John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter

www.kuraoka.com
(619) 465-6100
Ad Blog: news and views about advertising, branding, marketing, and copywriting

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July 3 2009
The late Michael Jackson had an electric effect on audiences – and on advertising. Here’s a good look at the landmark Jackson-Pepsi deal that set the stage, so to speak, for almost all the music celebrity branding deals that followed, from Billboard:
Advertising copywriter blog link

I remember when this campaign broke, and my first thought at the time was what a massive brand undertaking it was. This campaign pre-dated the other landmark TV commercial of the 1980s, Apple’s “1984” spot for the original Macintosh computer, and in terms of concept it was exponentially bigger. This was the biggest big idea I’d ever seen.

My second thought, as the campaign continued, was that Coca-Cola had essentially abandoned the field, leaving this thrust unparried and unanswered. That lack of response played a critical role in tipping the scales in favor of Pepsi’s success. Pepsi, having laid the groundwork, was practically marketing into a custom-made vacuum that sucked product off shelves. All they had to do, was keep the momentum going and the supply lines full.

Actually, Coke did respond, in a strategic sense. But that response came in the ill-fated form of New Coke. Coke might as well have simply gone tactical with fresh advertising; they’d have spent less and might have held more market share.

That’s the problem with big ideas; some of them turn out to be big flops.
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July 1 2009
There are a few reasons I like this story, from BBC News, about the release of some, um, rare and unusual music recordings from the 60s, 70s, and 80s:
Advertising copywriter blog link

First, I have a soft spot for odd or, at any rate, less-popular music. My disorderly collection includes punk and new wave acts that never quite made the big time, Cal Tjader, albums released by drummers (which sort of includes Cal), Suzi Quatro, and Gregorian chants, and it’s tempting to throw some of Stan Kenton’s later work into the oddball category too. So hearing that there was more little-known rock tracks being released just took my fancy.

The second thing I like, is that the founder of one of the major record labels, if such a niche player can be called major, is a former advertising copywriter! See, we can do things that are socially significant, like restoring to the world the music of 1970s porn.

The third thing I like, is this quote from copywriter-turned-music-impresario Jonny Trunk:

“Everyone thinks it’s lucrative and it’s not. It’s a lot of work to not make a lot of money. So you’ve got to do it because you really want to do it.”

Very much like advertising copywriting (despite outlandish claims to the contrary from those with something to sell to wanna-bes) and a lot of other worthwhile ways to make a living.
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June 29 2009
This is great. What happens when you give a 13-year-old an old-school Sony Walkman? BBC News Magazine found out:
Advertising copywriter blog link

I love stuff that takes a fresh look at old high-tech (for instance, there’s this Ad Blog entry from April 5 about a fellow who made his own Commodore 64 laptop).

This is a great article, showing that intergenerational mystification runs in both directions. Can you imagine starting your car with a hand crank and manual choke, or using a mimeograph machine? I’d be as confused as my mother is with her latest mobile phone. So whether or not one grasps the current iteration of high tech depends more on what one uses than one’s age. That’s nice to know.

The other cool thing is that 13-year-old Scott Campbell can write a feature article, and do it well. Way to go!
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June 28 2009
Great American pitchman Billy Mays is dead. Here’s the story, from MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Mays has joined the pantheon of the advertising greats. Although he was never given the respect accorded to the creative legends, he brought direct response into the 21st century and made a brand name out of several products and, almost incidentally, himself. His relentless drive to put the customer first and put the product before himself, combined with his attention-getting delivery, were what made his spiels so effective. I think copywriters who develop :15s and :30s still have a lot to glean from his half-hour infomercials, one lesson of which is to question whether 15 or 30 seconds is long enough to persuade anybody of anything.

RIP Billy Mays, a master persuader.
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June 26 2009
American Irony: embattled GM vehicle brand Hummer’s pending sale to a Chinese company may be off due to the Chinese government’s emerging concerns over the environment. Here’s the story, from BBC News:
Advertising copywriter blog link

China has every reason to take up the environmental torch concurrent with rapid industrialization and modernization. So that’s not where the irony is.

