tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16966472433858967922024-03-19T11:57:28.097+01:00ExtrawurstStrategy and Sausages:
A British Strategic Planner in GermanySue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.comBlogger871125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-23731317227847150692024-03-08T15:49:00.000+01:002024-03-08T15:49:27.057+01:00Just neat<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FCpibTc3uTw" width="320" youtube-src-id="FCpibTc3uTw"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>One reason that so much advertising looks identikit these days is the obsession with representation and “people who look like me.” I’ve discussed this in relation to static images already <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/time-for-altered-images.html">here</a> and <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/should-advertising-always-be-mirror.html">here</a>. With film, taken to its logical and literal extreme, the result is invariably one of those generic creations that resemble what we used to call a mood film. No story, just a series of vignettes showing different people all using the brand. </p><p>But with a distinct move back to more entertaining and humorous advertising, it’s time to look behind that mirror. After all, Alice found some pretty weird, neat and entertaining stuff there. And <i>Just Eat </i>have done just that with a delightful series of short films. Close your eyes and listen - you can probably identify with the conversation in at least one of these films. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x12tKphzs14" width="320" youtube-src-id="x12tKphzs14"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UQ8z1_UkCS4" width="320" youtube-src-id="UQ8z1_UkCS4"></iframe></div><br /><p>Maybe the voices even “sound like you” - or someone you know. Now, open your eyes - someone who “looks like you”? Unlikely, unless you get your kicks dressing up in a furry bunny costume at weekends.</p><p>These <i>Wes Anderson</i>-style puppets are the latest in a run of pretty impressive advertising from <i>Just Eat</i>. I am unfamiliar with the brand as I don’t live in the UK, but I know a good thing when I see it as far as creative goes.</p><p>Animals and brand mascots have always been a useful trick in the ad magician’s box. </p><p>Cute cats and dogs behaving (almost) naturally - either for “natural fit” brands (real life, like Arthur the white cat, or cartoon like "Cats like Felix like Felix”) or for brands where the association is built (the <i>Dulux</i> dog, the <i>Andrex</i> puppy).</p><p>Anthropomorphised animals of all sorts - again, either real or animated/puppets - the <i>Cresta</i> and <i>Hofmeister</i> bears, the <i>Duracell</i> and <i>Caramel</i> bunnies, the <i>CompareTheMeercat</i> bunch, the <i>PG Tips c</i>himps, Tony the <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/put-tiger-in-bank.html">Tiger</a> from <i>Frosties</i> ...</p><p>Or the vaguely humanoid product mascots - Bertie Bassett, the <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/logo-to-go.html">Michelin Man</a>, <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-jolly-happy-birthday.html">Mr. Peanut</a> - although these may be more vulnerable to changing times, as <i>M&Ms</i> have demonstrated.</p><p>Given the popularity of cat, dog, wombat, capybara, llama, guinea pig and marmot films on social media it’s a wonder that casting a few furry friends instead of casting around to find someone that “looks like me” hasn’t been revived earlier. </p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-65943696678243463472024-03-01T14:53:00.000+01:002024-03-01T14:53:21.695+01:00RETROWURST: Ten years in Germany March 2006<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjgx1E1L1WEjDTb1H1oM2koQKU3TF0AL0cfhKZUH4MrW9AaDsA5Cs7mwVQRpYAA1dKN0usp2hY7qGIwKygSgUmhidet-Db1j0PftUlusXp6HgKlNgAJO5Z1uFRfXBQte_sX3vXNdcQb1eQDaDNamUYnPX_cyyrFv-1tnwG4-scdmA3ZEi3NSG6zcLv_Io/s3024/TenYearsGermany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjgx1E1L1WEjDTb1H1oM2koQKU3TF0AL0cfhKZUH4MrW9AaDsA5Cs7mwVQRpYAA1dKN0usp2hY7qGIwKygSgUmhidet-Db1j0PftUlusXp6HgKlNgAJO5Z1uFRfXBQte_sX3vXNdcQb1eQDaDNamUYnPX_cyyrFv-1tnwG4-scdmA3ZEi3NSG6zcLv_Io/s320/TenYearsGermany.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>My latest delve around the <i>Extrawurst</i> archives has made me feel uncharacteristically glum. For this month’s <i>Retrowurst</i> was a personal reflection on how life in Germany had changed in the ten years since my touchdown one chilly March morning at Frankfurt airport, in 1996.</p><p>Partly because optimism was my default setting in 2006 and partly because those days really <i>were</i> more hopeful than the current grim era, this article makes me yearn for those days gone by. I characterised the changes I observed as Germany moving from its rigid, rulebound, stuffy character to something more flexible, changeable and fluid. </p><p>Shops were opening up on Saturday afternoons and evenings! </p><p>Women were on the up, even mums in the workplace, with Angela Merkel and the “extraordinary” Ursula von der Leyen in charge! </p><p>A vibrant, southeast-Europe-influenced youth culture, galaxies away from the 80s USA-influenced dull rockstar stuff was thriving!</p><p>And that’s not all!</p><p>--------------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Around about now – I can’t remember the exact date as I’m not yet <i>that</i> German – is the tenth anniversary of my arrival in Germany. Seeing that there seems to be an overkill of anniversary-celebrating in advertising here these days (this is the “can’t-think-of-a-better-idea-so-let’s-use-our-31<sup>st</sup>-anniversary-and-some-funny-nostalgia-footage-from-the-70s” school of advertising) I thought I’d join in, be a little self-indulgent and let you know what I see as the biggest change factors in Germany since I’ve been living here.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Overall, I suppose it can be summed-up that the Germans are being dragged kicking and screaming away from their rigidity, their rules and their solidity to a more flexible, changeable, fluid way of living. Of course, the rules and rigidity are still there (someone from the local <i>Ordnungsamt</i> could apparently come around at any time and ask us to dig up our laurel hedge because it’s not a plant local to Germany – just let them try that and I’ll give them what-for about flora racism!) but there have been some encouraging signs that things are becoming a little less stiff and stuffy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">From my own point of few, one of the biggest changes that symbolise this relaxation in attitude is the change in opening times for shops. When I first came here, everything shut on Saturday at 1 o’clock except for one Saturday in the month when shops shut at 4 o’clock. To be honest, I could never be bothered remembering which Saturday it was and always braved the crowds of formidable <i>Hausfrauen</i> in a sleepy haze every Saturday morning. The only places where there was an exception to this rule were petrol stations, where one could buy emergency items – I remember being viewed with complete disdain as I bought a packet of rice at five-thirty on a Saturday afternoon – or the kiosks where one can buy beer, cigarettes, newspapers and rather nasty wine. Needless to say, these have a rather dubious clientele, and you wouldn’t want to be spotted by your boss buying a couple of bottles of beer from one: it would send out all the wrong signals! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Weekday evenings were also not much better, with most shops closing at six, so you’d often have to rush out of work shortly before six, brave the queues, then dash back in to do another hour or two. Gradually, though things have changed. It’s now perfectly possible to buy food and drink until 8 in the evening without being made to feel like a social inadequate and although Sunday opening still seems a long way off, life is a lot less stressed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Maybe now that they’ve been released from queuing at the Tengelmann checkouts on Saturday mornings and have more time to do something useful and interesting could be one reason that women are (at last!) on the “up” in Germany. I can always remember how completely amazed I was when I arrived here of the conservative, chauvinistic attitude of traditional Germany towards women. I think that, from the outside, one imagines that Germany is a typical modern “Northern European” country, maybe a bit like the Scandinavian countries, in terms of its attitude to women. But my own experiences and those of friends continually proved this otherwise. Young women in Germany are perhaps lulled into a false sense of security: opportunities really are equal in terms of higher education where as many young women are at university as young men. In fact, the men are a little bit “behind” at this stage as the National or Social Service (one year to eighteen months at age 19) is only compulsory for men. And opportunities on the lower rungs of the career ladder seem to be quite fairly spread, too. But it is once women have children that the problems start.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">It is an alarming statistic that only half of women born in Germany in 1960 with a higher academic qualification have children. Children are still viewed as a career-killer for women: companies simply do not offer opportunities for senior women executives to combine family and career, childcare is inadequate and the school-system is still based on half-days where the children from 6-19 finish at noon without lunch.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">However, with Angela Merkel in power, together with her Minister for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth, the extraordinary Ursula von der Leyen (a doctor, very photogenic, seven children!), the groundswell of opinion seems to be changing. Injustice in the workplace is becoming a topic of public debate and there seem to be real efforts to drag Germany out of the 1950s (and before) in terms of attitudes to and provision for working mothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Talking of Angela Merkel brings me on to the next point. Not only is Angie female, but she is also from the former DDR which is a bit of a double whammy. When I first arrived here, the “East” were still very much the poor relatives and somewhat resented. Former West Germans grumbled about the amount of money they were shelling out to the East in taxes and the former East Germans – “Ossies” – were regarded very much as figures of fun: somewhat naïve characters with dreadful fashion sense left over from the 1980s and music taste to match. A few years later, around the early noughties, there was an acceptance that the “Ossies” were here to stay and wave of <i>Ostalgie</i> or “Eastalgia” swept the country with T-shirts sporting logos of former DDR brands, the revival of many “cult” brands and websites devoted to the whole era. Cities such as Dresden and Leipzig were actively pushed not just as tourist destinations but also as potential hosts for forthcoming events.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">These days, however, the difference, such as it was, is hardly noticed. The roads in former East Germany are every bit as good as those in the West (thanks to all those taxes, presumably) and in events like the national song contest (a bit of homage to Eurovision) it’s hard to say whether the <i>Neu</i> or <i>Altbundesländer</i> are more innovative and cutting edge when it comes to music and fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">On the subject of fashion – not that I’m an expert on youth culture anywhere at my age – it does certainly seem that the influence of the US on young people here has waned. While certain US-originated styles do seem to have an influence, the youth here take those styles and customise them locally. One good example is Hip-Hop which is more often heard here in the German language on the radio than in the original. Interestingly, it seems to be Southeast Europe that has an increasing influence on German youth culture. With large immigrant populations from former Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania and of course Turkey, German middle-class youth has real life “ghettoes and gangsters” in the neighbourhood with plenty of language and dress codes with which to shock traditional parents.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">While the kids are getting nicely integrated into Southeast European ways, the rest of the population seems largely happy with closer ties within Europe as a whole. While there was plenty of grumbling about the Euro and how everything had been marked up (ooh, it’s just the same in Euros as in Marks – no pun intended) for the first couple of years, one has the feeling now that people are beginning to see the benefits. It certainly seems to have eased traveling within other Euro countries for many people: driving through Europe these days you hardly notice the borders and you often find yourself asking what country you’re in!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">The common currency and a few common “enemies” – not least the war-mongering politicians of certain nations - do seem to have united the people of Germany closer with their immediate neighbours. There is a definite feeling of <i>Camaraderie</i> or I suppose I should say <i>Bruderschaft</i> around, especially in places like the Ryan Air airports. The cheap air travel has also contributed to this Eurocentricity, and popping off to Jerez, Montpelier or Milan for the weekend has become as affordable as taking the family to the nasty theme park half an hour down the road. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">These are just some of the signs I’ve seen over the last ten years of Germany losing its stuffiness and rigidity. I’m sure there are many others and I’ll keep my eyes and ears open too over the next ten years.</span></p><p>-------------------------------</p><p>Well, 18 years on, I <i>am </i>German. The shops are still firmly shut on Sundays and <i>Segmüller</i> still runs dire 131st anniversary radio ads. Some things carried on getting better, such as the lot of working mums, but sadly, too late for me. </p><p>National Service has been abolished, but how long before it’s revived in the current war-ridden mess?</p><p>What’s of concern is that some things seem to be going backwards - or rather towards a new and different form of stiffness, rigidity and lack of openness. One rule book has been torn up, but there’s a weird new one in place, written by fear. The former East German states are strongholds for the <i>AfD</i> and other extremists of various shades.</p><p>And a thousand and one articles about Germany - The Sick Man of Europe. The less I say about Ursula von der Leyen, the better.</p><p>Maybe the answer is to dig out my 2006-tinted glasses and philosophise that perhaps a step or two backwards is inevitably the way forward.</p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-56786049406116122302024-02-26T16:26:00.001+01:002024-02-26T16:26:23.049+01:00Can ostriches fly?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOr1pJHKFXpaPw56UTFXLZ8qK3b2zceR-_hfltKpb0XmHVzP4ZK8b1Fls60P87bKMWH5ChvIV6skNPxSqUuUcgD02rp7MqnjlKmyivUWb8wmIW8jBPWOdiYr1vWhIOL6mVfzQuS7qpoSfbh39SvLMakqtg0ikZV0Ubp1dkW_iKcSlUkvHpYD6hwEnycYM/s3024/EngelbertStraussTrousers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOr1pJHKFXpaPw56UTFXLZ8qK3b2zceR-_hfltKpb0XmHVzP4ZK8b1Fls60P87bKMWH5ChvIV6skNPxSqUuUcgD02rp7MqnjlKmyivUWb8wmIW8jBPWOdiYr1vWhIOL6mVfzQuS7qpoSfbh39SvLMakqtg0ikZV0Ubp1dkW_iKcSlUkvHpYD6hwEnycYM/s320/EngelbertStraussTrousers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Next time I’m asked which is my favourite brand, I’ll be tempted to name <i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/local-retail-hero.html">Engelbert Strauss</a>. </i>I listened in to the <i><a href="https://omr.podigee.io/694-henning-strauss">OMR Podcast</a></i> last week, where magaing director Henning Strauss was the guest. Now, the first thing that hit me in the face about this brand is how extraordinary its success has been. </p><p>From the early 2000s to now, sales have multiplied tenfold, from ca. €100m to ca. €1bn. The company has grown from 100 co-workers to around 1,600 today. That would be impressive enough for some Berlin tech start-up. But for a family firm based in Biebergemünd, deepest Hessen, who started off selling brushes and brooms?</p><p>A lot is down to the business model, which was the right one at the right time. How much is by design and how much chance and smart choices in the circumstances is hard to say. The fact is that the huge bulk of sales come from <i>Engelbert Strauss’s </i>own online channel. Throughout the company’s history, from the brooms and brushes on, it’s been direct selling, with no wholesalers involved. We call it D2B and D2C these days, and it’s done online rather than mail order or knocking on doors, but the principle hasn’t changed.</p><p>A catalogue as the main communication medium? A firm HQ in the middle of nowhere, that few have heard of? I can think of plenty of parallels with <i>IKEA. </i>Could Biebergemünd set up town-twinning with Älmhult? When I worked with <i>IKEA, </i>the spirit of <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/tack-ingvar.html">Ingvar Kamprad</a> was ever-present. It was a matter of pride that Ingvar always trusted his instincts rather than doing things by the “Best Practice in Management” book. And there’s a lot of following instinct at <i>Engelbert Strauss</i>, too. Henning Strauss’s period of study in LA had a huge emphasis on the decision to expand into the US. But more on that later.