Digital advertising pioneer, Stuart Bogaty, spoke recently with Brand Connections President and CEO Brian Martin.  Now an Executive Vice President and Global Managing Partner at Universal McCann, Bogaty shared his experiences over 15 years in the digital space and explained why “media” has become an irrelevant term.

Bogaty traces his interest in the agency business to television show that was popular during his college years in the late 80s.  Intrigued by the advertising professionals depicted on Thirtysomething, he entered the industry on the media side and hopped between agencies in the early going.  When the avant-garde Modem Media agency approached him in 1993, Bogaty bolted from Saatchi & Saatchi to pursue another one of his passions.  “I’ve always had a technological bent to my interest.  I’ve always been very interested in technology and this Internet thing kind of appeared on the horizon.  I took to it in a pretty significant way.”  According to advertising lore, Modem placed the first ads on the web for Zima.  That particular product and campaign were less than wildly successful, but Bogaty’s interactive innovation with JCPenney, MasterCard and iVillage-forebearer Parent Soup all prepared him to ride the building digital wave.

“We started in a place where, obviously, we were all feeling our way through things,” Bogaty recounts.  “Back in the early 90s we knew impressions, we knew CPMs, cost per impression – we knew how to price these things.  We knew how to look at audience, we knew how to find audience, and associate brands with audience so that we were doing efficient media planning.”  Today’s advanced ROI- and auction-based metrics have helped transform the interactive and digital segments from an obscure new option into a marketing necessity.  But there remains much more to be explored on the digital frontier.  “We’re still, I think, a little too complacent and a little too comfortable with sticking with what we know, as opposed to really trying to break out of the box and look at what the digital marketplace brings to the table in terms of the ability for brands to communicate differently with consumers.  I think we’re barely scratching the surface.  We’re still being pro-active or reactive, and we’re not being as much a part of the conversation.”

For brand managers not yet speaking in the digital language, Bogaty offers a brief immersion course.  “At the earliest point in your panning you need to understand what portion of your target audience’s time is experienced in the digital space – whether it’s digital video, whether it’s on their mobile phone, whether it’s on the web itself, whether it’s in social networks – and you have to work from there.  You have to start from how your clients are consuming media…  Nobody should try to carve off a portion of their budget for digital prior to really understanding how digital is consumed by their customer base.”  Keyword search represents the low hanging fruit and a necessary spend for many brands.  “If you’re not there,” Bogaty warns, “you’re actually doing more damage to your brand, because your competitors are there.”  With that said, terms like “paid search” and “search engine optimization” should be incorporated into almost every vocabulary.

For advanced marketers, rich media offers an opportunity to broadcast a more interactive and intricate brand message.  Video is another valuable component that has taken on its own quirks in the digital space.  Some pros of online video include the ability to deliver on-demand content in a less-cluttered space, but smaller screen sizes may negatively impact the user experience.  For groups with a high risk tolerance, YouTube represents an even edgier (and perhaps more mysterious) digital forum.  Bogaty believes most firms are too conservative to experiment in this unrestricted space, despite its potential to generate buzz.  “There’s absolutely value in that stuff,” but for those who want to play it somewhat safer there are also brand channels within YouTube that provide opportunities for a safer experience (at the expense of exposure).

The next big step for interactive marketers is to take a larger role in the millions of ongoing online discussions, says the Universal McCann Executive.  The key is figuring out ways to transparently introduce your brand in a relevant way to interested consumers.  While the rewards would be great, the pitfalls and challenges are equally ominous.  “If you do it wrong you look like Big Brother and the entire thing backfires in your face very, very, quickly in this space.”  In a perfect scenario, a brand would provide web surfers with a specific targeted piece of information about their product or service at the exact moment they express interest in learning about that brand.  Cost is a potential drawback for this seemingly one-to-one marketing technique, but Bogaty thinks these brand messages would spread far beyond individual conversations.  “Even though a lot of these things are conversations between two or fourteen or fifteen people, these things are trolled,” he says, “by 10-, 20-, 100-fold the amount of people that actually participate.  So people are reading through this stuff as well.  To just see a brand participating in that way and doing it in a transparent fashion – it’s going to probably add more equity and relevance to that brand in that person’s  mind than any ad that you’re going to show that person on TV, or anywhere else.”

Whether or not Bogaty’s vision becomes reality, he does not forecast a slowdown in digital media spending.  “[Advertisers] are going where the consumers are going, and that’s where things have to be,” he says.  The digital guru also notes that the traditional concept of “media” has shifted.  “Television now is a delivery mechanism, it’s not a medium.  Internet is a delivery mechanism, it’s not a medium.  So is newspaper, so is print.”  Within this new context, Bogaty believes the quality of the content itself now trumps the medium, as desirable content is likely to find a home across multiple media.

He predicts more change is on the way.  “The generation that’s coming behind us is going to accept things and look at things so differently that part of me hopes we find a way to tackle things before then… the world is going to change a lot.”  That is why aspiring young marketers must fight for what they believe in.  Bogaty’s advice for up-and-coming marketers is clear: “Challenge all of us to think differently, stick to what you believe in and please share the way you see the world, because you see the world differently than we do.”  The changing digital landscape all but demands it.

It’s not easy turning a fledgling brand into a household name, even with a significant marketing bankroll.  Ed Frechette, Vice President of Marketing at Au Bon Pain, has demonstrated a knack for brand building by focusing on strategies such as customer experience.  Brand Connections’ Brian Martin recently asked Frechette to explain his pocket-book friendly methods and compare his experiences on both sides of the agency and client coin.

