Lance Koenig, SVP, Global Strategy Director of The Martin Agency

Valerie Jones Author

10/14/2020 Added

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Lance Koenig, UNL and CoJMC alumnus and SVP, Global Strategy Director of The Martin Agency

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[00:00:12.150]All right. We're recording now. Perfect.
[00:00:13.990]All right.
[00:00:14.823]So, this is Lance Kanig
[00:00:15.770]and he and I used to work together
[00:00:18.650]at Bailey Lauerman a couple of minutes ago.
[00:00:22.595](laughs)
[00:00:23.610]Couple of minutes.
[00:00:24.490]Yeah. And he has gone on to work
[00:00:28.400]a variety of fantastic places
[00:00:30.070]and is currently the global strategy director,
[00:00:34.740]SVP global strategy director
[00:00:36.370]for the Martin agency in Richmond, Virginia.
[00:00:39.790]And they do phenomenal and stellar work.
[00:00:42.450]Before that, he was at Foreman and I can't say that...
[00:00:45.645](indistinct) it's a name nobody can say.
[00:00:48.900]That noun for, have you guys seen...
[00:00:51.013]Do you remember the John Claude van Damme Epic split?
[00:00:55.060]Yeah.
[00:00:56.026](indistinct) splits between two trucks?
[00:00:57.690]Yeah.
[00:00:58.523]That's nice and interact, that's foresman of the floors.
[00:01:01.330]Anything that you see for (indistinct) is foresman.
[00:01:04.280]It's a Swedish agency based in Stockholm and Gutenberg.
[00:01:09.640]And so, yeah, I've been on a global track
[00:01:11.420]for a little while,
[00:01:12.253]but they're a great place.
[00:01:13.620]That's awesome.
[00:01:15.140]And then Leo Burnett,
[00:01:16.090]Timo and Lo and Hill Holiday and Bailey Lauerman.
[00:01:19.708]Bailey Lauerman.
[00:01:21.240]Yeah, I'll start with Val 10 million seconds ago.
[00:01:24.020]Yeah, we're an IBM.
[00:01:25.890]So, he's generous enough to share some time
[00:01:28.126]and some wisdom with us today.
[00:01:30.000]Some examples of work that he has created and produced,
[00:01:36.260]he can tell you a little bit about
[00:01:37.250]what being a brand strategist is
[00:01:40.050]and how to go about the process of helping brands
[00:01:43.110]mean something
[00:01:44.550]and what that looks like and how to get there.
[00:01:48.600]Yeah.
[00:01:49.440]And please, ask questions in the chat,
[00:01:51.640]or I'm gonna go ahead and say that you can interrupt
[00:01:54.040]Lance anytime.
[00:01:55.640]Anytime, please.
[00:01:56.473]I have a couple of things that I'll share with you,
[00:01:58.360]but I thought we try to make this just a bit of a chat
[00:02:03.270]and no questions are off the table
[00:02:04.630]and happy to answer any questions that I can,
[00:02:07.210]or I'll just lie
[00:02:09.013]because that's established that that's fair.
[00:02:12.160]I did.
[00:02:13.447]It's nice to meet you all.
[00:02:14.627]Are you guys all in various, in your homes in Lincoln?
[00:02:18.340]Is the university closed so there's no in-person classes
[00:02:21.950]or what's going on?
[00:02:23.582]What's the climate?
[00:02:24.415]Somebody other than Val has to answer that question.
[00:02:28.450]I'm in Lincoln in my apartment,
[00:02:30.290]but all my classes are online.
[00:02:32.970]So, is that like, everybody's doing all classes online?
[00:02:39.240]Yeah. I think your guy is nodding.
[00:02:42.470]Cool. Is it wording?
[00:02:43.870]I think some classes are like hybrid.
[00:02:46.100]So like this class,
[00:02:46.933]like we have a choice to go in on Tuesdays
[00:02:48.290]and then Thursdays were on sale.
[00:02:50.050]So, it's kind of like, depending on classes.
