Monday, August 28, 2017

The Experience of an Emotional Ignition Point (EIP)

When I saw it and experienced it, I literally stopped doing what I was doing.

I stood still afterwards and looked out the window and simply said, “Wow!”

EXPERIENCE is a brand that does not fit neat and tidy in a standard business vocabulary.

As is said on the website… “we are not a conventional marketing research firm nor ad agency.” No, we are not. And a conventional marketing research firm nor ad agency was behind what I just saw.

Hooray for those of us that elect to march to a different beat.

In a moment, you will get a chance to click and experience what I did when I saw it.

There are many… millions and zillions of things that brands are doing that I have to ponder just how leadership can resort to the fly-by-night strategies they elect to take… and canned and trade-acceptable brand experiences they create and execute.

There are teams of people who I present to and speak to that I am sure think that I am a nut case by what I say, showcase, communicate and recommend.

Last post I spoke about a Hurricane. This past weekend Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast. Too bad it did not hit Wall Street or Madison Avenue or Lake Shore Drive or Peachtree Street!

The past couple of weeks EXPERIENCE has been dedicated to new business development.

Part of the purpose is the generate new project assignments. Part of it fits more in line with our “on-the-street” consumer encounter interviews.

All said, I am glad that we dedicate time to new business development. Its a learning experience each and every time.

Just as it is our mission to “rattle the cage,” our cage needs to be rattled too!

My overall take-away from the process and exploratory confirmed what’s been discussed over the years in this blog-louge… very few firms want to face reality, and instead, seek out reinforcement of what they have long been doing.

Hey… I am all for a brand team that is dedicated to stewardship of its brand experience!

To be honest, leadership teams that combine stewardship with proactive sustainability craft brands that are the long-term winners.

There are some things that EXPERIENCE does with a rich resource of market and consumer data that is very mechanical. The reports can be viewed in some ways as truly information reports.

Data tables. Maps. Charts.

When information is not further molded and modeled and used as a springboard of application ideas as well as dimensional definers of constraint, what we produce is safe for many of the mass implementation teams.

And safe for the set of CEOs who shun the thoughts of change and challenge.

Numbers are numbers… data is data… and there are a lot of folks who declare that they are database engineers of database mining.

When I read this morning’s WSJ front page article that the BIG corporate ad agency groups are facing even harsher budget cuts and more clients are leaving, I was not surprised.

However, as I read the article, my mindset shifted quickly to what I saw on the television screen the other night.

I see ad after ad after ad after ad… and website after website after website after website… that highlights this and that and this and that about the physical, award-winning, top performing mechanics of product and service.

When I read that Chrysler might be about to unload Jeep to the Chinese, I was not surprised.

I see a lot of the stupid ads that Chrysler is doing with “real people” and the “independent” focus group facilitator and I am sure the Chinese will come up with something more creative even if they elect to steal it from Nissan, Toyota, BMW or Mercedes.

Trust me… the line that “shit sells” is a lie and Chrysler is a great example!

That said, the brand behind what I saw on television that left me speechless is a brand that I had an opportunity to work with a bit in its past.

Hope Schultz, who is in many ways my partner in crime, managed the brand’s account for a large ad agency on Madison Avenue.

I had an opportunity to meet the client numerous times. It’s a brand whose CMO totally 110% understood the validity of crafting a brand’s EIP or Emotional Ignition Point.

That EIP is what drives its new television spot.

The firm who produced the ad was McGarryBowen, a group that was formed in 2002 by John McGarry, the former president of Y&R and Gordon Bowen, the man who crafted the American Express EIP, “Membership Has Its Privileges.”

Here is how the copy in the spot reads…

“It would be great if human beings were great at being human

And if all of mankind were made up of kind women and kind men.

It would be wonderful if common knowledge was commonly known

And if the light from being enlightened into every heart was shown.

It would be glorious if neighbors were neighborly and indifference was a forgotten word.

It would be awesome if we shared everything and being greedy was absurd.

It would be spectacular if the golden rule was golden to every common man

And good things that we ever did was everything that we can.”

And here it is.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/w6rw/marriott-human-the-golden-rule

The brand EIP speaks for itself. This is why I do what I do with EXPERIENCE.