This document outlines 7 ideas that can be used for effective communication: 1) The Presenter, 2) The Demonstration, 3) Problem/Solution, 4) The Analogy, 5) Inversion, 6) The Slice of Life, and 7) Borrowed Interest. Each idea is then explained with examples to illustrate how it can be applied in marketing communications.

1. The 7 Ideas at BIG!
September 14th 2010"
There are only 7 communications ideas"
1. The presenter"
2. The demonstration"
3. Problem/solution"
4. The analogy"
5. Inversion"
6. The slice of Life"
7. Borrowed interest"
1. The Presenter"
• Who can present your argument? "
• A testimonial from a satisfied customer? (Dove)"
• Someone whose job/expertise is relevant (Sir Robert Mark
for Goodyear; dentists sell Colgate)"
• An appropriate celeb whose values match yours (Seinfeld
for Amex; Sean Connery for Dewar’s)"
• It can be someone who is dead (Marilyn Monro for
Chanel; Steve McQueen for Ford Puma.)"
• It doesn’t always have to be a person. Duracell Bunny,
Tony the Tiger, Cadbury’s Martians."

2. Ordinary people " Dove, Germany"
Relevant person"
• Rabobank wanted older
customers to use online
banking. Mrs de Vries, their
oldest client, 92, was their
spokesperson. "
Your Dad?"
• Foster’s wanted to bring to life
the idea ‘Get some Australian
in you’"
• You got a letter from some
solicitors telling you you might
have an Aussie ancestor – and
from him you could inherit a
year’s supply of Foster’s"
• All you had to do was go to a
website and do a ‘How
Australian are you’ test"

3. Virgin Mobile"
• With just 5c for a call or a text
with Virgin, the result ios a
better social life"
• ‘Get tight with your posse’
campaign featuring a midget
rap star called 5 Cent"
• TV, taxi backs, in-store
collateral, a promotional single
from 5 Cent, a special Posse
Pack phone, radio campaign,
Big Day Out concert with 5C. "
Celebrity presenter"
Celebrity Presenters"
• To sell the power of radio advertising, brand managers were mailed letters from
Madonna (bedding), Robbie Williams (lingerie) et al, applying to be salespeople.
Bookings of radio spots were up 54% on the same time the previous year. Many
companies used radio for the first time. "
Celebrity presenter"

4. 2. The demonstration"
• The demonstration includes the side-by-side comparison, a
demo of competitive superiority"
• Can you show what your product does? "
• Does it go fast. Or faster? Does it last long? Or does it last
longest?"
• Does it do more than its competitors?"
• What is its advantage?"
Demonstrate – mail engages all the
senses"
Demonstrate – mail can be heavy" Demonstrate – what a donation means"

5. Demonstrate – what IBM can do" Demonstrate – what Schwatrzkopf does"
Demonstrate – the strength of Scottex" Demonstrating a bigger cab"
• How do you demonstrate the
new bigger cab of the Mercedes
Actros? "
• Send truckers a bigger air-
freshener. "

6. Demonstrating homelessness"
• Goss Gothenburg"
• At Christmas, to raise money
for the charity, letters were left
out in the rain all night - and
then mailed. "
• They tried homelessness too
and it showed. "
• Results: 22% of recipients
donated an average of #29 each
raising #163,00. A lot for a
small city."
Demonstrating precision"
• Komatsu’s target audience was just
5 companies big enough to need
their construction machines."
• The key prospects came to work to
find an envelope on their desks
with nothing but a weblink inside."
• Clicking on the link revealed how
the envelope was delivered by a
Komatsu machine. The line was, if
you need extreme precision, call us."
• All 5 contacts are now customers."
Demonstrating four wheel drive" Demonstration cont…"
• Royal Mail delivered
200,000 fresh flowers to
demonstrate speed and
reach."
• Research showed 40%
awareness recall, higher
than press and just below
that of TV"

7. The demonstration - TNT" What Microsoft will do"
Staedtler – Famous,
Brussels"
3.Problem/Solution"
• What’s the problem your product can solve? "
• Do you ‘bolt on’ software systems? Then you
have a problem Microsoft can solve."
• Are you paying more bills than you need to?"
• Are you about to get a job in a small and cramped
office?"
• What happens if you have a fire in the office?"
• These are all problems that can be solved by
someone. "

