Sample Pack Rats

Takahiro Kawano took traditional free sampling to a new level -- the ground floor retail level.

He created Sample Lab!   It's a store that allows consumers to explore sample products, bringing  a fresh concept to “tryvertising”. 

The 'lab' is filled with lots of unreleased goods in food, beverage, and beauty products.  

There's a store front.  A demonstration room.  A woman's powder room to try out cosmetics.  Experimenting is the key in this lab.

After sampling, members (15 and up who must register) are required to fill out surveys via cell phone.  If they really like the item they may buy it if it's available.  If not, they can take up to 5 or 10 samples home. 

The brand, designers, and manufacturers use the surveys to improve and tweak their product before release.  Sample Lab!’s unique system not only offers brands consumer feedback but also helps generate word of mouth buzz and excitement for new products. 

The franchise is still young, but Sample Lab! has around 700 consumers walk into the Harajuku store a day!  Stores aren't located outside of specific Asian countries, but there is definite interest in opening Sample Labs! internationally. 

Anyone up for trying one?

http://springwise.com/marketing_advertising/tryvertising_lab_in_tokyo/

http://www.samplelab-international.com/why.php

http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/080327e/

http://www.japaninc.com/mgz_october_2008_sample-lab

Don't Go Away Mad, Men.

Yes, now that we're in the heat of summer, it's time for Don Draper and the whole Ad gang to hit our home screens again.  Complete with commercial interruptions.

If you don't know the TV show Mad Men, on AMC network, you are either far too busy, don't care about marketing, loathe serial dramedy, or all of the above.  Not that we'd fault you for any of that.

For the Mad Men neophyte, the show is all about the 60's NY ad game. Stylishly shot.  Very well acted.  And great writing, with lines like these:

You know what my father used to say? "Being with a client is like being in a marriage. Sometimes you get into it for the wrong reasons, and eventually they hit you in the face."

Now in the 4th season, the hits in the face keep coming.  Along with stiff drinks, and all the other Rat Pack longings.

You can catch up on it here:  http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

And when you do, or if you have, you'll find this faux periodic table amusing and creative:

http://flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PeriodicTableofMadMen-Flavorwire-Miethner.jpg

Almost as useful as a cocktail recipe book.

A Politically Incorrect Political Ad

In the era of YouTube, ads like below can get SO much more widespread coverage and viewership thus creating more impact than ever before.

Kind of makes one wonder why so many political ads are still so dang boring and similar.

There's a great book on this that was given to us from a very good friend (and perfect candidate, but that's another story): Run the Other Way, by Bill Hillsman.

His main points are that the two-party system has so clogged the entryway to their own advantage with their own machines that the underdog, independent, clear thinker doesn't really stand a chance.

Unless one takes a chance.

Well, this ad is risky and risque. And maybe not exactly our cup of tea party.

But it's still refreshing to see someone in politics do something a bit out there.

In today's nutty political world and now internet fueled movements, maybe there's even more chance for change.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/dale-peterson-cuts-the-be_n_615907.html

Just Draw Me Some Kind of Poster! Can't You Push Your iMac Layout Button?

The attached 'email interchange' is amazingly funny.  

Not to turn everything into a lesson, but buried in the humor are a few pointers:

• be very clear on what you want when you ask for a creative solution to something

• creatives want to make something useful and memorable -- if you don't want invention, do it yourself

• good designers are a rare breed of eye and thought -- the best work appears effortless, and thus often in dollar terms is undervalued

• writers always have to turn everything into some deeper meaning -- so forget the points above now and just laugh when you see this:

http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

Gatorade Listens But Doesn't Hear

We just saw something that made our blood boil -- and we're not saying that 'cause it's a 90º June day.

Gatorade put a promo piece (?) together for it's new Mission Control, a small room with a bunch of monitors, it appears from the video, where 'G'  will monitor all social media, web analytics, and, presumably, the negative impression this blogger had for its latest brand-blob.

