As the world of advertising changes, questions existing organizational frameworks and embraces Web 2.0, we are moving toward strategies based on meaningful and relevant brand experiences designed to viscerally connect with customers. Erik has coined the phrase "Acquisition Through Experience". Designing a holistic, experiential purchasing influencer is key to marketing success in the current climate. Neal, on the other hand (being wiser and yes, a bit older) continues to believe in the importance of brand, telling stories and utilizing the interactive character of Web 2.0.
The Hauser/Burns Report addresses all forms of advertising, marketing, selling - experiential in particular, and dissects issues currently facing those of us who are passionate about the field. We are keeping our eyes and thoughts firmly focused on the future so we can help anticipate the winds of change and bring them to your attention for discussion. We encourage your comments and look forward to hearing from you often! Don¹t make us ask twice.
[A point/counterpoint on the marketing battle of the sexes]
When it comes to speaking to women, who does a better job? Other women? Men? Or a combination of the two? In this issue, Chief Marketer begins the first in a series of point/counterpoint articles, in which marketing pros get the chance to square off on a variety of topics. First up are Erik Hauser and Sarah A. O’leary. Now, let the discussion begin!
Erik's up first:)
Let me ask you a few simple questions. Do you think only Asians can market to other Asians? No. Can only cowboys market to cowboys? No. So, can only women market best to women?
Of course not.
The notion that men are not qualified to market to women and that it’s only a woman’s game is a faulty premise.
In fact, I find it very difficult to find this position even reasonably defensible. Having said that, any smart man or woman in an organization understands the power of collaboration and the absolute need to bring people who are representative of the campaign’s intended audience into the fold. This helps make sure the team has all the proper insights to build the best campaign.
Gender Blender. However, saying that men cannot be qualified to market to women is usually pretty much simple male bashing. Want proof? Talk to the fine folks at Euro RSCG 4D Impact.
They have a case study about an experiential program built for one of the Cheer brand extensions that was intended for a “pure-play” women audience. The, dare I say, males involved—including the brand manager on the client side—put together a cross-gender team to effectively launch the new brand. Everyone was conscious enough to understand that at the last inch it was imperative that there be female-to-female interaction in the live environment. This was a program put together by intelligent males and females. Doesn’t that sound like a logical scenario—men and women working together in somewhat perfect harmony?
Another point that is often raised is the idea that most agencies are built around a male team of creatives and executives and, therefore, the male mindset. Some of the most talented executives and creative people I know are women. For example, I am just getting ready to write a profile piece for the Experiential Marketing Forum on the success of Beth Ann Kaminkow, president of TracyLocke. And, not surprisingly, she and the others I know work synergistically with their male counterparts and staff to get the job done.
The final products of these collaborations are customercentric programs that relate to all consumers on both a rational and emotional level. These types of programs are built off of good, solid research. On some occasions you’ll see marketing programs that don’t succeed because they were built on a platform of incorrect assumptions and research.
One assumption could be that women aren’t affected by the same things that drive the needle for men. For example, do you think women are above being drawn to products by sexy men or sports stars? Really? To this I offer one name: David Beckham. Or how about the Diet Coke TV spot from the ‘90s that excited an entire half a population by showing a construction worker guzzling soda while shirtless?
More alike than not. Face it: Both genders share many key consideration points, and these can deliver the desired results for both male and female consumers. To say this isn’t true is simply irresponsible and short-sighted.
Saying that women can market best to other women isn’t just feminist musing. It is a narrow point of view that clearly closes off the line of sight from the elephant that is standing in the room. Men and women working side by side can conquer anything. The roles, talents and cooperation of these individuals together on a properly constructed cross-gender, crosscultural team are what can make a dynamic marketing campaign.
Erik Hauser (
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) is vice president and executive creative director, EURO RSCG, Creator of the EMF and the founder and executive creative director of Swivel Media.
The vast majority of consumer product marketing decisions are made by corporate and ad agency men, and the vast majority of consumer product purchase decisions are made by women. Consider this: Do we really think that men know women as well as women do? And no, this is not a feminist proposition, but a reality check.
