A Toast to the End of an Era - A Toast to Geoff Howe

Ah, bittersweet. A tug on the old emotions. On the one hand, sadness. Nostalgia. On the other, excitement. Anticipation.

This week, my company - Geoff Howe Marketing Communications - was acquired by Grey Healthcare Group (ghg). The move is a good one. The two companies are a great fit. We both focus on healthcare. We both understand the importance of the professional in influencing consumer purchase decisions. And here's where the bittersweet comes in.

The sadness and nostalgia are marked by the end of an era. I began with Geoff Howe over 9 years ago. I've worked in both London and Kansas City. The company's culture has kept many of us coming on our 10 year anniversaries. Which is impressive, considering the company's only been in the US for 10 years. That means some of us have been there since the beginning. I'm not sad about the change. I'm truly excited to join ghg.
ghg is a great company and offers a huge upside for us. We'll have access to more resources and a truly global network. Plus, we've got the backing of the largest holding company in the world - WPP.

No, I'm not sad to join ghg. I'm extremely happy. I'm sad because it is the end of an era. It's a different feeling to have a connection with the owner. I knew Geoff very well. He's a great and inspirational leader. It's a difficult emotion to explain to some of the people at the company. Only a few will truly understand and even fewer will admit it. But those of you that do, join with me a virtual toast to the past. We've had some great times and I wouldn't be the person I am without you.

And to ghg...I welcome the challenge and join the team with excitement and hopes of great things. And now we forge ahead to a new era...

An interesting look at planning and planners...

Redscout Presents 'Spur' Episode 1: Is Planning Impotent?

I recently came across a site where advertising professionals can "confess" their sins. There are some hilarious antics that could only happen in advertising. Go to advertisingconfessions.com to confess your sins.

Insights and Business to Professional to Consumer Advertising (B2P2C)

I've been fortunate to see the increase in consumer insights in B2B marketing. It has been a somewhat overlooked art, being reserved for the big brand advertising agencies. However, I argue that planning and consumer insights (or target audience insights) are just as, if not more important in B2B advertising than with the big guys. And I'll take it a step further. The agency I work for, Geoff Howe, has really done a good job (I'm not just saying it because I work there) at elevating another important segment - the professional influencer.

Business to Professional to Consumer (or B2P2C) is about engaging the important influencers that recommend products to us everyday. This audience includes people like doctors, dentists, veterinarians, golf pros, architects, etc. They are the people that we turn to as 'experts'. And they're recommendation holds a lot of weight.

I bring it up because mining insights about these audiences has proven to be invaluable in focusing our creative brief and resulting in very strategic creative ideas. Insights in these categories are extremely useful with these audiences because they tend to be more homogeneous in nature - at least as it relates to their underlying motivations when it comes to their decision making, beliefs and behavior. This point, makes it even more important in understanding these audiences. Especially since the majority of our B2B (or even B2P2C) advertising agencies aren't harnessing this vital knowledge.

I'm actually sitting in the back of a focus group room right now listening to veterinarians talk about a new product. So be on the look out for some of my work in the not so distance future - coming to a market near you.

Top 10 Retail Trends of 2009

Working in advertising, I have spent a good deal of time working with CPG clients on brands and their in-store marketing challenges as well as mass advertising. This article focuses purely on the retail arm of the IMC plan. I give you – the Top 10 Retail Trends of 2009.