8. The problem with computer systems…" The problem with being burgled"
The problem is space"
• Just before finals, students
who had shown interest in
the Singapore Navy were
sent a blueprint of the
average size of office
space they would get"
• Or, if they joined the Navy
they would have the world"

9. The problem with Tinnitus" Publicis London -
Zurich"
The problem is - theft"
• Within hours of the
capture of Iraq, the
museum was looted and
thousands of ancient
books and scrolls sold"
• Mailing to 100 wealthiest
Germans of ‘The Cultural
Treasures of Iraq’"
• The solution: to buy them
back with the donations"
The problem is – no future"

10. Bacteria is a problem"
• Berendsen stress ball was mailed out to HR Directors "
• A week later, they were mailed the kit to show them how
much bacteria had accumulated"
The problem with poor windows"
4. The Analogy"
• What is your brand like? "
• What is its performance like? "
• What does it look like, feel like, behave like? What does it
make you behave like? Look like?"
• Is your car as faithful as a hound? "
• Is your mortgage a heavy load?"
• Will your decision come back to bite you? "
• Is paper-billing the way of the dinosaurs?"
IBM China"

11. Langley Travel, Sweden" When a Londoner got married…"
Like a dinosaur…" Billosaurus - BMF, Sydney"
• To launch the innovatory service of being able to pay all
bills online"
• B-Pay’s Top 25 corporate and banking clients were mailed"
• Idea was to bring to life the product truth that soon all
paper bills will no longer exist"
• 5 major clients signed up as customers"
• 5 financial institutions go live with B-Pay ""
• Cannes, Caples, ECHOs, ADMA"

12. Iris" Live like millionaires"
Eye…balls"
• To persuade media buyers to
place their clients’ advertising in
ESPN’s sports programmes, they
were mailed a reminder of just
how close-up ESPN gets to sport.
And how many eyeballs they
attract. "
• Basketballs, footballs and
baseballs like eyeballs were
mailed out with the message: you
can’t get closer. "
5. Inversion"
• Flip/flop - when you take your proposition and flip it."
• Instead of writing to householders about mosquitioes, write
to the mosquitoes."
• Show unreliable to make a point about reliability."
• Who do you not want to use your product?"
• Slavery – what a brilliant way to make money. (Irony)."
• Send model toy soldiers – only the figures are of boys
reading, playing"
• Send a Christmas mailing at Easter"

13. When you don’t have snow" Think small"
Slavery is unacceptable – so make it
acceptable to make the point"
Reversing the expected"

14. So a Christmas mailing arrives at Easter" Put the inside on the outside"
Reversing the usual procedure" CMW - Marmite"

15. Substitution"
• Chevrolet invited top
editors to the premier of
‘Transformers’"
• They sent a storyboard
with drawings of the
recipient"
• We couldn’t get you the
part but come and see the
film anyway"
Substitute one medium for another" 6. The slice of life"
• Tell it like it is."
• Powerful observations of what really happens"
• Commonality of experience creates resonances"
• Can you (a) observe and (b) show your brand in the lives
of its users? "
• How do they really relate to it, use it, think about it?"
• Absa knew recipients had just experienced their first power
cut"
• Svedanskan Daily News knew most of their target group
had had their births announced in the paper"

16. Absa – knew about the powercuts"
• The day after you
experienced a blackout,
Absa mailed you to see if
you’d be interested in a
home loan – to buy a
generator. "
Norwegian Royal Mail"
The task was to persuade students who have started at
university to let the mail know their new address. They did this
by leaving opened letters around all over campus. "
Norwegian Royal Mail" Akestam Holst – Gothenburg Homeless"

17. " "!
Army Recruitment UK - TMW!
" " " " " " " """
" "!
C.A.L.M. Personal Effects - TMW!
" " " " " " " """
Posten – Akestam Holst" 7. Borrowed interest"
• Can you connect your message to some event that is
happening right now?"
• The World Cup – an opportunity for a thousand ‘borrowed
interest’ campaigns"
• Parody"
• Topicality"

18. How Don are you? "
To get media buyers to buy space in
Saving Nemo "
Hospital Cavell Brussels"

19. Domaine Louis Grezes - Belgium" Gebrueder Mey"
Shackleton - iJam"
• At Christmas, Spanish
agencies either send their
clients a ham or something
tecchy, like an iPod."
• Shackleton decided to
send both. The iJam."
• On Youtube there is a
video of a guy going into
an Apple Shop asking for
help with his iJam…. "
OgilvyOne,
Madrid"

20. iPad for Mercedes, France"