All the news thats fit to print - and then some.

Four forces that have changed advertising forever

Rewarding creativity at independent agencies

Published in MalM, sweden auTuMn MMViX

Brand Rants voted among worlds top marketing blogs

This tourism ad disguised as a want-ad generated $100,000,000 worth of exposure on a $1,200,000 budget.

THIS ISSUE An honest shade of greenBrands going global are better off with a local agency 8

Head of MIcrosoft weighs in at CannesSteve Ballmer predicts the future of advertising 6

App-vertising has (finally) landedThe new advertising in your customers pockets 6

CANNES

BLOGOSPHERE COPENHAGEN

new times have redefined what it means to be creative ad agencies pride themselves on their creative prowess. but their definition of creativity has always been quite limited. To most ad agencies, crea-tivity refers exclusively to novel com-binations of images, copy and sound applied to print, outdoor, radio and TV. This is what wins awards, keeps fragile egos inflated and attracts clients who dont know how else to judge an agency.

The only flaw in the system is that an agencys need for recognition from other agencies can eclipse the needs of the client. agencies abuse their clients trust when they advise them to run campaigns that have dubious value to a clients business, but are likely to win an award for the agency. and when these types of ads win awards, the business result for the client is always given short shrift, if it

is mentioned at all. This is not to say you cant be entertaining and solve real marketing problems at the same time, you can, but curiously this has never been a requirement in assessing what is a great ad.

if recent statements from the ad in-

dustrys two most prestigious awards, Cannes lions and The One show, are any indication, the era of agency self-indulgence seems to be coming to a rather abrupt close. both shows have said that, as of this year, they will stop rewarding campaigns that

were created solely for the purpose of winning awards. The credit for this crisis of conscience doesnt fall on the ad industry. it was a matter of survival for the industry born of four factors:

Evaporating advertising budgets advertising budgets are

down for the count. whats left is being re-allocated with much more dedicated to online activities. Clients around the world are expecting more results with less spending.

An indomitable media environment Media strategy used to be

pretty simple until long-tail media options both on- and offline spread target groups paper thin. Monolythic blocks of eyeballs are gone. and most agencies are still scrambling to find effective online media strategies.

Continued on page 7 >>>>>>>

Readers have submitted and voted for brand Rants at The daily Reviewer. They compiled an exclusive list of the Top 100 Marketing blogs. according to the site: The daily Reviewer selects only the worlds top blogs (and Rss feeds). we sift through thousands of blogs daily to present you the worlds best writers. The blogs that we include are authoritative on their respective niche topics and are widely read. To be included in The daily Reviewer is a mark of excellence. Considering there are around 200 million blogs on the inter-

net today, im pleased, said brand ranter sean duffy. Thanks to all our readers. Check out www.brandrants.com

Creating great advertising is always a challenge. and theres no more chal-lenging place to create great work than at a small- or medium-sized in-dependent agency. Youve got clients with modest budgets and low risk tol-erance, allowing little breathing room for innovative ideas to take shape. The Taan Titans are a tribute to the persevering men and woman in the creative departments of Taans global network of select independent agencies passionate about creating great work.

Continued on page 4 >>>>>>>

THE TITAN AWARDS

2009092020090000

THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 20092 NEWS

n this issue of the Tribune, youll notice a lot of talk about change. Digital and environmentally-driven change in consumer behavior is redefining what it

means to market a product. It is also changing what it means to be an advertising agency. For a decade, ad industry pundits have been telling us that the traditional advertising agency model is out of step with reality and needs to be reinvented: the way agencies are organized and managed; the way we work and bill; our skill sets and competencies. As an agency owner, I too have been in search of this elusive new model. During that journey, The Duffy Agency has been in a mode of rapid evolution since 2001. And after 8 years of agency soul-searching, Im happy to say we have found the new agency model. I can define it in one word: evolution.

Our quest for the model has become the model. What took so long? Ad agencies have been looking for the wrong thing. For decades, consumer behavior and media channels were relatively static. Stability was taken for granted and in a stable environment there is one optimal static model. However, consumer behavior and media channels have been undergoing rapid change since 2000. In this dynamic environment, the ability to adapt and remain relevant is the model.