[00:02:52.260]Nice. That's cool.
[00:02:53.680]Yeah.
[00:02:54.689]That's what I thought most school districts were doing
[00:02:56.170]or some sort of like hybrid optional.
[00:02:58.170]Obviously, you need to do
[00:03:00.120]what's gonna make you feel comfortable and safe,
[00:03:01.720]but I work across the globe.
[00:03:04.770]Like I am on calls with different countries every day.
[00:03:09.430]And so, I'm just super curious
[00:03:10.910]about like how different people, different cultures,
[00:03:12.810]parts of the U.S. parts of the world are living.
[00:03:15.300]And this is so unique because it is everybody.
[00:03:17.900]It doesn't matter if I'm on conversations with China
[00:03:20.410]or Japan or Germany or Russia, or where in the world,
[00:03:24.640]everybody is in the exact same situation,
[00:03:27.790]which is just that in of itself is fascinating to me.
[00:03:32.650]So, cool.
[00:03:33.483]Well, yeah, I'm Lance, I don't have a prepared speech.
[00:03:37.300]My understanding is that you guys are trying to understand
[00:03:40.190]a little bit of research and how to get into kind of
[00:03:42.940]understanding consumer behaviors.
[00:03:45.240]I think that Val said she took this class
[00:03:46.930]into a behavioral direction, which is perfect.
[00:03:49.110]Cause that's what planners do.
[00:03:51.970]And so, I'll just try to like have a bit of a chat
[00:03:55.060]about the things that I know.
[00:03:57.120]My background is always been strategy.
[00:03:59.590]I was in account management for a hot minute.
[00:04:04.770]Was I in account management when we worked together, Val,
[00:04:07.360]or was I in strategy?
[00:04:09.790]No. You were in strategy.
[00:04:11.439]Yeah. So, I...
[00:04:12.870]I should interrupt to mention too,
[00:04:14.000]that you're an Omaha native, right?
[00:04:15.710]And a code JMC grad, right?
[00:04:19.130]All true. And I read those colors with pride.
[00:04:21.540]Yeah. I mean, Nebraska is such a fun place
[00:04:23.510]to say that I am from
[00:04:24.840]because nobody knows anything about it.
[00:04:28.107]And it truly, when I lived in Boston,
[00:04:30.529]there are often people who had asked me what it was like
[00:04:34.150]to be Canadian.
[00:04:35.030]So, there's just like...
[00:04:36.385]It's just kind of a fun, kind of bit of trivia now.
[00:04:40.450]And it's always, people are always like,
[00:04:41.827]"Oh, you're from Nebraska. That's so interesting.
[00:04:43.847]"Like, and kinda surprising."
[00:04:45.940]And I'm like,
[00:04:46.773]"Well, what do you think people of Nebraska are like?"
[00:04:49.703]And then they have to like reveal
[00:04:50.536]that they don't have anything.
[00:04:51.610]There's some strange bias based on nothing.
[00:04:55.246]But, yeah. So, I wear those colors with pride.
[00:04:57.800]I was in account management.
[00:05:02.360]When I worked at Arnold Worldwide,
[00:05:04.710]I worked on the Washington post and account management,
[00:05:06.910]my group account director, Terry Burke,
[00:05:10.540]in a meeting with her,
[00:05:11.590]asked me why I was in account management.
[00:05:13.410]And she asked me like, made me feel like it was a failure.
[00:05:16.410]Like I'm saying, "Oh my God, where am I doing wrong?"
[00:05:19.270]She's like, "You just asked too many questions."
[00:05:21.300]She's like, "You just like, you are almost insatiable.
[00:05:24.877]"But with your curiosity about
[00:05:26.237]"why things are the way they are
[00:05:28.327]"or why consumers think the way they do
[00:05:30.467]"or why the business is going a direction it is,
[00:05:32.717]"or whatever it is."
[00:05:34.035]And just, you constantly ask some questions.
[00:05:35.137]And I think that's a hallmark with strategists.