Frechette worked with brands including RCA, Kellogg, General Mills and Anheuser-Busch, during his early years on the agency side.  He made a name for himself with innovative thinking that soon piqued the interest of Dunkin’ Donuts.  After moving to the brand side he ushered in the era of the flat box – which made smushed donuts a thing of the past.  “So many varieties of Dunkin’ Donuts had frosting,” he remembers, “that it was a major product issue of [making] sure that the product holds its integrity from when it gets put in the box to where it ends up.”  More recently, the Canton, Mass., -based company has built on Frechette’s outside-the-box thinking.  Once known exclusively for its coffee and donut breakfast combo, many stores now offer a significantly expanded menu that includes pizza in some locations.  While Frechette is no longer with the chain, he sees the move as a smart way to draw new customers.  “After eleven o’ clock in the morning you could drive a truck through the place and not hit anybody.  They’re trying to expand the day part usage to get more people to come in later in the day.  In order to do that you need to broaden the product offering … they’re using these new products [to do that].”

After marshalling a multi-million dollar advertising budget with Dunkin’, Frechette’s shift to Au Bon Pain forced him to adopt a starkly different marketing philosophy.  Simply put, he had less dough to make his bread.  Boston-based ABP has come to epitomize a model that invests minimally in traditional marketing while relying heavily on product experience.  Frechette explains how this tactic works to draws customers to its more than 250 establishments worldwide: “Part of it is the breadth of menu, the abundance that people see when they come into the cafés.  It’s also fresh food in an environment where normally you wouldn’t expect to get fresh food.  We do seem to generate some real positive impressions – in the hospital locations, in the airports, in some of the train stations we’re in – that does carry over.”  The marketing VP says one international student became so enamored with the brand while studying at Harvard that he became one of Au Bon Pain’s first franchisees in Thailand after returning home.

ABP is also able to forgo some traditional media spends by smartly locating their fast-casual restaurants and leveraging repeat exposure, according to Frechette.  “We’re in a lot of office buildings.  We’re in places where, theoretically, I guess you could say we have captive audiences.  So the person who’s going in to their office building in the morning – he or she would grab a cup of coffee and a croissant on the way in, and then (if it’s convenient) they come down at lunch time and just choose a soup or a salad or a sandwich.  So we build those impressions over time just through the experiences.”  The chain also banks on the coveted but elusive word-of-mouth endorsement and product innovation. 

To keep the experience fresh, ABP introduces up to eight new products during its four promotional periods throughout the year.  Au Bon Pain also features a “marketplace design” which meshes well with this promotional approach.  By placing customers in close proximity to an abundant display of products, the restaurant layout encourages people to try new things.  “Whether it’s true sampling … or it’s just visual sampling, you don’t have to just look at a picture or look behind the line to see [new offerings].  It’s out there on the floor and you can walk around and see for yourself and decide for yourself if that’s something you want.”

One of Frechette’s newest challenges is adapting Au Bon Pain’s marketing mix to address the growing power of digital media.  “We’re limited because we don’t have a lot of marketing dollars to spend, so we have to figure out how we can most cost effectively reach the people who are in our trade areas,” he says.  ABP’s solution is to develop “pull media” that eschews the blast tactics of “push media.”  This method would allow guests to interact with the brand on their own terms.  “We’re looking at ways where people can tap in to our web site – from their phone, from their computer, or any way that’s convenient for them – and get the information they want, when they want it, and how they want it.”

Along with convenience, the marketing VP believes quality of offerings is becoming the paramount consideration of consumers in the quick-service and fast-casual sectors.  “Regular fries and a hamburger just don’t cut it anymore,” says Frechette.  “So many people eat out all the time, and they don’t want to eat just plain routine food.  They’re looking for something that’s interesting.  And now with the economy the way it is if they’re going to spend dollars out of home they want to see that there’s a value for that.”  Product portability and healthier items will continue to be significant, and Frechette senses that people are looking for a refreshing break in their day.  That’s one reason ABP will tone down the vibrant yellow color its cafés have come to be known for.  “People don’t want that harsh experience.  We’re softening the furniture; we’re softening the colors in the café so people can get a break (even if it’s only for a few minutes) from whatever rat race they’re running.”

Frechette closed with advice for marketers who may be considering a jump to the brand side.  “Try to get as broad an experience as you can beyond traditional advertising.  Talk to your clients about other aspects of their business and try to understand the issues that they have going on in their day-to-day lives in their work.”  Aspiring marketers should also be willing to “step backwards to step forwards,” he says, as title and a salary are ultimately less important than doing what you enjoy every day.  Creating a positive experience has been an Au Bon Pain calling card for over 30 years; it’s only fitting that Frechette wants the same for others in the field.

John Muszynski was hired in 1981 as a trainee at what would become the Starcom USA agency he now leads.  During his tenure, the chief executive climbed the ranks by contributing to the success of some of the world’s largest global brands, including Kellogg’s and McDonald’s.  Now one of the largest and most celebrated agencies in the world, AdvertisingAge and Media magazine have both made Starcom their Agency of the Year multiple times, and AdvertisingAge also named Starcom to its Agency A-List for 2008.  Muszynski recently shared his story with Brand Connections’ Brian Martin, revealing what it takes to keep an agency’s star on the rise.