In our case, we have adopted a dynamic agency model based on adaptability, agility and relevance. This model takes change for granted and is built to thrive on it. The next job is to try to help CMOs and CEOs embrace change in their approach to marketing as well. I just hope that it

doesnt take 8 years.

AGENCY REVIEW

The Digital DJa life filled with endless sunny days and margaritas on the beach was laid out nicely before Carlos. but when he got his feet wet in social media market-ing, he dove in all the way and ended up in sweden. Turns out it was just the place he needed to be.

Carlos soon discovered that The duffy agency shared his vision of so-cial media as the brave new world of marketing and was welcomed aboard. his first initiative was to commandeer the sound system and invigorate the agency with cool latin beats. Carlos brings his passion for music with him everywhere he goes.

but we didnt hire him just to blend digital tunes to a fine balance. he also helps our clients find the right balance of social media action to jump into out there in cyberspace. with a depth of knowledge on the latest happenings in online marketing, and experience

helping clients take advantage of them, Carlos knows how to put together an effective plan for making noise and building excitement for brands online.

beyond his endless supply of enthusi-asm for the social revolution, Carlos has his experience in marketing and public relations to rely on. at the ad agency Vayamex in Mexico, Carlos designed ads and purchased ad space, while at The Kool beach Club he was respon-sible for public relations and creating strategies to make the club the hottest place to be.

as The duffy agencys unofficial digital dJ, hes turned the office into a happening place to hang out, pumping the premises full of smooth rhythms on a daily basis. so if youre in the neigh-borhood, drop by, chill out and have a chat with Carlos about social media and how you can use it to remix your marketing strategy.

Who was your childhood hero?Mi abuelo (my grandpa)

Who would play you in a film?Elvis Presley

What song are you playing on Spotify right now? Ryskee - Leave Me Amor

What website do you visit most often?Abduzeedo Graphic Design

Name three things you cant live without.Music, chili and the Internet

What do you miss most from Mexico?My best friend, my family, the weather, the food and the beaches

Does your mother have a spe-cial nickname for you?Mi Nene (my little boy)

Rapid Fire Interview with Carlos

Sean Duffy sean@theduffyagency.comwww.brandrants.com

PUEBLA, MEXICO

Carlos brings his social media savvy to The duffy agency

Found: The Holy Grail of Advertising

I

NEWS 3THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 2009

THE 5 MoST populAR AlbuMS-oF-THE-DAy

Whats lost in translation is found in adaptation

Independent thinking among global brands

BOSTON SPOTIfY

MALM

when software developer Purple scout decided to go global, they needed the swedish copy on their website to turn into english. so they did the most logical thing: they con-tacted an advertising agency.

That may not seem like the most obvious decision at first glance, as one usually thinks translator in these situations. but with the website being their primary point of contact with potential clients, Purple scout understood that delivering the full force of their message was vital to their success. and they understood that delivering their message to a new audience would take more than sim-ply moving words from one language

to another. Theres nothing wrong with transla-

tors in other situations theyre per-fect for the job. but they will drain the motivational power out of your marketing message. and that moti-

vational message is something youve spent a great deal of time and money crafting. That process probably in-cluded defining your target, getting

into their heads to discover what they value and coming up with a creative execution to generate demand.

a translator isnt concerned with what makes your customers tick. but thats the core focus of an adap-tor. Their job is to understand your goals and why they matter to the reader. They take your core idea and find the right way to say it in the new language. and sometimes the way its said is quite different, on the surface at least, than what you said in the original work.

weve all seen the humorous ex-amples of translated marketing gone wrong. Pepsi famously launched in China with a slogan that originally

read Come alive with the Pepsi gen-eration, but locally meant Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead. but the real danger is much more subtle. its more likely youll spend your time and money on something that looks and sounds pretty good, but ultimately falls flat with the target and fails to achieve your business goals.

having a client knock on our door already understanding all of this was a real pleasure. being on the same page made the process run smooth-ly and the results satisfying to all involved. Their message was delivered as effectively as ever, and no ancestors were insulted in the process.