[00:05:37.190]Like I think the best people in advertising
[00:05:39.740]and marketing
[00:05:40.573]are like, have an intuition
[00:05:43.100]and that their intuition is strong
[00:05:44.930]and their ability to understand and connect with people
[00:05:47.090]and solve problems via communications is strong.
[00:05:50.460]But I think that the best people have a real curiosity
[00:05:53.420]and try to understand a bit of why.
[00:05:55.420]And so, we can talk about that a bit today,
[00:05:57.047]but that's kind of band.
[00:05:58.500]That was why I shifted into strategy.
[00:06:00.800]Worked at Bailey Lauerman actually, led strategy there.
[00:06:03.510]Val and I had a lot of fun.
[00:06:05.731]Like I honestly have no idea what's going on with Bailey
[00:06:07.850]these days.
[00:06:08.683]But when we were there, we were on top of the world.
[00:06:10.540]So, it was a really fun time for us.
[00:06:13.380]I went on to Moonton, Boston
[00:06:15.680]because I just got to a place where I loved Bailey,
[00:06:19.520]but I was like,
[00:06:20.550]"I don't wanna be here for the rest of my life
[00:06:21.480]because I don't want this to be the rest of my life.
[00:06:24.363]Like there's a lot of things that I'm curious about.
[00:06:25.757]And so, I just started moving.
[00:06:28.300]Went to Boston, was there for five years.
[00:06:30.110]Went to Chicago, stayed there for a few years.
[00:06:33.530]Only left Chicago to go to Toronto
[00:06:37.330]and a global role for foresmen and (indistinct).
[00:06:39.460]because I needed to get away
[00:06:40.410]from Trump. I'm kidding.
[00:06:44.598]I'm sorry if you're a Trump supporter.
[00:06:46.205]But I've just been like trying to take my career,
[00:06:49.260]my curiosity into kind of a global goal,
[00:06:51.520]because I am fascinated how humans work around the world
[00:06:54.910]and it's been a pretty good move.
[00:06:57.270]I'm gonna get up occasionally to get my dog out
[00:06:59.370]because she just goes to the door
[00:07:00.380]and tells me when she wants to go out.
[00:07:04.986]Let's talk about consumer insights.
[00:07:06.740]Let's talk about getting to know peoples
[00:07:09.460]and understanding how to like kind of leverage,
[00:07:13.630]understanding to help our clients connect with them
[00:07:17.180]and often solve problems.
[00:07:18.570]Is that like the right place to go?
[00:07:20.280]Any questions about me before I...
[00:07:23.180]I'm a terrible self promoter.
[00:07:26.030]So, if you have questions about my resume or my career,
[00:07:30.570]I'm happy to answer those.
[00:07:31.460]I just think there's other more interesting things
[00:07:33.660]to talk about than myself.
[00:07:35.980]What was your favorite place to live at?
[00:07:37.820]Like out of all the places that you've been?
[00:07:40.490]So, Toronto is cool because Canadian culture
[00:07:43.040]is so kind of welcoming
[00:07:44.700]and they are, all of the stereotypes are true.
[00:07:48.420]They are just kind of a society that lifts up everybody.
[00:07:50.990]And they believe that there's a responsibility in culture
[00:07:54.110]for them to do that.
[00:07:56.330]So, they're most conservative people,
[00:07:58.250]are a little more liberal.
[00:07:59.210]It's fascinating to me that
[00:08:01.510]Canada is literally, most Canadians live within 90 miles
[00:08:06.450]off the U.S. border.
[00:08:07.990]So, they completely see us
[00:08:10.020]and they completely understand us,
[00:08:12.310]but their culture is powerfully different,
[00:08:14.760]which is just fascinating. You know what I mean?
[00:08:16.290]Because they get all our media,
[00:08:18.040]they see everything that we put into the world
[00:08:20.790]and then they have their own kind of media in ways of...
[00:08:23.190]So, that's fascinating.
[00:08:24.023]My favorite place though is Boston.
