Asian Marketing and Effectiveness Strategy (AMES) Conference 2015 - Presentation by James Thompson, Global Managing Director of Diageo Reserve

Editor's Notes

• #2 Good morning, my name is James Thompson and I am the Managing Director for Diageo’s global Reserve Business. That’s our luxury portfolio – Spirits ranging from US $40 to upwards of tens of thousands of dollars per bottle. Thanks to the like of Byron Sharp, Daniel Kahnemann and Herb Sorensen, we know more now about how marketing works than ever before. The technological explosion offers almost infinite opportunities for rapid ‘up-close’ learning and experimentation, and vast proliferating media have never been such an intimate and ever present part of people’s lives. I’ve chaired the jury for strategy and effectiveness three times now. Very encouragingly, the increased number of submissions from Asian markets made it more difficult for the Aussies and Kiwi’s this year. However, there is still scope to grow this pipeline of Asia work and I would like to see more from smaller or independent agencies next year, not just the usual suspects. This is also a provocation to judges to be less protective of the work, with styles we know or have invented ourselves, and to appreciate cultural nuances to recognize great creative work that is effective. And one of the ways of doing this will be for more people from Asian agencies and clients, also more women, to put themselves forward to the organizers to be judges next year. One of the things I like about the AMES is the focus on effectiveness. As a client with a CEO, Board and shareholders to please every quarter, I know too well the ever increasing demand to understand ROI. So I thought I would offer some personal observations on what I think makes effective work. If we all knew a formula for developing effective creative work we’d be having this conference on a yacht somewhere. But I think we are understanding the area more and more.And it might surprise you to find out that I am not going to talk much about numbers or statistics. Effectiveness is behaviour change leading to profitable sales or another kind of goal, maybe community related, and behaviour change is all about motivating people.
• #3 I want to share with you a quote from Antonio Damasio. A leading neuroscientist, Damasio has offered a theory about the relationship between human emotions, human rationality, and the underlying biology. Damasio said “We are not thinking machines. We are feeling machines that think.” In this way, he has helped us understand that a purely rational appeal to someone can be far less effective in terms of driving behavior change than one that has emotional resonance. So what does this mean for how we sell brands?
• #4 Neuroscience confirms that storytelling is critical to effective communications because – well done – it has the unique power to change opinions and behaviour. Every message which enters the brain needs an emotional trigger in order to be registered in the cognitive site which leads to decision making. These emotional triggers or surprises can result in the responses such as: excitement, joy, shame, fear and even trust or love, all powerful motivators' which can be harnessed for behavioral change. What neuroscience teaches is that we need to tell our stories in a way that lights up the brain and moves people in a way that ultimately matters in decision making. Let me share with you some examples of these…
• #5 What we are seeing here is a campaign by the product "Tarboosh’ which is a chocolate candy which everybody has grown up with in Lebanon. The brand however was operating at a loss as it had not increased the price for over ten years. In one of the most challenging environments in the world Lebanese consumers are always looking for opportunities to celebrate life. No matter how hard the situation and the surrounding circumstances, Lebanese try to enjoy themselves. ‘Accessible fun’ is therefore key for them especially in a country where the political unrest and economic difficulties have become so serious. If they were asked when they had the most fun in their lives, adults would typically respond that it was when they were kids. As Tarboosh is a brand that has been around for nearly 50 years, the target audience has grown up with the brand. Therefore the brand wanted to trigger the key emotions of trust and joy taking the consumer back to when they were a kid, when fun was all that mattered. The campaign visual you see here is the playfulness map with a fun –o –meter. Throughout the consumers day, the agency turned the consumer’s world into a fun playground. In a country where people are always worried about pretty much everything, they took them back to when they were kids. This is how they brought fun into the daily grind: - When people woke up to read the paper, they were always bombarded with bad news. So one morning, their daily newspaper changed into a Tarboosh news piece. To the readers' surprise, the paper came with a false cover full of funny headlines and stories about Tarboosh ―On their drive to work through streets full of traffic, noise, and frustration, there were cheerful yellow animations on outdoor LED screens ―When they turned on the Radio, instead of hearing the same dreary stories, the brand gave listeners a chance to play jokes on their friends - Also at the end of the day when they turned on the TV, negative and dramatic content was what they were used to seeing. Instead of all the drama, the brand ran new playful and creative commercials with great comedians as comic relief.