Digital music nirvanawe have a confession to make were having a steamy love affair with spotify. The new music application makes all our favorite tunes more accessible than ever. To spread our love of music, we suggest one album every day that might have slipped under your radar. discover your new favorite band by becoming a fan of The duffy agency on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

Wolfgang Amadeus phoenixPhoenix

A translator isnt concerned with what makes readers tick. But thats the core focus of an adaptor.

as this issue of The Tribune goes to press, we will have just launched a new consumer brand across seven countries for one of the worlds largest marketers. The campaign includes TV spots, print ads, websites and collateral in seven languages. it is exceptional not only for its execution, but also for the clients choice of an independent ad agency to run it.

independent agencies around the world are getting increasingly involved in creating strategic and creative work that travels beyond the borders of their country. More independent agency heads are coming to the realization that if they partner with other like-minded agencies, they can not only successfully compete with the Goliaths and win, they can also provide better value to clients. This has led to the rise of the phenomenon of the independent agency network.

but a network doesnt just give an independent agency reach. with net-works like Taan that weve been part of since 2001, it also provides more effi-cient knowledge-sharing. Taan mem-bers meet twice a year to share insights, experiences and expertise. with the

media landscape changing rapidly and new advancements in internet market-ing and social media happening daily, this model has become increasingly relevant to clients.

a smaller independent agency, by its very nature, possesses the nimble feet it takes to successfully navigate these changes. and when several such agen-cies join forces to form a network, they may be able to provide better value to their clients than the old-fashioned, multi-national conglomerates.

while big network agencies are still indulging in a bit of soul-searching to figure out the new agency model, the independent agency networks like Taan are already doing it.

so if you think agency size matters in creating an effective global cam-paign, think again. and if you dont have the war chest you think you need to market your brand across borders, reconsider that as well. a little independent agency teamwork can go a long way.

Nimble, breakthrough and different the independent agencys secret weapon.

Mike Snow Mike Snow

Every Room on Every FloorKojak

The GardenZero 7

1.2.3.4.5. Homeland SecurityNature of the Beast

More brands going global are picking independent agencies for strategic and creative solutions

THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 20094 FEATuRE

Create your own killer press kit

COPENHAGEN

Pitching luxury bedding using a virgins dreamlike figment of imagination. Vandekerckhove and Devos, N.V., Belgium took home a trophy for this stunning fantasy visual.

A public service TV commercial discouraging people from indiscriminate drinking wins a trophy. Cheers, ENNEMM, Iceland.

A business to business TV spot from Mobium Creative Group for Time Warner Cable Business Class.

Rewarding creativity at independent agencies(cont. from page 1)The inaugural Taan Titan awards were held in Copenhagen on the 2nd of May, 2009. The show received an unprecedented 420 entries across TV, Print, Radio, Outdoor, digital, events and Promotions.

The six members of the international jury eminent members of the adver-

tising and marketing fraternity from australia, singapore, india, the uK and the us had a grueling time judging the work. but in the end, the results were worth it.

The show saw 126 entries cam-paigns and single pieces being rec-ognized as Merit winners and 36 very deserving pieces ending up as

Trophy winners.The awards were presented by

Fredrik svedjetun, editor and publish-er of Dagens Media swedens premier business publication on advertising, marketing and media.

Take a look at some of the winning work on this page and see them all at www.titanawards.com/winners.

Phenomenal response for the first ever Taan Titan awards held in Copenhagen

5THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 2009 FEATuRE

No good deed goes unrewarded. Charleston/Orwig, Inc., USA gets theirs for a pro bono poster for Infancy International.

Recreating the Sydney Opera House using dinner plates to advertise the Outback Steakhouse deservingly wins a trophy for OpusMultipla Comunicacao Integrada S/A.

One of the numerous pieces of work from a campaign for Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill that translates into a trophy on Push, USAs award shelf.

The Duffy Agencys outdoor poster for Malmo Maulers, an Aussie Rules Football Club in Sweden, nets a trophy.

Rewarding creativity at independent agencies

Part of a campaign created by THE PARTNER to promote Hesperia Hotels new wedding services.

THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 20096 FEATuRE

ccording to steve ballm-er, there is a new world online that marketers will either have to adapt

to or perish offline. what does the CeO of Microsoft know about adver-tising? Plenty. in addition to buying $500 million in advertising each year, Microsoft also sells in excess of $2 billion in advertising itself. speaking at the 2009 Cannes lions advertis-ing Festival in France, steve ballmer painted a picture of the brave new world he envisions: a world where content is king and where all content will share these six characteristics:1. all content will be digital. say good-bye to your morning paper. within ten years, well all be consuming the printed world on paper-thin Kindle-like devices. 2. all content will be social. Consum-ers will expect to be able to collabo-rate, rate and share whatever they read or view on the web.3. all content will be interactive. Theyll also expect to be able to partic-ipate with content, from commenting on it to creating part of it themselves. 4. all content will be integrated. Today, text, images, video and sound are all delivered through different me-

Head of Microsoft weighs in at Cannes festivalsteve ballmer predicts the future of advertising

CANNES

A

bAllMER oN THE RECESSIoN THAT NEvER WASWhen asked to gaze into his crystal ball and predict the course of the recession, Ballmer said: I dont think were in a recession. He characterized the current economic situation as a global reset. The word recession implies a recovery. And for planning purposes, I dont assume there

is a recovery. Ballmer said he believes the worlds economy has been reset at a new lower level and will eventually begin to grow from this level. He said he does not believe there will be a recovery where the economy rebounds back to previous levels and then grows from there.

dia. This will give way to a digital era where content will be presented in a mix of media types. 5. all content will be relevant. Thats because people will pull the content they want and will no longer have con-tent pushed onto them. 6. all content will be multi-device. it

will coexist on big, medium and small screens (TV, PC and phone) and be optimized for each.

he went on to emphasize the im-portance of relevance. Consumers will not tolerate content that is not relevant to them personally, and to their indi-vidual needs at the moment they are

viewing a page. every ad will need to make sense in the context of that page where it appears and not just be seen as an interruption to the flow of con-tent. Right now, sites like Google are among the few that can pull this off. Thats why ballmer feels Google is one of the only companies making money with advertising online. One thing to learn from search: it is the one place where the ads are always relevant and are welcome into the search experi-ence. Thats not true of the rest of the internet.

so these six rules of content are not just for todays publishers. They are for advertisers as well. because in a pull world, advertisers will be content providers. This may be the only way to ensure that their advertising mes-sage appears in a context that is 100% relevant to both their consumers and their product. and the most important development

on the horizon? user interface. The way we interact with these machines is going to change dramatically, said ballmer, citing advances in voice rec-ognition, natural language technology, video recognition, vision and gesture recognition which will make the ma-chine/human interface more human and less mechanical. More natural user interface will be the biggest thing over the next ten years.

imagine engaging with your custom-ers through a device they have with them and switched on 24/7. Marketing through mobile applications has been a tantalizing concept to clients and ad-men for a decade, but has never been quite viable enough for most to dive into. not until the iPhone changed eve-rything, that is.

in less than one year, apples app store chalked up 1.5 billion downloads. and that number doesnt include the down-loads from the app stores of blackberry, Google android, Microsoft and many

others. Marketers around the world have caught the fever too the mobile advertising mar-ket is predicted to grow from the $700 million of 2008 to $7.2 billion by 2012.

its a tremendous opportunity but, as always, putting yourself out there isnt enough. without a relevant and disruptive idea, your target wont care. its a fine line to walk. what seems fun and in-teresting to you may be tiresome and annoying to your target and

many consumers are inherently resent-ful of advertisers trying to horn in on

their mobile phones to begin with. with thousands of other apps to

choose from, you wont find any tolerance for fluff. but with one

great idea, you can get tre-mendous exposure for little

investment.Tylenol recently came up with just such a great

idea in their Tylenol PM sleep Tracker.

users struggling to get a good

nights rest track and analyze their sleeping patterns,

add notes and receive tips. The applica-

tion racked up thousands of downloads within weeks of its release. by giving us-ers a relevant tool, the number of down-loads continued to grow organically. sometimes simpler is better. Zippos Virtual lighter app puts a digital lighter on your iPhone that responds to the phones movement. it was a major suc-cess on both sides of the atlantic, net-ting more than 5 million downloads and revitalizing a classic brand.

There will be more than 58 million people with iPhones by the end of the year. The market is burgeoning and hungry for more great apps. if youre as excited by the opportunities unfolding as we are, wed love to discuss how your brand can deliver the next great idea.

