what we learnt at the ipa unlearn event

REPORTING FROM IPA UNLEARN SEPTEMBER 2015

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

BYRON SHARP AS… THE MAN OF SCIENCE

Differentiation in product, values and customer segments doesn’t make for effective marketing. Penetration trumps loyalty, every time. The most effective strategy to grow is to increase your customer base through physical and mental availability. Invest in memorable, interesting and distinctive brand assets in the long term.

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

LARGE FMCG BRANDS IN MATURE CATEGORIES.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

CLAIRE VALOTI AS… THE BROADCASTER

Facebook’s reach is now similar to that of TV, so forget about “social media” and activating your fans and treat it as a broadcast channel… With all of the added data-based insight and potential for personalisation at scale, a digital platform gives you.

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

CLOSING THE SALE THANKS TO RELEVANCE, SPEED, RECENCY, AND MESSAGING PERSONALISATION.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

RUSSELL DAVIES AS… THE DIGITAL REVOLUTIONARY

We’re going to see an increasing shift to product and services vs. marketing and communications as the centre of gravity of big organisations, which means we need to unlearn persuasion and learn usability – stop trying to persuade people to do things, and instead make things really really easy to do. Brands (the fluffy emotional narrative around products and services) will become obsolete as users increasingly judge you on your usability, so: -  Don’t innovate until you’ve fixed the basics; -  Do the hard work to make things simpler; -  Make things open, it makes them better; -  Think about what other job you might want to do.

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

ALL KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS IN THE WORLD, EVER, FOLLOW THE SAME STRUCTURE: 1.  BOASTING 2.  PHILOSOPHICAL MEANDERING 3.  ACTUALLY USEFUL BITS

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

ALL BIG SERVICE-BASED ORGANISATIONS THAT HAVEN’T BEEN DISRUPTED BY DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION YET: BANKS, RETAILERS, AIRLINES, ETC.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

JOHN KEARON AS… THE PREACHER

Seduction trumps persuasion. System 1 (automatic, reptilian) is much more powerful than System 2 (considered, active thinking), so it’s always more effective to tap into people’s emotions than it is to try and convince them rationally. The 3 Fs of effectiveness according to Brainjuicer: 1.  Fame: top of mind awareness, reach and scale (cf. mental availability) 2.  Feeling: intensity of emotional engagement 3.  Fluency: how recognisable your brand assets are (cf. mental availability again)

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL IN…

ARGUMENTS WITH BIG FMCG CLIENTS OVER THEIR CREATIVE PRE-TESTING METHODOLOGIES.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

MARK EARLS AS… THE BEHAVIOURALIST

Humans are social animals, and we have evolved through history by constantly adapting and improving on each other’s ideas. “Originality is for people with short memories” (Grayson Perry), so let’s embrace the copycat within and start using other people’s ideas to make our own better. Rules for good copying: -  Copy loosely, not tightly -  Love the errors -  Copy from afar: define your problem as a lens to browse the world for solutions to copy

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

KICKING OFF THE CREATIVE PROCESS THROUGH CULTURAL REFERENCING.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

PAUL FELDWICK AS… THE WISE MAN

There are lots of different competing theories to explain how advertising works, and they’re all the result of trends and cultural backdrop, rather than science. The main dialectic opposes salesmanship and seduction. Whilst ‘salesmanship’ (eg. The rational theory of the USP and the Reason Why) dominated the early history of advertising, recently ‘seduction’ (eg. The emotional theory of the subconscious-led, System 1 ruling over System 2) has made a come back. Other theories are: -  Mere Publicity (Sharp) and the Meaningless Distinctive vs. Meaningful difference -  Communications = Content + Relationship (Be entertaining, clever and interesting) -  Showmanship

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

EVERYTHING. THINK OF THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES AS DIFFERENT RESOURCES OR WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT A SPECIFIC PROBLEM.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

LES BINET AS… THE CONCILIATOR

There are different ways in which marketing can be effective, and often they are complimentary. Emotional campaigns perform better than rational campaigns or those that combine rational and emotional. The most effective approach to marketing is to combine long and short term strategies (building the brand/ closing the sale) to a ratio of roughly 60/40. Creativity is the most important factor to determine budget efficiency, closely followed by size of media budget.

IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL FOR…

CONVINCING CLIENTS TO INVEST IN BRAND BUILDING, EMOTIONAL WORK OVER OR ALONGSIDE SHORT TERM, SALES-DRIVING, PRODUCT-FOCUSED ACTIVITY.

BYRON SHARP CLAIRE VALOTI

RUSSELL DAVIES JOHN KEARON MARK EARLS

PAUL FELDWICK LES BINET

WTF

to be, or not to be

BRAND BUILDING LONG TERM EMOTION

WANT ART

HIGH ENGAGEMENT LUXURY

SELLING SHORT TERM

FUNCTION NEED

SCIENCE LOW ENGAGEMENT

COMMODITY

fluffy dull

JIM CARROLL AS… THE LEGEND

COMMON SENSE AND A SENSE OF HUMOUR ARE THE SAME THING, MOVING AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS. A SENSE OF HUMOUR IS JUST COMMON SENSE, DANCING.”

“

Clive James, Writer and Broadcaster

clash of

titans

BUT IN FACT, QUITE A LOT OF CONSENSUS

REMOVE BARRIERS INCREASE STICKINESS Ease of access

Distribution Ease of usage

(Physical availability)

Fame Meaningless distinctive

Emotional familiarity (Mental availability)

FOR BEST RESULTS +

SOURCE: Sean McGinnis, IT Specialist, State of New Jersey, OGIS

IN OTHER WORDS, EVERYTHING WE DO BOILS DOWN TO Useful

Useless

Ugly Beautiful

AVOID THIS AREA

AVOID THIS AREA AVOID THIS AREA

AIM HERE