Geico: Hit, Hit, But Now a Whiff

Geico is an interesting advertiser to watch.  

First, they created their Gecko campaign, which was a very memorable and distinctive way to capture attention, create brand recognition and get people to listen to Geico's marketing messages.  Then, Geico topped themselves with the wildly successful Caveman campaign (Geico.com:  So Simple a Caveman Could Do It).  I don't think any other advertising campaign has ever been so successful that Hollywood made a sitcom out of it.  Well-deserved congratulations are due to everyone at Geico and their agency for these two advertising home runs.

Unfortunately, Geico has just launched a third campaign that's a dud.  It's focussed on how much money you can save with Geico.  Not a bad message in this time of economic distress, but why did Geico think they needed a third campaign to deliver this message?  Couldn't the Gecko or the Cavemen have communicated this message?  Yet Geico went to the time and expense of creating a third campaign.  Not only has this cost them time and money, but it has diminished their focus on two proven campaigns.  

I'm sure the logic behind this move had something to do with Geico wanting to keep the other two campaigns' messages "pure" and feeling that they needed a new campaign to focus on what Geico must believe is a very important "value" message that's obviously extremely relevant right now.  

I could ALMOST agree with this logic if Geico's third campaign weren't so poorly executed.  It features a stack of money with some weird looking eyeball type of thing sitting on top of the pile of cash.   This money/eyeball thing shows up unexpectedly to the background tune of "Who's Watching Me" and puzzles people (including viewers in my opinion) who wonder what the heck this stack of bills with the odd peepers is all about.  That's when the Geico value message kicks in. 

On the plus side, the new campaign has the same quirky brand personality of the other two Geico campaigns.  However, it lacks the appeal and humanity of the Gecko and the Cavemen.  As viewers, we LIKE the gecko and the cavemen.  There is nothing to like about this odd stack of money with the creepy eyeballs.   The casting of the spots is equally puzzling.  The people in them aren't funny or amusing or even appealing.  They're all kind of clueless, much like I have been every time I see one of these new ads.

No one hits a home run every time.  Geico's ad and marketing people have certainly performed far better than most.  They have two campaigns to be proud of.   I think the "marketing sanity" thing to do would be to retire this new effort sooner rather than later.   I hope Geico gives us more of their two powerhouse campaigns.  More of the gecko!  More cavemen!  

I HOPE that this new effort does not signal that Geico is getting tired of their gecko or getting bored with their cavemen.  They've got two thoroughbred campaigns.  They ought to ride them until they drop.  And both still look pretty darn fresh to me.

Why Do Fashion Ads All Look Alike?

As Christmas approaches and gift giving is on our mind, I've been paying a little more attention to the perfume, cosmetic and jewelry ads that dominate all the women's fashion magazines.  You know the ads I'm talking about.  The ones that feature the world's highest priced models (or major Hollywood stars) photographed by the world's most expensive photographers advertising the world's most overpriced women's products.

These ads follow a different school of thought about marketing and brand positioning than all of us non-fashion marketers have been trained to believe in.  The main thing that always strikes me is that in the world of fashion marketing, it is OK for your ads to look the same (practically identical) to your competition's ads.  It's not only OK, it seems to be a requirement.

Is this simply something that's just accepted dogma in the world of fashion marketing or is it something that they know for a fact actually works for them?

Before writing this entry, I opened up the December issue of Vogue to find some examples of what I mean.  Spread before me are perfume ads from Estee Lauder, Dior, Dolce Gabbana and Versace.  These ads have virtually identical layouts.  I really mean IDENTICAL.  Not only are the layouts all the same, but none of the ads have anything remotely approaching "an idea."  Each ad is "pretty face (come hither look) , big bottle, logo."  No headlines, no copy, no ideas.  

In any other marketing category (with the possible exception of automotive where almost all of the print ads look like the same art director put them together, too) having a print campaign that was identical to a competitor's campaign would be considered a problem.  Not in the world of fashion.  I wonder why.