Muszynski’s media career began with what was then a division of Leo Burnett.  Some of his first experiences came through the Kimberly-Clark account.  The young man’s first rotation in the client service training program was with the media planning department, which he enjoyed so much he promptly abandoned the client service track.  “I thought things were going to be changing, and I thought things were really looking up for the whole media landscape,” he recalls.  The move turned out to be nothing short of presentient.  “It’s been just an absolutely fantastic ride as this entire media landscape has changed and evolved and is frankly moving so quickly that it’s difficult to keep up.”

Much has changed from those early years.  Today’s media planners (once a footnote in client meetings) are often included early on in the process, Muszynski notes.  “We are part of the establishment of the strategies, both from a marketing and from a creative standpoint.  We influence the actual contact plan before the creative is even produced.  And I think the most critical piece to it is that we have shown our creative partners that we can actually add value in the process and that we are truly marketers, like themselves.  We can bring a little bit of a different perspective, but we can contribute to the same area that they’re working against.  Our clients have recognized that and our creative partners have recognized that.”

Muszynski’s initial success earned him a speedy promotion and a chance to work on McDonald’s local and national business.  He then transitioned to Kellogg, where he spent the bulk of his client career.  Muszynski still considers these 12 years among his career highlights.  “If you had cut me back then I would have bled Kellogg Red,” the CEO jests.  “I firmly believed back then – as I do now – that while my paycheck said Starcom, I worked for the Kellogg Company.”  The former Mediaweek All-Star still takes a hard line when it comes to client and brand loyalty.  “My attitude has not changed.  I have a General Motors vehicle sitting in my driveway and Nintendo is the only electronic game allowed in my household.  I feel very, very fortunate to work with some of the greatest brands in the industry, and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t support them.”

This support may extend to brand loyalty, but begins on a more fundamental level.  “I believe our job as an agency – as a client partner – is to understand that business as well as the client does,” he says.  “We have to dedicate ourselves to that business and to truly understand that piece of business and to understand that category I believe you have to eat and sleep it.”  Buying from a competitor brand, for Muszynski, amounts to sleeping with the enemy.

While the agency strives to understand clients’ businesses as well as they do, Muszynski acknowledges the goal is at times unachievable.  Insight is Starcom’s true currency.  “Without having those insights, all you’re doing is putting a media plan together,” according to the CEO.  “We want to put a connection plan together.  We want to be able to connect with consumers and captivate consumers, and the only way we’re going to do that is by truly understanding their passions and having insights into how they interact within the media landscape, as well as within that category that you’re building that plan against.”  He also stresses the need to avoid the “media geek” label, while entrenching Starcom as a valued business partner that specializes in media strategy.

One of those major insights relates to how consumers interact with media and messaging.  Despite dramatic changes in where, when and how consumers are marketed to, the key remains consumers themselves.  “As long as you understand the consumer – and what motivates the consumer and what captivates the consumer – finding the connection points is actually the easiest part,” asserts Muszynski.  At Starcom, the burden of consumer mind-reading and pulse-monitoring falls on the shoulders of the consumer contextual planner (CCP).

Finding, training, and maintaining top talent to fill CCP positions and other posts is becoming harder for agencies, says the Starcom topper.  Keeping pace with the constant and accelerating pace of changes in modern media constitutes another major challenge for today’s marketing firms.  Clearly Muszynski’s group is rising to the occasion, as AdAge lauded Starcom’s combination of talent, innovation, accountability and passion in naming them Agency of the Year a second consecutive time.

Starcom’s success is no accident, and Muszynski sets much of the tone from the top down.  “Be part of the company, not just an employee of the company,” he urges new hires.  The advice holds for other ambitious minds in the industry.  The CEO says he also values clarity and honesty, but believes new ideas are invaluable.  “Don’t settle for what’s been done in the past,” he concludes.  “Make innovation part of your DNA.”  With a game plan like that – and the know-how to execute it – you’ll never need to wish upon a star.

Founded by David N. Martin in 1965 in the advertising backwaters of Richmond, Va., The Martin Agency recently became the first five-time winner of Adweek’s Agency of the Year honor.  The firm is perhaps best known today for its UPS Brown campaign and GEICO cavemen ads (which spawned an ABC sitcom).  John Adams, Martin Agency President and CEO, and Brand Connections’ Brian Martin recently looked back on Adams’ 30-plus years in the industry and discussed the future of advertising.

For a man who’s spent his entire career of over 30 years at The Martin Agency, it’s no surprise to learn that Adams believes the pluses of staying with a single agency outweigh the minuses.  “There’s institutional learning and memory that are so often lost when people move around in our business.  We haven’t had much of that here, and on balance it’s been a real advantage.”  In an era of rapid job turnover, Adams says it’s increasingly common for the agency’s knowledge of the brand to exceed that of the clients they serve. A steadier core team accounted for one of the agency’s early advantages.  “It’s not a good phenomenon to have that developmental thinking lost every few years.”  By holding on to bright and talented employees, The Martin Agency manages to do something precious few in the industry have mastered.