</p><p>So many companies bang on about their “Authentic Culture” these days, but family and roots you can’t fake. Ask <i>IKEA</i>, ask <i>Engelbert Strauss</i>. The family have always rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in with the daily business. Henning Strauss referred to the Biebergemünd HQ as their “extended living room” and the logo as “the family coat of arms.” And this democratic culture, like that of <i>IKEA</i>, can be summed up by the idea of a local hero who’s open to the world. When the company calls its customers, they can see the 0 60 50 Biebergemünd dialling code. It’s a <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/307644/the-road-to-somewhere-by-goodhart-david/9780141986975">Somewhere brand that is at home Anywhere</a>. </p><p>Business model, culture - the other <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> success factor is a biggie. Customers - relationship and psychology. The brand’s core customers are crafts- and trades- people. And what is clear about everything that <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> does is that it’s done with understanding of and respect for people who do, build, make, repair, maintain. Not just that, but elevating and celebrating <i>Handwerk</i> as <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/search?q=maintenance">something noble and praiseworthy</a>. This all starts with the attention to detail that goes into product design - a typical pair of work trousers from <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> is made from 200 individual components. And that respect goes right through to the marketing. Partnerships and sponsorships are deliberately chosen not just for reach, but to reflect the core customer group interests - football, handball, egaming and heavy metal in the form of <i>Metallica. </i></p><p><i>Engelbert Strauss</i> is not just a workwear brand today. It’s a lifestyle brand, worn by off-duty doctors, dog walkers and kindergarten kids. And freelance strategic planners (see above). The brand has ticked the Mark Ritson boxes to get where it’s got. Distinctiveness: name of founder with “quirky” potential outside DE, red & white ostrich logo. Full marks. And Relative Differentiation - not the only workwear brand, but certainly the “quality German engineering” one. </p><p>These are internally-driven factors that have powered the success of <i>Engelbert Strauss</i>. There are broader human societal trends that have put a bit of turbo behind that. One is the recognition of and yearning for Real Work, which became clear to all in the pandemic. Without essential workers, everything ground to a halt. The people who can’t work from home, the people <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313407/head-hand-heart-by-goodhart-david/9780141990415">who work with hand and heart as well as head were our heroes</a>. And so should they be.</p><p>AI can take over much of office work, generating content, speeding up mundane tasks. But can an AI-powered robot replicate the intrictate brain-hand coordination of an aircraft mechanic? No way. And learning a craft or trade is becoming more aspirational. Maybe it’s because the generation who grew up on <i>Super Mario</i> and <i>Bob the Builder</i> are now finding their way in the world of work. Young people are questioning whether an apprenticeship may be a more useful start in life than studying for years, running up a huge debt with no guarantee of a good job at the end of it. </p><p>For those of us still stuck behind a desk, the more time we spend in the digital world, the more we yearn to get stuck into the physical world with our hands. Make, create, build - do something positive that won’t be lost in the cloud of ephemera. And pulling on a pair of <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> trousers has a psychological effect. You immediately feel more practical, more competent, more of a capable pair of hands. </p><p>The final trend is the changing meaning of <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/macho-metamorphosis.html">masculinity</a>. While <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> is for everyone, its core is the adult male worker. And here, maybe the brand represents a positive, timely antidote to macho-macho and toxic masculinity. Constructiveness, grit, competence, ingenuity, down-to-earthness, honesty and yes-we-can-ness. These are all values that sit comfortably with <i>Engelbert Strauss. </i></p><p>The latest news from <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> is the US expansion. There are a few challenges with the market, just as there were for <i>IKEA</i>. Two huge competitors in the form of <i><a href="https://www.dickies.com">Dickies</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.carhartt.com/de/de-de">Carhartt</a></i>. The potential confusion with another famous <i>Strauss</i> who pioneered workwear in the USA in the 19th century. And, what the heck has that ostrich got to do with workwear anyway?</p><p>Ah, back to the ostrich. It’s obvious that <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> are not hiding any heads in sand. But can ostriches fly? Henning Strauss made it clear in the podcast that he’s not looking to be snapped up by an investor, and expansion is being kept within limits.</p><p>Maybe the question is more whether the ostrich wants to fly. Back to the topic of relative differentiation, being flightless means that the ostrich is the heaviest and largest bird on earth. And the fastest on land, with an impressive running speed of 70 km/h. Running, I understand, is far more energy-efficient than flying.</p><p>The ostrich’s wings aren’t used to fly. But they do have a role in balance, for courtship displays and for shade. It’s all about adaptation - something <i>Engelbert Strauss</i> are masters at. By design or intuition, head, hand or heart - who knows? But it works.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIV7lirgH-ep0BqJWGa-rds1oRIXBVo9ftfiwI93qb-p9P14W-5QhvDkil5dTWiZwMgkdDHkkBFLlTTW5Qv13WN53lLl5fcoGYQnoDgJthjhuGzDOfFNCVFEIzTFRG_qy4Avz60pqvfLkqvAP1I4soHKc1H8lhuVd4geylu4ASYYikyNAWf78I_TRdTXg/s2048/EngelbertStraussLAStoreExterior.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIV7lirgH-ep0BqJWGa-rds1oRIXBVo9ftfiwI93qb-p9P14W-5QhvDkil5dTWiZwMgkdDHkkBFLlTTW5Qv13WN53lLl5fcoGYQnoDgJthjhuGzDOfFNCVFEIzTFRG_qy4Avz60pqvfLkqvAP1I4soHKc1H8lhuVd4geylu4ASYYikyNAWf78I_TRdTXg/s320/EngelbertStraussLAStoreExterior.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Engelbert Strauss LA Store exterior</i></div><br /><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-43857991271996744472024-02-12T21:36:00.001+01:002024-02-12T21:36:50.171+01:00Mixed up, muddled up, shook up world<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lYkRpX094ofM7yeCJEX6mhdwhZGL9cB8LKEzjEPNsag5EKygWInrbM-VSckHnxWbPvBXQzpQrp0Hh0TlwTZy_rjhhAbPGqeuro2k15fD3qN3KwEVJJt3pDDORfvl1HncxSB6isd_-TuFjcDBrqyJDJpZsSUQzxQz-jM30fluRMzTkJRUjcq5DEFsIvc/s1772/Bild_01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="1772" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lYkRpX094ofM7yeCJEX6mhdwhZGL9cB8LKEzjEPNsag5EKygWInrbM-VSckHnxWbPvBXQzpQrp0Hh0TlwTZy_rjhhAbPGqeuro2k15fD3qN3KwEVJJt3pDDORfvl1HncxSB6isd_-TuFjcDBrqyJDJpZsSUQzxQz-jM30fluRMzTkJRUjcq5DEFsIvc/s320/Bild_01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I had a lucky childhood.</p><p>I grew up believing I could do anything or be anything I wanted. If I set my mind to it hard enough.</p><p>At the age of 3 or so (above) I was convinced I was a dog.</p><p>I wasn’t at all concerned about whether I was a male dog or a female dog - it seemed irrelevant. I didn’t have any dolls - just a pack of furry toys. Many of them were dogs.</p><p>My hair was cut short and I tended to wear my brother’s hand-me-downs. It was a question of practicality. I did have a blue party dress with a sticking-out skirt, which I hated wearing. Not because it was a dress, but because it was itchy.</p><p>The boys’ clothes continued into my teens. I grew my hair a bit longer in the 70s, but so did my brother and most of the boys I knew. I do remember us getting muddled up by an elderly relative, who’d thought “the boy was the older one.” He was in purple cords, I was in a <i>Ben Sherman</i> shirt and jeans. We thought it was funny, a bit subversive. </p><p>If you look at photos of groups of young people in the late 60s, 70s and 80s, the boys and girls look pretty similar. From Woodstock to the New Romantics. I dug out what I think must be a book to accompany an exhibition, entitled <i>14:24 British Youth Culture</i>. It was published in 1986.</p><p>You can see the effect in these photos of punks and skinheads by Nick Knight.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVzssBIksiVqqd9vqYUXifWQjV-8KVGehPOpsX986boy_ZgoYoWcu6h5JaoPP5OgwwbNHdeUd7_Ci3lk4LgDhxC_K05RUpwDCRR6yP7OhhkyKLYKBFvcVdCRQexKPRRGb3KOTKrR6QsshxM91M8WvPSGtYrFuxi1Tqx5b_olceeU8cA1fAecMRJDFLIIg/s6882/PunksBritishYouthCulture.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6882" data-original-width="4960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVzssBIksiVqqd9vqYUXifWQjV-8KVGehPOpsX986boy_ZgoYoWcu6h5JaoPP5OgwwbNHdeUd7_Ci3lk4LgDhxC_K05RUpwDCRR6yP7OhhkyKLYKBFvcVdCRQexKPRRGb3KOTKrR6QsshxM91M8WvPSGtYrFuxi1Tqx5b_olceeU8cA1fAecMRJDFLIIg/s320/PunksBritishYouthCulture.jpeg" width="231" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_c8A85octQUKOEQnHuFmcK7RaYWw2qVo80I2kyZREjDj7d-1wTzmCRZK4MnnXKLMBpDNaYpyAccqEFuaIT3fHBCpo1fi54poi_K4XJGmqfM7zY3eggT4sGcQRup7YJnLZ8GNEOaz9WbGc0iw_j2LBIur180mz_x8LMXlVJ7Ri8TlLQotsVcPrXZJf1jw/s6882/SkinheadsBritishYouthCulture.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6882" data-original-width="4960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_c8A85octQUKOEQnHuFmcK7RaYWw2qVo80I2kyZREjDj7d-1wTzmCRZK4MnnXKLMBpDNaYpyAccqEFuaIT3fHBCpo1fi54poi_K4XJGmqfM7zY3eggT4sGcQRup7YJnLZ8GNEOaz9WbGc0iw_j2LBIur180mz_x8LMXlVJ7Ri8TlLQotsVcPrXZJf1jw/s320/SkinheadsBritishYouthCulture.jpeg" width="231" /></a></div><br /><p>But something started happening just after my son was born, in 2000. When he was small, our house was a sea of yellow, blue and red plastic. I bought his clothes from flea markets.</p><p>But I did start noticing that the brand new toddlers’ clothes in <i>H&M </i>were sectioned off into “boys” and “girls”. For “Mummy’s little man” and “Daddy’s princess."</p><p>And <i>Lego</i> had started producing rather “girly” toys.</p><p>And our neighbours/fellow primary school parents would have parties where men and women sat in different rooms. Or even “women/men only” parties. This latter phenomenon I initially (rather snobbishly) put down to class or maybe educational level. Or possibly even an age thing, although this seemed unlikely as it didn’t seem to reflect any kind of progress.</p><p>And that “Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars” book started a whole industry of pop-gender-psychology. Excerpts from 1950s publications coursed around the internet, demonstrating how dreadful life was for women in the 20th century. I found these somewhat suspect - my mum had two degrees and was better academically qualified than my dad.</p><p>Ten years ago, we had the whole<a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/sugar-spice-slugs-and-snails.html"> full-blown pink glitter pony stuff spilling from the kindergarten into adult life. </a> </p><p>And then came the whole #MeToo thing, the victim/oppression/patriarchy stuff and the omnipresent adjective “toxic.” </p><p>I wondered why on earth I’d want to join a “women only” group from my college, that I’d deliberately chosen because it was mixed. <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/is-segregation-progress.html">And whether segregation really is progress. </a></p><p>This data, published recently in the <i><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998">Financial Times</a>, </i>didn’t really surprise me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6bdLgPSOZdW_LgFW-SixgEzk0gLzo77UWQ_hD926DZ1ap8_wS9TRP_dG4ji-GE4IAg1HdiYArSEIWkzyUEfwsP69y1cmO5zno8iJs4WFTsD5teGfkF96FrpXmb8M8Jje_tOOLG-xNXXgBpy9xdlAVadWDCZqlZrgPmgnR4eHir_lQzoWAPoX2vhslWpg/s800/1706517891292.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="800" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6bdLgPSOZdW_LgFW-SixgEzk0gLzo77UWQ_hD926DZ1ap8_wS9TRP_dG4ji-GE4IAg1HdiYArSEIWkzyUEfwsP69y1cmO5zno8iJs4WFTsD5teGfkF96FrpXmb8M8Jje_tOOLG-xNXXgBpy9xdlAVadWDCZqlZrgPmgnR4eHir_lQzoWAPoX2vhslWpg/s320/1706517891292.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>But some of the extreme reactions I saw on <i>LinkedIn</i> certainly did. A lot of screeching about how this is evidence that all young men are unredeemable sexist and racist bastards.</p><p>Still, I can look forward with optimism. I hear there’s a brilliant new invention called “gender-neutral clothing” for children.</p><p>Whatever will they think of next?</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-10476722754523462292024-02-01T16:26:00.003+01:002024-02-01T16:26:24.666+01:00RETROWURST: Money February 2006<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Lf3yZS2YOLQeOriyNnc7sZH2MKfzHIiaiudRAc41rxEkpzWXxH0RHyDWooSZQrb8UCn49etcisHJMkwHC5NsPHiboWZ3-VqthpZk6iS6EEgHMHiySM6YYaCpeAkUiTQlTur-T8kmzpcLOgZRIVqPWOcpmwR2d6RFcRbOr5_Cx_uBxpW11FihiiHYyts/s3024/IMG_3146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Lf3yZS2YOLQeOriyNnc7sZH2MKfzHIiaiudRAc41rxEkpzWXxH0RHyDWooSZQrb8UCn49etcisHJMkwHC5NsPHiboWZ3-VqthpZk6iS6EEgHMHiySM6YYaCpeAkUiTQlTur-T8kmzpcLOgZRIVqPWOcpmwR2d6RFcRbOr5_Cx_uBxpW11FihiiHYyts/s320/IMG_3146.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Today I discovered a lost world. That of German banks eighteen years ago. Things have changed and not necessarily for the better. Take a time-trip back to my <i>Extrawurst </i>from February 2006 and discover why <i>Kredit</i> was one of the dirtiest words in the German language. The Germans have plenty of new dirty words these days, mostly stolen from us or our US friends, which is not encouraging. Back then, I wrote about the big banks with their impressive Frankfurt skyscrapers, and their intimidating but competent advisors. The reassuring air of stuffiness and formality, coupled with the persistence of the personal touch, the reluctance to go online and digital with it all.</p><p>---------------------------------------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The time has come, today, to tackle one of the dirtiest words in the German language. It’s not the word <i>Scheiße </i>or <i>Schweinhund</i> but a rather inoffensive looking and sounding little six letter word: <i>Kredit</i>. Along with looking at the reasons why this is a word so loaded with negative meaning, I’ll have a go at trying to get behind some general German views on all things money and finance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">I used to live in Frankfurt where one of the defining features or iconic elements is the skyline, which is dominated by Frankfurt (and Germany’s) leading banks, all vying with each other to see who can build the tallest skyscraper. Since the late 1990s, the Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and rivals have also been joined by the European Central Bank, the spawning ground (if you like) of the Euro. It is actually quite difficult to get away from money in Frankfurt: on every corner is a bank or at least a <i>Geldautomat</i> and even if you do escape to one of the Olde Worlde <i>Apfelwein </i>pubs in <i>Alt Sachsenhausen, </i>one quick glance skywards will bring you back to the world of money, even if your neighbours at the table aren’t bankers (which would be unusual.).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The German banks, particularly the “big boys” such as the Deutsche Bank (<a href="http://www.deutsche-bank.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.deutsche-bank.de</a> ), Dresdner Bank (<a href="http://www.dresdner-bank.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.dresdner-bank.de</a> ) and Commerzbank (<a href="http://www.commerzbank.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.commerzbank.de</a>) tend to be, on the surface, somewhat intimidating and less immediately approachable than their UK equivalents. One still gets the feeling, which is reflected in their web presence to some extent, that there will be no chummy banter here and one should really put on a suit when going to the bank, even if it’s just to make a simple money transfer. Although the big banks have moved with the times to some extent, there still seems to be some feeling of stuffiness and formality. However, one can sense a pattern here that is very similar to that of relationships in general in Germany: these tend to develop slowly, step-by-step, until the no-turning-back-friend-for-life stage of “<i>du-sing”</i> is attained. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Although one doesn’t get all the chummy, jokey, for-God’s sake we’re-not-boring-and-we’re gonna-prove-it attitude of UK banks in Germany, we also don’t get the call centres and never speaking to the same person twice that we are beset with in the UK (I know, I still have a UK bank account.) In Germany, everyone has an advisor assigned to them at their own branch, with a direct phone line, regardless of whether you have a couple of thousand Euros or a few billion. These advisors really do get to know you and your preferences when it comes to accessibility of your money, what kind of investments suit you and what your future plans are, which is particularly important in a country where everyone is rapidly having to seek alternatives to the state for health insurance, pensions and the rest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">While the big three banks dominate the skyline of Frankfurt, most Germans actually have their account at the local <i>Sparkasse</i> or savings bank (<a href="http://www.sparkasse.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.sparkasse.de</a> ), <i>Volksbank </i>or Co-op bank (<a href="http://www.volksbank.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.volksbank.de</a> ) or the Postbank (<a href="http://www.postbank.