In the ’70s, marketing innovators such as McDonald’s hired Hispanic- and African-American owned and operated agencies to reach their respective ethnic populations. After all, the experts surmised, who could better understand those populations than members of said populations? Yet, when dealing with the nation’s largest purchasing population, women, corporate America and agencies rely on men to make most of the critical decisions. You need only look at the male-laden management rosters of agencies and consumer products corporations to see this truth.
If the job is to sell to another female, women are best equipped to figure out how to do it. That’s not to say that men can’t, but women are better suited for it.
Psychology experts believe that there is substantially less difference between the various male or female ethethnic populations than there is between genders. Simple logic would assert that, when attempting to reach and influence a female population, those best equipped to make key marketing decisions are female. Whereas my male colleagues might not find this a great idea, given the exceedingly high number of femaledriven products, it is a truly consumer-centric proposition.
Just common sense If you want to sell more to the female population, it is common sense to place women in agency and corporate management positions where they can make the final marketing decisions regarding products predominantly purchased by women. Women are less allured by the “sexiness” of a hot ad campaign or the latest pro athlete who wants to sign a soup deal.
Recently, a male member of a major retail corporation’s sales force explained in a meeting that Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres weren’t good choices for use in the company’s promotional marketing campaigns. Why? They were too “controversial.” The salesman’s inability to step out of his own gender and bias to embrace the wants/needs/ desires of the target audience adversely affected his ability to be successful.
A marketer at a major automotive company made a large sponsorship and media deal with a television sports program. The research had shown that without doubt, the hefty majority of cars his company sold were to women, many of whom were single mothers. Whereas women watch baseball, it certainly wasn’t the sweet spot of the target. Further, the executive didn’t have a lot of money to burn on ineffective media buys. So why did he sponsor a baseball show? Because he liked baseball, and so did the guys from the ad agency who worked for him. When pressed about his rationale, he said simply, “Oh. We think it’s a growth area.”
Working on a children’s marketing program in the ’80s, experts guided the choice of toys that were given away as part of an added value promotional effort. If you need to choose between a premium skewed more to boys or to girls, they were instructed, choose the Hot Wheels and leave the Barbies at home. Boys wouldn’t play with girl toys, but girls would cross the line and play with a “boy toy.” Girls don’t fear the masculine in the way boys fear the feminine. The program was extremely successful, in large part because expert advice guided the decision making.
The research also showed that women are generally more empathetic, making it easier for them than for men, to understand the opposite gender. Female marketers, it can be argued, are better equipped to understand the point of view of male target audiences than are men approaching female target audiences. Women are brought up to consider the wants/needs/desires of an entire family construct, whereas men are typically raised with a more male-centric, ego-centric point of view. It may not be pretty to say such things out loud but, according to psychologists, they’re true.
At a large New York advertising agency, the women employees were asked to participate in focus group research. The topic? Feminine hygiene products. Several of their male colleagues who were leading a new business pitch for a feminine hygiene brand wanted the female staff to share personal, intimate experiences in a conference while the men sat on the other side of a one-way mirror listening. Not surprisingly, no woman agreed and many were offended.
Some skeptics may ask why any of this matters, or may try to write it off as feminist musings. It’s actually a matter of sales. Let’s say you own stock in Acme Widget Corp., and research shows women purchase 90% of Acme’s widgets. Would you want the major marketing and sales decisions directly affecting this target made by a competent male or a competent female marketer?
Think about it. After all, understanding your consumer as deeply as possible and delivering against that understanding are the keys to successful marketing and sales strategies.
Sarah A. O’Leary (
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) is owner and chief strategist of Logic Marketing for Sales and author of “BRANDWASHED: What’s Wrong with Marketing and How We Can Fix It.”
It takes a fair amount of self proclaimed experts and authors to get me to this point, but I’m here. Feel free to duck because here it comes – edited down for all of your virgin ears. Sorry in advance for my non-linear writing on this one – I have a little steam coming out of my ears.
Social Media – If I have to see one more “expert” tell me how to use it or why I should use them to use it I may come out of my chair. These people may perhaps have one to two projects under their belts that may have been successful, but regardless managed to get a little trade press because they were a little ahead of the pack. When pressed for numbers they hide behind the client confidentiality. The reality is that successful corporate social media programs are a rare spotted owl on a percentage basis.