A writer at heart, Adams was drawn to the profession because it afforded him a path to pursue his passion.  From humble beginnings in the public relations division of The Martin Agency, now an Interpublic Group unit, he rose through the ranks and dabbled in various disciplines along way.  The agency worked with a diverse clientele through Adams’ tenure, ranging from financial services and automobile groups, to service providers and CPG firms.  Still, describing The Martin Agency’s scope as “regional” in those early days would have been a stretch.  “It was really a local agency,” he remembers.  “We did advertising for clients that were headquartered in Richmond, and our broadest reach was really within the state [of Virginia].  We developed the ‘Virginia is for lovers’ program in 1969, which began to carry our advertising into the Northeast.  We were very much a local shop, which became a regional, and then became a national agency.”  As the agency grew, so did Adams’ clout and confidence.

It is conviction, Adams says, that truly enabled The Martin Agency to become a national power.  “There are local and regional agencies all over this country – thousands – who are doing great and having a good time that somehow have in their heads that, for whatever reason, they’re playing a different game than the national agencies.  That’s just not the truth.”  In the early 80’s Adams and others at the agency adopted a mindset that they could succeed on a broader stage.  “That belief led to everything else,” he says.  “It really just started with the belief that we could do it, and then the will and the commitment to do the things to make sure that we performed at a very high level – that we sacrificed in order to attract the people that we knew we would need to make this happen.”

Now perched near the top of the heap (Advertising Age ranked The Martin Agency as the #3 U.S. agency brand in 2008 with revenues of $600 million), Adams does not believe his long track record is necessarily an advantage in prognosticating which new advertising trick will stick.  “I find that my 30 years of experience are not that useful in looking forward and predicting,” he says. “There is a tendency in our agency business to look at what is new and to look at what is possible and embrace that with an enthusiasm that leads us to believe that we must move very, very quickly.”  But he cautions that client organizations are the ultimate drivers of which burgeoning tactics are adopted. “I have learned not to worry so much that the world is going to get ahead of us in the advertising agency business.”

Consumers themselves in many ways account for the recent explosion of multiple advertising messages across both old and new media.  Adams believes today’s consumers have advanced beyond classical marketing tenets.  “The capacity of people to hold multiple ideas about the same brand in their minds at the same time has absolutely evolved,” says The Martin Agency topper.  “We are finding out with GEICO and with other brands that it is not only possible but highly desirable to tell multiple stories and have multiple promises for a brand, which is contrary to the way we were all taught.”  Placing a specific brand message with the audience most likely to embrace it is the other portion of the equation.  The GEICO campaign, with its multiple messages delivered nearly simultaneously, offers a perfect case study.  “The one thing that unifies them is the overarching brand promise: ‘A 15-minute call could save you 15 percent or more on your car insurance.’  But the way in which each of those campaigns is done is completely different, and 30 years ago that would have been heresy.”

Regardless of consumer and media evolution, the most important element of any advertising campaign remains the message (or messages), Adams believes.  Today’s brands must communicate more ideas in more places to be successful.  On a more personal level, he says it’s imperative for successful marketers to focus on the details and the big picture at the same time or in rapid succession.  While easier said than done, following Adams’ advice might be just what it takes to win your own Adweek award.

Manos Spanos has a good idea of what it takes to succeed as a marketer in the increasingly global marketplace.  The Greek-born Product Director at Johnson & Johnson’s Neutrogena Division has worked on both sides of the pond and managed international product launches from the ground up.  Spanos recently spoke with Brand Connections President and CEO, Brian Martin, about his impressive rise through the CPG-giant’s ranks and shared tips for aspiring brand builders, both foreign and domestic.

Passion and effort is where Spanos’ story truly starts.  J&J’s international recruiting program located the young man while he was at the University of Miami School of Business – but an advanced degree takes you only so far, he says: “An MBA will open the door for you, but you have to prove yourself and you have to make the connections once you’re inside the company.”  During his first four years with the company in Greece, Spanos matriculated from a trainee position to become a group product manager, gaining valuable experience at every rung on the ladder.  Then Spanos took the leap to become marketing manager for Johnson’s international baby franchise, which eventually led to his current post.

In the new position Spanos has embraced both its challenges and rewards.  “I would love to spend all of my time doing advertisement,” he says, “but reality has it different.”  The Product Director estimates that copy development and other related tasks consume 20 percent of his time in a given week.  Broader brand management tasks, including logistics, competitor tracking and market research, also comprise a “hefty” slice.  “In the periods where you are heavily involved with advertisement that might take a big chunk of your time, but in a normal and typical weekday it doesn’t take more than 20 percent,” he says.  Strategy planning, pricing concerns, promotional and placement activities, along with sales force efforts consume the final 50 percent of Spanos’ time.

Within that largest block of time, Spanos devotes many hours to interact with retailers, as demanded by recent market consolidation trends.  “Getting [retailer] feedback is a big part of the game, and it is indeed necessary as the trade is getting more and more concentrated into those big players,” he says.  “They have a very important role, not only in judging or accepting our strategies, but also [providing] input.”  Retailers’ close relationship and unique connection with consumers gives them a different perspective from large CPG companies, he notes.  But brand managers who view retailers as a necessary evil have the wrong attitude.  “It’s more a partnership and collaborative relationship,” he says, where teamwork is critical.

One of the best ways for brand managers to gain a greater appreciation and affinity for cooperation is by seeking out opportunities to work overseas.  “It really is an experience that is different and unique from everyday line management,” according to Spanos.  He says the biggest asset gained through such an experience is exposure to different consumers and the ability to “learn how to think globally and act locally.”  Not just a cliché, this mentality is applicable – and necessary – for the successful deployment of new brands and products in foreign markets.  The process of adjusting a familiar business model or product to better appeal to a specific group – without deviating from a brand’s core equity and strategy – is a challenging and invaluable learning experience for aspiring brand managers.  It’s also a task that requires patience and a greater willingness to assimilate the input of others.  “There will be times where you will have to put a stick on the ground and make tough calls … but for the most part, experience says that once you’ve got everybody aligned (and once people are convinced about the vision, the mission and your strategies) then things flow much more simply and easily – and from what I’ve seen so far they are also much more successful.” 

