RETROWURST: Public Holidays May 2005

 

Here we go on another trip back in time, to my reflections on the merry month of May in Germany, with its glut of public holidays. Off I went, following the tipsy processions through the fields and woods, slurping down Maibowle on the way.

I must have got bored of that topic as the article then lurched into the subject of greeting cards in Germany. If my memory serves me correctly, I had a project on the go on this theme.

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It’s May and that annoying time of year again, if you work in the UK, when every time you call your colleagues in Germany or other continental countries, they seem to be having yet another public holiday or, worse still, they had a public holiday yesterday, which was Thursday, and are having the Friday off for good measure.

 

Public holidays come thick and fast after Easter here in Germany; there’s the first of May, of course (although we don’t move this around if it inconveniently falls on a weekend as it did this year; it would be most un-German to call the third the first, or whatever) and then we’ve just had Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in quick succession. Mother’s Day is understandable enough; this is the same as in the UK (on a Sunday) except that it’s in May instead of March, possibly to provide a better fresh seasonal flower selection. Father’s Day is a little more difficult to understand- it is actually Himmelfahrt or Ascension Day in the Christian Calendar but has been hi-jacked somewhere along the way to celebrate all that is manly and fatherly. Typically, it is a good excuse for men to go out for a long walk through the woods and fields, pulling a little cart heavily stocked with beer and Schnapps. These expeditions start fairly early in the morning and the progressively drunken procession lurches from one beer garden to the next, occasionally topping up in-between from the little cart. Sons are often included from a relatively early age, usually as an insurance measure to pull the cart or find the way home once the fathers become incapable. All this is rather different from the genteel coffee, cake and flower arrangements that constitute the typical Mother’s Day. So much so, that, recently, in the spirit of equality, groups of women can now also be observed on Father’s Day, crashing through the foliage to enjoy the odd glass of Prosecco.

 

No sooner are Father’s and Mother’s Days over than is Pfingsten or Whitsun and another long weekend (elongated even further in Frankfurt with the celebration of Waldchestag, or Woods Day on the Tuesday- yes, you guessed it- more drunken lurching and frolicking in the woods!) upon us. Sometime in late May or early June is Fronleichnam (or Happy Cadaver as I once heard it charmingly referred to; actually Corpus Christi) then that’s the lot in most of Germany except a few extreme Catholic strongholds until the frightening-sounding Tag der Deutschen Einheit in October.

 

You would think, what with Christmas and Easter and birthdays to add to all this, that the greetings card industry in Germany would be huge, but there you’d be wrong. Whereas, in the UK, Hallmark and their ilk have capitalised on the North American willingness to celebrate or commiserate every possible event or non-event of human life’s rich tapestry in card format, the greetings card market in Germany is under-developed which may be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. 

 

Starting with Christmas, the card selection is rather sparse. Maybe the Germans think that they are being damaging enough to the environment by insisting on real Christmas trees for all without then wasting the paper that’s involved in Christmas cards to every distant relative and acquaintance, including the dustmen. There are certainly no “bumper boxes” of 50 cards with the only nod to bulk-buying being packets of six postcards of snow scenes or candles. What cards there are have a very traditional flavour- you won’t find anything with “cool yule”, smutty poems about drunken reindeer or retro photos with 21^st century captions here. And these cards are mostly sold singly.

 

When it comes to birthdays, there is a market but it’s somewhat limited. Your choice tends to be amongst “funny cards”, which resemble those “funny cards” you used to get in the UK in the 1970s- tall and thin with very thin sub-Carry-On humour, cards that even most grannies would find too twee or the pre-teen girl selection featuring either Diddl (a mouse with oversized feet who I think hails from Austria) or those grey patchwork teddies who look like baby seals waiting to be clubbed. For younger children, there is little sign of the whole character merchandising industry anyway and especially not on birthday cards. Whereas you’re confronted by Bob, Postman Pat, the Tweenies, the old Disney favourites and the latest Disney/animation heroes from the first birthday onwards in the UK, you would be very lucky to find a birthday card that even has an age on it in Germany (unless it’s an age over 60 - as I’ve said before, Germany is a very old-friendly country where seniority is a badge to be proud of!). 

 

For other occasions (with the notable exception of condolence cards), the choice is very narrow indeed: even those “no text all purpose” cards are rather hard to come-by. In addition, what there is tends to be very bland and generally inoffensive, verging on twee. Cards for new babies, for example, are almost never funny but show, instead, rose- or baby blue- tinted symbols and images of unrealistic infant perfection. No jokes about stinks or embarrassing noises here!