Personally, I’ve had a magnificent time and experience in social media and built an on-line community that still gets hundreds of thousands of new folks stopping by. It was a program that we set sail on in 2004. Many of you know it as Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island. Not only does this program still exist, but it has evolved into one of the most amazing projects that I have ever a part of. This is a large effort, and it has become adopted by the mainstream and school districts as a way of getting kids to experientially learn about real world finances. The team at Wells Fargo, led by Tim Collins, has done a superb job of managing the growth and most importantly maintaining the quality of this initiative. It hasn’t gone unnoticed either. They are still winning banking awards for their efforts. Like I said, I was honored to be a part of that. The key here was all about building a community that had a real sense of purpose and then delivered on the promise of teaching kids about finances.
I was personally open early to these types of new forms of social, on-line interactions and communities because I had created my own on-line community (minus the virtual world components) in April of 2004. It’s an effort called the (EMF) Experiential Marketing Forum http://www.experientialforum.com. It’s a business, social environment. While much smaller than the Wells Fargo Initiative, it has community members from all over the world and is translated into 11 languages. I learn experientially on a daily basis as issues that arise aren’t commonplace and therefore require unique solutions. There are now have turnkey community software solutions. That’s great, but the real key is putting into action their key learnings. This is where most people fall short. They haven’t endured an extremely long effort. Actually, the Coke initiatives that they’ve done over the years have done a magnificent job of maintaining their relevance and continually reinventing themselves over the years. Again, they are the rare spotted owl.
The most important learning along the way is that we have one ego, one super ID, one everything. The same personality/ego that we carry around in the physical space is the same one that we bring on-line. In essence, we act the same on-line that we do off-line. This is, of course, with the big caveat of virtual reality and the things that follow the same sort of logic.
In any case – here’s the bottom line. How many people, from a behavioral standpoint go to social events to get marketed to? How many of you would be offended if a large corporation rolled into your party unannounced that you were at and started with their “Hey we’re cool, come do business with us.”. Most of you – I’m sure!
Look at your behavior when you go the facebook “social space”. Do you find yourselves participating in any of the advertising campaigns or even clicking on the banners? Your intention when you go to these social environments is to be social with your existing group of friends. It’s no different. Unfortunately, people are becoming blinded by the large number of users so they don’t even consider the fact that the program they just built won’t effectively engage them. Will programs like this ever exist? I’m sure they will. But it will be a seismic shift from what is currently going on, and it will take the participation of both Facebook and the brands so that the brands are able to seamless integrate themselves into the Facebook theory and to not be intrusive.
Make sure your brand comes across as an invited guest – Then and only then will people want to socialize with you!
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It's a Conversational Marketplace : Choose the Right place To Make Your Introduction
It's everywhere these days as if it's a novel concept. Gone are the days of monologue marketing and we have now entered into era of the dialogue. This, of course, is true and is actually something that strong agencies and brands have been doing for years.
The interesting new wrinkle is that there are so many medias to engage your intended audience. The question is which is the best one? People seem to be a little bit paralyzed by this hyper-saturation of media. However, the answer to selecting the proper media is a surprisingly simple one. We simply need to do a wee bit of consumer anthropology to understand our intended audiences' media consumption habits. Once we know where and how the audience is consuming their media - we know how to get to work. What do we do?
We spend our clients' money where their audiences spends their time, and build multi-mediated programs that use the acquisition through experience model and build positive brand experiences regardless of the media where the first touch is. Don't discount TV, radio and print. And certainly don't discount the power of using the rest of the world as a canvas. Just make sure that your message is relevant, and that you introduce yourself to your audience in a way that they will want to further the dialogue.
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I was recently reading an article in the Harvard Business Review that addressed the upside of regret. Regret in terms of the sense that that things could have turned out differently if you had made a different decision. You know the feeling. When you sometimes wonder if you should have taken left hand turn, but instead you took a right when making some important life decisions. In any case, it spoke about the intensity of regret and how it actually enhances our ability to learn.