The chances for up-and-coming marketers to enjoy a similar international experience may be growing, as Spanos predicts more unified global launches in the near future.  He warns, however, that marketers must not ignore the unique qualities that differentiate international consumers.  “The way you adjust everything for the particular target group, for the particular region, for the particular country you’re launching I think is also very significant, and I don’t think that’s going to go away.  I think we’re going to see that the broad ideas are going to be the same, but the execution will always have something to do with the local country.”

Regardless of the target audience, Spanos believes it is critical for CPG brands to embrace their essence and authenticity.  “Be real,” he stresses.  “Be who your brand is.  Don’t try to imitate other things.”  Today’s consumers are smarter and savvier than any previous generations, and marketers who try to deceive them often wind up paying a price.  “Things like YouTube and the Internet and all [the other interactive media opportunities] could be a blessing, or it could be a curse.”  Spanos’ international imperatives are threefold: Create innovative products that solve problems, set realistic consumer expectations, and deliver on the promise.  The proliferation of consumer choice and increased competition demands nothing less.

But as all marketers know, you must also create awareness and demand for your product.  Brands with the ability to branch beyond television and print advertising would be wise to invest in as many alternative media as they can comfortable afford, Spanos says.  As we enter an era where Chief Marketing Officers are often pushing for new ways to gain leverage, Spanos believes marketers must continue to break barriers.  “If you don’t test [different marketing strategies] you’re never going learn.  I would never suggest in this day and age that you would go out and invest all the money that your brand has behind something that has not been tried … but once you’ve exhausted the bucket of money to do the traditional stuff, put some money aside for testing new things.  If they work then here is your answer for your CMO, here is your promotion opportunity, here is a way to make your brand much more relevant to the consumer.”

To achieve international success (or earn your shot at a project abroad), Manos suggests finding a mentor and striving to hone your collaboration and cooperation skills.  He also suggests creating a personal five-year plan and concentrating on specific areas importance for your firm, rather than spreading your time thinly across manifold projects.  The Product Director’s advice could have you and your brand globe-trekking in no time.

David Verklin doesn’t create the ads, but consumers would never see them if it wasn’t for him.  As CEO of Carat North America, the continent’s largest independent media services company, he is in charge of placing the ideas that creative agencies conjure.  Broadly defined, Verklin sees his job as helping clients manage all the ways their brand touches customers.  In a recent interview with Brand Connections CEO and founder Brian Martin, the industry leader shares industry insights while stressing the need for marketers to become more consumer focused.

“We don’t make the ads, but every time you see an ad on TV (or listen to it on the radio or see it in a magazine), a person like me and a company like ours has decided that ad should be in that location, has negotiated the cost of the time and space, and is monitoring and planning all the client’s media efforts,” explains the industry mover and shaker.  As part of the bifurcated media businesses’ lesser-known media-buying side, Verklin says the increase of advertising options has heighten the need to understand where and when consumers are accessible.  No longer do firms create ads first and decide where to run them second.  “I think more and more people are coming to the conclusion that maybe you need to think about the communications plan first, then you decide what the message should be,” he says.  “That is diametric change from even six years ago.  It’s quite extraordinary.”

While no one expects the 30-second spot to fall entirely out of favor among major advertisers, media fragmentation is also causing marketers to rethink basic models.  Verklin believes a diversified approach has essentially usurped uni-vehicular media plans
and other traditional media consumer outreach.  “Media mix is not a new idea, but it’s a simple idea which is fundamentally to use lots of different stuff,” he says.  “If you want to know what the media plan of the future is going to look like, look down at your feet in the shower tomorrow and you’ll see the media plan of the future.  The media plan of the future is going to look like the tiles of your bathroom floor.  Lots of different pieces and components fit together in a seamless whole.”  One benefit of the media mix approach, he points out, is reduced waste.  “These new emerging platforms are letting people put ads in front of the interested, and that’s the future of advertising,” he says, “advertising to the interested.”

Search engine optimization, web site design and build, multicultural media, sports and event marketing, outdoor, experiential marketing, wireless and gaming are the new puzzle pieces the media maven assembles for clients.  Gaming and mobile, in particular, are areas in which Verklin expects to see vastly increased “commercial persuasion” opportunities.  User-created advertising and web-based consumer channels are other ways to get customers involved.  The challenge for user-created content, Verklin says, is to avoid using pre-roll, where commercials interrupt the user-experience.

The only way to determine who is interested in what, of course, is to delve deep into the consumer domain.  This is one area in which Verklin believes Carat has an advantage.  “I like to think of my company, of Carat, as a research company that buys media time,” he says.  The New York City-based firm’s annual $60 million research budget backs that sentiment.  “We do an enormous amount of in-depth interviewing, both statistical as well as qualitative with consumers … to try to look at the world through the eyes of the consumer and try to find the moment of aperture.”  Identifying the elusive moments when consumers are most open and interested in advertising messages is what drives Verklin and Carat.