Don't the same laws of marketing apply to these products?  Isn't it just as important to stand out in the world of fashion and have a unique identity that differentiates your brand from those you compete with?  Isn't it just as important to have a campaign concept with an idea behind it? A pretty super model simply isn't an idea.  

I think most fashion marketers are guilty of assuming that just because their super model and their perfume bottle is different from the competition's super model and bottle that consumers will see the difference between the brands.  

Maybe women who read the fashion magazines religiously understand and appreciate the subtle brand differentiation that is in these ads.  However, my hunch is that they don't and that most fashion marketers are kidding themselves.  I recommend that they wake up and smell the perfume. What they're doing now strikes me as marketing insanity.

 

The Marketing Bull's-Eye

There's an amazing lack of continuity in most marketing campaigns today.  Instead of running for years and building equity and gaining power with repeated exposure, most of today's "campaigns" seem to be as perishable as yesterday's fresh cut flowers.  It's dumb marketing because it turns those marketing dollars from "investment" into "cost."  And in today's environment, every good senior executive is looking to cut costs.  The result?  Good-bye marketing.

Why aren't more marketing campaigns developed and used for the long-term?  

One reason is the incredible turnover in senior level marketing executives today.  The new sheriff in town almost always feels compelled to do their own thing and re-invent the wheel.  After all, the old marketing person was more than likely fired, so why stick with anything they developed?

But there's another reason why marketing campaigns don't last.  It's because they're not properly "sold in" to all of the important brand stake holders.  Broad-scale ownership of the campaign is not created and company-wide "buy in" is not achieved.  It becomes "the marketing department's campaign" instead of the company's campaign and that's usually the kiss of death.

Think of all of the brand's stake holders as concentric rings of an expanding circle - like a bull's-eye.  As you create and develop a new campaign, you must persuade an ever growing list of brand stake holders that the campaign is excellent enough to earn their support and long-term commitment.

Let's start at the center of the bull's-eye and move out.  

The first stake holder that you need to convince is yourself.  Is this campaign good enough that you're willing to bet your job on it?  To advocate it to all the other brand stake holders and put your neck on the block if it doesn't work?  Can you sell it to others with passion and conviction?  Is it right for the company and the brand and does it represent a "BIG IDEA" that can last and last and last?  

The next group of stake holders (the second ring of the bull's-eye) is the rest of the marketing team (including your agency partners).  Do they share your conviction?  Are they behind the campaign, too?  If not, why not?  Do they have real reasons that need to be addressed or bogus reasons because they're simply too whimpy to take a stand? Addressing real concerns will strengthen the idea further and make it better and that's what you need to do.  You'll generate idea ownership and you can then move out to the next stake holder ring of the marketing bull's-eye.

It's the sales organization - both your internal sales team and your distributors and channel partners.  Their enthusiasm is priceless.  Their apathy is death.  Do not understate the need to win this group over.  Do not wait to involve them in the campaign until it's too late to change it.  Your mindset needs to be that every stake holder group can add value and help strengthen the idea.  When they help create the final campaign, they own it and that ownership helps give the idea the power to last.  

The next stakeholder ring is the rest of your co-workers.  The sell-in should not stop with sales and marketing.  Every other department in your company should ideally be enthusiastic about the campaign.  Take the time to turn everyone in your company into brand and campaign ambassadors.

Only after this "internal" sell-in process is complete are you really ready to take your campaign to its intended target.  Make sure you have your measurement tools in place and as you identify ways you need to improve the initial campaign, celebrate that learning as a good thing.  No one should expect immediate perfection.  A great campaign will be a growing living thing.  Strong at birth but a behemoth after a few years of TLC and fine-tuning.  

The CMO's role is to evaluate all campaign input along the way, weed out the bad from the good, keep the BIG IDEA from being watered down and turned to mush, but be open-minded enough to recognize when good input is received and then courageous enough to embrace it and implement it.  The result will be a campaign that your entire business enterprise "owns" and an invaluable long-term business investment for your company.  Not to mention job security and enhanced market value for you.  Being the originator of a well-recognized and highly successful long-term marketing campaign is one of the most powerful career enhancers you'll ever have. You will have hit the Marketing Bull's-eye!