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.postbank.de</a> ). While these banks may be a little less intimidating than the big three, they are never-the-less places of seriousness and formality. In fact, when Germans are asked about which qualities or values are important in choosing a bank, trustworthiness, serious and solid reputation and flexible to my personal needs are the top three criteria, with modernity and friendliness seen as “nice to have” but not critical. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Although the banks do seem to have moved with the times, the use of services such as on-line banking is still relatively low in Germany and the idea of physically visiting the bank to make transactions still a very popular one. Even cash dispensers seemed to take longer to catch on here and one feels that there is a huge underlying mistrust of finance and banking conducted by anything other than real people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">This brings me on, of course, to that dirty word: <i>Kredit.</i> While things have improved over the last ten years, when I first came to Germany, I was astounded by the unacceptability of plastic generally. To buy a major item, one either had to pay in cash or write out a number of cheques, each of which had a maximum value of DM 400 in those days. Credit cards were scorned and frowned upon almost as much as if one came up with a begging bowl. Again, the distrust seems to stem from a very direct relationship that Germans seem to have about money: carrying large wads of cash around or openly discussing with strangers the cost of your house or car are not seen in any way as vulgar displays but rather as an honest, straightforward approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Credit cards are still barely accepted today. Visitors to Germany are often surprised and embarrassed that restaurants turn their noses up even at Mastercard and VISA. And the Mastercard and VISA cards here tend to be cards that are paid off within 4-8 weeks, so not real credit cards at all! Mastercard did themselves no favours with the German public by making the World Cup tickets draw only accessible to Mastercard holders. However, a step in the right direction, to win the Germans’ trust in plastic money has been made in the last few years with the introduction of the “ec card”, a form of direct debit card that doubles as a cash card that is issued by most banks. But to think that this has only been in general use for the last 5 years or so is astounding.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Part of the disgust for credit cards may well come from the fact that they are seen as coming from profligate and decadent lands, such as the US and UK. Perhaps if one of the big German banks could introduce a very serious, trustworthy and solid credit card (maybe made a bit thicker than “your flexible friend”) that signaled control and financial acumen instead of profligacy when you took it out of your wallet, they could be onto a real money-spinner.</span></p><p>---------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Things probably started to go sour in that fateful year 2008. The <i>Dresdner Bank </i>was acquired by the <i>Commerzbank</i> in May 2009. </p><p>What do we have now? Blowing up cash machines seems to be a national hobby. Bank branches are disappearing faster than tigers. I’m reduced to asking for cashback at the supermarket more often than not. While Covid speeded up the move to a cashless society, there are plenty of flies in the ointment - local independent shops and restaurants who don’t take cards - and who can blame them?</p><p>I’m still hanging on in there with the <i>Commerzbank</i> in the hope that things will get better, but I’ve been let down by them far too often, with the resulting loss of trust. Frying pan and fire come to mind.</p><p>Still, things aren’t quite as dire as they are in the UK. But that’s another story. </p><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-25804530004355566432024-01-25T14:52:00.002+01:002024-01-25T14:52:33.521+01:00Status Quid<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kbyMOpbQ_MQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="kbyMOpbQ_MQ"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>If any British retailer represents the Status Quo, it’s <i>Marks & Spencer. </i>That’s why I was a little taken aback, then rather tickled, to see this <i>TikTok</i> ad which seems to have upset the Status Quo of the advertising world.</p><p>The origins of the film are interesting. <i>Campaign </i>rather sniffily just refers to it being “in-house”. But what actually happened is that <i>M&S</i> have been giving their store managers autonomy to do their own thing on social media for a while now. One young store manager - the chap who appears at the beginning of this video, who’d been doing his own <i>TikToks</i> for a while - put up his idea via the digital equivalent of the old-fashioned staff suggestions box.</p><p>Advertising types in trendy parts of London, predictably, find the result quite ghastly. And yes, it is cheesier than the counters of all the <i>M&S Food</i> stores put together, but that is its charm. Why is <i>Barbie</i> acceptable cheesiness, while this is not? </p><p>But even worse than the creative types tearing out their rainbow hair are the pompous planners on their high horses about branding. I am at a loss to understand how this little film - it’s hardly a multi-million image campaign - can be detrimental to the brand.</p><p>The message is highly relevant to our current “counting the pennies” situation. It shows that the brand knows exactly where people are.</p><p>The jollity and exuberance of band, staff, influencers and customers will surely attract a few more people in-store rather than ordering online.</p><p>Francis Rossi and his band are just as much a national treasure as Twiggy, Dawn French or any of the many <i>M&S </i>spokespeople - best of British and unafraid to take the p*ss out of themselves.</p><p>And the beauty of it is - as with top-notch humour - it unites people across generations. Rather like this rather more spectacular ad from Australia:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V1e0apyGASc" width="320" youtube-src-id="V1e0apyGASc"></iframe></div><br />If Francis Rossi rakes in enough money to get a new guitar, I won’t begrudge him that.<p></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-46973914269043032922024-01-15T16:15:00.000+01:002024-01-15T16:15:22.690+01:00Old, new, borrowed and blue - or purple<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ttwa2-gg_fmHWEsaJWzmLYbOLcdncNdIZX34ykJrFJ4R_xO3wM5uJ6G2F2Qmh-ANRv2FGrQT8aaRehx6zYqTdsZgJUvz7whTpsZIbdrj3XsRUZZSa7Q13nNgpkbxjkSdqcANYQCXYSsJNjjlkEithofO9mpMla83wbW_AehRDjfBSad7dBI5uLIQe4A/s485/CadburyPackaging.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ttwa2-gg_fmHWEsaJWzmLYbOLcdncNdIZX34ykJrFJ4R_xO3wM5uJ6G2F2Qmh-ANRv2FGrQT8aaRehx6zYqTdsZgJUvz7whTpsZIbdrj3XsRUZZSa7Q13nNgpkbxjkSdqcANYQCXYSsJNjjlkEithofO9mpMla83wbW_AehRDjfBSad7dBI5uLIQe4A/s320/CadburyPackaging.jpg" width="317" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>One of my favourite German ads from last year was this 1980s extravaganza from <i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/ist-der-neu-recycling-ads.html">Perwoll</a>. </i>And little did I know it last March, but this heralded a rather nifty “practice what you preach” trend in the ad world. Ad recycling. </p><p><i>Mars</i> went all-out for it with their <i><a href="https://sustainablebrands.com/read/marketing-and-comms/mars-reuses-ads-reduce-climate-impacts-communication?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_231204">Healthy Planet Productions Campaign</a> , </i>where well-loved ads for <i>M&Ms, Twix </i>and <i>Bounty </i>have been repurposed to draw attention to the carbon impact of advertising and get some new messages across about climate change. All while saving on production costs to client coffers and planet. </p><p>The other bit of good news about this is that <i>System1</i>, suppported by Mark Ritson, have long <a href="https://www.marketingweek.com/study-ad-effectiveness-does-not-decline/">been casting doubt on the marketer’s bugbear of “wearout"</a>. If an ad is any good, it might still do your brand good 19 years later, rather like one of the Princess Royal’s outfits, which never seem to wear out.</p><p>Recycled and repurposed items made it onto the Christmas wish list for many responsible citizens. And responsibly-minded clients got recycled ads. If not the specific execution, then at least the idea - such as <i>Cadbury’s</i> extending their previous year’s campaign into OOH media.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8doARrlLbiI" width="320" youtube-src-id="8doARrlLbiI"></iframe></div><br /><p>And then there was the heartwarming recycling of the <i>Shake ’n’ Vac</i> song, or <i>Double Diamond works wonders </i>and other<i> </i>jingles from the past as reminiscence therapy for dementia patients via <i>Heart </i>radio and <i>The Wayback Project. </i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i95rBkZuRZc" width="320" youtube-src-id="i95rBkZuRZc"></iframe></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p>And the trend shows no sign of abating. This rather wonderful film from <i>Cadbury’s </i>(again) is not really a direct recycle, more a mix of old, new, borrowed and blue. Or is that purple?</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2eO8VNjYqRM" width="320" youtube-src-id="2eO8VNjYqRM"></iframe></div><br /><p>What’s clever here is that it not only reinterprets the original <i>Cadbury’s Mum’s Birthday</i> ad ... but it also borrows from a rich school of “heritage” ads - something that the Brits do particularly well:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S4tFzuFGUOI" width="320" youtube-src-id="S4tFzuFGUOI"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qqxY7iLkbmc" width="320" youtube-src-id="qqxY7iLkbmc"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9TO8i7W7dcI" width="320" youtube-src-id="9TO8i7W7dcI"></iframe></div><br /><p>Some may bemoan the lack of creativity and originality here, but I beg to disagree. Choosing exactly the right combination of familiar and surprising elements for these films is an art.</p><p>Could 2024 be the year of the Circular Adconomy?</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-72084372275173319672024-01-02T14:39:00.003+01:002024-01-02T14:39:32.553+01:00RETROWURST: Drogerie Wars January 2006<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0VB37vdSUoWezEdKeaNyjTF1FXDR9IU-dJx5u0-fx1xjfLVetcGvLPdfLu2NVcX36XQKsZIaRLahB7MP2_jJHQfFQYpB8X98vI6L3Y2nFLHWdgipRL_SNiQXW0TaPA4dnCTSXtGZlC8vxvsQ-PjoCG4mhXsg-vTXUZjaKnb9RWaWXIBEovrGDM1B-VA/s3024/IMG_3120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0VB37vdSUoWezEdKeaNyjTF1FXDR9IU-dJx5u0-fx1xjfLVetcGvLPdfLu2NVcX36XQKsZIaRLahB7MP2_jJHQfFQYpB8X98vI6L3Y2nFLHWdgipRL_SNiQXW0TaPA4dnCTSXtGZlC8vxvsQ-PjoCG4mhXsg-vTXUZjaKnb9RWaWXIBEovrGDM1B-VA/s320/IMG_3120.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I’ve just done my first shopping trip of the year in <i>dm</i> - I couldn’t quite face all the eager beavers buying groceries just yet. Maybe - as I wrote in this piece 18 years ago - there is indeed something calming about the <i>dm</i> shopping experience that’s just right to get you back into the swing of things.</p><p>------------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">To start off the New Year, my first Extrawurst for 2006 will take the theme of “drugstore wars”. Before we get into the armies involved, I probably need to just say a little bit about German drugstores themselves. First of all <i>Drogerie</i> or “drugstore” is a bit of a misnomer. A <i>Drogerie</i> is really not the place to go looking for a quick way to deal with that New Year <i>Schnapps-</i>induced hangover as the strongest drugs one is likely to find in these places are herbal teas. <i>Drogeries</i> do not sell anything classed as a medicine, although they do sell a very wide range of herbal remedies and teas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The main product categories on sale in a <i>Drogerie</i> in addition to the herbal remedies are beauty products of all sorts, household goods, paper goods, baby foods and pet foods. In addition, you may also find baby and children’s clothing, seasonal knick-knacks and decorations, toys and some food and beverages. There may well be shop-in-shop stands, such as Tchibo or services for films and mobile phones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Now, you may well be thinking “Aha! Boots!” but somehow the <i>Drogerie</i> has much less of a feeling of competence and trust than Boots and more a feeling of a sort of health-and-beauty bazaar. Even Superdrug has a more serious feel to it than these German <i>Drogeries</i> as they at least have some element of pharmaceutical competence. Because anything to do with medicines comes under the very serious business of the <i>Apotheke</i>, the German drugstores have an image more akin to their supermarket cousins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Of course, most large supermarkets have a section where one can buy all the products one would normally find in a <i>Drogerie </i>but many people prefer to do a separate shop at the drugstore as a greater range is offered and, quite often, lower prices. <i>Drogeries</i> can be found in both high street/shopping centre and out-of-town locations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">So, onto the combatants in the drugstore war. First we have the Drugstore King- Schlecker. Schlecker celebrated 30 years of business in 2005 and is among Germany’s Top 25 family-owned businesses. The billionaire owner, Herr Anton Schlecker is up there in the ranks with Germany’s other kings of discount- Theo and Karl Albrecht (Aldi) and Dieter Schwarz (Lidl). Herr Schlecker, who collects exclusive sports cars in his spare time, started his business 30 years ago in Baden Württemburg, South Germany, on very clear low cost principles to which he has remained true to this day. The business has grown to a €6.55 bn turnover concern employing 50,300 people. Schlecker have been awarded a Superbrand 2005 award from N-TV and Handelsblatt, presumably based on their uncompromising “no-frills” approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Schlecker’s principles all relate to a philosophy of “low cost at (almost) any cost”. Schlecker rent out the cheapest of locations for their stores, often snapping up unattractive locations that other retailers have turned their noses up at. The stores carry a range of only 4,000 articles and constantly kick out lines that don’t sell. Walking into a Schlecker store, you will probably be reminded of the Eastern bloc in the bad old days: everything is basic, from the stark blue/white logo to the chilly warehouse “atmosphere”. Schlecker are frequently pulled up on accusations of not treating employees particularly well and not making much effort towards a pleasant working environment but Herr Schlecker’s retort is usually that he is continually providing 1000s of new jobs in Germany and other parts of Europe while others are laying staff off.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Although Schlecker pioneered and developed its Home Shopping service ahead of many other retailers, the website remains a horror for the eyes. You can marvel at this for yourself on <a href="http://www.schlecker.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.schlecker.de</a> and see that that lack of aesthetic sensitivity in the stores is translated into the website. However, for the loyal customers, low prices are worth the somewhat unpalatable “shopping experience” and Schlecker is estimated to hold 41% of the <i>Drogerie</i> market in Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Times have begun to change, however, and Herr Schlecker found, some 18 months ago that his low-cost business model was not always so resistant to swings of consumer fortune. For the first time ever, last year, Schlecker began to make some compromises in the face of increasing competition, particularly in the high street/shopping centre from competitors with higher margins and a more pleasant shopping experience. Among the strategic changes that were made, smaller stores under 200 m² were closed, the food ranges were phased-out (“Lidl do that better”- Anton Schlecker) and payment with plastic (EC or direct debit card) was introduced. Meanwhile, Schlecker continues its rapid expansion outside Germany, primarily to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Whether these changes will be successful is yet to be seen but maybe we should take a look now at the main pretender to the throne who is giving Herr Schlecker these headaches.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">“dm” is another <i>drogerie </i>chain that has been going for slightly longer than Schlecker and is about half Schlecker’s size in terms of turnover, outlets and employees. The first dm store opened in Karlsruhe in 1973 and the chain is currently in a phase of rapid expansion, both within Germany (where it took over REWE’s “Idea” drugstore chain in April last year) and throughout Italy, Austria and several Central/eastern European countries including Czech republic, Slovak republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">A more different retail concept to Schlecker would be hard to imagine. dm’s slogan “<i>Hier bin ich Mensch. Hier kauf ich ein:”</i> (I am human here. I do my shopping here.) is the key to dm’s approach. Walking into one of dm’s stores is a very different experience to walking into Schlecker. You may not be able to put your finger on exactly what it is, but the dm stores are intricately designed to make people feel well and even inspired, at all times of year. Careful attention is given to lighting, colours, the width of aisles and the heights of displays to make everything feel “just right”. It is not too far to say your soul may even feel uplifted, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">For dm have some pretty lofty philosophy on their side. Rather than the “low cost at (almost) any cost” philosophy of Schlecker, the founders and board of dm are followers of Anthroposophy. Now, I have no intention of giving a huge discourse on Anthroposophy here – suffice to say that Anthroposophy is a philosophy that has had an effect on many areas of life in Germany over the last ninety years or so including architecture and education. If you are really interested, you can do a search on Rudolf Steiner, who was the founder of the whole thing (and I would be interested if anyone could send me a potted idiot’s guide to what it’s all about, because I can’t fathom it out!). The Anthroposophy movement does seem to have its critics - although not a religion, or a science, but rather a “spiritual science”- it does seem to have a sort of Kabbalah or Scientology feel to it!