Verklin, a self-described knucklehead, began his career on the agency side with Young & Rubicam, and says his success should encourage others in the advertising industry.  There are certain traits, however, which he thinks helped him achieve success.  Curiosity, enthusiasm, and communication skills are among the most desirable characteristics, Verklin believes.  He also says it’s wise to become a student of the industry.  Whether perusing trade publications or picking the brains of co-workers, the Carat topper stresses continual self-improvement for those striving to climb the corporate cliff.  For Carat, David Verklin has truly been worth his weight in gold.

Companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars on advertising every year in the U.S., but most marketers focus on everything except the direct object they are attempting to sway: the human brain.  Renowned author, speaker, and Millward Brown South Africa Chairman Erik de Plessis recently spoke with Brand Connections CEO Brian Martin about the mysteries of the mind and what marketers must do to impact our grey matter.

The South African native’s early experience with computer science opened a doorway into the media planning business.  He then briefly ran his own company, Impact, but quickly learned that the human brain is no mere computer.  Many historical models of marketing, du Plessis notes, were based on the idea of a hardwired mind believed to function like a machine, but contemporary research has turned several of those theories on their head.  Some of du Plessis’ work directly contributed to the reshaping of our thoughts about thinking.

In a departure from traditional thought, du Plessis’ early research into memory and recall established a new paradigm where the brain was seen as an emotional organ.  Du Plessis and his colleagues conducted one test where they surveyed people about new television advertisements shortly after their debut.  It turned out that some of the most-liked ads were also among the most remembered.  “We found that ‘ad-liking’ was the best predictor of people remembering ads,” he says.  “It’s as simple as that.”

With all the focus on target customer demographics and psychographics, it’s easy to forget that the mind of the consumer is the ultimate processor and decision maker.  Du Plessis’ book, The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising, asserts that eliciting emotion is critical to make truly memorable marketing.  The 2005 publication draws heavily on Millward Brown research to conclude the strongest factor in successful marketing is whether an advertisement creates an emotional response in its target audience.  The Advertised Mind also suggests that these memorable ads sway consumers in favor of particular brands.

One significant distinction, according to du Plessis, is the line between “entertaining” ads and “emotion-evoking” ads.  A commercial without relevant information, an aspirational message, or positive product reinforcement is largely useless, he says, even if it is entertaining.  “As long as it’s not boring or confusing, it doesn’t matter whether an ad generates pleasure or pain.”  To answer Machiavelli’s timeless question with a new twist, it may be better to be feared and loved.  For marketers, it’s being remembered that’s important.

Our growing understanding of neuroscience seems to back the theory.  Throughout the course of evolution, the human brain has become more attuned at filtering out unimportant signals.  Today’s media-rich environment bombards us with more messages then ever, forcing our minds to process and dismiss unimportant signals with nearly-instantaneous speed.  The brain’s familiarity with commercials and its typical judgment of them as relatively insignificant, du Plessis says, causes us to subconsciously tune them out.  Because most marketing elicits little in the way of a pleasure or pain response, the bulk of commercials are quickly forgotten.  Unless spots emotionally engage consumers or register a potential for pain or pleasure, they are unlikely to penetrate the brain in the first place.

The key question for marketers to ask themselves, says du Plessis, is this: “at the end of the day … what do you own of somebody’s mind?”  While the human brain is not designed for “ad-liking,” du Plessis and his book offer a deeper dive into emotions and the role they play in creating effective messaging.  Unique food for thought.

Peter Drucker once said that all business is either marketing or innovation.  One privately-held company floating just beyond some radar screens is excelling at both.  In a recent interview with Brand Connections CEO Brian Martin, Jelly Belly marketing director Robert Swaigen shared his definition innovation and explored the ways it’s actively applied everyday within his organization.

While some consumers think of jelly beans as a seasonal product, the Fairfield, Calif., -based candy maker is changing minds.  The company’s creative flavor engineers have launched 50 “official” flavored jelly beans, in addition to numerous concept taste teasers.  Jelly Belly boasted more new product introductions in 2006 for the category than Nestlé, Mars or Hershey.  A no-holds-barred attitude has helped nurture such creativity.

“Innovation is really why I’m here,” according to the Director of Marketing.  “This is such a fun place to work because there are very few barriers to at least exploring ideas that may not even see the light of day at other companies.”  He also emphasizes the positive role of the company’s private ownership and a corporate attitude that values long-term growth over quarterly sales success.  Swaigen praises the collaborative work environment and intermediate company size for giving Jelly Belly employees significant resources, interactivity and flexibility.

Jelly Belly is the clear jelly bean category leader, but the greater challenge is to increase its overall market share of the non-chocolate category.  “Our product is really a year-round product and we get a nice sales spike at Easter, but it’s not a one-shot pony,” he says.  From a fuzzy financial foundation, Sport Beans went on to exemplify the company’s innovative energies.

“This was an opportunity to actually create a new category.  It’s not a line extension, it’s not a bigger package, it’s something brand new.” And it immediately vaulted the company into a sports performance market where traditional candy had been largely taboo.  “Real athletes know that sugar has a place in terms of sports performance.  We looked at that and said ‘Hey, I wonder if there’s something here?’” recalls Swaigen.  “We saw an opportunity to take what was sort of already happening in that inner circle of elite athletes and make it work better.”  Sport Beans’ proven effectiveness, portability, durability, ease of portion control and taste made it fast friends with many athletes.