The irony is that a brand that coulda-shoulda intrinsically stood for the great global outdoors screwed up by focusing on a peculiarly pop version of military wanna-be-dom. Come on, the brand name Hummer was made, made to produce a hybrid. Not only that, think of the smooth power transfer of four electric motors driving four wheels, no axle needed. Plenty of people have noted that off-roaders (and the military) might have welcomed the potential for improved ground clearance and longer operating range.

Anyway, I don’t know where a manufacturer of construction equipment would find value in what’s left of Hummer. Outdated vehicle designs? Perhaps the engines and drivetrains are more-efficient that what they currently have, but are those worth the price? Or is it really about the Chinese government wanting to reverse engineer an American product to decode the American process of invention? Ah, now that last one, that’s priceless, if it’s a possibility.
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June 25 2009
Another grand old retail brand is resurrected online. At least, in the UK, Woolworth’s has returned as an online store. Here’s the story, from the Associated Press via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link

The issue is, how much will the traditionally value-oriented Woolworth’s shopper be willing to pay for shipping? If the company offers free or discounted shipping, that eats into the margins quite a bit, especially on children’s apparel, candy, DVDs, toys, and party goods. I think the management of the UK-based Wellworth’s, which took over a closed Woolworth’s store, had the better idea in keeping it real.

The other issue is whether or not the brand name alone will transfer the positive associations to the online shopping experience. We’ve seen this approach tried before, taking a grand old retail brand and relaunching it online. Consider Montgomery Wards, which launched as a web-only retailer a while back amid trumpets and lots of press. Although the Wards online storefront is still up and the business appears to be a going concern, the online retailer is virtually absent from shopping bots, deal sites, and fresh press. Or, for that matter, um, advertising. And, a quick look at the available products shows non-competitive prices in categories where the competition is fierce.

So taking ownership of an established bricks-and-mortar brand is by no means a fast-track ticket to online sales, a lesson many so-called branding gurus have yet to learn.
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June 23 2009
The shootout between heavyweight search standby Google and hard-charging social network Facebook is getting even hotter. Here’s the story, from WebHostDirectory (part of Serchen Interactive, an online directory and ad provider based in Dorset, UK):
Advertising copywriter blog link

Google is mathematics; Facebook is people. Ultimately, there is room for both, although neither seems to see it that way. I am not at all convinced that I trust my friends and family for, say, automotive reviews, more than I trust the testing geeks and beancounters at Consumer Reports.

On the whole, if I’m looking for an objective aggregate value, such as the answer to the question “what’s the most-reliable dishwasher,” then math (and Google) wins every time. But, if I’m looking for a subjective individual value, such as the answer to the question “should I paint my kitchen blue or yellow,” that’s an ask-your-mother/poll-your-friends/check-out-the-neighbors query that’s better suited to a relationship-oriented medium like Facebook.

The inevitability of a collision between Google and Facebook depends on whether both sides deliberately steer toward each other. I think that would be a waste of resources. Like the guy at the end says, “it almost doesn’t make sense to compare them.” Ayup.
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June 22 2009
Where do top online brands look to advertise when they want more market share? Traditional media, of course. Here’s the story, from Brandweek:
Advertising copywriter blog link

This is a no-brainer for anyone with real media sense. The online environment is filled with potential users, but it’s also filled with embedded behaviors and noise. The only way to reach someone who hasn’t either actively shopped or actively rejected the major online retailers, is to go offline.