[00:08:26.760]I love Nebraska, but Boston is this beautiful,
[00:08:31.780]show of hands, people who've been there.
[00:08:34.070]Most people have not been to Boston.
[00:08:35.293]Wow, there's a lot of you who haven't.
[00:08:37.970]It's a city that is academically rich.
[00:08:43.232]And so, it's a really kind of a cool place for somebody
[00:08:46.270]who is just interested in kind of being a sponge
[00:08:48.490]in learning with a hundred colleges
[00:08:51.040]and universities in Boston, proper,
[00:08:52.870]it's really easy to find guest speakers
[00:08:54.840]and things to just kind of say, show your curiosity,
[00:08:57.930]but it's also this like beautiful city that's on the ocean
[00:09:01.070]and it's two hours to the mountains
[00:09:02.730]and it's a 30-minute train ride to New York
[00:09:06.410]or three, our trainer.
[00:09:08.039]This was just like perfectly situated.
[00:09:09.140]So, Boston's probably the place that's nearest
[00:09:13.400]and dearest to me.
[00:09:14.320]After I'm in Richmond,
[00:09:15.870]man, I never thought I would be in the South,
[00:09:17.550]like just full disclosure,
[00:09:20.240]it's kind of surprised that I'm here.
[00:09:23.700]And the only reason I'm here is that Kristen Kavala,
[00:09:25.900]who is our CEO, worked with me at Moonton in Boston.
[00:09:30.370]And she fortunately just kept bugging me after that moment.
[00:09:35.160]She's like, "Why don't you come back to the Moonton?"
[00:09:36.770]And I'm like, "I don't want to."
[00:09:38.120]And then I went to foresman and she's like,
[00:09:39.397]"Why don't you come back to Moonton now?"
[00:09:42.730]And I said, "I don't want to."
[00:09:43.640]And then she took the CEO job at the Moonton Agency
[00:09:47.120]and I was like, "Okay, now that's kind of interesting,
[00:09:49.127]"but I can't live in the South."
[00:09:50.450]She said, "Why not?"
[00:09:51.283]I said, "It's too hot."
[00:09:52.690]That's actually how I feel, like I just hate heat.
[00:09:56.010]So, I don't wanna live in places that are hot,
[00:09:59.310]which is maybe problematic with Nebraska, but here I am.
[00:10:02.700]And it's been a pretty great experience.
[00:10:05.280]So, something that don't leverage me to where I am,
[00:10:07.510]I just have a gravitational pull towards water
[00:10:11.390]and I'm pointing to the North.
[00:10:14.890]Any other questions?
[00:10:16.997]Curiosities? Thoughts?
[00:10:19.460]Are you guys all from Nebraska or raise your hand?
[00:10:22.500]If you're not, where you from?
[00:10:28.350]I'm from Iowa. So, pretty close.
[00:10:30.727](laughs)
[00:10:31.560]Ah, a neighbor.
[00:10:32.393]I'm from Chicago.
[00:10:33.880]Ah, I love Chicago.
[00:10:36.118]I'm from Kansa City.
[00:10:37.750]Kansa City. Love it. Nice.
[00:10:39.920]I'm from Colorado.
[00:10:41.580]Some good mid-west representation here.
[00:10:44.340]That'll serve you well.
[00:10:45.220]Cause I tell you what,
[00:10:46.053]mid-westerners are legit, hard working people
[00:10:51.020]and aren't pretentious and humble
[00:10:53.030]and just get things done.
[00:10:54.300]So, I think everybody I've ever hired from the mid-west
[00:10:56.620]it's I am, like those stereotypes hold up
[00:11:00.160]and it's a fresh and beautiful thing.
[00:11:01.730]So, I actually talk a little bit about consumer research.
[00:11:07.470]I thought I would take you through in no particular order,
[00:11:12.160]but I thought I would start with a little bit
[00:11:14.740]of how we think at the Martin Agency.
[00:11:17.020]Are you guys familiar with the Martin Agency?
