Don’t Just Make Sales. Create Experiences.

This past Christmas, my wife decided she wanted a night away from the house, instead of a “thing”—so we booked a room at Aloft for Friday, January 8^th.

Full story at this address: http://bit.ly/bbj-aloft

I’m on a horse - -

If you haven’t already seen the latest Old Spice body-wash ad, stop reading and click on this link immediately: http://bit.ly/smell-like-me

First, I love the creative strategy: Don’t sell this product directly to men. Sell it to women—who make the majority of those purchasing decisions.

Next, find a guy who’s so gorgeous no woman could take her eyes off the screen—and yet, so funny (in a manly-man kind of way) that guys really do wish they could be like him. BTW: His name is Isaiah Mustafa—and before his acting career, he was a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. And yes, that’s his voice.

Then there’s the script—which is as strong a piece of writing, from a language standpoint, as any I’ve ever seen. Ever. And did I mention it actually sells the product?

Then there’s the production—and here’s where it gets really cool: The entire spot is a single, live shot with no edits, and no green-screen effects (except for the diamonds and the bottle that appear on his hand). The bathroom / shower backdrop is physically pulled up and out of the shot, revealing the boat. When the camera moves in close on Mustafa, he carefully sits on a device that slowly slides him onto the horse for the final shot.

Again, it’s a single shot. Of course, it took three days—and 57 takes—before they got everything perfect. Think about that. You have to love an actor who can deliver that kind of enthusiasm on Take 57.

Finally, there’s the media strategy: Although you know you probably have the best spot that would run on the Super Bowl, ignore your ego. Take that single-spot price of $3 million, and buy half a dozen spots on the Olympics—which skews decidedly female. And then get super-lucky with the ratings—which have not only exceeded all expectations, but are actually setting all-time Olympic viewership records. How big? Wednesday the 17^th, the Olympics did something no show has done since 2004: Beat “American Idol.”

Major kudos to the creative team of Craig Allen and Eric Kallman of Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon (the agency you might know better as Nike’s main shop). If you guys ever get tired of rainy winters, there’s a corner office at Hare Communications with your names on it: Mine.

Small Site Scores Big.

We recently launched a nice website on a shoestring budget for a buddy of ours—who manufactures the world’s greatest supplemental game feeder. Unbeknownst to us, Hindsight Management (led by Birmingham ad legend Jim Riley) evaluated the site’s effectiveness using The Riley Persuasion Index. Jim reports that it earned the highest score he can remember.

Anyhow, if you have friends who hunt, and/or own hunting property, send them to www.buckeyefeeders.com And tell-em the folks at Hare Communications sent you!

BTW: If you’re interested in learning more about Hindsight Management, visit their website at http://www.hindsightmanagement.com/

NOTE: Sadly, The Birmingham News has dropped my favorite Editorial Page columnist, David Brooks. Below is a condensed version of a column of his I saved years ago.

We now have to work under the assumption that every American has a tattoo. Whether we are at a formal dinner, at a professional luncheon, at a sales conference or arguing before the Supreme Court, we have to assume that everyone in the room is fully tatted up — that under each suit, dress or blouse, there is at least a set of angel wings, a barbed wire armband, a Chinese character or maybe even a fully inked body suit. We have to assume that any casual antitattoo remark will cause offense, even to those we least suspect of self-marking.

Everybody who has been to the beach this summer has observed that tattoos are now everywhere. There are so many spider webs, dolphins, Celtic motifs and yin-yang images spread across the sands, it looks like a New Age symbology conference with love handles.

Today, fashion trends may originate on Death Row, but it takes about a week and a half for baggy jeans, slut styles and tattoos to migrate from Death Row to Wal-Mart.

And that’s the most delightful thing about the whole tattoo fad. A cadre of fashion-forward types thought they were doing something to separate themselves from the vanilla middle classes but are now discovering that the signs etched into their skins are absolutely mainstream. They are at the beach looking across the acres of similar markings and learning there is nothing more conformist than displays of individuality, nothing more risk-free than rebellion, nothing more conservative than youth culture.

Another generation of hipsters, laid low by the ironies of consumerism.

—DAVID BROOKS
August 27, 2006

(  The complete version of this article can be found at http://bit.ly/dvP49V )

(Original post, 2.2.10 — Tuesday before the Super Bowl)

If you haven’t seen the latest e-Trade ad, they’ve replaced the sweet-but-worldly-wise baby (who’s loved, at latest count, by everyone who’s ever seen him) with an insufferable, sarcasm-spouting smartass.

And while I’m not privy to e-Trade’s research (which would have to indicate that this change of character and tone is warranted by the market’s mood), I’m seeing an extremely imprudent misuse of the brand e-Trade established with his predecessor.

For starters, the first boy certainly had the capacity to mock and talk back, but he did it in a much nicer way. And he was well-established as a friendly, sympathetic character long before he developed an edge. Second, the kid had as perfectly-cast a talent doing his voice as any I can remember in advertising ever.

The new boy not only lacks Kid One’s massive likeability factor, he doesn’t have The Voice. But the worst part is, Kid Two’s script plows no new thematic ground—so there’s really no good reason to make the switch. At least, none that I can see.

What do you think? Feel free to chime-in if you have any thoughts.

http://bit.ly/e-timeout

(POST-SUPER-BOWL UPDATE, 2.9.10 — Tuesday after Super Bowl)

I said it first. Time’s ad critic, James Poniewozik, said it funnier. Way funnier. I quote: “This new E*Trade baby is a little bit of a d-bag, isn’t he?”

http://bit.ly/e-brat

(By the way, this second link will lead you to all the ads that ran during the Super Bowl).