What’s surprising to me, is that this story seems to be big news. It isn’t; it’s just a reaffirmation that, no matter what the self-proclaimed new media gurus say, smart marketing is media-independent.
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June 20 2009
Just a weekend quickie – a Columbia professor and Yahoo researcher says that the concept of “influencers” is bunkum. Here’s the story, from Brandweek:
Advertising copywriter blog link

The whole influencer argument was always a trifle suspicious; the after-the-fact tracing of an effect to an alleged cause. That, plus, moving forward, it never seemed to work quite as neatly. Here’s a key snip about why that’s so:

The reason is that history is a very poor guide to the future. Just because the hipsters in the East Village were wearing Hush Puppies and suddenly everyone else started wearing them doesn’t mean that you can go out and get the hipsters in the East Village to wear your product and it will be popular. To put it another way: Hipsters in the East Village are wearing stuff all the time and it doesn’t always become popular.

That said, I’m not convinced that targeting influencers is without value. The key is identifying them and the specific action one wants to influence. The better you can identify those two objectives, the more targeted and relevant the creative can be, and the more successful the campaign is likely to be.

The question of whether a campaign targeting influencers of potential consumers is more or less efficient than a campaign targeting the potential consumers themselves, I leave to better scientific minds than my own.
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June 19 2009
You always knew it. Idleness, daydreaming, and distraction are essential steps to achieving creative insight. Here’s scientific validation, from no less august a source than The Wall Street Journal:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Scientists monitored brain waves and were able to witness an actual flash of creative insight, recorded as a burst of gamma waves in the brain’s right hemisphere. What’s more, when the mind was apparently idle, that’s when the brain activity associated with complex problem-solving kicked into high gear. The brain waves generated by working on a problem methodically were significantly different. A key quote from one of the principal researchers:

“Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically,” Dr. Kounios says. “There really are different brain mechanisms involved.”

And another quote, from the cognitive neuroscientist who presented the findings:

“We often assume that if we don’t notice our thoughts they don’t exist,” says Dr. Christoff in Vancouver, “When we don’t notice them is when we may be thinking most creatively.”

This is stuff that most creatives already know and use. But it’s awfully nice to have some honest-to-goodness brain study research to back it up.

Time for me to go out and play with the kids, and maybe watch a movie with them later. After all, I have a lot of work to do.
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June 18 2009
The government is looking into how to regulate behavioral ad targeting and the use of private information gathered from web visitors. Yeah, that’s a comforting thought. Here’s the story, from Multichannel News (New York, NY):
Advertising copywriter blog link

The two key issues the House is trying to juggle as this bipartisan bill takes shape, are consumer privacy and business growth. Fortunately, it sounds like they’re actually going to proceed cautiously on this topic, for fear of (as the article puts it) “knee-capping” a business model that delivers free content and other benefits to consumers. The chairman of the House communications subcommittee, Representative Rick Boucher, goes so far as to say, “I support and benefit from behavioral advertising.” So it sounds like he gets it, he understands the big picture here.

Yet the government knows – or thinks it knows – that a line must be drawn to protect consumers, and is casting about for guidance on the best place to draw it.

I think there’s more on the government’s plate just now (oh, the economy, taking the wheel at General Motors, an increasingly armed North Korea ...) to expect any great shakes on this issue. And, I would think that most legitimate advertisers would welcome clarity on the appropriate use of information gathered from web users. But, any time our government gets involved in legislating business, it pays for the people most-affected – and that would be you and me – to keep a weather eye on things. As methodical and balanced as our elected legislators are trying to be, the situation is just one Oprah program away from descending into a screeching battle of sound bites, with populists railing against advertisers. And when that happens, even when you win, you lose.
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June 17 2009
Oh groovy. First the 1980s enjoyed a moment of retro hipness, and now advertisers are digging farther back, to the 1960s. Here’s the story, from The New York Times via BlueRidgeNow.com (Henderson, NC):
Advertising copywriter blog link

This 60s throwback isn’t about nostalgia; anyone old enough to have lived it the first time is retired by now. It’s about the pop media-filtered “optimism” of the age, and also the global threats (then it was Russia, now it’s Iran) and the economy (the Wall Street Journal today carried a story about the Labor Department’s latest consumer price data, showing the largest annual drop since the 1950s).