[00:11:19.470]And I can say that I'm offering this up
[00:11:21.630]because this is actually an extension
[00:11:23.290]of kind of what we created them all on though.
[00:11:27.940]And, all right.
[00:11:30.240]I see people hands not ever heard the Martin Agency,
[00:11:32.660]the Martin Agency is almost 50 years old.
[00:11:35.100]It's an agency that has been around forever,
[00:11:37.030]but it's generally regarded as one of the top agencies
[00:11:40.360]in the country.
[00:11:41.193]And it has been for a long, long time.
[00:11:45.080]It is best known for Geico.
[00:11:47.030]It's had the Geico account for 25 years.
[00:11:50.040]And anytime you see a Geico commercial,
[00:11:51.970]it's obviously from the Martin Agency,
[00:11:55.992]and it's a interesting campaign and proposition
[00:12:00.510]because it's written about in every textbook.
[00:12:03.300]But it also is interesting in that it's written about
[00:12:06.650]defining kind of the best practices of marketing
[00:12:12.880]and Geico is always just kind of done their own thing.
[00:12:14.630]But nonetheless,
[00:12:16.290]it's a well-loved brand
[00:12:18.900]and it's well-loved because of its advertising.
[00:12:21.400]And it's well-loved because 25 years ago,
[00:12:24.800]when the Martin Agency started working with Geico,
[00:12:27.130]they were intentional, insane.
[00:12:28.604]Every other insurer is about scare tactics.
[00:12:33.020]Every other insurer paints a picture of disaster
[00:12:36.657]and then says, "We will be your strength in that storm."
[00:12:40.240]And Geico just, we're not gonna go there.
[00:12:41.990]We're just going to try to be a little bit more uplifting
[00:12:46.340]and we're just not gonna get into the conventions
[00:12:48.270]of the category.
[00:12:49.680]And it has made all the difference.
[00:12:51.410]Not only is it gonna chose to go its own path,
[00:12:55.420]has it driven great success for the company
[00:12:59.530]going from a relative obscure insurance agency
[00:13:02.560]to the second largest behind state firm.
[00:13:06.260]But also, everybody is trained to emulate Geico
[00:13:09.430]like progressive, like every advertiser in the category
[00:13:12.660]is basically trying to steal a page from the Geico playbook.
[00:13:16.030]And then there's just fun stats.
[00:13:17.730]Geico never advertises in the Superbowl.
[00:13:20.740]And every year when you look at the most loved ads,
[00:13:23.070]Geico is in the top five,
[00:13:25.290]just because there's this halo
[00:13:26.990]and how much people generally love Geico commercials.
[00:13:29.660]Brazil, this, I was at Cannes last year,
[00:13:33.490]the Cannes Festival and was on a panel with a guy
[00:13:36.750]who was from resilience.
[00:13:38.110]Like we love Geico's commercials,
[00:13:39.520]we love the Martin Agency.
[00:13:40.470]We love Geico's commercials,
[00:13:42.690]there's no Geico in Brazil,
[00:13:45.820]but when we asked the nation for our top advertisers,
[00:13:50.430]our most favorite advertisers,
[00:13:51.560]Geico always lands in the top 10,
[00:13:53.430]which is just kind of funny.
[00:13:54.470]So, there's a good story there,
[00:13:55.840]but we also do Oreo. I worked in Oreo globally,
[00:13:58.950]Ritz crackers, Old Navy.
[00:14:00.580]If you've seen some fun dental work of late,
[00:14:03.620]which is a really catchy tune, that's the Martin Agency.
[00:14:07.498]So, we've got a good list of consumer brands,
[00:14:10.230]but most importantly,
[00:14:11.300]it's just been a very creatively focused
[00:14:13.800]and driven shop from day one.
[00:14:16.290]So, I'm gonna share just a few slides with you
[00:14:19.470]that are the heart of that strategy.
[00:14:21.500]I have 2 million things open on my desktop.
[00:14:27.230]And when you see it, when I share my screen,
[00:14:29.150]you cannot make fun of me because it's a hot mess.