App-vertising has (finally) landedCYBERSPACE

The new advertising frontier is inside your customers pockets

7THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 2009 FEATuRE

(cont. from page 1)New Consumers its not just that consum-ers are spending more time

online that has shaken the apple cart. its that technology has empowered them to choose how they are willing to be addressed by brands. seth Godin predicted it in 1999 with Permission Marketing. disruption as a model is being replaced with engagement, facilitation and relevance. welcome to the information age.

Omnipresent measur-ability via web analytics Remember the days when

there was only reach and frequency? say hello to a new world where hundreds of metrics are measured in real-time. no more long-winded so-liloquies from agency Creative direc-tors. You now have Google analytics to tell you whats hot and whats not.

These four forces are changing the fundamental nature of the advertising business for the better. Today, agen-cies are being forced into accountabil-ity, like it or not. They are being forced to provide consumer insights and real strategic business solutions. and they are being forced to display creativity in every aspect of the business, not just with their words and images. These are things agencies have been claim-ing for decades, but have never really delivered on.

The most persuasive evidence to support this argument are this years winners at Cannes. we saw several exceptionally novel, creative and excit-ing ad campaigns with nary a shock-ing visual or rib-splitting headline in sight. They won on their innovation, the brilliance of the concept, the skill with which they were executed, and the business result they provided for the client (see sidebar). its not the first time Cannes judges have awarded big idea campaigns like this. but the dominance of this type of campaign at this years Cannes lions signals a tipping point in the marketing industry that raises the bar for ad agencies around the

new times have redefined what it means to be creative

CANNES

Four forces that have changed advertising forever

world. These campaigns show a level of maturity, restraint and insight that is new to advertising. They were insight-ful campaigns that were created to appeal to their target audience, not other ad agencies and they have the results to prove it.

This shift has many critics, almost all of them ad agency creatives. They argue that effectiveness has no place at The One show or Cannes lions. They say if they want to see effective ads, theyll attend the effie awards (effie is short for effectiveness), an award show that judges campaigns based on results. it is not surprising that the effies have always been the object of open condescension by generations of creatives marinated in an ad culture that is phobic about measurement and resigned to the fact that an ad cannot be both creative and effective.

The critics are quick to point out that the copy and art direction among

this years winners were drab despite their being highly effective. it begs the question, drab by whose standards? its obvious that the target market either didnt think so, or didnt care, based on the results these campaigns produced. Could this years winners have generated even more spectacular results with better art direction or copywriting? That is completely up to the critics to prove with the work they submit to next years competition.

will this trend stick once the economy bounces back? Most likely. because, even if budgets bounce back, agencies and clients still have to adapt to a Pull-driven market where it is increasingly difficult to own the media and avoid the scrutiny of increasingly sophisticated analytics. in the final analysis, the real winners at Cannes this year were clients who can expect more value returned from their adver-tising investment.

EFFECTIvE IS THE NEW DISRupTIvE

The biggest award at this years Cannes Lion, the Titanium and Integrated Lions, went to a cam-paign that was created without the help of an ad agency at all. It was conceived and created by the slightly geeky, incred-ibly competent political advi-sor, David Plouffe, and a team of volunteers. It had no special effects, no amazing imagery, not even a clever headline. In fact, any one piece of Barack Obamas campaign on its own could be ac-curately described as mundane. But the sum of these pieces was a campaign that was as original, bold and creative as any. This is to say nothing of its historic ef-fectiveness.

The other big winner was a global recruitment ad campaign with a total budget of $1.2 million US. The lackluster headline on the small black and white classified ad simply read, The Best Job in the World, followed by a routine job description. What made this extraordinary was that it was a tourism campaign. The job being advertised was a six month stint acting as caretaker on a tropical island in the Great Barrier Reef for $120,000 US. To apply, you just needed to submit a video to YouTube. As you might imagine, news of this job opening spread like wildfire across the Internet. 35,000 applicants uploaded 610 hours of YouTube video. In the first 56 days, the campaign web-site logged about 7 million unique visitors and 50 million page views, with the average visitor staying for 8.62 minutes.

Every major news network around the globe covered the story, generating over $100,000,000 US in additional free exposure across traditional media as well. Again, no pimped execution just a brilliantly creative business idea in perfect harmony with its execution. The times they are a changin.