On the other end of the functionality spectrum, Jelly Belly recently unveiled its Bean Boozled line – complete with flavors including Baby Wipes and Skunk Spray.  “It was an opportunity to almost create a kind of game out of a box of jelly beans… It’s a risk that a lot of more conservative, publicly-held companies may not be willing to take, but that’s the freedom, and that’s the opportunity [that comes from] working for Jelly Belly.”

Swaigen and the jelly bean giant aren’t content with merely debuting innovative products.  The company also embraces a complex media mix that varies from product to product.  “Jelly Belly has really built the brand in a non-traditional way,” Swaigen recounts.  Though the company is nearly 110 years old, it was President Ronald Reagan’s affinity for the product that truly launched it into the spotlight.  “There wasn’t a meeting that took place in the oval office [during the Reagan era] without a bowl of jelly beans nearby.  He definitely got us on the map.”  This public relations lesson from the Great Communicator himself is something Jelly Belly will not soon forget.

The firm’s simultaneous one-to-one marketing and product sampling push during the 1980s was also critical.  “With Jelly Belly Jelly Bean, there really is no substitute for tasting it,” says Swaigen.  The company still embraces a wide variety of venues for distribution, from 200 college campuses to various sports events tied to Sport Beans.  He also points to in-store promotions and a strong web presence as key brand and sales drivers.

The recent rise of the media investment company is also altering brand management.  “Media planning has really come to the front seat, I think, and probably is even more important than some of the account side of the business,” he believes.  “I think with the complexity of the media today, the amount of money that’s spent there, and all these new frontiers on the media side, media planning has really come into its own.” The challenge, he believes, lies in determining how and where your efforts are best rewarded.  “That’s fairly easy for more tactical marketing programs, like an eight-week promotion.  It’s a lot harder to do with more brand-building umbrella tactics, like print media for example.”  Requirements that marketers show a measurable return on investment and embrace the green movement will continue to be factors, he says.

Swaigen made his initial foray into the agency business as an assistant media planner, an experience he says prepared him for a successful career.  “I can tell you, at least when I was there, it didn’t pay much – but it’s certainly paying off now,” says Swaigen.  “I think it’s a great way to kind of get a foundation and exposure to marketing, especially to the math and quantifiable side of marketing, and I still use that experience today.”  For today’s up and comers he stresses the need to approach your job as though running your own business.  He also sees a need to seek out new opportunities while learning from both successes and failures.  Understanding the math behind the metrics, Swaigen stresses, is a final key for successful marketing.

With the diversification of media outlets and the rise of the digital age, it’s no wonder more firms are turning to Kendra Hatcher for help devising their marketing strategies.  The SVP Director of Consumer Context Planning for Mediavest makes it her business to know how consumers interact with the media and what types of marketing opportunities that presents.  She recently discussed the ins-and-outs of context planning with Brand Connections CEO Brian Martin, exploring ways her work with Coca-Cola can benefit other marketers.

In trying to understand how consumers engage with and consume media, Hatcher looks beyond the raw data.  “Traditionally people would look at time spent and go ‘You know what?  That person watches a lot of TV,’ or ‘That person is online a lot,’” according to Hatcher.  “Well, the idea is to go one step further and go ‘Well, why?’”  Pulling quantitative data from top consumer research firms (including MRI, Yankelovich, Nielsen, Simmons and Arbitron) is only one side of the coin.  Instead of doing focus groups that primarily test creative concepts or advertising campaigns, Hatcher and her peers are more likely to gather information about media contacts (which she defines as “any way that someone experiences a brand”).  “We want to know how informative that contact is, how engaging that contact is – really going deep into how persuasive that contact is in getting a person to purchase an item.”  Armed with that data, Hatcher strategizes how, when, and where to connect brands to consumers.

Her team enumerates a broadening array of up to 30 media contacts for clients, going far beyond the traditional television, radio, outdoor and print channels.  Street teams, brand mentions in song lyrics, ad-plays before movies, delivery truck branding and word of mouth are just a few of the less-considered components Hatcher cooks into her meatier media model.  One simple way to grow business is to examine your consumer research statistics, Hatcher suggests.  “Start internally,” she advises.  “Start with what you do know about your consumer and then extend.”  Some savvy marketers have discovered latent in-store marketing opportunities after crunching the numbers.

Another contemporary brand driver is pop culture.  The 40 Under 40 award-winner names reality television programming and technology as two of the major forces behind its pervasive cross-generation spread.  “You can now participate in pop culture,” she says, to the point where “you can become it.”  Growing user-participation allows the media to digest then dictate what’s popular more than ever, Hatcher adds.  But by the same token, the shortened fame cycle (down from 15 minutes to 5 minutes) makes it harder for marketers to stay ahead of consumers and continually introduce them to the next big thing.  “If we’re going to be that conduit for someone to experience pop culture then we have to always have something, know what’s next and figure out how we’re going to deliver it,” she stresses.

Harnessing the public’s “celebreality” infatuation is a pop culture hot point Hatcher shares.  One on hand she believes the angle works because celebrity’s lives really are more interesting than most, but the SVP also thinks people derive special pleasure from discovering the shortcomings of the rich and the famous.  “You shouldn’t want to see a train wreck on TV, but really you do.”  Still, Hatcher says she’d never suggest her clients substitute pop culture tie-ins for solid products and marketing techniques.  “We’re really using pop culture more as a point of connection and not as a replacement for a brand idea.”