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Getting back to the more mundane subject of drugstores, you can see where the ideas of “levels of perception” or “asking questions” or even “artistic expression of perceptions” come into dm’s presentation. The store design is very well thought-out and a lot of thought is put into the design of dm’s products. The website <a href="http://www.dm-drogerie.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.dm-drogerie.de</a> is a contrast to that of Schlecker, with information about the company’s numerous CSR activities and working environment well upfront as well as useful advice of the sort “where do dark rings under the eyes come from?” or “why does the skin get wrinkled after a bath?”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">So, the philosopher is challenging the discounter. We don’t know as yet which way the drugstore war will end up but it will certainly be interesting to see ultimately whether German priorities are on price or shopping experience for this retail category as this may have implications for other high street-and out-of-town-retail names.</span></p><p>------------------------------</p><p>Who came up smelling of roses? No contest - it was the philosopher beating the discounter into bankrupcy in 2012. <i>Schlecker</i> is no more on the German retail landscape.</p><p>Although <i>dm </i>does have to keep on its perfectly manicured toes. <i>Rossmann</i> is pretty well neck-and-neck when it comes to the 2023 drugstore crown.</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-17848160016900552412023-12-22T14:50:00.006+01:002023-12-22T14:50:38.885+01:00Time for altered images?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3BcZHGifQOlKgH6AQ8ZB7MV9uq-fnrt9kbzGnhzFbaccrnX1xnWOeWUjFKj_FRlXBORfare6WITvivhqVuckYdXQ-XB_GmsX910JSPI_zFYdZ_OpeBCl5sj7sqFh-7RQp819Tp5tJbN1FESRriFk2fzJ776WrTy72FWlCBbmQj4z3iooTeJtOxcosL0/s2636/Screenshot%202023-12-22%20at%2009.41.09.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1568" data-original-width="2636" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3BcZHGifQOlKgH6AQ8ZB7MV9uq-fnrt9kbzGnhzFbaccrnX1xnWOeWUjFKj_FRlXBORfare6WITvivhqVuckYdXQ-XB_GmsX910JSPI_zFYdZ_OpeBCl5sj7sqFh-7RQp819Tp5tJbN1FESRriFk2fzJ776WrTy72FWlCBbmQj4z3iooTeJtOxcosL0/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-22%20at%2009.41.09.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The last couple of times I’ve signed on to my internet banking with <i>Commerzbank</i>, I’ve had a lovely little seasonal surprise. The visual, above, drawing my attention to the bank’s Christmas charity drive. They have partnered with <i><a href="https://www.commerzbank.de/blog/aktuelles/brotzeit/">brotZeit e.V</a> <u>, </u></i>an organisation that provides free breakfasts for schoolchildren. And, sad as it is, there are plenty of children in Germany at the moment who could benefit from this charity.</p><p>Why am I commenting on this? Well, the visual itself is striking and eye-catching, with its healthy snacks in the guise of seasonal characters. Pictures do paint a thousand words and fun, hope, cheerfulness, children, health, colourfulness, yumminess, friendliness, cosiness, kindness, imagination and creativity are just a dozen to start with. This is so much richer than the type of visuals that usually confront me on opening the website.</p><p>Typically in the last year, these will either be the usual grinning plastic people looking thrilled and excited over their laptops. Or pairs of said plastic people smooching. I’ve written about these plastic people <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/from-one-heile-welt-to-next.html">here</a>, and I don’t think it needs repeating. </p><p>What I wondering is - in the obsession with representation, diversity and “people who look like me”, have we forgotten the power of the abstract and the symbolic? Long, long ago, we handled the <i>Commerzbank</i> account at <i>Saatchi. </i>We created a striking look, and from what I remember, there were no visuals of human beings. Everything was symbolic, from squirrels to oak trees. And plenty of less expected, yet rich, evocative imagery, too. </p><p>Why does everything have to be so literal? Surely communication works harder when the visual is not merely a reflection of the text? The problem with using the thrilled and excited plastic people is that everyone else is using them too. Within the banking category and without. </p><p>Advertisements from the <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/underground-art.html">golden age of posters are now regarded as art</a>. </p><p>Isn’t it time to give the thrilled and excited plastic people and their laptops a rest?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepMj4_yFQ12itJ7VeOM8jP7M1YTHX4chgKv_LRARgFAaaQsePL-aFJXTcstSHFHcdwz3qt16-BndlEtnpbphWtlcZL081qFcYcnZ1qEYexr4rCv3qIJJBengxBVLkw0Kue6EwlTf4ZkAAPx8-u12l5R3t2qYHlDHzzh4wAAEqMNTcx4BzZzerDkFn62E/s2640/Screenshot%202023-12-22%20at%2009.43.13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1590" data-original-width="2640" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepMj4_yFQ12itJ7VeOM8jP7M1YTHX4chgKv_LRARgFAaaQsePL-aFJXTcstSHFHcdwz3qt16-BndlEtnpbphWtlcZL081qFcYcnZ1qEYexr4rCv3qIJJBengxBVLkw0Kue6EwlTf4ZkAAPx8-u12l5R3t2qYHlDHzzh4wAAEqMNTcx4BzZzerDkFn62E/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-22%20at%2009.43.13.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-64913342190210474332023-12-13T10:55:00.005+01:002023-12-13T10:55:35.894+01:00Everything, everywhere, all at once<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXbHyRhvlaj63ms6PzA5x_8oaC-ayNcFcVXfhZ8s6ElF0UKmqWHQXqdyBYwrlDQ-SkYnszg8Xyxe4S1hi840NaMYBpUGoDBpuzgkU09hXokd_TnmwBRhmX3EYP2-Mezl9mpffi03LG9xU_I5zFlF7OPigAGCDudUwOWD5E7bfttzpWJU0tBhTEunkTek/s3840/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXbHyRhvlaj63ms6PzA5x_8oaC-ayNcFcVXfhZ8s6ElF0UKmqWHQXqdyBYwrlDQ-SkYnszg8Xyxe4S1hi840NaMYBpUGoDBpuzgkU09hXokd_TnmwBRhmX3EYP2-Mezl9mpffi03LG9xU_I5zFlF7OPigAGCDudUwOWD5E7bfttzpWJU0tBhTEunkTek/s320/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>According to <i>Interbrand</i>, <i>Amazon</i> is the world’s third biggest and most valuable brand. Next year, the company will clock up 30 years in business. I’ve watched it grow from an “internet bookstore” (how quaint) through a destroyer of the small and local to a <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/immersed-wrapped-or-trapped.html">paragon of customer-centric brand virtue</a> (according to <i>Interbrand). </i>And back and forth again. Amazon nows occupies a position of what I’d call uneasy ubiquity.</p><p>My <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2020/03/book-binding.html">own relationship with <i>Amazon</i></a> illustrates this perfectly. I resist <i>Amazon</i> as default, in the same way that I avoid <i>booking.com. </i>And yet - I’m trapped with my Kindle. And sometimes, <i>Amazon</i> is the only practical option. </p><p>This is what <i>Amazon</i> have understood. And it’s what they understand by customer-centric (rather than people-centric). When people are in customer mode, when there’s something they really, really, want, and they want it quickly and cheaply, reliably delivered, noble principles go out of the window. <i>Amazon</i> understand the power of “make it easy, make it convenient.”</p><p>So, when you already offer “everything”, where can you go from there to make things even easier? You try at “everywhere”. So people don’t even have to leave their favourite social media app, let alone their armchair for (almost) instant gratification. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/09/meta-and-amazon-team-up-on-new-in-app-shopping-feature-on-facebook-instagram/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALOK4USzYttiPQkxdMxZsqIqqqsu6UvQWDjjxS2JUryFBldeL_-VKDFFjzlOIiz9SOHPTX0zThWky3FKL2Ert1HNXUjoHM6ejEcTuEauxy_bsJ27KmC_ZOjYP1cixTyYtOm50fehIArAnRmgf4EfOfMFdGPSePtOFIUJEpoZIpAJ"><i>Amazon</i> have partnered with <i>Meta</i></a>, as well as <i>Pinterest </i>and <i>Snapchat</i> to link your account and shipping address for a check-out without checking-out of the app. </p><p>I won’t be joining in, as I’m old and contrary. But I doubt that’s of much concern to <i>Amazon</i>. They are probably more perturbed that, at this stage at least, <i>TikTok </i>aren’t playing ball, either.</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-7950823162902972672023-12-08T12:04:00.002+01:002023-12-08T12:04:26.576+01:00Trad and all that jazz<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATM7-hGVVaHGl0xB2Rz99P4QdSV-gKoA0J_9f8jC5DhvR6vjRN0TjFV2n9ylFJRdT-hcxyLzuvgr1hQF-2t-SHq7mcWoGcjO8efGVP_7fDW8hEHAsPmkuV7cNZkO-CGkbPZTNL7Doimp4HDboAgVTHRR1BKv6YmH8mB5lWldFw0aIVeTjVyxgO8gOTXw/s2048/ChristmasLittleMen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATM7-hGVVaHGl0xB2Rz99P4QdSV-gKoA0J_9f8jC5DhvR6vjRN0TjFV2n9ylFJRdT-hcxyLzuvgr1hQF-2t-SHq7mcWoGcjO8efGVP_7fDW8hEHAsPmkuV7cNZkO-CGkbPZTNL7Doimp4HDboAgVTHRR1BKv6YmH8mB5lWldFw0aIVeTjVyxgO8gOTXw/s320/ChristmasLittleMen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I’ve said it once and I’ve said it again - <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/avaricious-brands.html">I’m a little bit queasy about the idea of brands “owning” anything</a>. But if there’s a UK brand that has a claim on Christmas, it’s <i>John Lewis.</i></p><p>The agency - and strategy - has changed this year. The retailer is moving from “thoughtful gifting” (or is it giving?) to “let your traditions grow.” Whether or not you’re a fan of the festive Venus Fly Trap, you have to admit this is a clever strategy. It’s the <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/surprise-surprise.html">perfect mix of the personal and the collective</a>.</p><p>One part of the campaign is something for market research nerds like me - <a href="https://www.johnlewispartnership.media/lookbook/download/johnlewis?type=view&id=798&filename=685_129_1698828613.pdf"><i>The John Lewis Festive Tracker</i> </a> . This investigation into the UK’s tinsel, turkey and traditions has been put together with <i>YouGov</i>.</p><p>Fascinating festive facts on what’s changing - “two-tree” households, all day pyjamas and combining celebrations from other cultures with Christmas. And what isn’t - family & friends, baking & crafting, board games and watching films. And, I presume, church and carols, although these are a strange omission in the report.</p><p>There’s also a little look into history so you can see that <i>John Lewis</i> did “do” Christmas prior to 2007. In the world of advertising, memories are very short!</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-7038283847363321652023-11-27T11:59:00.007+01:002023-11-27T12:04:46.498+01:00Penny for your thoughts?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZRHA2jco6KGFnTFoNeKNbInNULKciC_Bi3g2FEiloBMuLIOZ42FKq-r7I__aZwaBR1J0k-o_7Dh0j7Ec4-CRLhmDywZc5OSzIY5NKrig_bxntlmynEYnO6FzLVNW-bfLks6g5IoLICOuBI2igdCRgk0hPVSid8CAxBD39vugj18ZO1ccbeC4GaDeCddw/s288/PennyKids.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="288" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZRHA2jco6KGFnTFoNeKNbInNULKciC_Bi3g2FEiloBMuLIOZ42FKq-r7I__aZwaBR1J0k-o_7Dh0j7Ec4-CRLhmDywZc5OSzIY5NKrig_bxntlmynEYnO6FzLVNW-bfLks6g5IoLICOuBI2igdCRgk0hPVSid8CAxBD39vugj18ZO1ccbeC4GaDeCddw/s1600/PennyKids.jpg" width="288" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I’ve been writing an article for one of my clients about Christmas advertising. Because it’s for an international audience, most of the focus is on ads from the UK and other English-speaking markets. In Germany, Christmas advertising is a thing, but not such a colossal humongous thing (literally, in the case of this year’s <i>John Lewis </i>ad<i>)</i> as it is in the UK. </p><p>You can see what I mean if you scroll down <a href="https://www.meedia.de/marktdaten-medien/eine-weihnachtliche-analyse-festmahl-weihnachten-bei-den-lebensmitteleinzelhaendlern-25ab1938e45427e450859537635f8e9d">this article</a> about German supermarkets’ Christmassy commercials. Apart from <i>Edeka’s </i>slightly weird meaty mumblings, there’s nothing really unexpected and many of the ads are a little lacklustre and conventional. </p><p>There’s cuteness, kids, magic and animals with <i>Lidl</i> and <i>REWE</i>. Some “get the tissues” from <i>Co-op</i>. And a bit of fun and nostalgia from <i>Aldi</i> with grown-ups behaving like big kids.</p><p>But that’s me with my London ad person hat on (also looking a bit lacklustre these days, to be honest). Time and time again, we hear that the ads that do well at Christmas are those that do all the cuteness, tears, smiles, entertainment and general warm fuzziness. And do it well.</p><p>So what the heck were <i>Penny</i> thinking? Over 3 minutes, entitled “The Kids” with the message “It’s our future, please listen to us.” Four youngsters, discontented, sad and angry about the grown-ups in their immediate family, or society in general. A girl forced into ballet when she’d rather dance freestyle. A little chap who can’t bear his mum’s social media obsession. A young lad upset by all the “six-pack” bodies he sees on his phone. A junior environmentalist striding around the house switching lights and appliances off. </p><p>Then a montage of sulky glum faces, school protests, “Fridays for Future”-style <span style="font-family: inherit;">activism </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">clich</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">é</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">s accompanied by a children</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s choir rendition of a song from P!nk (I think).</span></span></p><p>Maybe it seemed like a good idea when the agency made this back in the Spring or Summer. But at this time of year, and given the news of the last few weeks, it feels completely tone deaf. <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/joy-and-thoughtful-dads-to-world.html">As I said last year, no-one wants to be reminded of misery, hate and division</a>. Especially not now. </p><p>A long time ago, when I worked on <i>P&G, </i>I’d often have to steer the clients away from anything that felt like finger-pointing. I’d remind them that new mums often felt inadequate and hopeless enough without ads suggesting that if they didn’t use the new-improved super-ultra-Pampers (or whatever), they were a crap mother. Especially if they couldn’t afford better than <i>Aldi.</i></p><p>That attitude from advertisers and their agencies is sneaking back into commercials, and this is a prime example. <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-new-pester-power.html">Finger-pointing, parent-shaming (if you like) manipulative stuff</a> to make people feel lousy about themselves. Backed up by some sort of agency bullshit that they’ve “got out there” (where is “there”, anyway?) and listened to “real” children’s wishes. Well, I have my <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-spirit-of-christmas-presents.html">own experience of that</a>.</p><p>I quoted an article from Richard Huntington in my last post and this was one of the stand-out sentences for me:</p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(35, 34, 32); color: #232220;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white;">Everyone is trying in their own way to be a good person living a good life.</i></span></span></p><p><span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #232220; font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(35, 34, 32);">In the end, it shouldn</span></span><span style="color: #232220;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(35, 34, 32);">’</span></span><span style="color: #232220; font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(35, 34, 32);">t be more complicated than that.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-78323310595279261512023-11-16T13:57:00.001+01:002023-11-16T13:59:48.331+01:00Perennial bloomers<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU9FCzsyGmOheqs7qc66ZQCqiqmjEBMmsC42gxGLbM94VqfnQcM3t07LqWf9YZCVSQhVYi_zDENVzlUOI1pZpjoTLcgY9eQwJc_esv9gqiL4pIkZ-IoaduMHAXq3_tI2P3yJOHvfReS50t9hb4xouxSUkPh17wwnjChWSZJj62oOeChXsqHHs6EzsH40/s1920/hollyhocks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjU9FCzsyGmOheqs7qc66ZQCqiqmjEBMmsC42gxGLbM94VqfnQcM3t07LqWf9YZCVSQhVYi_zDENVzlUOI1pZpjoTLcgY9eQwJc_esv9gqiL4pIkZ-IoaduMHAXq3_tI2P3yJOHvfReS50t9hb4xouxSUkPh17wwnjChWSZJj62oOeChXsqHHs6EzsH40/s320/hollyhocks.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>The older I get, and the more years I notch up as a one-woman band here in rural Germany, the more amusing I find the antics of some of my marketing and advertising partners-in-crime. It’s that slight shake-of-the-head, roll-of-the-eyes kind of amusement with a muttered “what planet are they on?” under my breath. </p><p>I heard a marketing director speaking on a panel discussion yesterday, who was (I think) seriously suggesting that the following could be a good idea. AI could, in the future, “serve” an ad featuring a person of the same skin colour as the recipient - presumably all in the name of personalisation, diversity and “feeling seen.” </p><p>Where do I start on how wrong this is? What next? I’ll be “served” an ad featuring someone of exactly my age, so I don’t feel ancient, left out and invisible? What a ghastly notion!