[00:14:39.200]So weird that this is how we live anymore via video.
[00:14:42.270]My dog will come here and probably 30 minutes.
[00:14:44.220]And she just is like, "Do you ever leave that spot?"
[00:14:46.920]Can you see this?
[00:14:48.480]I know I can't see you all.
[00:14:51.310]So, you just have to like yell something
[00:14:54.319]if you want me to stop.
[00:14:55.530]So, in thinking about consumers
[00:14:58.150]and thinking about creating strategy
[00:15:00.340]and thinking about driving impact,
[00:15:02.800]which is a word you're often for
[00:15:04.780]the brands that we represent or do marketing for,
[00:15:08.150]there's this notion that you need to get it right, right?
[00:15:11.020]You want to get it right.
[00:15:12.850]You wanna make sure that the message is just right.
[00:15:16.140]That it's in a strategically sound
[00:15:18.770]and that's all well and good and important.
[00:15:22.260]But I think that we all have to recognize that the status,
[00:15:26.930]something like 80% of advertising is basically ignored.
[00:15:30.824]Like there's no recall for it. It's wallpaper.
[00:15:33.189]It's just easy to look past it.
[00:15:35.910]If I had you watch a commercial break,
[00:15:39.150]just kind of casually the way that you would
[00:15:41.459]at go home right now and ask you quickly,
[00:15:42.627]"What did you just see?"
[00:15:43.931]You wouldn't be able to remember anything.
[00:15:46.210]And so, there's a lot of messaging out there.
[00:15:49.040]Like you've all seen the stats about 20,000 messages
[00:15:51.940]a minute, whatever that reality is.
[00:15:54.810]But it just requires us to recognize that it's not enough
[00:15:57.840]to be right, right?
[00:15:58.970]Because right can be ignored.
[00:16:00.680]There's a lot of bright strategies.
[00:16:02.470]There's a lot of seemingly good advertising in the world.
[00:16:06.870]But the fact is that it's right,
[00:16:09.580]but it's so easy to ignore it,
[00:16:11.040]that is it creating the impact that brands need?
[00:16:14.640]And because of that kind of reality,
[00:16:16.560]our kind of mantra and our mission
[00:16:18.820]is to fight in visibility.
[00:16:20.090]We have to make sure that our clients' brands are seen.
[00:16:26.110]And not just that they're seen, but they're loved.
[00:16:28.660]And that they're landing in culture in a meaningful way.
[00:16:31.210]So, here you've got door DoorDash, you've got Geico,
[00:16:33.270]you've got the Whole Wild Wings.
[00:16:35.760]You've got Sling TV, we've got Land O'Lakes, Oreo.
[00:16:40.661]So, there's a good kind of cross section of big brands here
[00:16:47.410]that we applied this thinking to.
[00:16:50.539]And we do it largely fueled by this notion
[00:16:52.960]that in order to create impact,
[00:16:55.130]it really is no longer about awareness, reading preference.
[00:16:58.560]You know what I mean?
[00:16:59.615]Like you can be aware of something and ignore it
[00:17:03.302]and you can certainly be aware of it and not prefer it.
[00:17:06.360]But the other thing about preference in today's world
[00:17:10.230]is that preference has no bearing on your decision
[00:17:13.080]as a consumer, right?
[00:17:14.560]You can prefer Coke and never drink it.
[00:17:17.800]I do. Like if you asked me if I prefer Pepsi or Coke,
[00:17:20.730]I'm gonna say I prefer Coke and I never buy it.
[00:17:22.500]I'd never drink it. It's not relevant to me.
[00:17:24.170]It's not how I live.
[00:17:25.590]And so we have to have an orientation
[00:17:28.260]on these modern measures and gets closer to the notion
[00:17:31.250]of relevance over kind of the old metrics
[00:17:33.530]of awareness and preference,
[00:17:35.560]because they just are lost leaders.
[00:17:37.150]They don't really indicate or tell us anything.
