This is a great link with a very cool idea. What photo would you like to recreate? What ad would you recreate?
http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/
There is not a fine line, but a gaping hole, between leading through demands/directives with no team buy-in or feedback as opposed to allowing everyone to feel warm, good, “included” in every decision.
The military style of leadership can work with a young and very inexperienced staff – if the leader has the vision, knowledge and experience to know the path to success. Dad can’t ask all of his kids which route they want to take to get to their destination, but he better know himself, or at least stop and ask directions from experienced locals.
The “let’s include everyone” style of leadership works when you have a team of experienced people, who are all mature enough to know their own limitations and ability to contribute across a variety of subjects. It’s the job of the leader to filter the feedback and determine what is important to pursue only after consulting with the category experts either in or out of the office.
These are not black and white. Success lies in the middle. Only a true leader knows the difference between a military style and an “all in” style and when to enact each. The leaders ability to play in the middle lies between his/her own confidence and ego.
These are old ones, but great ones. Simple, yet strong. As I have stated earlier, ads that rely on the intelligence of the consumer make us all feel like we’re smarter for discovering something – even if it’s really easy. When Dora asks us for the third time where the massive green rock right next to her is, we kind of want to point at it and are somewhat happy for our glorious achievement.
Am I right?
Windows 7 was your idea?
I’m not a Apple snob or a hardcore Microsoft user. Each day I use both. I do, however, have an opinion about the new Microsoft campaign where the actor mentions that “Windows 7 was my idea”.
Here’s the rub….
Even though I understand that this is only a commercial, I don’t want the regular Joe and regular Jane thinking up what features to place in Windows. Sure, I appreciate that Microsoft wants user feedback, but as a user I want features I could never have thought of. For example, if all we did was ask regular people what they thought should be enhanced on the Sony Walkman cassette player (the iPod of its time) we would just have a better cassette player. Could the every day regular John/Jane really conceived of a small white box that holds all of your songs that you access by running your fingertip around a small wheel on the front of the player? It’s only one example, but I think you get the point.
Instead of seeing a commercial were some guy or girl tells me that Windows 7 was their idea, it would be much more convincing to me to see some (excuse me for the stereotype) skinny guy in a dark room surrounded by energy drinks, wearing glasses held together by tape and sporting a star trek shirt and using a pocket protector to hold his pens, who looked like they haven’t seen the sun or stopped developing and designing for four days straight in order to create some futuristic feature that I could never have thought of even on my best day.
I want someone much smarter than myself or the average guy on my block designing the software I use. That’s where I see this campaign fall short.
Brandweek recently published the Top 10 Product Categories for Teens based on 2008 ad spend with teen publications.
1. Apparel: $40.1M
2. Fragrances (female): $14.6M
3. Entertainment Software: $14M
4. Sporting Footwear: $10M
5. Department Store: $8.6M
6. Apparel Store: $8.6M
7. Shoes: $8.2M
8. Lipstick: $6.4M
9. Antiperspirant/Deodorant: $5M
10. Mascara $5M
Breaking through to reach teens with your apparel brand takes intelligence, direction, opinion, and a plan. Amazing that the second largest ad spend category in 2008 is almost three times lower than apparel. With teens wearing a multitude of brands – companies need to look well beyond their competitive set to ride above the noise and be heard. As action sports apparel companies continue to reach beyond beach wear, the ad spends from competitors get heavier, the research deeper, and the experience…well….more.
It’s time to place every brand that a teen wears and review their media consumption and the ads they view on the table – not just what they see in your industry.
The sound and the fury
Ever heard of the socratic method? How about using it as a management style?
Discuss?
forsenorse