 

Perhaps the reason for this under-development stems back to the German dislike of superficiality. Many of the card-giving occasions themselves (those that are not traditional German celebrations) are regarded as another ugly and blatant attempt for the US capitalist machine to squeeze more money out of us. Halloween and Valentine’s Day are two examples of occasions that have been “pushed” in recent years and are treated with increasing cynicism. Furthermore, the thought process in Germany tends to go- if you really care about the person who is celebrating, then put some time, money and effort into doing something personal and relevant to them- giving flowers, picking up the phone, making a card yourself and so on, otherwise, don’t bother. Card-giving tends to send out signals here of a “halfway house”; you’re doing the simplest, cheapest thing out of duty more than anything else.

 

In a way, they do have a point. Anyone who has suffered a deluge of those corporate Christmas cards signed in a rush by people who neither know nor care about you or has wondered how many two-year-olds really appreciate the full cast of the Teletubbies, Tweenies and Balamory in cardboard form may well wonder if we wouldn’t all be better off forgetting the card and enjoying the celebration instead, even if it does involve trees, rain and some very dubious Schnapps.

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Greetings cards are still pretty low-key in Germany, although there are loads around at the moment for Konfirmation. I wonder if the generation being confirmed at the moment (born around 2010) are a little bemused by these analogue relics. A popular alternative to cards for birthdays and the like seem to be those rather gaudy helium balloons. 

Fests are, thankfully, back on the calendar following Covid. Out here in the country, it’s not just Public Holidays, but almost any form of local produce, flora or fauna, from asparagus to apple blossom to potatoes that gets its own Fest.

I think I’ll give the Grillfest at the rabbit breeders’club a miss, though.

Artificial Politics?

 

There’s a certain knack to getting "cultural relevance” (my jury’s out on that term at the moment ...) just right, but today I’ve got an ad that does it 100%.

I am sure I’m not the only one whose Instagram feed is swamped with AI-generated art. Some of it fascinating, clever, thought-provoking. Some, less so.

This ad from Fridays for Future (by Fred & Faris, Los Angeles) was released for Earth Day and timing doesn’t get much better than that. I reckon that even within a month, we’ll be sick to the back teeth of AI-generated artwork in advertising. But this is the first campaign I’ve seen where it’s been used to really good effect.

“Earth is no toy”  is a clever idea, well-executed. It’s topical, arresting and fits the “brand” (I expect Greta would smack me round the chops for using that expression) perfectly. OK, I didn’t get that the politikids were meant to be holding the earth like a ball until I read the background, but does that matter?

I would love to see a version shpwing what the G20 leaders really looked like as children. 

Ve have ways of making your talk work

 

It’s awfully easy to get carried away with AI and machine learning and become convinced that us human-beings might as well give up and crawl back into the primordial soup. Especially if most of those breathless trend and future reports can be believed.

But every so often, in the real world, there’s an amusing reminder that the machines aren’t quite there, yet.

A couple I know (German) have an Alexa device. They’ve had this thing for a few years and it’s always been a source of immense frustration that it just doesn’t understand me. Or rather, my voice. The thing is, these friends have a different taste in music to mine, but every time they (kindly) offer me the possibility of choosing something, Alexa goes on strike.

But no more.

Last night, I discovered the secret.

Just for a laugh, I tried pronouncing the song titles and names of groups in a dreadful cod German accent, worthy of a 1950s British war film.

Was it my threatening tone, or simply what she was used to? Whatever, Alexa obliged, no problem.

From Vigvem Bem to Vair doo yo go to my lofley to Zree leetle birds to Shildren of ze revolusion, all my orders were understood and played by Alexa.

 Result.

Just have to remember now to ham it up next time I’m on the phone to the bank.

RETROWURST: Red Bull April 2005

 

In my collection of articles that I’m recycling for the purposes of Retrowurst, most cover a product category or perhaps a theme with some pertinence to advertising and marketing in German-speaking countries.

But one or two are about specific brands, and I’ve dusted off this one today. Not that Red Bull needs any dusting - the velocity of this brand is something else. Still. 

Here I was in April 2005, musing over the unlikely success of Red Bull.

Was it just another Austrian oddity, like Germknödel or DJ Ötzi?

How much design, how much luck?