The media observer believes American’s love affair with and propensity to consume online and mobile content is a trend that won’t fade away any time soon.  “The future will continue to be digitally driven,” says Hatcher.  “When you look at the impact of broadband, as well as consumers embracing technology and adopting it into their lifestyle so quickly now (as quickly as it can be manufactured) … who knows where it’s going to go?”  The Mediavest woman sees more advertising dollars being aimed at social networking sites and says clients in general are more willing to shift resources to web efforts.  It’s a smart move, in her book.

For Hatcher’s more junior compatriots she offers three words of advice:  Cultivate your own curiosity and encourage it in others, become an outstanding communicator, and “don’t lose sight that this is all about selling.”  Feel free to call her if you can’t come up with 30 media contacts on your own.

If you don’t crane your neck at chrome dubs or cock an ear at cranked-up bass, Jeri Yoshizu probably isn’t marketing to you.  As Scion’s Manager of Sales & Promotions, Yoshizu has a very specific target for her messages and a limited budget to attract them.  Recently nominated as one of Advertising Age’s 40 under 40 executives, her approach is as unique as Scion’s brand-building roadmap.  Brand Connections CEO and founder, Brian Martin, recently spoke with Yoshizu about the automaker’s lifestyle marketing tactics and its reliance on counterculture market movers.

With an academic background in information technology and database programming, Yoshizu worked on logistics for Toyota early in her career.  She focused on process-oriented elements at first, but the Internet age precipitated Toyota to create a web marketing division.  Her duties further evolved after Toyota Motor Corporation founded the Scion division in 2003, and Yoshizu’s responsibilities today include work on the badge’s magazines, CD’s, and events.  While such marketing tools are relatively unused among automakers, the division’s non-traditional approach is geared to attract an often jaded group.  By leveraging pop culture and understanding what’s relevant today to the 18- to 34-year-old urban male driver, Scion hopes to engage the “influencers” and “tastemakers” lurking in the demographic.  That’s where Yoshizu comes in: “I fish out and translate for corporate America, or Toyota/Scion, etc., how we can better brand ourselves to those people through those channels, whether it’s through music, through art, film, etc.”

Most marketers concern themselves with ad development for print publications and decisions regarding where to run such ads, but Scion’s team has taken it a step further.  The idea to produce its own magazine was born from a traditional brochure model.  “Whenever you see a product brochure you always see a person who’s holding a skateboard next to the car,” according to Yoshizu.  “When we were launching Scion we really realized that if we were going after an influential person they don’t want you to tell them ‘That’s you and you need this car.’”  Yoshizu and her team hatched the idea to run targeted content alongside, but independent of, standard auto descriptions.  “It worked out,” she boasts.  “We’re on [issue] No. 11 right now, and it’s been a great experience going from trying to emulate what other magazines do in media (the niche publications), to we’re now bringing content that fits …”  Scion Magazine is doing so well that outside advertisers are now clamoring to buy space in the publication, Yoshizu reports. 

It’s evident that Scion has worked hard to become a part of the culture they’re targeting (the company recently released its 18th sampler CD).  Creatively forging this relationship over time, rather than pandering to their target group, is now earning Scion the street-cred it craves.  While many marketers have jettisoned such low-tech tactics in favor of online media campaigns, Yoshizu believes Scion’s feats prove sampling, direct mailings, and promotional events are still highly relevant.  She concedes Scion’s shows may lack over-the-top glitz and glamour, but Yoshizu says it’s unimportant because their potential consumers care more about quality.  Even if the automaker could afford a top-dollar endorser they might not opt for it.  “When I hear about someone paying an agency a lot of money to have one of their clients endorse a brand it makes me cringe a little bit,” she says, noting that corporate America is now in the driver’s seat in terms of pushing careers – a stark turnaround from previous decades.

Finding those under-the-radar acts and personalities before they blow up is one of the biggest challenges the Scion marketer faces.  If MTV represents mainstream pop-culture, Yoshizu characterizes the underground elements she mines as one step below the surface, but far from unknown.  “I don’t really have a lot of associates or acquaintances that are power people way up high at a record label,” Yoshizu admits.  “I know somebody who runs a small magazine, or runs a small record label, or is the third level designer of a street wear company.  Those are the people I talk to.”  Hours spent conversing with grass-roots level folks, and a huge cell phone bill to match, help her uncover burgeoning stars.  “I don’t sit around and say ‘Oh that’s going to be the next big thing in underground.’  That’s not what I do.”  She does value the word-of-mouth endorsements volunteered by those who work with Scion, even those that never quite burst onto the scene.  It’s also interesting to note how Yoshizu filters out personalities for the brand.  She has basically instituted a zero-tolerance policy with regard to celebrity babysitting.  “I have way too many projects going on to allow [a celebrity] to disrupt the whole world …” she says. “If that person, or group, or whatever it is, is too troublesome the corporate client needs to be able to draw a line and say ‘you know what it’s just not worth it.’” 

Finally, Yoshizu preaches harmony personally and in the workplace.  “You need a positive, happy team to make things happen,” she counsels.  One must also strive to uphold the standards and excellence, execution and deliverables that govern traditional advertising, Yoshizu warms, when marketing through direct, sampling and promotional campaigns.  Her final tips: avoid campaigns that don’t pass the red face test, and be honest about your goals and ambitions relative to your skill set.  Yoshizu’s advice might just unearth a new generation of marketing achievement.