</p><p>Whenever I’ve ventured onto <i>LinkedIn</i> these days, there do seem to be plenty of people (at least in my feed) talking about bursting bubbles and getting back to reality. A recent <i>WARC </i>article by Richard Huntington is titled <i><a href="https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/the-future-of-strategy-2023-marketing-is-in-desperate-need-of-a-reality-check/en-gb/6378">The Future of Strategy 2023: Marketing is in desperate need of a reality check.</a> </i></p><p>Richard makes the point that we both work and live in a parallel universe he calls Marketingland. I’d rather use that nasty, twee “Adland” moniker. By the way, when did that creep into the language? It’s not the word itself, it’s the way people use it, as if it’s some exclusive place to be proud of. Whatever, this universe is populated by the well-educated, metropolitan, relatively young middle class.</p><p>And why do people not just work but live there, too? Because this world is conjured-up “through distaste for the real one with all its ugliness, mess and complexity.” Richard then takes aim at various of Adland’s favourite tools (so to speak), including “the stinking edifice of generational marketing". This is described as “a charlatan’s business” and “should be given as much credence in sensible organisations as astrology.”</p><p>I’m with him. The whole <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-guilty-generation.html">Generations stuff</a>, beloved of lazy journalists and denizens of “Adland,” is more full of holes than a Boomer’s string vest. Or was it the lot before them that wore those? Not only do the generation years chop and change as often as the UK cabinet, but the whole thing is utterly US-focussed. Where you are born is just as important as when, as <i><a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/webinar-keys-we-need-talk-about-generations">Ipsos</a></i> show. And I’m quite tickled that “GenZ" are refusing to behave as many marketers want them to, as <a href="https://nickasbury.substack.com/p/dispatches-from-the-pre-post-purpose">Nick Asbury</a> points out.</p><p>What to do? Richard Huntington makes a call to “love and respect the people we serve”. I’d leave out the love part, personally, but respect and value their perspective (even if you don’t agree) - I’ll take that. As Richard says, “Everyone is trying in their own way to be a good person living a good life.”</p><p>Another perspective on the generations thing is to <i><a href="https://www.whatworks.fyi/p/adopting-the-perennial-mindset?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">Adopt the Perennial Mindset</a> </i>as in this article by Tara McMullin. The thinking is based on a book by <span style="font-family: inherit;">Mauro </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Guill</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">é</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">n: </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Perennials: The Megatrends creating a Postgenerational Society.</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> This challenges the idea of linear lives, moving from play to learn to work to leisure/retirement, and </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">age-appropriate activities.</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Getting rid of the concept of </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">milestones</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> beyond referring to babies and child development. A Perennial is defined as someone </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">not constrained by their age and what they</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">re </span>‘<span style="font-family: inherit;">supposed</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to be doing at any given stage of life.</span></span>”</p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite being a Planner, I</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">ve never been that great on planning my own life. I recognise the inevitability of change and the unexpected. But I liked what this article had to say about a broadened definition of work whereby people can stay active and connected to friends - work more along the lines of mentoring and support as one grows older and hopefully wiser. Tara writes that </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">the idea of retirement feels elusive to anyone under, say, 55 today.</span></span>”</p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, that just proves a point. It</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">s a while since I was 55, and although I do have a bookmarks file of </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">retirement jobs</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> (mentoring, teaching, pivoting) the idea still seems pretty elusive to me!</span></span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know this way of thinking can</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">t be a replacement for all that generations guff. Or indeed for media planning based on age breaks. But I do like the principle of getting away from pigeon-holing and rigid categories of age, life-stage, or when exactly you were born. Away from the sequential model of life. And from many of these frameworks when they are too strictly applied. I have said here often: The Map is not the Territory.</span></span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And, back to that panel discussion and what AI can do. One point that does give me hope are the increasing opportunities for contextual media planning. Catching me in the right mood, at the right place and the right time is going to be far more effective than </span>“<span style="font-family: inherit;">serving</span>”<span style="font-family: inherit;"> me some old bag with pasty-white skin who doesn</span>’<span style="font-family: inherit;">t look a bit like me. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-62419028576340142872023-11-01T11:11:00.006+01:002023-11-01T11:11:44.132+01:00RETROWURST: Nutella November 2005<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8t4xm1E18v3LgpRVg2X_kLJBmQwY-VfYwkHgGBvnsJYYD_qTz-PEqNLI8hteb9GZaFsETqyWflnEvYW85WoisLbvVvFq33Ky7586WVkMFdO-e2EU80kSULxtSnHM1MYdfToH6nN4xwR30d-O4nlboFlhsXKABgeuklQjW3M0Yv4sd_6oJJYrRjEOyEo/s3024/IMG_2935.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8t4xm1E18v3LgpRVg2X_kLJBmQwY-VfYwkHgGBvnsJYYD_qTz-PEqNLI8hteb9GZaFsETqyWflnEvYW85WoisLbvVvFq33Ky7586WVkMFdO-e2EU80kSULxtSnHM1MYdfToH6nN4xwR30d-O4nlboFlhsXKABgeuklQjW3M0Yv4sd_6oJJYrRjEOyEo/s320/IMG_2935.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Eighteen years ago, I was celebrating the 40th birthday of <i>Nutella </i>in Extrawurst, and my hm-hm-hm-hmth birthday. For those with a sweet tooth, here’s the history and cult status of the chocolate hazelnut spread as I saw it in 2005.</p><p><i>----------</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">As I have recently been celebrating my birthday, I thought I would write a piece about a brand that is celebrating its 40<sup>th</sup> birthday this year in Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">On the subject of brands having birthdays, this does seem to have become “this year’s thing” for marketers here, perhaps in the absence of anything new to say. We had thirty years of IKEA last year and now every corner shop, local newspaper and frozen pizza seems to be celebrating some birthday or another. Just as the market here has been deluged with “flavour of the year/season” for the last few years, we now seem to be beset with birthdays. Most of it seems to be an excuse to dig out some “retro” pack designs and revel in the worst excesses of the 70s, 80s or whatever decade your brand was born into in a rather self-congratulatory way rather than offering people any new benefit or real reward for buying you in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">In this case, however, I feel that the celebrations are justified: the brand in question is Nutella which I believe is one of the most “present” brands in the German psyche. Over 100 million jars of the stuff are sold per year with the average buyer consuming something like 1kg of the stuff per year (oh dear, think of the calories!) and Nutella really is a brand that one could say has achieved cult status in this country. A client of mine (non-German) recently made something of an error of judgment (in my opinion) when she recently turned down the prospect of a co-operation between her brand and Nutella on the basis that Nutella “was too unhealthy”. While, of course, she is right in thinking that Nutella is not among the list of top 5 healthy things to put in your mouth, what she missed is that Nutella is <i>allowed</i> to be unhealthy just because it’s so loved here – like <i>Bratwurst</i> and <i>Pils</i> it may pile on the calories but it is an integral part of German culture – a rare accolade for a non-German brand!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Although officially only 40 years old, Nutella’s origins go further back: to the 1940s in fact. During the war years, chocolate was a rarity, a delicacy and cocoa was in short supply so the Piedmontese confectioner Pietro Ferrero experimented with making a cream out of cocoa and roasted hazelnuts. From the beginning onwards, Ferrero’s experiment was a success and even incorporated an interesting retail concept in 1940s/50s Italy whereby schoolchildren could go to the local corner shop with a piece of bread and get it spread with the forerunner of Nutella.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">In 1964 the nut-nougat crème got the name Nutella. Ferrero Germany had already opened its doors in 1956 and introduced Nutella in 1965. Nutella really created a whole new market in Germany for a country used to either jam or honey as sweet spreads for the breakfast bread.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">There are now several generations of Germans who have grown up with Nutella – it’s rather like Marmite in the UK but it doesn’t have quite that extreme love-hate relationship: everyone loves Nutella except for a few extreme health campaigners. Nutella signifies childhood and family: there is something very motherly and reassuring about the name, the pack design (almost unchanged from the original of 1965), the shape of the jar and the sweet, creamy product itself. And, unlike Marmite, it is pretty versatile stuff: you can make cakes with it, slap it on pancakes and Nutella seems to be a fairly major component of most of the confectionary products that Ferrero produces these days.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The cult status of Nutella in Germany is observable through the sheer presence of the brand in Germany. It’s not just on practically every breakfast table but also highly visible on pancake stands in the city centre or at <i>Fests</i>, on T-shirts (the aforementioned unchanged pack design), in bookshops (<i>“Das große Nutella Kochbuch”)</i>, on e-Bay (collectors of promotional jars or giveaways) and there are even Nutella cafés in some city centres where you can have a cup of coffee and eat your fill of various Nutella concoctions – all this in addition to the expected supermarket and classic media presence. Of course, anything that is successful and cult spawns cover versions. In Nutella’s case they are numerous and quite blatant in their copying of the mother of all hazelnut spreads, from <i>Lidl’s Choco Nussa</i> to <i>Aldi’s Nutoka</i> but none of them have quite managed to copy the subtleties of Ferrero’s secret recipe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Of course, cult status brings you more than your fair share of urban myths. In Nutella’s case these include the positive (“Nutella is a wonder cure for cold sores and other forms of Herpes.”) and the not-so desirable (“Nutella gets its colour from cow blood.”). But none of these myths seem to be so extreme as those associated with McDonald’s or Procter & Gamble’s brands – maybe Nutella’s “Italian Mamma” personality makes it less vulnerable to attack than those brands which are assumed to be run and controlled by George W. Bush <i>doppelgangers.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Nutella’s cult status is that much of this comes not so much from TV advertising but from in-store and on-pack promotions. While there have been some memorable TV campaigns (involving some of the usual suspects here such as the ubiquitous Boris Becker), it is the special promotions that have become collector’s items. A 2kg jar was available in 2000 for the millennium, for example, and the 40<sup>th</sup> birthday promotional packs were soon sold out. These included stencils of characters from Asterix concealed in the lid which was a repeat of a promotion originally from the 1970s or 1980s.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It seems to be fitting, then, that Nutella celebrated its 40</span><sup style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">birthday with a spectacular promotion: the biggest breakfast in the world. No less than 27,854 Nutella fans turned up to the event which earned Nutella a place in the Guinness Book of records. So, here’s to the next 40 years unless the extreme healthy-eating killjoys get there first!</span></p><p><i>----------</i></p><p>Only a few months after writing this article, I suffered a public humiliation that I’ll never live down. I took part in an on-air radio quiz and was asked to name which German football players featured in the <i>Nutella</i> ad for the 2006 World Cup. I didn’t know. Me, working in advertising, with a football-crazy husband. </p><p>I still hang my head in shame.</p><p>As for <i>Nutella</i>, well, the healthy eating police are still stomping around, but not to any great effect. The latest member of the <i>Nutella </i>family is <a href="https://www.nutella.com/de/de/produkte/nutella-biscuits">biscuits</a>.</p><p>And me? Sorry, but I still prefer <i>Marmite</i>. I’m not <i>that</i> German.</p><p><i> </i></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-76691030108094266562023-10-26T13:49:00.006+02:002023-10-26T13:49:56.992+02:00Miss you<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjyK-sO_IRorUd_7ESUZQiipie0HhffyNmN5ZGtQtYgnXGPMXp9w3Z1cx6cmavuLnfIuGZCYfUrLFjp3YdwN5rAkRp-xk9MdgYKkIIx-yyFPpUMtRoiG2B863VAtrOTelpikau87NO5zzKyeNgWwW1NL5vzDcQZ7AMIHnANoNWgVnsLilsqWQsXgDUpU/s1200/British-Corner-Shop-crumpets-scaled-e1627975327392.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1200" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNjyK-sO_IRorUd_7ESUZQiipie0HhffyNmN5ZGtQtYgnXGPMXp9w3Z1cx6cmavuLnfIuGZCYfUrLFjp3YdwN5rAkRp-xk9MdgYKkIIx-yyFPpUMtRoiG2B863VAtrOTelpikau87NO5zzKyeNgWwW1NL5vzDcQZ7AMIHnANoNWgVnsLilsqWQsXgDUpU/s320/British-Corner-Shop-crumpets-scaled-e1627975327392.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Is British advertising getting its mojo back?<p></p><p>I've noticed a couple of ads - very different but on the same theme (or insight, if you will) that have made me wonder if British humour and general silliness is making a comeback after all those dreary plinky-piano angsty offerings.</p><p>I mentioned <i>Yorkshire Tea's </i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/love-peace-piss-ups-and-brass-music.html">Skipton Alfie</a> in my last post. And now, along comes this one from <i>Heinz</i> - "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lnp4IXP1tA">Too Good to Leave Behind</a>."</p><p>Now, of course, I don't see "someone who looks like me" in this ad. But, boy do I identify with it!</p><p>I've suffered delayed luggage recently and can seriously understand this chap's pain on missing his beans. My trips to the UK usually involve stocking up on various comestibles. <a href="https://expatnetwork.com/top-british-foods-that-expats-have-missed-the-most-during-the-pandemic/">This article</a> - not sure how old it is, but its probably from the last couple of years, lists the Top 10 most popular British products globally, via <i>The British Corner Shop.</i> And the Top 3 are <i>Warburton's Crumpets, Heinz Baked Beans</i> and <i>Cadbury's Flake</i>. So <i>Heinz</i> and their agency, Wieden & Kennedy London, have even done the data-fuelled, fact-based thing, yah, boo, sucks!</p><p>None of my absolute favourites made the Top 10, funnily enough. No <i>Marmite, Colman's, </i>or <i>Gordon's Sloe Gin</i>. But maybe these are acquired tastes, given that this is global sales.</p><p>I do hope that the ad world will see a return of self-deprecating, batty British humour post-Brexitpermacrisisetcetc. After all, it <i>is</i> Too Good To Leave Behind. </p><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-65561766949991935942023-10-19T15:28:00.000+02:002023-10-19T15:28:11.250+02:00Love, peace, piss-ups and brass music<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjgiqkH1kY8anf7HfOaqfbO9OSg46bLRF9etmrNNdUc1KcemEdVrKDoUZx8xfqwA-I8N27tvfhkXK32C4LJh7QY8WiFzxUSRh2q4YBweBCb9eV91MwhtJT0TEYstVbh47uEmGD3kbrWnb9i5cFLme1QeEd_cFT4R2nF2uFaGK0WxWSQ9GAZwOClwvCPw/s2560/bp23-25-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1706" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjgiqkH1kY8anf7HfOaqfbO9OSg46bLRF9etmrNNdUc1KcemEdVrKDoUZx8xfqwA-I8N27tvfhkXK32C4LJh7QY8WiFzxUSRh2q4YBweBCb9eV91MwhtJT0TEYstVbh47uEmGD3kbrWnb9i5cFLme1QeEd_cFT4R2nF2uFaGK0WxWSQ9GAZwOClwvCPw/s320/bp23-25-scaled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Ten years ago, if you’d told me the gin market would shortly explode and still be gaining sales in 2023, when young people are allegedly drinking less alcohol, my head would have been surprised. </p><p>But not my heart. I’ve always loved gin and know that its a damned good thing. It just needed the right time, the right conditions and some clever marketing to get it back in vogue.