Viral, social, online in general, has finally done a very nice job of toppling the old one-way, mass media communication to put the dialogue between brand and consumer on a more equal footing.   

Discussion oriented, possibly.  Channel busting, certainly.  

We praise the ability of consumers to now actually voice concerns, or praise, and move away from the corporate behemoth feel of something being shoved down one's throat that sometimes our advertising brethren helped to engender.

And that's where this "G" piece SO misses.  

Don't talk to us in big bold type about your gigantic mission hub of social monitoring.  It's the exact opposite of what you're claiming you're trying to do.

Mission Control watching all things digital about your brand is big brother.  It's corp speak.  It's NOT a conversation.  

And it sure as hell isn't cool.

Plus, it is all about message and bluster and not about product or how you, Gatorade, are going to improve my life with your product.  Sure, there's one quick mention about product, but it's lost under the lame license-free sounding music track.

If this shows us anything, it's about what can happen when a big brand that has been built on big brand ads and big endorsement deals doesn't know what to do in the new 2-way communication world...when the little guy is more in charge.

If only electrolytes helped with marketing thinking, maybe 'G' wouldn't be as 'L A M E.'

Karaoke iPhone App is For Gleeks

So a while back we wrote about how an artist and a technology company got together to leverage the iPhone and create a uniquely engaging app.  The rapper T-pain brought his songs via karaoke to the iphone with autotune, a pitch corrector, which allows anyone to sound like T-pain.   The app took off and was a viral success.

The tech guys behind this success are back for Fox's hit show GLEE.  You can download a Glee app which will allow you to karaoke the same songs preformed by the cast of the show. Autotune will show how on pitch you are and will even correct your voice. 

Of course, It wouldn't be an iPhone app if you couldn't share it with the world via facebook etc.  

What a perfect fit for a TV show about a Glee club: a karaoke app that enables you to take the place of your favorite  character, sing their songs, and share it with other rabid fans of the show (AKA Gleeks).  The Glee app and songs are available for $0.99 on itunes.

General Ideas on Strategic Leadership

Last Tuesday night, General Petraeus addressed 1500 people at the Fairmont Hotel Chicago.   While most topics covered the what, when, how in Iraq and Afghanistan, the General also spoke on Strategic Leadership valid in any situation, from a man who knows the worst case scenarios cold.  

While we may not do justice to the entirety of his speech, his key points, paraphrased, were these:

1) First, one has to have the right ideas -- with out the right idea, all else is irrelevant.   

For Petraeus, this meant starting with the right inputs to get the right outputs.   Makes sense.  If one doesn't have the right information, education, skills and team, one ends up with wrong output for the wrong job.   

2)  Second, one needs to communicate the right idea down the chain of command.  For us in the private sector this mean communicating the ideas all the way through the organization so everyone has an understanding of what to do and its relative importance.  

3) Once everyone's on the same page, the next step is overseeing correct implementation without micro managing.   Illustrating this point, he used what we'll call the "Get down the road" management technique.    

He saw management's responsibility as showing people the path, the direction, then drawing the right and left hand lines and telling the team to "get down the road".   Of course, if they go outside the lines, its managements' job to help get the crew back on the right path, which is why the Army shares best practices (and worst practices, actually) for all of their initiatives.  

The last slide of the evening he showed us his Iraq 'dashboard':  number of bombs found, attacks, and casualties since the beginning of the war.   

The US Military's goal was to minimize the violence to peace time standards so that mundane activities could be conducted.    

What's notable is the General could explain the weekly rise and fall of violence all along --  at any moment, he can see how many acts of violence happened today, yesterday, this week or for any given period since the start of the Iraq and Afghan Wars.

Scary, and sad, but effective, and, once in war, a smart, quant tool to have.   As in all things, if one doesn't have a metric, one has no sense of a goal.

This commitment to strategic leadership has given him the ability to get the right ideas, implement them and adjust when necessary.  

Not a bad lesson in getting things done from a man who has to bring peace, defeat an insurgency and build a country while getting shot at all the time.   

Makes your job look easy, right?