1. Decreased shopper marketing budgets for brands with less than $25MM sales. Larger brands have increased budgets for retail marketing, often reallocating dollars from mass marketing and turning to more measurable media
2. Increased pressure for ROI – Although there is money going to retail marketing, it hasn’t been smart to this point. Look for the upcoming year to focus on greater measurement attempts and greater ROI. Especially as the P.R.I.S.M. study launches and becomes mainstream.
3. Increased pressure to continue to not only gather shopper insights - but to also find a way to significantly mine and act on the data (turning data into insights – See #2 above).
4. Continued channel migration from independent retail environments to supercenters as consumers continue to tighten spending and save money on gas and commodity products. With large retailers like Wal-Mart and Target carrying an even greater diversity of products (and higher quality products), look for this trend to continue.
5. Increasing Trade-up/Trade-down mentality. As Consumers pinch pennies on an ongoing basis, they will look for small luxury splurges to escape their grim reality. We’ll see spikes in at-home spa products, wines/champagnes, gourmet meals (cooked at home vs eating out).
6. Increased personalization – consumers are less and less inclined to purchase luxury goods for the sake of being flashy and showy (the age of the ‘bling’ is out’). The luxury consumer is becoming more discerning. Luxury purchases will still be a significant component of consumer spending, but these luxury purchases will be as a result of in-depth thought and consideration. Purchases will reflect more of a person’s personality. Less about what it is and more about who I am. Consumers will increasingly want a story about the item they purchase.
7. Increase in purchasing of self-care products indicates a continued trend of consumers either consumers are spending more money on at-home products to avoid healthcare costs (which have dramatically increased). With an ever tightening economy, consumers are less reluctant to go to the doctor without an attempt at at-home remedies.
8. Increase in retail environments as destination/entertainment – with consumer spending decreasing, consumers will look to retail as a form of entertainment, but will want more out of the environment than just shopping (getting more for their money). They will expect greater entertainment, and an enhanced ‘experience’ that engages all the senses.
9. Increase in savings vs. impulse shopping – if and when the gov’t does offer a stimulus rebate, look for more consumers to either save this for a rainy day or retire debt. Many will be less inclined to simple blow it on impulse purchases. Those that do choose to spend the money will most likely spend it on considered purchases that have been put on hold because of tightened spending.
10. Continued ‘green’ movement – Look for the continued ‘green’ or ‘evo-friendly’ movement to continue. Although sometimes more expensive, doing good for our environment and being socially responsible gives people a feel-good sensation that goes beyond money.

Is YouTube, really the next Google?

I read an article in the NY Times the other day, and it got me thinking about how we as consumer view and process information. Google has long been the number one search in, but YouTube recently knocked off Yahoo as the number two. With 2.8 Billion searches on YouTube, one has to ask what is being search. The NY Times article profiled a young boy, who uses YouTube first for any search – rather than a traditional search engine like Google.

The two searches reveal two completely different types of information. The example used in the NY Times article was about the Hillary Clinton ad: 3:00am. Google returns searches about the ad in context of news and related to the campaign. YouTube however, returns the actual commercial.

Since people are generally more visual creatures, it makes sense that a video site is nipping at the heels of a text heavy search engine – now that the technology has finally caught up with our views. However, it is still the children that use YouTube as our generation currently uses Google, which has a considerable implication on the future of media and news consumption once this ‘kids’ grow up and drive consumer purchasing. This has two main unanswered questions: How will this new way of media consumption change viewership and advertising? Stay Tuned.

Pet Owners and Politics: Insights into a Target Audience

I apologize for the long lag time in my posting. Work commitments, family commitments, etc. have all led to my inactivity. I know, that's life right? Anyway, I plan to start making regular posts on this blog, even if it is every other week. we'll start here and see where it goes.

I read an interesting article this morning that may have further implications than just the current election. It seems that pet owners favor McCain over Obama in the upcoming election (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i23gT19o6C2I8dWDUfq6V5lES61QD91PM79G1). Presidential politics aside, there might be some nuggets of info that we can glean from this that might influence future creative briefs for communications targeting pet owners:

If pet owners lean more republican, that target audience tends to view themselves as very patriotic and intelligent, and believe that the responsibility of teaching our children rests primarily on the parents and the church (schools are 3rd). They only partly trust large corporations, but do trust their medical providers, despite rising medical costs (they don’t link the two). And overwhelmingly feel that Ronald Reagan is one of our best political leaders.

The facts below were pulled from a survey from The Economist. The source is listed below.

Some facts about Republicans(1):

• Republicans view themselves as (the survey allowed for multiple answers)
  • Patriotic (84%)
  • Intelligent (74%)
  • Honest (64%)
  • Generous (53%)
  • Open-minded (46%)
• Republicans view democrats as (same survey as above)
  • Open-minded (73%)
  • Intelligent (53%)
  • Generous (49%)
  • Patriotic (47%)
  • Honest (37%)
• Republicans feel that the following should be responsible for teaching their children:
  • Parents (99%)
  • Religious leaders (63%)
  • Schools (56%)
• Versus democrats:
  • Parents (99%)
  • Schools (67%)
  • Religious leaders (48%)
• When asked how much they trust people who run large corporations,
  • 48% trust them to at least some extent
  • 52% don’t trust them much at all
• 89% do trust doctors at least to some extent (I’m inferring this goes for vets as well)
• When asked which historical figure they would choose to be president 79% chose Ronald Reagan

Source for facts:
1. “Anglo-Saxon attitudes: a survey of British and American views of the world”. The Economist. March 29, 2008. © 2008 YouGov plc. All Rights Reserved