</p><p>I came across something that reminded me this a few weeks ago, on a late summer holiday to Baska, on the island of Krk in Croatia. Something I had always loved given a bit of reinvention, a bit of borrowing from popular culture - and being lapped up like crazy by people young enough to be my grandchildren.</p><p>The event in question was <i><a href="https://www.instagram.com/brasspalmasofficial/">Brass Palmas</a> . </i>This is the beach party event associated with the <a href="https://www.woodstockderblasmusik.at/cashless/so-funktionierts-2/"><i>Woodstock der Blasmusik</i> </a> . The experience was quite surreal. At one end of the beach at Baska there’s a nudist resort.</p><p>At the other there are trumpets, tubas, trombones, saxophones.</p><p>Buckets of beer and cocktails.</p><p>Dirndls, Lederhosen and plenty of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILU-r9m9IL8">Skipton Alfie-style loud beach pyjamas</a>.</p><p>Imagine the slightly staid world of oompah music given a large shot of festival/club/Ibiza atmosphere, and there you go. The kind of mix that sounds ridiculous on paper, but just works in reality - and how!</p><p>There’s a party boat, a pool party, and non-stop music, dancing and drinking from stupid o’clock onwards.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv-ZXV1KDrWRkyXsudxs33vDBohRfHobRRhyphenhyphenNKxATmoaRSrRlni_D1ezxRvTKvldTz81TxMYZqbY36RGjQQj5v0s9lN1S4UDgMegjDu_n2pakWG0S2ukWLMvRpiLNHW5MaGc2NnF0SwJFA322zqJawTAJrD1oBYPsLxulQ80rsGXbu2B-UKkLJakjdvk/s2560/bp23-21-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1706" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibv-ZXV1KDrWRkyXsudxs33vDBohRfHobRRhyphenhyphenNKxATmoaRSrRlni_D1ezxRvTKvldTz81TxMYZqbY36RGjQQj5v0s9lN1S4UDgMegjDu_n2pakWG0S2ukWLMvRpiLNHW5MaGc2NnF0SwJFA322zqJawTAJrD1oBYPsLxulQ80rsGXbu2B-UKkLJakjdvk/s320/bp23-21-scaled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8fCf4VGZWqb_NEIw8ZdnnJedmMEaOwSOZyQzrgSV4ZlaNC6SXJhdp0yVe6cin78HzWtKuuwudBCWRoQmB1ns3TZUMUSlEhpzy3LCMu2X7AL_vKF6638osdzgTksny1VuMhs7_5EJAeuUwQZ49Lz0IwbDp-vraVPDRK3nRw_KRqw7RnvOLNIrEBAHwmnc/s2560/bp23-22-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8fCf4VGZWqb_NEIw8ZdnnJedmMEaOwSOZyQzrgSV4ZlaNC6SXJhdp0yVe6cin78HzWtKuuwudBCWRoQmB1ns3TZUMUSlEhpzy3LCMu2X7AL_vKF6638osdzgTksny1VuMhs7_5EJAeuUwQZ49Lz0IwbDp-vraVPDRK3nRw_KRqw7RnvOLNIrEBAHwmnc/s320/bp23-22-scaled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDn4tp42lOwN3lLmy7unNpeAJGZPpfIaQvyX_PXVM1o1WoXcqyyNceUmHST0d2xUkzD6ZdkHgXDz75V5TQfTLQjBoWtAfUs2k6I50XTWfjWxiTS-Fqm77VnZx_NzzdlsuGd8X7eoVH31Mwoia44ux1_MwlaF-UhT0eycvcYYnZwShjGhLlBveICXOkdA0/s2560/bp23-29-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDn4tp42lOwN3lLmy7unNpeAJGZPpfIaQvyX_PXVM1o1WoXcqyyNceUmHST0d2xUkzD6ZdkHgXDz75V5TQfTLQjBoWtAfUs2k6I50XTWfjWxiTS-Fqm77VnZx_NzzdlsuGd8X7eoVH31Mwoia44ux1_MwlaF-UhT0eycvcYYnZwShjGhLlBveICXOkdA0/s320/bp23-29-scaled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>And behind it all is some very neat marketing - brilliant brand name and logo ... and of course <a href="https://www.woodsepp.com/de/suche.html?suchbegriff=brass+palmas">all the merchandise you could possibly want.</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDc3Kat8DV0jqcq6AC_AwWYOFVFfJGd52eqhoAvnVYSbf6hx3eKWZgnsoZcLZHwLKMwojCZRh7ze_Uof4-PK_ZdxY14noYvj6v4ucrmuTxCLOCvQrqr0qccbeAZdLqxggSH-hw_0oczlYVYq79EiknyYemvo85Mw9GDfvY__rGU3VZb-OmVl7cArOtQ8/s247/BrassPalmasTShirt.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="204" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDc3Kat8DV0jqcq6AC_AwWYOFVFfJGd52eqhoAvnVYSbf6hx3eKWZgnsoZcLZHwLKMwojCZRh7ze_Uof4-PK_ZdxY14noYvj6v4ucrmuTxCLOCvQrqr0qccbeAZdLqxggSH-hw_0oczlYVYq79EiknyYemvo85Mw9GDfvY__rGU3VZb-OmVl7cArOtQ8/s1600/BrassPalmasTShirt.jpeg" width="204" /></a></div><br /><p>It’s a blast!</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-68264595170148518132023-10-02T12:33:00.002+02:002023-10-02T12:33:56.023+02:00RETROWURST: Du bist Deutschland October 2005<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yuKSiIZuF6Rfmjd40QA4gVZkDqMpCAcapFpih8gy-bqc4VLdDyaTO-tBsjVK65cDoxC1f10xGIoFL2MlTBivPy7ZwaBJVdL2QhUGYVemnbNhyphenhyphenJJDic9H7uri0o1-RLpxBrrr3SErXuoTyhdOgafBS8r7vucXOKIhyphenhyphen3wWbLKNJcudSYPNSwpPGW1LMJw/s3024/IMG_2859.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yuKSiIZuF6Rfmjd40QA4gVZkDqMpCAcapFpih8gy-bqc4VLdDyaTO-tBsjVK65cDoxC1f10xGIoFL2MlTBivPy7ZwaBJVdL2QhUGYVemnbNhyphenhyphenJJDic9H7uri0o1-RLpxBrrr3SErXuoTyhdOgafBS8r7vucXOKIhyphenhyphen3wWbLKNJcudSYPNSwpPGW1LMJw/s320/IMG_2859.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Well, this month’s rummage around the <i>Extrawurst</i> files has turned up a cracker. Eighteen years ago, the mood in Germany was at a pretty low ebb. To the rescue came the <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq_MRWewv80">Du bist Deutschland</a> </i> campaign, masterminded and funded by a consortium of media owners and ad agencies. </p><p>While I thought the strategy was smart, I was a touch catty about the creative - and the logo. I didn’t mince my words eighteen years ago. While I’d probably put things a little more diplomatically these days, I stand by what I wrote. This film is so painfully worthy and unfortunately, this style of advertising has spawned a plague which still infects screens today. Even if you’re just advertising bog roll or deodorant.</p><p>----------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Since Monday, 3rd October, the public holiday to celebrate German re-unification, a new multi-million advertising campaign has been the talk of the country. Now, Germans don’t usually talk about advertising much except perhaps when the advertising comes from Audi or Mercedes. However, this time, the advertising in question is about a subject very close to everyone’s hearts and tear-ducts here: the country Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">That the general morale in Germany is at a pretty low ebb and has been for the last few years should be no surprise to regular readers of <i>Extrawurst</i>. The recent election fiasco and embarrassing performance of the national football team have hardly helped matters but now at least it seems that an effort is being made to get Germany back on its feet again and the very fact that the campaign is being talked about is a good first step.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The campaign itself, “<i>Du bist Deutschland</i>” (“You are Germany”) was initiated by Gunther Thielen, head of media giant Bertelsmann a year ago. Together with ex-colleague Bernd Bauer, the two kick-started a sort of Band-aid action by getting all the heads of the blue-chip media owners and a few advertising agencies together to discuss Germany’s plight and a possible way out, by doing what they knew best. The result is a €34m campaign, involving 25 media companies who have given space and airtime with a concept developed by two of Germany’s leading advertising agencies. This is the biggest public information campaign that has ever run in Germany and will run from October through to January next year. The campaign itself can be seen on the website <a href="http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/" style="color: #954f72;">www.du-bist-deutschland.de</a> .<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">It is certainly true that Germany needs something to give it a kick up the <i>Arsch</i> if you’ll excuse my <i>Deutsch</i>. A survey from an insurance company (who I’m sure relish these sorts of results) this month found that 52% of Germans are “very afraid of the future”. A comparable figure for 1991 was 25%. With unemployment over 10%, no clear line from the government (or indeed, no clear picture of who or what the government is), German companies re-locating and producing overseas and a talent-drain, it is no surprise that “German <i>Angst</i>” is well-known the world over.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The objectives of the campaign are fine enough. The idea is to prompt a new mood of “can-do” and trust in every single person’s own strength and capabilities throughout Germany. The concept behind the campaign is all about small actions having big effects and is expressed in a “Manifesto” which appears on the website and is the text for the TV campaign. The idea is to lead with a “big bang” in national TV and print and for this to have a catalytic effect then for local activity and action: that each individual at the grass roots level should pick the thing up and run with it. Strategically, the concept seems OK to me although I would question the media strategy, especially as self-reliance and “picking something up and running with it” isn’t very German - they are not terribly good at rugby!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">So far, so good. The Media-Aid guys have identified a problem and found a way to solve it. Good for them, even if the problem was blindingly obvious and the solution was borrowed from someone else twenty years ago-but this is not the place to split <i>Herrs.</i> But now we should really take a look at the creative work itself: you can see it for yourself on the website and you don’t really need to understand German or know who all the people are to get the idea. I will start with the so-called “Manifesto” which is the core of the campaign and the text of the 2-minute TV spot and attempt a translation. The manifesto starts with that well-worn cliché of catastrophe theory – that all-powerful butterfly, which I am not sure is too appropriate given the recent spate of horrific worldwide natural disasters:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">“You are the miracle of Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">A butterfly can unleash a typhoon. The air moved by the flap of its wings can uproot trees a few kilometers away. Just as a breath can become a storm, your deeds can have an effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">If you think that’s unrealistic then why do you cheer on your team in the stadium if your voice is so unimportant…You are Germany. Your will is like fire in the loins. It lets your favourite striker run more quickly and Schumi drive faster…”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">I am sure you get the idea. This priceless prose goes on and on with more mixed metaphors about people being hands which are going to get dirty and being trees, which other hands (I assume dirty German ones) are going to pull out from the roots. There are more references to speed and no speed limits on the German motorways and the inevitable reference to the Wall and tearing it down. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">This prose is spoken, sentence by sentence in the 2-minute TV spot by a mixture of well-known and less well-known German faces against a variety of backdrops showing the diversity of the country and its people. All the usual suspects are here if you’re tuned in to German popular culture although those that live in other countries for tax reasons are conspicuous by their absence. Interspersed with the famous faces are a few “heroes of everyday life” - the proud lady toilet attendant, the matey shipbuilders and the stressed but optimistic Mum of many in a high-rise flat. The background music is pinched from the mawkish Hollywood blockbuster Forrest Gump.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The whole thing is, being kind, rather like one of those 1980s corporate ads to fend off takeovers that went on about “there is a company that…” in a droning posh voice where the shareholders dearly wished that they could have the millions that the production and the posh-voiced actor cost in their pockets as dividends instead. Or one of those awful charity record videos where each superstar tries to outdo the last in caterwauling in a really concerned and earnest way. Unfortunately, to my rather cynical English eyes, the spot looks and sounds rather like the opening credits to Little Britain. This is the major problem with the whole thing. The first step on the road to recovery when you’re down in the dumps is to be able to laugh at yourself, even in Germany. Unfortunately, the whole campaign is so toe-curlingly <i>ernsthaft</i> that I’m afraid that the viewer reaction is going to be to reach for the sick bag rather than the desired goose pimples.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">One of the most toe-curling scenes, in my opinion, is one where an actor with Down’s syndrome, a gay folk singer and a coloured pop star get together in the holocaust monument. You sort of know what they are trying to say but unfortunately this ultra-political correctness raises all the wrong signals. The print campaign to go with this is even less well-executed, in my view. At least the TV takes present-day personalities, but the print harks back to specially selected heroes from the past: Dürer, Goethe, Einstein and -you’ve guessed it -Beethoven. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Of course, no major campaign of this type should go logo-less and there is a nasty little logo with a sort of Mr Blobby effect character in the colours of the German flag, who is either doing hurdles in clown’s trousers or a goosestep and Hitler salute, depending on how you look at it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">I don’t really like to be so cynical, and I really did want to like this campaign but unfortunately the execution lets it all down. Even the media approach of big bang then trickle-down feels wrong. My instinct tells me that this would have worked so much better if it could have been built up, partly via clever word-of-mouth from a grass-roots level with activities and events on a local level which could then be celebrated in a big national whistles-and-bells spectacular. I also have the feeling in all this that actions speak louder than words. Too many celebrities pointing the finger, however gently, to tell me that I’m master of my own fate is just likely to upset the Germans further, rather than inspire them, as it might the Brits or the Americans. At an even more sinister level, although the campaign is apolitical, some critics have seen it as the government (whoever that is) finding the perfect way to shift the blame for the state the country is in back onto the individual. If you’re unemployed you only have yourself to blame and it’s up to you to get out of the hole you’ve dug.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t really see this campaign doing the trick. What might get Germany back on its feet again is winning the World Cup on home ground next year. But, fortunately for the rest of us, that is one thing that the media barons won’t be able to manipulate or buy, one hopes.</span></p><p>----------</p><p>Well, I was almost right in my prediction. Germany didn’t win the World Cup in 2006 but they played a blinder when it came to hosting. Known as the <i>Sommermärchen</i> here, it was a summer of a brilliantly-organised football-love-peace-and-harmony-fest. And then we had Angie, and for a few years everything seemed to be going swimmingly.</p><p>But history always goes in cycles and what with Covid, war, recession and Germany not really getting its act together on the digital stuff, we’re now the Sick Man of Europe (or the World?) again. And the national football team is rubbish.</p><p><a href="https://www.protopia.de/studie">44% of Germans would rather live in the past, compared to 18% who’d rather live in the future. And nearly 60% of the 18 - 29s say they’d prefer the past (maybe 2006?).</a></p><p>But, but, but ... there’s always that thing about history repeating itself. </p><p>Germany is hosting Euro 2024 next year. Can it work again?</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-81364644807151470432023-09-27T10:19:00.005+02:002023-09-27T10:19:45.245+02:00Opening up to possibility<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSShi2whgEJgTGZS2WFko-OP9nD7vjNADIAxeda4TFXvK-DPSJrA1OrYe6Vch_GCbkL6NHx4HhCp_SgRCXxddweW_25SuMcXYaqDqlatz-Bp9ohFGfv7VMAuOcSdQV5cdg0DSMVAQv0opf0uiLvaEs5kwVK36o-vKzhaaVGQ2z6JRwe5BQzVjCttKBcB4/s424/TheDividedBrain.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSShi2whgEJgTGZS2WFko-OP9nD7vjNADIAxeda4TFXvK-DPSJrA1OrYe6Vch_GCbkL6NHx4HhCp_SgRCXxddweW_25SuMcXYaqDqlatz-Bp9ohFGfv7VMAuOcSdQV5cdg0DSMVAQv0opf0uiLvaEs5kwVK36o-vKzhaaVGQ2z6JRwe5BQzVjCttKBcB4/s320/TheDividedBrain.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>This 10,000 word essay may be the best thing I’ve read this year related to my work. Here’s my review:</p><p><span face=""Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><i>I can thoroughly recommend this essay on the nature of the two brain hemispheres - what they do and what they’re like. Why we need both and why as a society we’re becoming left-dominated, with less appreciation of tone, irony, metaphor and humour.</i></span></p><i><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><span face=""Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">Forget the simplistic, convenient explanation that “the left brain is rational and the right brain is emotional” - this isn’t the point. In McGilchrist’s own words, “one way of looking at the difference would be to say that while the left hemisphere’s raison d’etre is to narrow things down to a certainty, the right hemisphere’s is to open them up into possibility.”</span></i><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-family: "Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px;" /><span face=""Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><i>Wise, erudite and indispensible.