This got me thinking. Neuroscience, for years, has suggested that we retain knowledge longer when it is accompanied by an emotional component. In essence, neuroscience is telling us that experiential marketing methodology has a greater propensity to aid in longer term brand recall as opposed to traditional marketing methodologies. It’s the experiential, customer-centric marketing that is built around harnessing the power of the intended audiences’ emotional rolodex.
Great marketing on any form of media has always been experiential. Of course different forms of media allow us different ways to connect with our intended audiences.
If you put a little thought into it. It’s the ads that we all still remember from when we were a kid. It’s the ads that struck a chord with us which is the reason why we still remember the ad. It connected with us beyond our rational selves and connected with us emotionally in some way. I often joke about making the emotional connection. It’s not as if we, as marketers, expect to create such a strong connection that a brand will be walking down the aisle with a consumer to get married anytime soon. However, evoking any kind of emotional response is going to build a stronger connection – science tells us so.
Let’s go check the brain scans………Until we meet again!
Experience is both a transitory and a permanent thing. The current election furor in the United States and the attention it and the candidates have received worldwide is an "interesting" and memorable experience for all of us. For those of us with a measurement bent, the chance to look at some data here was very tempting. And the Hauser/Burns Report was calling.
As you may know a group of us here at the University of Texas at Austin - initially stimulated by Keith Reinhard, the organization Business for Diplomatic Action and their interest in the identity and attributes by which the United States was defined -- have been studying the perceptions of the United States by its own citizens as well as those from other countries. We have launched a study motivated by the opportunity for examining perceptual shifts created by the upcoming national election. Our respondents are drawn from the general population - including Americans and international respondents, businesspersons, marketing and advertising professionals, students and others. The results of this study will be reported at the American Academy of Advertising 2009 Asian-Pacific Conference, May 2009 in Beijing, China. In addition, with the blessings of Erik, the Global Maven, who conceived this forum - we will present and discuss the results here as well. EMF is too rich an audience not to be included.
The approach we have launched is opportunity based and timing is important. The issue of primary importance in this study is the impact of the President as the standard bearer of the brand and the ways if any, in which that individual impacts the brand. Essentially, the study is based on a set of "Pre Election" respondent data, namely responses received prior to the November 4th USA National Election - and then a "Post Election" data set obtained immediately after the election and then again approximately 100 days afterwards. Our sample is growing and will benefit greatly from participation from friends and colleagues such as yourself and the "viral" contribution you may elect to make by forwarding this message and the survey instrument to your contacts.
The research instrument we are using can be found at:
In economic downturns the advertising industry always deals with corporate executives and CFO's making across the line cuts to simply stick with what they feel are the tried and true marketing investments. Essentially, they all board the flight to quality. In most cases, in my opinion, they go for a short term save and take their eye off of properly managing the brand long term.
Really though - Can you blame them?
The experimental budgets get wiped out, and the monies left get allocated to comfort medias.
HOWEVER, with the proliferation of new technologies and media a good, quick look at the current landscape and consumer behavior old school corporate execs should make sure that they get on-board the right flight. You see, quality has moved addresses.
Make sure that the senior level execs at your company know the new address of quality.:) Wouldn't want to see brands throwing their money into the old home address of quality. That old address is now occupied by noisy neighbors that nobody pays attention to.
The idea of dealing with simultaneous stimuli is not really new - although presently in discussions about millennials or the wired consumer segments that populate our markets -- many of us, when confronted, with this reality shake our heads and raise our eye brows; 'what are these kids coming to!' Often, I am lecturing in a classroom -and look out at my students sitting there with white wires dripping out of the ears, laptops open - and those that can are pocket-texting on their hand-helds. (Sometimes their interest in these activities is warranted - I mean, not every lecture I give is really that good.)
Yet, they learn in that environment -- they get it. They understand and function very well in non-exclusive media environments. And, so have we - even though growing up we only saw a single image at one time on the TV screen. On the "Tonight Show " it was Johnny Carson - no banners across the bottom and no insets of the big game from another channel. However, dealing with multiple sensory inputs is not that new. Many of us drive ourselves to work, interacting with our friends in the car, seeking the HOV lane, talking on our phone (ideally - and always in California) using wireless technology or some headset, listening to music, drinking our coffee and a eating a low-fat muffin. And - miracle of miracles - we get there! Multi-processing is not only the domain of the millennial - it is a major dynamic of contemporary culture.
