool is that?

After trying to find my article I had no doubt as to who owned that page. To be honest, I'm getting the page for free, so deep down I know that the company that is advertising there needs to get value for their spend.

And if I want less of this glaring advertising then ffs pay a subscription. Advertiser has an app that for about $7 per month the advertising is way less aggressive.

But on the creative. In the 1990s I sold plastic packaging that had printing. But in reality it was just like big rubber stamps. A guy I love - print planning legend Frank Van Ekeren would tell me - "that's good flexographic design - solid colours, solid text, simple messages". And the same principle applies here, to branding the RAA.

Sometimes subtlety is overrated.

Freedom is the absence of fear

I have a buddy who has just flung herself loose from a job role that she expected more from. Regrouping.

I know a person who hasn't been out of a job since 1991 - even then only for a week - who has a heap of education (and experience) now but no employer. Living on day rates.

Photo credit: http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com.au

Another, an electrician with a family whose pay got held last week and job dissolved because of the Hastie group collapse. Job interview two days ago.

Another girl who's now a consultant after her employer last year said "we're going broke, I'll be cutting one of you a month for six months". Left and is living on billable hours.

A businessman who recently cut a business development manager and two production people, is now back in the seat himself as BDM because they were bleeding from the neck.

I've watched dozens of videos of people who jump off a 500ft rock or bridge with a piece of fabric in a bag that (mostly) opens up and lets them land. Some are now "simply" landing a wingsuit. Somehow. Jumping out of a plane is the shallow end of the pool.

We've been here before. We can handle whatever comes.

Kris Kristoffersson said that "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" but I think it's more than that.

Freedom is the absence of fear.

More than that. I know deluded fearless people.

Freedom is the absence of fear, even when you see the world with clarity.

And by "absence" I probably mean not being controlled by fear. Feeling the fear and pushing on. And that takes courage. Here's to freedom. May we all continue to seek it.

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Crumbly Cheese and Holey Bread: Quality failures we love

I cut a block of matured cheddar yesterday and it was crumbly. A nice surprise, I haven't had crumbly cheese for years. I'm sure it exists in the premium brands such as Cracker Barrel where they really do age it for 18 months before cutting it for the supermarket.


So I call that a win. But it did remind me of how "variability" is considered a quality failure. So much so, that during the 80s, National Foods had some luck with a brand they called "Ol Smoothy", a matured cheese that wasn't crumbly. A hilarious TV ad too.

Love that 80s branding where they'd create the name around one of the brand benefits: Ol Smoothy, Ol Bitey, "Skimmer" for milk.

My buddy Nate who works as technical services manager for a very large bakery tells me that variation always generates customer complaints. Letters he has to deal with, even when the change is for the better.

Bubbles in their bread which create one inch holes in a slice. You'd think that's a bad thing, right. Nate tells me that years ago when they fixed that - he got letters. As consumers we're funny creatures.

The phrase "perception is reality" is too often used by people who want to sound clever and haven't really thought about it.

But the crumbly cheese and holey bread story reminds me that it doesn't matter what you think you're giving a customer. It matters what they think you're giving them.

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Quietly unfriending

Oh no. Somebody I haven't minded in real life and online has just made a little posting that has given me he irrits. A little pointed, a mild criticism, but in my "friend" space.


I'd written a humourously stiff response, but it was late in the night, so just shelved the post. I then deleted the draft, horrified, a few days later.

No, quietly unfriending is a little more civil. No biggie. Perhaps we'll meet again.

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William Glasser Institute Conference in Adelaide

Good on my wife Sylvia. She's the president of the William Glasser Institute which runs the fantastic "get your stuff together" approach known as Choice Theory.


So it's another serious job that Sylv has, and she will work brilliantly with good people to make it happen.

Good on her.

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Honoured to be around these guys

I hit a couple of balls on Wednesday afternoons. Fourteen holes, with guys who are 20 years older than me. We count how many holes each of us win.


This week we evened out at two holes each (three of us) while five holes were blocked with no clear winner. And those last putts were very serious.

And we're all friends but the rivalry is fierce. And unmentioned. But underlying is a bond of friendship - dare I say love?


And these guys help me know what's important in a relationship; truth, respect, forbearance, jibes made with true friendship but with no point scoring.

Every hour I get to spend with these people makes me a better person and I feel honoured in that.

And it gives me the strength to take those values to the rest of my life. As much as I can. Regardless of how uncomfortable it might make others feel.

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This engagement thing is all fine, but..

Remember where our sales come from. Light and infrequent buyers.




A nice blog post about why not to annoy your customers. I think it becomes a little self important when it says:

To accomplish this you will need to know what is really important to people and what high level needs remain unfulfilled within the context of their larger lives.

Because most categories have only a limited opportunity to engage with people at that level. I have very high (behavioural) loyalty to some particular brand of chip. Every week, after golf, with my friends in the bar. I am so lightly engaged with them that I can't even remember the brand. (Red Rock, perhaps. High quality graphics, solid single colour designs, interesting flavours).




Thanks Google for helping me find it. Yes, that's the brand.
It's not unfulfilled needs that's getting these sales from me. It's physical and mental availability. Red Rock Deli are not meeting, and never will meet, "higher level needs within the context of my life".

But marketing is important. To establish these memory traces that gives us a chance to remember the brand when a buying situation arises.
And make no mistake, this is a major challenge of marketing. Quantity of these memory links is very important. That means to maximise the number of contacts, and maximise the number of attribute takeouts. So perhaps an engaging piece of communication is the way.

Now, how to replicate that, millions of times.

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