Should Dieter Mateschitz sell-off at this point, take the money and run? (I was definitely underestimating him here.)

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In Forbes’ list of European billionaires, somewhere between the Russian oil barons and the heads of French luxury goods dynasties is Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian who has made most of his rapidly growing $2bn from one of the unlikeliest brand successes of the last twenty years. Herr Mateschitz is the father of Red Bull. Red Bull has grown from an unlikely-sounding proposition launched on the Austrian market in 1987 to a 1.9 billion can brand last year.

 

For those of us who first came across Red Bull in an Austrian ski resort in the late 80s or early 90s, the success of this strange beverage continues to surprise. Some of us who may have first encountered Red Bull in these days may well have written it off as a strange rather kitsch Austrian phenomenon along with vibrant turquoise toilet-cleaner coloured Schnapps, Germknödel or D.J Otzi. After all, here was something that tasted at best like melted boiled sweets, appeared to be full of all nasties known to man and seemed to defy any code of “food values” with its packaging. But Red Bull has remained a success in its native market and in Germany, as well as building up a firm following in other notoriously hard to penetrate markets such as the US, where it commands a 47% share in the $1.7 billion energy drinks market.

 

The secret of Red Bull and Herr Mateschitz’ success seems to be this: start with something of substance and integrity, certainly, but then break every rule in the marketing text book. This, of course is completely the opposite formula to most other new brand launches, be it the new breakfast cereal with added cranberry wholewheat yoghurt or the latest Popstars incarnation with its carefully balanced pre-teen, Mum and Dad appeal. For all its seeming artificiality, Red Bull is actually based on a real product. In his job as international marketing director for Blendax, Mateschitz discovered a syrupy tonic drink sold as a revitalizing agent in Thai pharmacies. He found this stuff really helped to overcome jet lag and decided to make a go of transplanting the idea of a tonic drink in Europe with the help of a Thai-based Blendax colleague who also owned a tonic drink company.

 

The main substance of the idea was kept intact: the key ingredients taurine, caffeine and glucuronolactone and the name, more-or-less. The original Thai name actually means red water buffalo, so Mateschitz kept within the genus! As a concession to Western tastes the drink was carbonated but the positioning was uncompromisingly clear and based on Red Bull’s key reason for being- “The Energy Drink”. An advertising slogan was dreamed up by Mateschitz and his friends, if the story is to be believed: “Red Bull gives you wings.” 

 

The next part of the story is rather interesting. Apparently, Mateschitz put his proposition to test via market research. The results were, according to legend, a complete disaster. One does wonder why someone with the strength of conviction that Mateschitz otherwise seems to exude should have had what seems like a moment of doubt about his idea and it’s not difficult to imagine that perhaps this was a set-up, maybe the first stepping-stone in Red Bull’s uncompromisingly anti-marketing position, in the same way that ageing creatives relish all those urban myths about such-and-such a now legendary advertising campaign “bombing in research”. After all, what could possibly be more appealing to a young target audience than hearing (on the grapevine) that a new product was considered totally unacceptable to the general population?

 

It is also questionable whether Red Bull’s marketing success was achieved by design or luck. It could be that we’ll never know as Mateschitz seems to be something of a master of post-rationalisation in interviews. What is certain is that it is one of the first brands to achieve global status via non-traditional, “grassroots”-up marketing. From the start, classical mass-media were all-but-excluded in favour of a program of steady and subtle infiltration into the desired group of people’s lives. In the early 1990s, Red Bull was never something you came across through TV advertising; it was discovered in off-beat bars and alongside alternative sport and music events. What would be considered as negative PR by many traditional brands simply fuelled the interest to add to the Red Bull mystique and aura of being dangerous, from rumours that it was made from bulls’ testicles, the lack of availability in certain markets through to some pretty serious stories about deaths associated with Red Bull.

 

Interestingly, while Red Bull claims it never actively encouraged promotion as a mixer for vodka, it seems that this was never discouraged in the way that it might have been for a drink with a bigger and more child-orientated parent brand. Again, it is interesting to speculate whether use as a mixer was pushed in a subtle way. There was certainly a base of existing behaviour in Germany and Austria for caffeine/alcohol mixes where brandy and Coke is a staple of any student party or local Fest. In the early stages, Red Bull’s distribution was mainly through bars where beverages other than milkshakes were consumed, rather than the sports clubs one would expect if one was positioning strictly along an energy-giving route.