In the experiential marketing business this new amalgam of simultaneously presented media helps define the marketing mix and introduces the importance of exposure and what Schultz of Northwestern University calls an ''output" model as opposed to the traditional tonnage of "input" models. Thus, the interest today is much more on what those exposed to the message do as opposed to how many times the message is delivered. The contact and familiarity generated when the brand/product become - even for a short period of time - a part of our daily life in the mall, grocery store, or on the street is precious to our clients. It doesn't replace television or the web or radio or print - rather, it is supportive and a rational and well-considered part of the advertising, experiential marketing and promotional spend. In many cases with engagement and participation with traditional media falling off, the spending on new sources of engagement - e.g., digital signage and innovative experiential episodes - is increasing. The reason for the growth is simple; it makes the entire advertising campaign more effective. I can't write any more right now . . . I'm driving.
It's been some time since I've had a chance to sit down at my computer and write a quick thought about experiential marketing. So pardon the cobwebs in advance - much appreciated.
Let me first clearly state that I am not a full time ad critic, but when I am in a room full of three people that say the same negative thing about an ad - something clearly went wrong experientially.
There's a new TV spot running for a financial services company. It's running here on the left coast, and I'm uncertain if it's a national campaign.
The commercial starts with a man that's in a suit more than a few sizes too large for him. Large enough that the minute the spot started the folks in the room said something about it. Once the man started talking it became clear that the commercial was about a financial growth fund - errrrrrr. So, thinking that I was clever, I stated that they were going to wait until the end of the commercial - then the man would grow into his suit. Thus, driving home the point that this financial services company could really make your money grow - I was let down.
Unfortunately, there was no growth of the man at the end - there was just a man telling us about the company's amazing growth fund while he stood there in his oversized suit.
I'm simply pointing this out because it is a great example of how important it is to have audio and visual coherence - and how dissonance of one or the other can just be a distraction from the message. This is a very simple example, but I'm sure there are many more
Think about it. Remember, we were being told about how our money would grow by someone that looked like he needed to grow himself.
What can we learn from this? In experiential marketing, everything matters - Everything.
The question is often asked if metrics can be placed around the bottom line in regards to the improvement of the brand experience and the utilization of experiential marketing. One of the main points that I touch on in one of my experiential marketing presentations is a point that David Wolfe always used to drill in my head. Experiential marketing reflects a right brain bias because it is about fulfilling consumers' aspirations to experience certain feelings - comfort and pleasure on one hand, and avoidance of discomfort on the other.
So, let me talk about avoidance of discomfort for a second - $4.57 for a gallon of gas. This, for the first time, has gotten people to slow down on the highway - amazing. In essence, some people have reached their pain threshold when it comes to gas prices. Therefore, they have modified their behavior in order to keep it within acceptable levels. The notion being that people are now driving the speed limit ultimately helps them save money at the gas pump. In any case, they have modified their behavior to avoid discomfort and to keep it inside their acceptable experience levels.
Now, for a second, let's flip that coin and take a look at the other side. When a brand builds a strong brand using an overall experience strategy that helps consumers achieve positive feelings - they will change the consumers' behavior to be surrounded by things that make the consumer comfortable. The question is where does that brand experience threshold exist? What will it take to make them a loyal customer?
It may take a long time to figure out where that experience threshold is, but if brands set up the proper test matrix then they will discover what aspects of the brand experience gets people to change their behavior - they'll simply have to spend some time tinkering. Therefore, there can certainly be some qualitative research built around this experience test matrix. This will allow each brand to better understand which enhancements have the biggest effect on people's behavior in order to achieve maximum ROE.
I don't see myself as much of an experiential marketer as an explorer in the never ending search of uncovering and connecting with Universal Truths. C'Mon - really - how much more sexy does that sound than "I'm a marketer" anyway - total Indiana Jones? :) There are absolute truths that are sometimes in plain sight, others are unspoken and some are nearly impossible to find or identify.