THE DUFFY TRIBUNEAUTUMN 20098

havior around the world. This demand has led to more and more manufac-turers introducing environmentally-friendly products into the market. and this demand continues despite the economic downturn. so youll appreciate why being green is sudden-ly the new black.

now if only some companies spent the same amount of time and money on improving their processes and the ways they do business as they do on portraying themselves as environmen-tally-friendly, they might make a real difference.

but they continue with their in-discriminate greenwashing without realizing that, in the long run, it can really hurt their brand. Consumers can boycott it. Green activists can run negative campaigns about it. and regulators can impose restrictions and

huge penalties by way of fines if they discover a deceptive claim.

Greenpeace has a website dedicated exclusively to exposing greenwash stopgreenwash.org. The site educates consumers about greenwash, its symp-toms and causes, and invites viewers to post and discuss their own green-wash examples.

The Rainforest action network (Ran) exposes allegedly guilty corpo-rations like GM, walMart and Mattel every week with their Greenwash of the week video (see them all at www.youtube.com/user/RanVideo).

Theres no denying that companies have a responsibility towards the en-vironment and can help in resolving some of the toughest environmental challenges the planet faces today. but instead of just talking the talk, they must first walk the walk. and not just

with baby steps. The need of the hour calls for giant strides. because the illu-sion of being green is not the same as being genuinely green.

To be credible, you need to consid-er, not just your CsR approach, but practices throughout the entire com-pany, including the real impact your products have on the environment, your recycling policy and the energy efficiency of, not just your factories, but your offices as well. its not what you say or how you say it, its what you actually do.

FEATuRE

Call us now for a no-obligation credentials and case-study presentation. if you would like to inquire about advertising, a webPOP positioning strategy or having us speak at your next event: Call Grant adams at (+46) 40 123 451 or email him at grant@theduffyagency.com

Call to actionngelholmsgatan 1a se-214 22 malm sweden

tel (+46) 40 123 451 Fax (+46) 40 978 585

www.theduffyagency.com

An honest shade of greenGREEN

he last few years have seen an increase in en-vironmental awareness among consumers. More

and more people are opting for eco-friendly labels and theres been a huge surge in demand for everything clean and green from transport to tech-nology to clothes to cosmetics. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that great rewards await companies who either offer environ-mentally-friendly products and serv-ices or have green business practices. This has led to an increasing number of companies and brands approaching The duffy agency for help showing off their green side.

now while some of these brands are genuinely green, there are plenty of others out there who brazenly claim green credentials. look at me, im green. buy me, and you will reverse global warming, improve air qual-ity and save the tropical rainforests, they say. Consumers, of course, are not morons. Their radar can pick up and tune out messages that sound like ex-aggerated and unsubstantiated claims. so much so that theres a term coined precisely for this: greenwashing.

so why is greenwashing such a tan-talizing temptation thats difficult to pass up for most brands? its like this:demand for environmentally-friendly products is continuously rising, and this is not just confined to developed countries. national Geographic and Globescans 2009 Greendex, whose internet poll surveyed consumers in 17 countries including hungary, india and Mexico, found a rise in en-vironmentally-friendly consumer be-

how to come across as an environmentally-friendly company, but only if you really are one

GMs campaign to promote itself as green prompted these activists to go on YouTube and point out the campaigns obvious contradictions.

GREENpEACE uSES FouR CRITERIA To IDENTIFy GREENWASH

Dirty businessCommunicating an environmental initiative when the core business is unsustainable.

Ad blusterUsing advertising to exaggerate environmental benefits, spending more on the campaign than the actual initiative.

political spinCommunicating environmental com-mitments while lobbying against environmental laws and regulations.

Its the law, stupid!Communicating environmental achievements that are required by law anyway.

T

Tribune 2.0If youre looking at the digital version of The Tribune, we hope youve enjoyed the new experience! If not, you dont know what youre missing. New interactive tools have reinvented the pdf, allowing you to bring your newsletter or brochure to life with integrated audio and video like never before. The static paper brochure suddenly seems so very 90s. Discover The Tribune 2.0 at theduffyagency.com

Is your company going green? We can help you. Sustainably.