</i></span><div><span face="Proxima Nova, Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21);"><br /></span></span></div><div><div>Next step - investigate the <a href="https://channelmcgilchrist.com">website</a> . I see that the excellent <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/bloomin-lemons.html">Orlando Wood</a> is <a href="https://channelmcgilchrist.com/orlando-wood-on-advertising-the-brain-hemispheres-and-the-crisis-in-creativity/">featured</a>. </div><div><span face="Proxima Nova, Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21);"><br /></span></span><div><span face=""Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face=""Proxima Nova", Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div></div></div>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-46045447684336526292023-09-08T12:49:00.000+02:002023-09-08T12:49:11.457+02:00The Last Campaign<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0qxdFgVy_Ory2192dtOpW9FESit7Noi1aeugWmughYe9kvGwaIj0jBfU5KQtRv49_2G2YB9nlEYwZ1-eq1L0ZWvkNo6vI1rEXHwlbhIhf93gb_EHG6LZ45k1V1IT_d6ix_IKZBtnI7UsGch-t6FWZT8PARnIo8en0H6iYLNJLkmuZbnzrkLaL7E4NvU/s4032/Campaign30Years.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0qxdFgVy_Ory2192dtOpW9FESit7Noi1aeugWmughYe9kvGwaIj0jBfU5KQtRv49_2G2YB9nlEYwZ1-eq1L0ZWvkNo6vI1rEXHwlbhIhf93gb_EHG6LZ45k1V1IT_d6ix_IKZBtnI7UsGch-t6FWZT8PARnIo8en0H6iYLNJLkmuZbnzrkLaL7E4NvU/s320/Campaign30Years.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I’ve been reading <i>Campaign</i> for more years than the 30 on this anniversary issue from 1998. My introduction to the British ad industry’s rag was in my first job, working in the market research department of Spillers Foods. </p><p>The trade magazines were divvied up amongst the market research department to scour for articles of interest. The most senior and glamorous of us got <i>Campaign</i>, the middle-ranking execs got <i>Marketing</i> and <i>Marketing Week</i>, and yours truly, the trainee, got <i>The Grocer</i>. </p><p>I loved <i>Campaign</i> - it presented a fabulous world of creativity, eccentricity, wit and wisdom that I couldn’t get enough of.</p><p>Once I started working at Saatchi, the magazine was still read avidly and woe-betide anyone that snatched the Group Account Director’s copy before they’d had a chance to look at it.</p><p>I’ve had a subscription to <i>Campaign</i> for the 20 years I’ve been freelancing. While it’s been useful to keep in touch with the UK ad scene, I have to say that my interest has waned. Concurrently, the price of the thing has rocketed, even though it has gone 100% digital, which should save costs, by my logic.</p><p>From 2021 to last year, the price of my subscription rocketed +172%, and a further price hike of over 50% came this year. </p><p><i>Campaign</i> still has a few good articles and thought pieces - and I tend to then look up the authors and stalk, sorry, follow them on LinkedIn. But I’m afraid much of it falls into the <i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2022/03/reinventing-past.html">Reinventing the past</a></i> category for me.</p><p>With those ludicrous price hikes, I’ve come to the conclusion that <i>Campaign</i> has lost its value in terms of being informative, useful or entertaining. Money that can be better spent.</p><p>And there seem to be <a href="https://www.moreaboutadvertising.com">one</a> or <a href="https://www.lbbonline.com/?edition=international">two</a> <a href="https://www.brandknewmag.com">alternatives</a> that won’t break the bank.</p><p>So, cheerio, <i>Campaign</i>. Nice knowing you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0ucSvy9G-OfMO0NY8bePTjGgkRxGlBF5ukkHZX3Jb0Buc6YYH4rFtHPspAFXRES4_7r7mQDEkO_wH_hirZ4BCMwsYFGastDhwqS2HL3EIflAxJkjkq9W-dmyfxNevjl66Ej7jbPRGBWf9NVYNYTvb2jkgeVjzoBplXqt0-XK8wgTpl8uFGPtbLhqsQg/s924/Campaign2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="698" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs0ucSvy9G-OfMO0NY8bePTjGgkRxGlBF5ukkHZX3Jb0Buc6YYH4rFtHPspAFXRES4_7r7mQDEkO_wH_hirZ4BCMwsYFGastDhwqS2HL3EIflAxJkjkq9W-dmyfxNevjl66Ej7jbPRGBWf9NVYNYTvb2jkgeVjzoBplXqt0-XK8wgTpl8uFGPtbLhqsQg/s320/Campaign2007.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-69055654024771085872023-09-01T17:14:00.001+02:002023-09-01T17:16:17.679+02:00RETROWURST: Advertising Agencies September 2005<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHO1YR-TRNfSQ2VH7nbewqw4gaPwzrY0yuw18vyuaz9QLlZKw0qr43qF4pNdXeZyzYMC-AyeN6c5N1JVZb9SPOL3TM0t_-CV3CJU8nuAjpibCoLQtFIG83BnNL_QOk377TkjGa97l-7pQ_PgdGrgyUU-Vtc0aqgrFLH4jcgVAkzc6-rN1uMNkrB_UGzUY/s3024/BitteNurWerbungSaatchi.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHO1YR-TRNfSQ2VH7nbewqw4gaPwzrY0yuw18vyuaz9QLlZKw0qr43qF4pNdXeZyzYMC-AyeN6c5N1JVZb9SPOL3TM0t_-CV3CJU8nuAjpibCoLQtFIG83BnNL_QOk377TkjGa97l-7pQ_PgdGrgyUU-Vtc0aqgrFLH4jcgVAkzc6-rN1uMNkrB_UGzUY/s320/BitteNurWerbungSaatchi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>In September 2005, I indulged in a bit of navel-gazing about ad agencies, which may have seemed self-indulgent at the time. But it’s certainly fascinating to read with 18 years’ hindsight.</p><p>In this article, I referred to the “new media and internet specialists” who tended to lurk around Berlin. How quaint. And then, I was very snooty about mozzarella and cherry tomatoes on sticks.</p><p>On a positive note, I cheered German agencies' success at Cannes that year. And commented that Planning had perhaps achieved critical mass in Germany. Were the two connected? I wonder.</p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Last week, I attended the “Night of the Lions” in Frankfurt; one of the German advertising industry’s yearly highlights where hundreds of advertising types gather to see creatives getting their prizes and viewing the reel of the gold, silver and bronze film winners. I say “one of” for good reason. While, in the UK, I assume this sort of thing would always take place in London, the German advertising industry has a number of centres including Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Berlin. In addition, many major (-ish) agencies have their offices in Munich or cities in the former East Germany, such as Leipzig. If there is any tendency at all to who sits where, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf tend to be the German offices of the multi-nationals with Hamburg being home to the original German agencies that grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s such as Springer & Jacoby and Jung von Matt. Berlin tends to house the newest agencies and many of the new media and internet specialists.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Although there has been much talk from the industry press of the revival of German advertising creativity after many years of doom and gloom, I did find my experience last week a bit like being in a time-warp. The event was held in a former tram depot all decked out in black with a bit of white, as were most of the rather earnest-looking guests. There were Caipirinhas at the bar and bits of mozzarella and baby tomatoes on sticks (which I have always considered the 1990s version of the 1970s cheese `n` pineapple). I’ve now been freelance for nearly three years and haven’t worked full-time in an agency for nearly five but it didn’t really look to me as if things had moved on much.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Working in advertising here in Germany (funnily enough, one never says “being in advertising” as one might in the UK) doesn’t really carry the cachet that it might in the UK or USA. Advertising is not really regarded as a profession here and certainly does not have the glamorous image that it might have in other markets. At a party, if you own up to “working in advertising”, the subject is quickly changed, rather as if you had admitted to having something to do with second-hand cars. You would be better off to try and disguise your role as a “consultant” in some way as this at least suggests better academic credentials. “Real” professions, such as being a doctor or a lawyer, are what buy you points here in Germany. So extreme is this tendency that even some of the creatives who went up to collect their gongs last week were announced as “Dr So-and-so” in a totally non-ironic way. Academic qualifications are often made much of in agency credentials presentations which came as something of a surprise to me, coming from a world where a PhD is something that a London-based creative is about as likely to own up to having as piles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that one area of the German advertising industry which seems to be on the up at the moment is Planning. From my own perspective, it does seem that Strategic Planning in Germany has now achieved critical mass. The annual Open Event of the apgd in June seemed packed full of young faces and the organisation now seems to have got its act together in offering training for young planners. Although the apgd has been in existence for nine years now (I had the dubious privilege of sitting through its inaugural constitutional meeting) it was perhaps a little handicapped in its early years by an over-intellectual, inward-looking attitude (typified by endless humourless debates about “The definition of planning” “Whether one is a strategic planner or a creative planner” and an article laying out “a segmentation of planners.”)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">In a typically German way, the most “intellectual” of advertising’s disciplines now seems to be feeding the right stuff to the creative folks to make some damned good ads. It is no surprise to learn that some of the agencies that did well at Cannes are those with a strong planning tradition: Springer & Jacoby, who have their own Planning Consultancy, Jung von Matt, where one of the MDs is a planner and chairman (female!) of the apgd and Heimat, where another Planner has his name over the door (unusual in German agencies.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">So, back to Cannes, or at least to that converted tram depot in Frankfurt. Germany has done rather well at Cannes this year, 4<sup>th</sup> overall in terms of Lions won, whereas they were struggling in the double-figure rankings just a few years ago. In fact, in the area of film, Germany achieved the joint third placing (with France) after the USA and UK in 2006 with a total of eight film Lions won.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">It’s probably no surprise to here that many of these Lions, including the gold, were won for car advertising. The Germans are actually rather good at car advertising, just as they are rather good at cars. The gold winner, entitled “Sound of Summer” is a lovely piece of film for the Mercedes sports from Springer & Jacoby based on the visual creative idea of sound frequencies. This is a great spot that combines the German passions of cars and music, and you don’t see a single car (except in your imagination, of course). A bronze also went to S&J for their Mercedes C-Class spot and to McCann Erickson for their Astra spot where the car replaces the dog in the owner’s affections as “man’s new best friend.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB">Another great German passion is DIY (I’m sure you’ll all have heard that here, the DIY enthusiast doesn’t just stop at a few shelves, he is more than likely to build his own house!). Another bronze lion went to the Berlin agency Heimat for their work for Hornbach DIY stores. Here, the German members of the jury had the difficulty of explaining the underlying concept of a member of a surrealist-nihilist-punk group reading the Hornbach catalogue aloud, but they succeeded, the films are a hoot in any language and Heimat deservedly won.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">What appears to be a bit of an oddity on the prize list is Jung von Matt’s silver for K-Fee, which is a coffee product. Not a category so close to German hearts, you may think. Furthermore, the creative idea is a downright weird (if highly effective) demonstration of the product’s stimulating powers. You are lulled into a false sense of security by what you think will be a typical, clichéd advertising spot when something suddenly pops up and screams at you at a high decibel level. But here’s where the link happens. Guess what kind of cliché is used to lull you into that semi-comatose state? That’s right - a typical scene of a beautiful car driving through a rolling rural landscape. You can almost hear the “Sound of Summer” before the scream so rudely interrupts you.</span></p><p>---------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Well, <i>Hornbach </i>are still making great ads, eighteen years on. </p><p>What I perhaps wouldn’t have predicted is that the ‘Dr So-and-So’ syndrome has really caught on. Worldwide. Even in the UK. Ad people desperately trying to demonstrate their gravitas to keep the management consultants after their jobs at bay. The geeks and nerds really have inherited the earth.</p><p>Back then, I said that a PhD is something a London-based creative is about as likely to own up to as having piles.</p><p>These days, I think they’d probably own up to their “lived experience” of haemorrhoids, too, in the interests of empathy and authenticity.</p><p>I’m off to make some - ahem - mozzarella and cherry tomatoes on sticks.</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-51390786676261964372023-08-22T14:02:00.006+02:002023-08-22T14:02:43.805+02:00Hip to be square<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR3B92O_Anvi4QTdQa1tj9Wxgt62-74e1PXlEFKhBPzpfSJT3LbbbbMVMANMvBxp591oGyuwJRB6K_KLOkCcpvJldK9WtxhxVnxBCMG-THJh7yJYDhwLjBkyuROlxHbXwKnRRwItbNksi53F-3ReJ-PgjtAvr25ow4pTMiqGUDxlRQVARuRZ6EmMhz_0/s940/Hornbach-Herbstkampagne-2023-415959-detailpp.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="940" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR3B92O_Anvi4QTdQa1tj9Wxgt62-74e1PXlEFKhBPzpfSJT3LbbbbMVMANMvBxp591oGyuwJRB6K_KLOkCcpvJldK9WtxhxVnxBCMG-THJh7yJYDhwLjBkyuROlxHbXwKnRRwItbNksi53F-3ReJ-PgjtAvr25ow4pTMiqGUDxlRQVARuRZ6EmMhz_0/s320/Hornbach-Herbstkampagne-2023-415959-detailpp.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>If anyone asked me which German brands have cracked it in terms of consistently distinctive and entertaining advertising, <i>Hornbach </i>would be on the list. Maybe top of the list. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_8-EtnWIjg">here comes</a> the latest campaign from <i>HeimatTBWA</i> for the Autumn. </p><p>I remember from my <i>IKEA</i> days that living space per person is on the decline, through choice (sustainability) or necessity, or both. The creative idea in this camapign is to bring the (increasing)value of each square metre to life.</p><p>And what better way to do that than to use the little-used square film format to show that “every square metre deserves to be the best in the world.”</p><p>The beautifully conceived, constructed and produced commercial shows the life of a man who lives in a world of tiny spaces. A little bit Alice-in-Wonderland. The film features actual built room sets rather than special effect-trickery. It’s nicking a little from <i>IKEA </i>but nevertheless shows what’s possible when you let creativity and ingenuity loose in a small space.</p><p>And the music is brilliant!</p><p>Ja Ja Jippie Jippie Yeah!</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-76328489293079538972023-08-07T14:08:00.001+02:002023-08-07T14:10:01.463+02:00BA: A quantity of quality<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ6rv7g3BixJWLh567NSKQARzjLSXcy23pinouryrTxW_96Fn1W1HQCUj6_FrpZ63aA9GLKqgA_eg4DtXXOUt-hTryG5AQ2li-tjmlGaIHXuE9zc60LGMqu3ciXO63jXlPtkgAZSWPFcXb6hd9_6QN4uobVz8HGInoOT05hXTfW5-BwhB5uhfDqtc-qsA/s1600/BAMischief.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ6rv7g3BixJWLh567NSKQARzjLSXcy23pinouryrTxW_96Fn1W1HQCUj6_FrpZ63aA9GLKqgA_eg4DtXXOUt-hTryG5AQ2li-tjmlGaIHXuE9zc60LGMqu3ciXO63jXlPtkgAZSWPFcXb6hd9_6QN4uobVz8HGInoOT05hXTfW5-BwhB5uhfDqtc-qsA/s320/BAMischief.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>When I worked on the BA account, decades ago, the passenger survey struck me as one of the top reasons why quant surveys got a bad name. How could the categories of business or leisure really sum up the multiplicity of reasons for flying? Even (from memory) the third alternative, which may have been added later - visiting friends and family - didn’t add much. Well, that could cover anything from a wild and exotic party to your granny’s funeral.</p><p>I’ve been <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/this-septic-isle.html">a bit sniffy about BA advertising in recent years</a>, but since October last year, I’m sniffing no more. The brand launched <a href="https://www.brandknewmag.com/british-airways-new-ads-will-make-you-love-copywriting-again/">their new c</a>ampaign (by Uncommon Creative Studios) in October 2022. It’s based on the brand essence of “A British Original” - which is pretty neat, by the way, as the phrase can be applied to passengers, staff, journeys, innovations and the rest. The idea acknowledges that there are far, far more travel purposes than those described in the two boxes “business” and “leisure”.</p><p>This campaign is remarkable in its variety - 512 print, digital and outdoor executions plus numerous second spots. And, simultaneously, its coherence around one strong creative idea. None of the visual old or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1eOmsEG01k">new cliches</a> associated with airlines. Just great copywriting and clever art direction/use of media. The idea used contextual OOH - buses, tube stations - and also adapted to the weather, to the time of day, to news events. There were no surprises when it won the outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgem22oqUdM163Pifw4DXXyngL1RvyJZinZZLDzf22mIMk9vWTVtGa0VuYiVHIbWVmqM2B5-wXZrUea4dd96gt9bg9q4R99T3wsGYv8XzSU6nJH579LwbBl2am3taBSRjODIGbJZkFRIhFAe-TDzlQAOomxxI1iwZqhFdFy5GZdZxMo6eoaWzKLtDLq8/s989/BABritishOriginal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="989" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgem22oqUdM163Pifw4DXXyngL1RvyJZinZZLDzf22mIMk9vWTVtGa0VuYiVHIbWVmqM2B5-wXZrUea4dd96gt9bg9q4R99T3wsGYv8XzSU6nJH579LwbBl2am3taBSRjODIGbJZkFRIhFAe-TDzlQAOomxxI1iwZqhFdFy5GZdZxMo6eoaWzKLtDLq8/s320/BABritishOriginal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>This month sees an expansion of the campaign in OOH, print and social media with some clever contextual jiggery-pokery. From boat sails and jumpers ...