 

The question now is: has Red Bull gone mainstream? Is it part of the establishment? More recent introductions such as a “Lite” version seem a bit against the character of the brand. If Red Bull is really selling out, maybe Herr Mateschitz may really be best off selling off now to one of real big boys and get going on his next odd idea.

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Although my account covered the “grassroots”-up approach - and the importance of mystery in the story, there’s zero mention of racing, Flugtag or extreme sports. Further research shows Red Bull Racing was only established in 2005, and by 2012, I’d found that piece of the jigsaw.

Dieter Mateschitz got his own wings in Oct 2022, but the legend lives on. Here is my tribute to a big, bold, bullish brand.

“Ist der neu?” Recycling ads

When you’ve had a top-notch ad campaign back in the past that still unlocks positive brand associations, you can do a lot worse than resurrecting it.

Nostalgia is frequently mentioned in this year’s trend reports as a way to escape to a simpler time, when the world appeared to have a little more stability. At least when viewed through rose-tinted spectacles.

Perwoll, the fabric softener, has done just that. This ad, from Heinat TBWA, is brilliant in so many ways:

    - it’s just right for the target audience - people who remember a glorious pre-internet childhood

    - it’s not simply a recreation - the ad shuffles, twists and turns the original idea and elements in a playful way

    - it’s the perfect blend of the familiar and the surprising

    - it affectionately evokes both the style and the positive bubblegum mood of the 80s in its execution

    - the idea of the whole spot reflects that of the long-running campaign: “is it new?”

I do wonder how much of today’s brand communication might be resurrected in 35 years’ time.

The pylon wears Prada

 

I’ve been known to come back from ski holidays with an Extrawurst or two hidden in my bag along with the smelly socks, and this year is no exception.

For 2023, it’s a very striking campaign spotted on ski lift pylons, of all things. For Prada, no less - and there’s something rather splendidly unexpected about the combination of high fashion glitz and heavy industrial utilitarianism. Like Gucci and trainspotters. The campaign for Prada Linea Rossa may already be in its second year, as the case study from the agency responsible is dated 21/22. alpdest position themselves as “the alpine media experts”, offering out of home advertising in ski resorts throughout Europe. Media opportunities include ski racks, branded gondolas and, yes, 150 lift pylons across Switzerland’s swankiest ski resorts.

Sadly, though, I don’t think I’ll be splashing out on any of the Prada gear, gorgeous though it is. A €4,250 ski jacket is a swank too far for me.

RETROWURST: Fast Food March 2004

This article from 2004 is a juicy one that’s close to my stomach: the topic of Fast Food in Germany. Written in the days when I’m lovin’ it was hot off the press, and Burger King was finding its feet in the German market, I was a little cynical as to whether US-origin fast food would take over the “unchained” Imbiss culture in Germany, or indeed whether Germans could ever be persuaded away from their beloved Metzgerei.

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I was talking with a German colleague recently in McDonalds (!) about the subject of Fast Food or Food on the Go which is a very different kettle of fish (or Bratwurst in a bun) here in Germany to what one finds in the UK. It seems a little ironic that it is a German advertising agency that is McDonald’s great hope to rebuild their tarnished image. Whether ‘I’m lovin’ it’ will do the job or not remains to be seen, but maybe it’s the start of the American giants looking to Old Europe for help?

 

But back to the Big Macs, Big Tastys or whatever they call themselves these days. McDonalds has never been a roaring success in Germany and in the last couple of years with a dramatic explosion of new restaurant openings, Burger King looks as if it could do McDonalds some serious damage. Although it is a chain, the whole concept of Burger King is closer to German tastes as far as food and especially Food on the Go goes. The tradition of Fast Food in Germany is distinctly ‘unchained’. That is, there has always been a tradition of the Imbiss, or snack stand, but this is very much a local, independent thing. An Imbiss is typically a stand where you can buy various types of Wurst and grilled meat, served with bread or chips. Popular dishes include Currywurst, which is a Bratwurst sliced up and covered in ketchup and curry powder, Steakbrötchen, which is grilled pork steak in a roll, Grillhänchen, which is half a roast chicken and Nierenspieß, a sort of kidney kebab. The Turkish population have also been active in the Imbiss trade and one often sees Doner Kebabs and other Turkish-influenced dishes alongside the sausages and chickens. In contrast to the UK equivalents, the Imbiss stands do not have such a greasy, unhealthy and unhygienic image. Rather, because the food is of good quality, the hygiene standards are high and, most importantly, the Imbiss owner can probably tell you the exact origin of his sausages, almost down to the pig’s name, the Imbiss stands generally have a positive image of providing good, honest, real food, freshly-cooked for a good price. In fact, there is more concern about eating McDonalds, due to the additives and processed nature of the food than there is about the possibility of food-poisoning from the Imbiss.