[00:17:39.110]Yes. You generally have to be aware of something before
[00:17:41.960]you can have an opinion about it.
[00:17:43.250]So, I don't mean to throw these out,
[00:17:45.170]but I think that awareness and preference on their own,
[00:17:48.160]aren't gonna get you to a place where you actually
[00:17:49.940]are creating the connection and the impact that you need
[00:17:52.300]as a brand.
[00:17:54.280]And the other kind of truth of that
[00:17:55.890]is the recognition that in today's world,
[00:17:58.540]there's just a fundamental truth and fact
[00:18:00.810]that when you impact culture, you impact sales.
[00:18:04.310]It's that simple.
[00:18:05.940]It's that simple because there's enough studies
[00:18:08.460]that tell us that the most talked about brands
[00:18:10.700]outperforming their categories by your 2.5x, right?
[00:18:13.800]That's from being at company.
[00:18:15.520]We know in the referral economy that we live in,
[00:18:18.230]where we are online and constantly on social
[00:18:20.770]and constantly engaging and constantly talking,
[00:18:23.370]that when brands are brought up in those conversations,
[00:18:27.800]they are more likely to be consumed or bought by the people
[00:18:31.223]of kind within those conversations, right?
[00:18:33.270]So, two thirds of all purchase decisions are influenced
[00:18:35.800]by personal recommendations.
[00:18:37.380]So, getting talked about, getting people to see the ads,
[00:18:41.400]to react the way that they do to Geico is not a nicety.
[00:18:45.100]It's not just an outlier of,
[00:18:47.080]or isn't it great that people love Geico's ads?
[00:18:50.240]Isn't a great that people talk about Geico's ads?
[00:18:52.840]Now, it's a business imperative because, honestly,
[00:18:56.211]if they're not talking about you and culture,
[00:18:58.170]then you're probably not getting talked about at all.
[00:19:01.150]So, we tend to think of our strategies
[00:19:02.930]and the way that we engage consumers
[00:19:05.410]in that very simple way,
[00:19:06.653]that that is the holy grail.
[00:19:09.010]Relevance.
[00:19:10.360]Relevance that lands not just in consumers' hearts,
[00:19:12.870]but lands in culture.
[00:19:14.500]And we recognize that as you might expect for a strategist
[00:19:19.320]or so we were saying agency,
[00:19:20.360]we can engineer that, right?
[00:19:22.240]These things aren't accidental, right?
[00:19:23.810]But it requires us to think about the kinds of things
[00:19:26.410]we wanna learn from consumers,
[00:19:28.010]how we develop strategies,
[00:19:30.550]and ultimately, the creative that that's gonna deliver it.
[00:19:34.402]And part of that engineering and part of that thinking
[00:19:39.030]is a lean in on tension, right?
[00:19:41.900]Because if you stop and think about your favorite books,
[00:19:44.950]your favorite movies, there is tension within them.
[00:19:48.090]It takes tension to get attention.
[00:19:50.670]Books would be extraordinarily boring
[00:19:52.910]if there was no antagonist,
[00:19:54.970]and brands and culture and advertising are no difference.
[00:19:59.370]So, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about that,
[00:20:00.627]and you're gonna see that brought forward
[00:20:02.280]and some of the thinking.
[00:20:04.220]But by virtue of that,
[00:20:07.040]the best brands and the way that they approach consumer
[00:20:10.750]and relevance and great creative
[00:20:12.660]is to stand for something and stand against something.
[00:20:15.897]I'm sure you guys have talked about purpose and yes,
[00:20:17.210]this is part of that.
[00:20:18.666]And that can be it's under special presentation.
[00:20:20.276]But just stop and think about the brands
[00:20:23.640]that are on this page,
[00:20:24.473]we'll think about, maybe your favorite brand
[00:20:27.217]and start to think about what do they stand for?
[00:20:29.560]Can I articulate what this brand is about
[00:20:32.610]or what it stands for in a few words?
[00:20:34.490]And do they have an enemy?