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXmPgOktugsCAeTM2a1V92QnSW8-lh7c-75Lw4etLVXTA0z4ne2ZfB0SL9HzAbdX1o_9HwFEco_bTKYOoqb6pUYe3u2syRHKH7UvxZtv6yxQCWgyRh2F0u5u8tb9ginkDutmVB7mXKtWBfCe_Sfo_ABP5Xo9gzTkH_9vjXBzY1I234T_D1KdLDJllif4/s743/BAJumper.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="743" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXmPgOktugsCAeTM2a1V92QnSW8-lh7c-75Lw4etLVXTA0z4ne2ZfB0SL9HzAbdX1o_9HwFEco_bTKYOoqb6pUYe3u2syRHKH7UvxZtv6yxQCWgyRh2F0u5u8tb9ginkDutmVB7mXKtWBfCe_Sfo_ABP5Xo9gzTkH_9vjXBzY1I234T_D1KdLDJllif4/s320/BAJumper.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>to cheese ...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rFR2BYo22Lyie2JSOj5sdEvOW2N7Gu82-wPhpImDsF_-tdo7Qn38s9gFq-kyjdvjy6_I-agRHKd2g8goEO9k5rnTZOXWA67k0kml8CUUq4Pm8guz88d5MtJ_2ylj904VJScNpH7RsFUu7W61o7NqMflEztC1dKwjWKrt6fhuLAFR0Op344QfBVosklI/s1000/BACheese.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-rFR2BYo22Lyie2JSOj5sdEvOW2N7Gu82-wPhpImDsF_-tdo7Qn38s9gFq-kyjdvjy6_I-agRHKd2g8goEO9k5rnTZOXWA67k0kml8CUUq4Pm8guz88d5MtJ_2ylj904VJScNpH7RsFUu7W61o7NqMflEztC1dKwjWKrt6fhuLAFR0Op344QfBVosklI/s320/BACheese.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><p>And finally, BA isn’t the only big old mass-market brand getting it right with its advertising. I’m also a great fan of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_MKrvcmFQ">this cheerful follow-up to “Arches”</a> for McDonalds.</p><p>Find your originality - then use it!</p></div>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-47418942151707539382023-08-01T12:18:00.000+02:002023-08-01T12:18:54.634+02:00RETROWURST: Greece August 2005<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvfhe7XogMgW7g1WJireXBHK72HkdKSLVI7BccJWUWmdNfnHo2hf207-deXqfXhsmS7eymokVUgEQUToifSFHzoiLpKgHRHHEqW-so-ND5SUdWRmOOqb34lIqrGk5b-y2wl-oh_MJfk0T0XRnd9p7G5-S8az478lyElvb84RUJJqF3FRTdI0L2qs__8k/s1280/postcard.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFvfhe7XogMgW7g1WJireXBHK72HkdKSLVI7BccJWUWmdNfnHo2hf207-deXqfXhsmS7eymokVUgEQUToifSFHzoiLpKgHRHHEqW-so-ND5SUdWRmOOqb34lIqrGk5b-y2wl-oh_MJfk0T0XRnd9p7G5-S8az478lyElvb84RUJJqF3FRTdI0L2qs__8k/s320/postcard.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><i>Retrowurst </i>was in holiday modus in August 2005, full of the many and varied joys of Greece. Food, football, holiday fun - but was this a short-term infatuation on the part of the Germans, following the Greeks’ Euro 2004 success?</p><p>--------------------------------------------------</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The news is official- in Germany; at least, Greece is the new Italy. While that may sound historically incorrect (wasn’t it the other way around in the old days?) there does seem to be a gathering body of evidence here that Greece is taking over Italy’s pride of place in the Germans’ minds, hearts, stomachs and suntans!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">It all started about a year ago with football. The surprise winner of Euro 2004 were the Greeks, who, from the opening game on surprised the crowds in the stadiums and in front of the TVs. While critics continued to point out that the football that the Greeks played was uninspired and ugly and others muttered about luck in a sort of sour-Retsina-grapes fashion, the Greeks progressed through the first round, the quarters and semis to the final itself. Now, criticism for playing ugly football and muttering about good luck are well-known to any supporter of the German football team and, if this wasn’t enough to get the Germans behind Greece once their own luck was (uncharacteristically early) up, a quick glance at who was on the sidelines was.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Otto Rehhagel, a not uncontroversial veteran of the <i>Bundesliga</i> as player and trainer, coached and trained the Greeks to victory. Rehhagel has often been criticized for his “old-fashioned” methods in his home country. He famously answered his critics with the reply “winning is what is modern.” Herr Rehhagel has not only gained a couple of name changes since the tournament (“King Otto”, Rehakles”) but also is now an honorary citizen of Athens and was voted “Greek of the Year” by a leading Greek newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The drama of Euro 2004 was followed closely by the excitement and pageant of the 2004 Olympics, the Opening Ceremony of which also featured Herr Rehhagel/Rehakles. Two weeks of surprise, scandal and achievement under the Greek sun certainly continued to whet German appetites for the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Some rather less culturally mighty events also saw Greeks triumphing. In the first German series of “I’m a Celebrity- get me out of here”, Costa Cordalis was crowned Jungle King. Costa Cordalis is a German-adopted Greek singer who had a couple of hit records in the 1970s which are still played at <i>Karenval </i>when people are too drunk to care how cheesy they are. For Costa Cordalis, you need to think Demis Roussos minus the kaftan and a few kilos. And, on the subject of tacky Europop, the Eurovision song contest was won this year by none other than Greece.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">On the holiday destination front, many people in Germany, scared-off by terrorist activity in Turkey and Egypt or by natural disaster in the Far East are booking up holidays in Greece. Even the recent Helios plane crash has not much dented the impression that Greece is a “safer” holiday destination than many. Greece has never been associated with the sort of Club 18-30 excess (as in Kardemena for example) in Germany that certain Greek islands and resorts are known (and avoided) for in the UK. While Germany spawns just as many undesirable holiday-makers as the UK does, most of them tend to congregate in certain unsavoury bars and resorts in the Balearics. For historical reasons, the Greeks are probably more prepared to tolerate drunken Brits than drunken Krauts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Greece has always been a little overshadowed by its two Mediterranean neighbours, Italy and Turkey, from a German point of view. Italy has long been a popular travel and holiday destination for the Germans from Goethe’s time onwards. After all, it’s just over the Alps and these days you can drive there in a day from all but the northernmost areas of Germany. Italy is to the Germans as France is to the Brits - the epitome of the desired lifestyle, food, drink and culture. Turkey is a more recent influence but a very noticeable one with the presence of a large Turkish community within Germany. Turkish shops and restaurants are widespread and popular with many Germans and Turkey itself is a well-loved holiday destination.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">This year, however, tourism to Greece has really taken-off. It is almost impossible to get a flight at this stage of the season to any of the islands and many tour operators seem to be booked-out. At least every second person amongst friends, neighbours and colleagues seems to be holidaying in Greece this year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">The discount retailers have really picked up on this trend with Greek-themed offers throughout this summer. For example, <i>Plus</i> (www.plus.de) have a wide range of Greek products on offer this week. There is Imiglykos wine for €1.49 (you’d probably be prepared to sing-along to Costa Cordalis songs after this!), Eos Ouzo for €4.99 (ditto), Olive Oil from Krete, Zeus Zaziki and all manner of stuffed and marinated olives and peppers. It’s not just consumables on offer either: <i>Plus</i> also have a mosaic garden chair and table set, olive and pistachio trees, special dishes for the stuffed and marinated olives and all manner of table linen with an olive design on offer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The other discounters such as Aldi and Lidl have also had their Greek ranges with everything from cookbooks to garden statues. So it certainly seems as if those that are unlucky enough not to have booked their flights to Greece early will never-the-less have ample opportunity to create their own Taverna in the back garden, sit back in their mosaic stools, slug back a bit of Ouzo and sing along to Costa Cordalis. For my part, I’m off to Paros at the end of September although it may well be that we’ll have had enough of Greece by then!</span></p><p>--------------------------------------------------</p><p>Sometimes, looking back at <i>Retrowurst</i>, I wonder where to start, as the changes are so fundamental. But, I can safely say that the German passion for Greece is still very much alive and kicking like a mythical winged horse. The discounters are still celebrating Greek weeks with regularity, offering <i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/mythos-authenticity-and-context.html">Mythos</a></i> and other goodies.</p><p>Fifty friends of ours celebrated a 25th wedding anniversary in Matala recently, and the Greece newbies were every bit as enchanted as those who’d been visiting for decades. And last Sunday, our local band managed a rendition of <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBkPARPm-Mc">Griechischer Wein</a></i> just before the heavens opened and rain stopped play - and Fest.</p><p>Yamas!</p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-24741375904120433632023-07-24T14:37:00.008+02:002023-07-24T14:37:59.715+02:00Coutts, Farage and the inclusivity paradox<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI10SgjFnfE6VWBnMssBdjKU0q31A_x6D4eAHkSPmDSMBE-aNQYCYT8HZLHr3t1wHjwcHM-8fWxwDIZS--chSwO3OsxRoAXSqUaY6HOn3uMGMahYOZmExbIVURVryJCXbc6UOzSpIiakAXaDS0_xbPDCWz41j_mBvG4zCfwikw815tybI02EPYXx2Lyk/s1246/Screenshot%202023-07-24%20at%2012.19.59.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1246" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI10SgjFnfE6VWBnMssBdjKU0q31A_x6D4eAHkSPmDSMBE-aNQYCYT8HZLHr3t1wHjwcHM-8fWxwDIZS--chSwO3OsxRoAXSqUaY6HOn3uMGMahYOZmExbIVURVryJCXbc6UOzSpIiakAXaDS0_xbPDCWz41j_mBvG4zCfwikw815tybI02EPYXx2Lyk/s320/Screenshot%202023-07-24%20at%2012.19.59.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>A couple of years ago, I wrote a post entitled <i><a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/your-customers-choose-you.html">Your customers choose you.</a> </i>At the time, I believed that it was nigh-well impossible for a brand of any size to pick and choose its customers. Much as they’d like to. <i>Coutts </i>for example, state on their website that “Coutts clients are trailblazers and pioneers, the disrupters and challengers who help to shape the fabric of UK society.”</p><p>Dream on, <i>Coutts</i>, I would have thought a few weeks ago. You may have a few photogenic dazzling young movers and shakers, who you’ve displayed prominently on your website. But you’ve also got a heck of a lot of retired brigadiers and boring old conservative farts. And, people like Nigel Farage.</p><p><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/posturing-for-profit-after-coutts-the-backlash-dj0wpb0lr">Well, we all know that didn’t end well</a>. But while FMCG brands from bog cleaner to baked beans would have difficulty stopping Mr Farage, Mr Trump or anyone else from buying their product, banks can close accounts. Social media platforms, too. What has been revealed in the case of Farage is that the resaons were nothing to do with insufficient funds in the account, or being a politically-exposed-person. It was a case of Farage’s views and opinions - as catalogued in a multi-page dossier - “not aligning with the bank’s values.”</p><p>I’ve done a lot of work on brand (rather than corporate) values, and the challenge was always three-fold. First of all, finding descriptors that could legitimately be described as “values” - generally nouns. Secondly, for the combination - and I’d advise not picking more than four - to be distinctive and fitting to that particular brand. And finally, things that weren’t so vague, intellecually airy-fairy or obscure that no-one had a clue how to put these into practice.</p><p>Whether it’s the B-Corp/ESG movement or the interest in Purpose, I don’t know. But values - whether applied to corporate or brand - seem to have become simultaneously samey and vague over the last years. Many companies don’t divulge what they’re <i>for</i>, rather what they’re against - all the usual suspect -isms and -phobias along with <a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2018/09/when-did-hate-become-so-hateful.html">hate</a> and toxicity in general.</p><p>Is “diversity” a value? I don’t think so, any more than “equity”. These words have taken on very particular meanings in corporate-speak. </p><p>And when it comes to the third member of this particular trio, then <i>Coutts </i>are really tying themselves up in knots. Even putting aside the financial requirements to become a customer, just take a look at the screenshot from their website. Under the section on “Inclusion” comes the text “when you become a client of Coutts, you’ll be part of an exclusive network.”</p><p>To me, it all illustrates a lack of that good old-fashioned brand value, integrity. </p><p><br /></p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1696647243385896792.post-45765932147460016992023-07-10T16:32:00.006+02:002023-07-10T16:34:02.706+02:00Sharemongering<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xOjYjUk2HOCG3kQn4dDCHr4ZuxS_oRp67uDcajOuOLZqQZ_4ZWHYWTWS5WSFW9NxvoIlVCdglPe9f9gcApu0JGzQKX65p9SpIoXnC9qZe1DVY7wtY8ywQSh86Cq_ZtM0HSTogPGNCSs-iE9lhvWOoXSXF8d8G1rDzjeSJccBC2uK_2feQqhNP---Rhg/s3024/IMG_2676.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_xOjYjUk2HOCG3kQn4dDCHr4ZuxS_oRp67uDcajOuOLZqQZ_4ZWHYWTWS5WSFW9NxvoIlVCdglPe9f9gcApu0JGzQKX65p9SpIoXnC9qZe1DVY7wtY8ywQSh86Cq_ZtM0HSTogPGNCSs-iE9lhvWOoXSXF8d8G1rDzjeSJccBC2uK_2feQqhNP---Rhg/s320/IMG_2676.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnDYdyNXxBrhTps66jF9WrS52SlizewS9pyM9j5qHiEqskL3ayU8NH4bySNywhToyt7ZXU3uPRdT8EULgIPcC9nzqUEHh99uVDG-ckGXLtXBEB1V-tnuvmribhNoWDYBzjOykTXRPZeK-UPZKhHXaFFCoLhDFKH8pqN9lWdwOvb9GoJI6sdyScxEehqc/s3024/IMG_2675.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnDYdyNXxBrhTps66jF9WrS52SlizewS9pyM9j5qHiEqskL3ayU8NH4bySNywhToyt7ZXU3uPRdT8EULgIPcC9nzqUEHh99uVDG-ckGXLtXBEB1V-tnuvmribhNoWDYBzjOykTXRPZeK-UPZKhHXaFFCoLhDFKH8pqN9lWdwOvb9GoJI6sdyScxEehqc/s320/IMG_2675.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>During the 20-teens, pre-Covid, I got terribly excited about “<a href="https://secretagencyblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/circle-of-life.html">The Sharing Economy</a>”. My trusty trend-forecaster newsletter contacts did, too - forever sending little examples of apps for sharing anything from leftover food to power tools to skills. My response was always the same - wow! Great idea! Must try it out. Then I’d look at the app, or the website and remember that I live in Bruchköbel, a German town in rural Hessen with 20,000 inhabitants who are unlikely to be early adopters of such gizmos. Why not? Well, I’ll come to that, but the clue is in the photos above.</p><p>There’s an article about <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3050775/the-sharing-economy-is-dead-and-we-killed-it">the death of the Sharing Economy</a> in <i>Fast Company. </i>Or at least what we all got excited about ten or fifteen years back. The article goes through the history of the idea - how tech put us on the path away from ownership and towards collective peer-to-peer good. Looking back, some of the orignal Sharing Economy players are still going strong - from <i>Airbnb</i> to <i>Uber. </i>And I think the <a href="https://olioapp.com/en/">food sharing app OLIO</a> is doing OK, too, having gone into toys, toiletries, tupperware and stuff. Ditto, <i><a href="https://www.peerby.com">Peerby</a></i> - although the nearest neighbourhood I could find is in Holland.</p><p>But generally, the article concludes that the sharing power drills with neighbours concept hasn’t really taken off. While people like the idea in theory (and of course, it ticks a few virtue-signalling boxes), in the end they can’t be a**ed because for a few quid more you could get the thing delivered from <i>Amazon. </i>Many of the original Sharing Economy players that have survived have - rather like <i>ebay</i> - started off peer-to-peer then ended up becoming more and more dominated by companies and corporates rather than private individuals.</p><p>I still get those newsletters, though - and here’s a recent-ish sharing economy thing that’s trying to make fashion more sustainable with its “community of expert seamstresses” - <i><a href="https://www.sojo.uk">Sojo</a></i>. And looking at the website, I was reminded the following:</p><p> - someone in the Bruchköbel <i>Facebook</i> Forum offering a box of limes and lemons to whoever was <span> <span> </span></span>first to come and collect<br /></p><p><span> - a hand-written sign on a garden gate to say that they had fresh eggs to give away today</span><br /></p><p><span><span> - walking past the two local tailors/seamstresses that are practically next door to each other (and I am sure there are one or two others in the town)</span><br /></span></p><p><span><span>And I wonder - who needs the diversion, the middleman, the app? Both from a point of view of fiddliness and inconvenience, but also something more fundamental when it comes to “local” and “community.” I’ve had hotel owners requesting me to please, please book direct rather than through one of the big booking websites. It’s to do with money, of course, but also maintaining individuality and integrity.</span></span></p><p><span><span>I can understand the reluctance of many small local businesses to get caught up on these global platforms - in the same way that I won’t be touting my wares on <i><a href="https://www.fiverr.com">Fiverr</a>.</i> </span></span></p><p> </p>Sue Imgrundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16561248973128136601noreply@blogger.com0