Will we go back to the 50s next? Or forward to the 70s? When will the first retro-90s fad hit? Guesses?

Personally, I think I see a glint of the 50s emerging, albeit with a millennial social ethic. And that brings up another question: at what point in refining and updating an era-based style does popular culture create a new style? For instance, and within recent memory, what’s the difference between 1980s design and the Bauhaus upon which a lot of the iconic fashions were based?

Even when recalling the past, life (and design and advertising) only moves forward.
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June 15 2009
I know I’m busy, really busy, when I can’t even take 20 minutes to track down a link to a cool news story about advertising. I’ve let so many pass by lately. But today is tax day for those paying quarterly, which is worth a quick mention.
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June 9 2009
The fog of enthusiasm is lifting on micro-blogging site Twitter. A new Harvard study of Twitter reveals that it’s more of a micro-publishing platform than a social networking site. Here’s the story, from BBC News:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Key snip, from the person who led the study:

“The Harvard data says very, very few people tweet and the Nielsen data says very, very few people listen consistently.”

Ayup.

On the business side, I’ve sort of given up on Twitter due to excessive noise, and that’s the problem with it as a social networking site. Once you buy into the idea that the object is to amass a large number of followers by following others, the whole thing becomes a pyramid scheme of themed accounts (not people, just accounts) and the bulk of the so-called conversation is just one-way broadcasting for the folks at the top of the pyramid. And, when it comes to broadcast media, there’s less advertising almost any where else.

Where I’ve found Twitter more useful, and useful is probably too strong a word, is on the personal side. There, I have a very small list of followers and people followed. And there, there’s more real and relevant dialog.

It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Twitter in a few years. I think it’ll be remembered fondly as a pop culture fad, and as someone who makes a living from pop culture I’m glad to have participated. But is it important? Nah. The opportunity was there for it to be important, but the advertisers already killed it.
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June 1 2009
Despite increasingly rosy economic forecasts, U.S. consumers are reining in their spending. Here’s the story, from BBC News:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Personal income rose, partly due to reduced taxes and increased government benefits, but personal savings rose even more. A key snip:

“The consumer doesn't seem convinced that it’s an ongoing benefit with the income increase,” said independent market strategist TJ Marta. “After careful consideration, the consumer is retrenching with the decline in spending.”

In other words, the battle for market share and sales are far from over. If anything, with a declining pool of available spenders in the marketplace, the battle is going to heat up.
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May 31 2009
Man, I get busy for a while, and all heck breaks loose. In the U.S. auto industry, it appears that Fiat (Fiat!) is taking over what’s left of stalled Chrysler, while General Motors has the pedal to the metal en route to bankruptcy protection. Here’s the sad story, from BBC News:
Advertising copywriter blog link

The plan is for the government to take over GM, a plan into which the British have a unique insight because their own government did so very well running British Leyland. (Into the ground.)

It is, perhaps, a small nod to the ephemeral nature of branding that I felt compelled to write out GM’s full name in that first sentence. In a year or two, what will the letters GM stand for? Come to that, what has it stood for these past few years?
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May 22 2009
Inventors compete for the money to make infomercials in the latest, tightwad iteration of VC funding. Here’s the story, from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Key snip:

The direct response industry is recession-proof, mainly because it reacts so quickly to consumer demand, said Dan Danielson, chief executive of Mercury Media ...

I wouldn’t call direct response recession-proof. But its responsiveness absolutely enables direct response to ride out economic turbulence better than other approaches. And that’s an area in which traditional advertising could deliver the goods, if advertisers didn’t so frequently opt out.

Most ad campaigns take a long time to hammer into approved form. I have worked on projects in which crafting a usable creative brief alone took many weeks and several meetings. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. Normally that’s not a big problem; fundamental strategic issues are important to get right, and they’re rarely subject to volatility. Except in extremely volatile times such as these. Now is when a more-agile organization can seize the initiative (and market share) with a series of fast, smart moves.