• #6  Lets have a look at one of their commercials…
• #7 The main challenge for the brand was to communicate the price increase without creating negative backlash from consumers (adult Lebanese 35+). Results:  - Despite the first price increase in years the brand’s profits increased 15%. - Instead of a negative backlash they generated 62% new facebook fans.
• #8 What you are seeing here is the Lifebuoy 'Help a Child Reach 5' (HACR5) campaign, which explains how Unilever's soap brand Lifebuoy used a simple emotional trigger to save lives. The simple activity of using soap, whilst washing hands can make the difference between life and death of a child. The story not only opened people's minds to the avoidable deaths, but triggered a reaction of trust and deep caring. Every year two million children under five die from diarrhoea, something easily preventable by the simple act of hand washing with soap. The campaign adopted the village of Thesgora, which suffers the highest incidence of diarrhoeal child deaths in India, and told the story of its children through compelling online content. 'Help a child reach 5' was the binding creative idea of the campaign, and by using the emotional angle of a child's 5th birthday, the agency created a cause to ensure all the children of Thesgora reach 5. The campaign empowered millions of people worldwide to help every child reach the age of five, through a collective commitment to spread and share the Lifebuoy hand-washing cause.
• #9 Let’s have a look at the video…
• #10 Results: - There was a significant 13% point increase in the perception that 'Lifebuoy is a brand that cares about the well-being of society‘. - Lifebuoy became a brand loved by people who have never really considered using it. - The ROI calculation for this campaign was simple, albeit unorthodox – measured by saving the life of a child. Through the campaign more than 20 children's lives were saved due to the intervention at Thesgora making this a highly effective campaign saving lives. - The campaign also sold a lot of soap in a way that was good not just for Unilever.
• #11 What we are seeing here is a campaign from Qeelin, a high-end jewelery brand, whose aim is to combine inspiration in Chinese mythology with contemporary design. This was a new product launching in a very competitive market. Its ambassador is a reproduction of the Qilin, a mythological Chinese animal made up of a lion, an ox and a dragon. The Qilin has been a legend in China for a thousand years, but had only ever been found on the front of temples or in traditional paintings – nobody has ever seen a living Qilin before (believe it or not). The visual you see here is the mythical creature which was created and its image integrated into an old Chinese photograph, as well as a vintage-style video; this material was then sent to influencers on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat to let them spread the news that the Qilin just might really exist. Chinese consumers trust the opinions that their peers share on their social networks most rather than articles or advertising. That's why, to create a stir, the agency used a blend of the most popular social media in China, by sending some retouched vintage pictures via a small circle of influencers, as well as a mysterious vintage video featuring the Qilin to make the belief in its existence even more credible. The story inspired curiosity and intrigue that the qilin really did exist. Groups of excited conversations were spontaneously created between those who believed and those who had doubts of the qilin’s existence.
• #12 Results: - The hashtag for the campaign, #babyqilin#, became the most-discussed topic on Weibo for two days, after the posting of the 'first pictures' and the video. - Spontaneous conversations were created with people asking for the truth. Some people even researched the original photos in order to find out the trick, thereby generating the belief that there had been a scientific conspiracy to hide the existence of the Qilin for years! - When the brand finally announced the identity of the brand behind the campaign, 2.1 million people attended the post-reveal on Weibo, and all of the posts regarding the campaign generated more than 35 million views establishing the brand name in China.
• #13 So what made all these campaigns effective? I haven't talked here about ‘big data’ anywhere. We can assume that these companies understood their market, but in the end, it was storytelling which lit up consumers’ brains and changed their behaviour. One of the biggest evolutions in this digital age has been the application of data. We’ve always had numbers, but now we have numbers for everything, everything from how much we sold and who we sold it to, to how much we should have sold and didn’t quite sell to. There is a greater dependency on data to help minimize risk. The more senior client executives get the more risk averse they typically become which results in greater dependency on data. And the further in this mindset they go the harder I is for them to see a world without it. But what if the data are exactly useless. A recent example of over reliance on bad data is the UK general election. Despite weeks of rival opinion polls showing a clear and stable prediction over several weeks for one outcome, results on the day went a very different way. Think for a minute what went wrong here in the mall intercepts, during the online surveys, and in the focus group rooms. People may not care much about what they are being asked and may multi-task their way to completing a survey. It is an established fact that voters lie to opinion pollsters - why would they not do to market researchers? Back to neuroscience. The conditions that exist for a consumers brain when being ‘ research’ are totally different from the conditions that exists when that same consumer is exposed to our stimulus in real life. And, more concerning still, given the pace of change in markets due to globalisation and mobile social media, I suspect that even when the research is at its most accurate it is little more helpful than trying to choose between three roads at a junction while looking in the rear view mirror and driving at speed (Steve Jobs famously asked why on earth he would want to give people what they knew they already wanted).