 

A lot of these perceptions can be traced back to the difference in the way that the Germans buy their meat. The butcher’s shop or Metzgerei is alive and well in German High Streets and shopping centres. Although there are some small chains, many of the butchers are local independents. A typical Metzgerei will sell more than simply fresh meat, with a delicatessen section selling Wurst, Schinken, other meat products and salads, possibly a cheese/eggs and dairy products section; probably an Imbiss section for hot snacks and no Metzgerei worth his sausages would overlook the sale of Sauerkraut and Brötchen. Germans are quite happy to make separate trips to the Metzgerei and to stand in long queues, admiring the many Master Butcher Certificates and Awards for the best Fleischwurst in the region that decorate the spotlessly clean tiled walls. Some Germans are even happy to visit several shops, stopping at one for the Schnitzels, another for the Blutwurst and yet another for the Kartoffelsalat.

 

Even in the Supermarkets, the bulk of the meat trade is done via the butcher’s counter. Although pre-packed meat is available, it does not dominate as it does in the UK. Indeed, in some supermarkets, meat can only be bought over the butcher’s counter with the pre-packed section being confined to poultry only. Most Germans would be somewhat horrified at the idea of buying mince pre-packed that had not been freshly minced before their eyes!

 

With this strong culture, it is no wonder that there is a heavy distrust of meat and meat products which are processed, frozen, pre-packed or otherwise of ‘uncertain origin’. This can be seen in the area of frozen food, which, apart from fish and vegetables to some extent, has a rather poorer image in Germany overall. And, to get back to our friends the Burger giants, it is clear that the Burger King positioning of ‘closer to real grilled meat’ strikes a chord with the Germans. Interesting, too, that the only ‘indigenous’ fast food chains of any note in Germany are Nordsee and Wienerwald, which specialise in fish and chicken, rather than meat, respectively.

 

On a similar note, the ‘Sandwich Culture’ that we see in the UK is more-or-less absent in Germany. While one can find sandwiches in every supermarket, CTN and Boots as well as in the Sandwich chains in the UK, one is hard-pressed to find a pre-packed sandwich in Germany. What one does find are butchers, bakers and corner shops who sell fresh made-on-the-premises filled rolls. Again, it is all a local independent business with no chains involved. 

 

So what does this all suggest? Two business opportunities are clear to me: firstly, a German Bratwurst (and beer?) Imbiss concept in the UK and secondly, perhaps the introduction of a Real sandwich chain in Germany, along Pret-a-Manger lines. Whatever, I fear that it will take more than ‘Ich liebe es’ for McDonalds and their ilk to kick the Imbiss stands out of the German people’s affections.

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Well, as always, my glance back has revealed a lot of new items on the fast food menu - with some from unexpected quarters. 

I did notice a few years ago in London, that some enterprising fellow had picked up on my “German fast food” idea. Sadly, Herman ze German appears to have been a victim of Covid. 

McDonald’s and Burger King are still battling on in there, changing with the times with digitalisation and Vegan offers, but dare I say they both seem a little lacklustre and part of the furniture? The McDonald’s in Hanau town centre has recently shut down, and I noticed that Five Guys has made it to Frankfurt. No doubt the cost-of-living crisis will have a major impact on the fate of the burger giants.

The local Metzgereien are hanging on in there, but I suspect the number has decreased over the last couple of decades. The plus points are supporting local businesses and farmers, the minus points the big “is-meat-sustainable-and/or-healthy?” debate as well as convenience and the price - see cost-of-living, above. There’s certainly been a clear increase in pre-packed meat in the supermarkets over the last couple of decades - yet also an increase in labelling and concern over animal welfare.

But the whole Imbiss scene is alive and well. There’s a kind of healthy co-existence with the whole “Food Truck”/“Street Food” category, as well more internationality on top of the tradition German and Turkish. Lieferando and Co. have worked to the favour of the small independent. And finally, there are a few “micro-chains” popping up, such as this one in our own area, although they’ve also opened in München, too.

Guten Appetit!