In addition to responsiveness, I’d add measurability as a major benefit of direct response. You know within hours (minutes, even) whether an ad works or doesn’t work. That measurability adds up to some incredibly useful data, which can be used to hone the message for maximum effectiveness if the ability to respond quickly is retained.
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May 21 2009
I’m in head down writin’ mode, but this tidbit about some truly viral marketing from BBC News just made me smile::
Advertising copywriter blog link

The company that created and manufactures the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt apparently did nothing to instigate the campaign, if one can call it that. The whole brouhaha was started by a snarky review on Amazon.com posted by an anonymous internet ironist (there are tons of them; they outnumber people). And from there it just took off.

Lest one think this is something novel, the article cites a similar Amazon.com customer-led viral effort for a brand of milk in 2006. I especially like the last one; that was the one that put the whole thing over the top for me.
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May 19 2009
A set of non-binding guidelines covering paid or otherwise compensated blog posts (see the Ad Blog entry for April 13 2009) have now been laid out in a major update to FTC rules for editorials and ad testimonials. Here’s the story, from Business Week via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link

This is apparently the first major revision to those FTC rules since 1980, and certainly a lot has happened in media since then. The lines between content and advertising, private citizen and journalist and spokesperson, have become blurred to the point of invisibility. My attitude is, it’s about time.

Unfortunately, the fact that the guidelines are just that, a sort of regulatory wish list, reduces the gray area not a whit. As an advertiser and as a blogger, I’d rather have clear-cut rules.

Oh, and for what it’s worth (and in case you haven’t visited my FAQ), I don’t make any money on my Ad Blog. More to the point, I don’t want to. Some people have called it mildly ironic that a blog about advertising refuses ads or swag or links, but there you have it. I’m low-tech, but I’m a real working advertising copywriter. And I make my money writing ads and marketing materials, not by blogging about them.
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May 18 2009
I have two quickies today from BBC News. First up is this surreal look at the newly built, virtually abandoned Yangyang International airport in South Korea:
Advertising copywriter blog link

I have a soft spot for urban ghost towns, and this sure qualifies. Quick, got any TV commercial concepts that need to be filmed at an airport? Check out the BBC’s video footage – this place may be perfect. These guys may be willing to dicker on price; after all, right now it’s just sitting there, a $400 million boondoggle. (How do you say boondoggle in Korean?)

Next up is this story, about entrepreneurs emerging from the ashes of the global economic flameout:
Advertising copywriter blog link

I mention this article mostly because of my first-glance, gut-level reaction upon reading the list of brand-name companies that started in recessions or depressions: Disney, McDonalds, Burger King, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft. The very first thought that crossed my mind: they’re all American companies. Ayup. Every one of those major global players began as Yankee ingenuity. Sorta makes me proud.
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May 15 2009
I have today a study in contrasts that demonstrates how advertising lags behind reality. First up is an article about angry-sounding ad copy, from The New York Times via The Gainesville Sun (FL):
Advertising copywriter blog link

I’ve always called for more passion in advertising (here are some recent Ad Blog entries from April 13 and 21 2008, June 30 2008, and November 17 2008 that relate directly to the recession). Tapping into consumer frustration last year or earlier would have connected with the confusion and outrage people felt. Now, in the real world, people have moved on; a point demonstrated by the next story from today, about consumer confidence reaching a post-crisis high, from Providence Business News (RI):
Advertising copywriter blog link

Yet today, the advertising ecosystem is so infested with angry ad copy that The New York Times runs a story about it. In this case, I think the news feature lagged behind the advertising, which followed the customers. Most of the most-successful tap-into-the-anger ad campaigns started last spring, which means the strategy was developed even earlier. Those slashed through the clutter and struck an emotional chord at the right moment for that chord to be struck. The creative teams moved fast, responded with their hearts, and achieved relevance.