• #14 The point I want to make here is that only a fool would recommend navigating without information, but often that is quite different from insight. Often the most useful insights are gained through immersion before the creative work or innovation is developed. Deep intuitive understanding as a precursor to vision and courageous action is a pattern repeated by many businesses that have had disruptive success. Businesses - and perhaps politicians too - may be better off refining their visions than chaining themselves to research that might end up providing false comfort. What I am advocating is the balance between the science and the art. Big data with the right leadership should be taken as input, not a crutch, and that in the end it is story telling that sells.
• #15 The final example I would like to share with you is one which is close to my heart as it is work by my team which I am very proud of. But before I play a video I will give you some context. Johnnie Walker Blue Label was perceived as a high quality brand, but established and for the older generation. It was not perceived as a luxury brand or as engaging for younger adults, therefore we wanted to access the world of luxury and entertainment to refresh our brand positioning; we wanted people to live in our world and be part of it rather than just aspire to live in it. The key decision the team made was to make a piece of entertainment, not a piece of advertising. You can imagine the resistance we got from traditional advertising and media agencies – so we bypassed them and went directly to smaller, more creative teams (Anomaly, RSA, PhD, Unruly and Google). This team worked incredibly collaboratively, including with Jude Law himself. We took away internal approval hurdles and gave people freedom to do their best work. The story which was told was done in long form, 6 minutes creating surprise by featuring Jude Law and a captivating dance routine which drove the key responses joy and inspiration.
• #16 We wanted our brand to go beyond just a film, and build context and touch points around the story, which would give people a new experience and create a deeper emotional connection. We utilized strong influencer networks, building a platform for the story to be told but more importantly allowing others to tell the story for us, and even take it over themselves. One such partner was Mr. Porter. Inspired by the Wager film, Mr Porter created a bespoke, engaging multi-platform partnership focused around the gentlemen’s quest for rare experiences and one-up-manship. They took the modern day gentleman, and through a series of unique and funny challenges redefined what it means to be a man today. This was combined with an e-commerce element where consumers could actually buy Jude’s look through the Mr. Porter site.
• #17 PLAY FILM
• #18 This is a presentation about effectiveness so let me give you some numbers, but the key lessons are: - We stimulated joy and inspiration through a surprising piece of content. - The work was produced collaboratively as well as having a collaborative breakthrough approach to media, hated by our traditional partner. - We collaborated with Mr. Porter and even gave them creative freedom of our property to develop further effectiveness. - We gave our whole extended team support to dream and deliver. Reiterating the Results: 1) We created a global hit achieving 45 million film views, with a number 1 viral video chart ranking. 2) We reached 1 million engagements with the Mr Porter audience 3) More importantly the JW Equity score measured as Brand Strength by Millward Brown moved up significantly. 4) Our Depletions (meaning actual sales) on average increased by over 40% (60% in some places).
• #19 Back to this year’s AMES – I have to say that without being over critical, the cases were not always clear in terms of the campaign’s effect and ROI: This is an area people might want to think about next year. But, what is clear when we look at effective work is that it typically inspires the emotional parts of the brain usually through the surprises involved in good story telling in order to prompt irrational pleasures (even if these choices are post rationalized later). Maybe linked to this, there were a lot of good submissions there were not many pieces that scaled the tallest heights this year. I believe that ingenuity and creativity are increasingly the defining keys to business success. In a world where it seems we can measure everything, we need to put more emphasis on what moves people and drives them to act. The opportunities our era grants us give marketers the chance to write our own stories based on human truths and the truths of our brands — with more effectiveness, impact and flair than our predecessors. I personally look forward to hearing more from peers on how we can be more effective as marketers balancing the ‘Science and Art’ as well as in the near future seeing more work from Asian teams as being recognized as excellent.