brand-e panel thinking Harley, Hyundai, BMW, Google
A number of brands are doing a really good job developing innovative and memorable brand experiences, especially for certain consumer niches. But their creativity has raised the bar much higher, and that is challenging, writes Steve Mullins.
“The newness, the novelty is passing and the sheer amount of [campaigns] is only going to increase,” says Richard Bates of The Brand Union. “If the pattern continues, and my favourite brands continue to ask for more and more one-on-one quality time with me, whether it be online or in physical pop-up form, I’m going to demand more and more value from them – whether it be entertainment or financial – for the quality time. Like any successful long-term relationship, I will need to be getting as much as I’m getting.”
For the moment, though, initiatives based on co-creation continue to ask a lot of the consumer. Take Harley-Davidson’s Fan Machine app, which launched on Facebook in November. It asks fans to review ad briefs and also tasks them with submitting ideas. The brand certainly wants big fans to spend more time in the marketing mix.
And the move gets approval from the brand-e campaigns panel.
“There are very few brands whose board members would be brave enough to open up their budgets like this,” says Dare’s Nadya Powell. “Or who are right for this type of approach – letting the customer decide the communication.”
Harley-Davidson is good brand for this, she argues, as it’s one people passionately love. Fans use the product every day, tinkering and tuning, and are perhaps better suited to producing good, honest and true work than flannel-shirted creatives.
“Having said this, I don’t think the fans could design anything more than a simple film, the current brief. Getting them to design a website, brochure or DM pack would be more of a challenge.”
“Harley-Davidson is one of those brands that can inspire enough passion to pull this off successfully – it will be interesting to see how this pans out and what level of ideas come from it,” says Lawrence Weber of The Brooklyn Brothers. “Crowdsourcing creative has yet – as far as I am aware – to yield any truly amazing ideas, despite agencies like Victors & Spoils or Alternative Genius.”
But a number of brands are asking outsiders for more than marketing ideas. Hyundai last month launched the New Thinker’s Index, with the online destination aiming to carry bold thinking from the likes of Kevin Spacey, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Noble and more. Users can also try and find out just what kinds of thinkers they are.
The reception, though, is mixed.
“The quiz aspect is a bit too clumsy and obvious to warrant me passing it on,” Weber says. “However the content is really interesting – the 24-hour film thing with Kevin Spacey was interesting and it brought me something I hadn’t seen before. The production values are a little to slick for me, but that it just a taste thing.”
“I’m quite intrigued by the venture per se, and like the idea of using celebrities to illustrate different thinking styles – there’s inclusiveness and aspiration in this one,” says Sabine Stork of Thinktank International. “I love the test and was pleased to see that I came out as a ‘People Smart Thinker’ which seems spot on for a qual researcher… But why Hyundai? I may be missing something but I just can’t make the connection between quite a middle-of-the road car brand and thinking. The brand seems as tagged on as the ads at the foot of the page.”
Powell has a similar take.
“My initial thought is why would people care how other people think and what has that got to do with Hyundai?” she asks. “The further into the experience I get, the less I understand the connection between the brand and the campaign. … Finally, right at the very end of the experience, I get what this all about – ‘New Thinking’ is Hyundai’s way of creating ‘New Opportunities’ – which has left me thinking this campaign is over-thought.”
And Stork is flying the flag for another car brand when it comes to the ‘thinking’ thing.
“I really like BMW’s collaboration with the Guggenheim, a series of salons on the future of urban spaces,” she says. “The effort seems both serious and creative, there is a ‘real life’, not just a virtual iteration which seems important for any venture that is meant to generate real debate. The brand is not overly in your face but within a context that seems ‘logical’ for its sector and credible for an upmarket, engineering-led company.
Further on the subject of thought, Stork believes Google deserves a mention here.
Google’s Think Quarterly is well-designed, well-written, and offers you an interesting range of articles,” she says. “It lends Google an intellectual weight I had not associated them with but which I have no problem ‘buying’. No doubt Brin and Page and their employees are clever clogs and you could argue that the Quarterly continues a Google tradition of helping you access information, but takes it further by generating its own content rather than piggy-backing on other people’s.