As for the angry ad campaigns coming out now? Sheer me-tooism. And the popular environment is such that people are beginning to get a little sick of being told how bad things are – they know, better than the advertisers sitting safe in their offices, exactly how bad things are, because ultimately, how people view the world depends on how they view their own place in it. The economy may be global. But advertising must be individual.
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May 14 2009
Back to the world of advertising and marketing – and apologies about the total non sequitur yesterday but it was by far the most moving story I saw in the Journal and I just couldn’t get past it. Anyway, here’s a look at retail, another industry struggling to recover from a stall. Here’s the story, from MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link

Discounters like Target and Walmart, and low-end fashion stores like Kohl’s and J.C. Penney are holding steady by taking market share from competitors, both living and dead. For instance, Mervyn’s bankruptcy definitely helped Kohl’s and J.C. Penney. But mid- to upper-tier retailers, like Macy’s and Whole Foods, are still losing ground.

However, if the name of the game is stealing market share from competitors, as the economist says in the article, one important piece of that strategy is advertising. That’s the only way to attract the growing, increasingly tippable legion of non-customers. But, before you can capture customers, the ads have to capture attention.

I’m reminded of the words of Leo Burnett: “A good basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain’t got nothin’.” It was true back when he said it, and if anything it’s more true now.
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May 13 2009
Call it morbid curiosity, and it has little to do with advertising, but I have been riveted by the story of Flight 3407 and its fatal crash, the worst U.S. air disaster in years. Here’s the story, from The Wall Street Journal; the second link is the NTSB’s release of the full transcript from the cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated ship:
Advertising copywriter blog link
Advertising copywriter blog link

I can’t say for certain whether it it’s the writer in me responding, or I’m just woozy from the sheer weight of emotion (and I suspect the former triggered the interest and the latter compelled me to keep going), but the transcript reads like a screenplay. It has it all; a dramatist couldn’t heighten the drama, or the irony, or even the comic relief. And the tragedy is all the greater for knowing how it ends, with 50 lives lost, and that it was all real.

I will never again listen to a flight attendant’s arrival spiel without this hitting me again, hard.
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May 12 2009
Proctor & Gamble, maker of Bounty brand paper towels, is suing Georgia-Pacific, maker of Brawny brand paper towels, over a paper towel pattern. Here’s the story, from the Dayton Business Journal (OH):
Advertising copywriter blog link

There’s more to a brand than a logo, and a paper towel pattern is surely a part of the brand. What with the wary weather eye packaged goods competitors keep on each other, it’s a little hard to imagine that the similarity was totally unintentional. The legal question, though, is whether a judge will rule that a consumer might be confused.

See, here’s where the packaging makes a difference. For the life of product while on the store shelf, there’s no confusion likely. But, once the product is unwrapped and in use, which is most of its life in front of the consumer, the similarities may very well confuse. Imagine an M&M-like candy brand named, oh, “Jackpot,” the point being that it’s nothing like M&M. Acceptable competition? Probably, especially if the packaging is nothing like M&M packaging. But imagine if, once you opened the package and poured the candies out, the product itself looked similar to M&Ms – perhaps the colors are a bit different, and instead of an M imprinted on each candy these have three tiny 7s side-by-side. Like this: 777. Acceptable competition?

From a design standpoint, this was a trick. From a branding standpoint, this may have been a dirty trick. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, both in court and in the grocery store aisle.
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Phone and fax: (619) 465-6100

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John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter
6877 Barker Way
San Diego, California
92119-1301

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John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter

www.kuraoka.com (619) 465-6100 Ad Blog: news and views about advertising, branding, marketing, and copywriting

My experience as a copywriter.

Answers to frequently asked questions.

Advertising & marketing advice.

Me, me, me.

Email me.

Call or fax me.

Write me.

www.kuraoka.com
(619) 465-6100
Ad Blog: news and views about advertising, branding, marketing, and copywriting