The ability to find, qualify and to harness the power of these universal truths turns experiential marketing campaigns into movements, and gives campaigns an eternal shelf life. This is because, if done correctly, your campaign will become a movement of sorts that that will transcend the brand that started the exploration and make it's way into the mainstream conversation. Your brand will always be associated with the unveiling, and the extended conversations! Regular campaigns disappear - universal truths don't!
I reserve the name universal truths for the really, really big - very, very real - truths that are so powerful - so connectable - they can launch a brand zooming past the program's objectives, their competitions and reposition the brand in a whole new light.
Generally, these truths are reserved for ad council ads - the low hanging fruit. Things that need to be brought into the social conscious in order to effect change.
Like ummmmm. For example - the TRUTH campaign. Wow, how unfortunate would it had been if I had missed that one? It basically looks through catalogs of papers from the last 5 decades and does various things to shine a spotlight on these facts as they interpret them. If you are wondering, I don't smoke, but I also don't rush to judgment about anything. It seems fairly obvious, but who am I to say?:) I just want someone to come up with a personalized air bubble for smokers.
Personal air bubble you say?
The Big Idea? A bubble (inflatable/travel-size) that smokers can step into to really enjoy all of the smoke that they paid for. I mean, they are very kind to share the smoke, but in this particular case - Sharing is not caring. And besides, if they are the ones that want to smoke then why do WE not get the benefit of the filter? This fact has always puzzled me
However, there are several other universal truths that are out there that corporations can bring to the forefront.
Let me give one example that we just recently launched - would love to hear some of yours.
In the United States our schools do the job of preparing the students on how to do the job, but not how to get the job.
Sure, there are some great career centers and other sources to help assist, but when it comes down to it - You must learn how to get the job before you can do it!
Parents, in my opinion, need to be made more aware of this. Think about it. If you are a parent then you obviously want your child to be fully prepared to enter the workforce. Most parents, when questioned pause and then say, ' Gees, you know - I NEVER really thought about it, but IT IS a problem." We, Swivel, saw an opportunity to bring this into the spotlight. The question then became what do we create to get this brought front and center into the conversation.
CLICK HERE to see pictures and brief explanations.
We recognized that there were tests to get from one grade to the next, and even from high school to college. However, there wasn't a test to see if students were prepared with the proper skills to take the biggest step of all. So, we created a device called the (IAT) Interview Aptitude Test. So, if all goes well, start looking for the articles about the gap in the system - the one that we are now shining the light on.
Let me ask you a few simple questions. Do you think only Asians can market to other Asians? No. Can only cowboys market to cowboys? No. So, can only women market best to women? 
The vast majority of consumer product marketing decisions are made by corporate and ad agency men, and the vast majority of consumer product purchase decisions are made by women. Consider this: Do we really think that men know women as well as women do? And no, this is not a feminist proposition, but a reality check.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The approach we have launched is opportunity based and timing is important. The issue of primary importance in this study is the impact of the President as the standard bearer of the brand and the ways if any, in which that individual impacts the brand. Essentially, the study is based on a set of "Pre Election" respondent data, namely responses received prior to the November 4th USA National Election - and then a "Post Election" data set obtained immediately after the election and then again approximately 100 days afterwards. Our sample is growing and will benefit greatly from participation from friends and colleagues such as yourself and the "
In 
Make sure that the senior level execs at your company know the new address of quality.:) Wouldn't want to see brands throwing their money into the old home address of quality. That old address is now occupied by noisy neighbors that nobody pays attention to.
The idea of dealing with simultaneous 
On the "
The contact and familiarity generated when the brand/product become - even for a short period of time - a part of our daily life in the mall, grocery store, or on the street is precious to our clients. It doesn't replace television or the web or radio or print - rather, it is supportive and a rational and well-considered part of the advertising, experiential marketing and promotional spend. In many cases with engagement and participation with traditional media falling off, the spending on 
Let me first clearly state that I am not a full time 
The question is often asked if metrics can be placed around the bottom line in regards to the improvement of the brand experience and the utilization of 
Universal Truths - Parent Awareness - Inflatable Bubbles - IAT
Let me give one example that we just recently launched - would love to hear some of yours.