[00:20:35.530]Is there a natural enemy for this brand?
[00:20:37.810]I mean, Patagonia,
[00:20:38.750]I'm guessing as a brand that you guys are all familiar with,
[00:20:41.460]they're doing some amazing provocative things
[00:20:43.320]where now with the elections and the tags,
[00:20:45.010]and the as you've seen them,
[00:20:46.410]like they literally put any tags that say,
[00:20:47.737]"Vote him out," in their clothing.
[00:20:51.000]That brand stands for the environment, right?
[00:20:54.340]They're pro-sustainability.
[00:20:55.740]They're about mother earth
[00:20:58.230]and they are against anything that basically tears
[00:21:01.880]the planet apart.
[00:21:02.840]Right now it happens to be the Trump administrations.
[00:21:06.400]Super clear narrative.
[00:21:08.150]That clarity is very difficult to get to.
[00:21:12.780]It's very difficult for a client to kind of keep it feet
[00:21:15.290]to the fire.
[00:21:16.260]But the truth is the brands that stand for something
[00:21:19.420]and push off of something
[00:21:20.410]are today's most successful brands.
[00:21:22.960]You guys have probably studied Dove and Real Beauty.
[00:21:26.420]And that campaign has been running,
[00:21:27.660]for how long has it been running?
[00:21:29.020]It's like 20 years now? Long time.
[00:21:32.790]Like they have...
[00:21:33.940]But they can said, "We sent for your beauty."
[00:21:36.210]The very first commercials out of that were about
[00:21:38.930]women of all sizes and colors representing all ages saying,
[00:21:44.077]"This is what beauty looks like."
[00:21:45.410]It's not the contrived kind of artificial beauty
[00:21:49.190]that is advertised or promoted by the beauty industry.
[00:21:53.660]There was a clear for and against in that construct.
[00:21:56.837]So, we think it's pretty valuable.
[00:21:58.900]I'm gonna take you through the UPS example,
[00:22:01.090]but think about this, when you think about strategy,
[00:22:03.950]because I think that I'm a bit of a philosophy
[00:22:07.480]if what you believe is right,
[00:22:08.481]as you develop strategies really goes a long way
[00:22:12.140]in helping you kind of put the pieces together in your mind.
[00:22:15.750]So, that's a basic framework.
[00:22:17.820]Before I move on screen sharing,
[00:22:20.023]UPS, which on the surface doesn't sound
[00:22:21.860]like it'd be that exciting,
[00:22:22.740]but it's actually really interesting
[00:22:24.640]and I'm biased because yes, I wrote it.
[00:22:26.640]But also because it's just been fascinating
[00:22:30.300]to take this brand into a completely different direction.
[00:22:33.743]But any questions before I move on?
[00:22:36.760]Also, give me a lot of time
[00:22:38.340]Yeah.
[00:22:40.517]So, you were talking about culture and relevance.
[00:22:42.430]How have like you and the Martin Agency,
[00:22:44.510]I know you explained what, I forgot which brand it was,
[00:22:48.630]but how have you and the Martin Agency incorporated
[00:22:51.160]the events that have occurred in the last,
[00:22:52.340]like four to five months between COVID, BLM,
[00:22:54.950]other stuff like that and your marketing strategy
[00:22:56.960]for your different brands,
[00:22:57.820]and what kind of effects have you seen from that?
[00:22:59.810]So, we within, so we went home as an agency.
[00:23:03.320]We've been working at home since March 13th.
[00:23:06.190]Within four weeks of us doing home,
[00:23:08.840]we produced brand new work
[00:23:10.440]and campaigns for 80% of our clients.
[00:23:13.930]We produced an entire campaign for UPS in four days,
[00:23:17.840]thinking their drivers.
[00:23:19.490]And actually, it was a campaign
[00:23:21.210]that was on the bleeding edge of all of those awful,
[00:23:24.400]thank you.
[00:23:25.240]Different employee campaign and immigrants should do it
[00:23:27.470]because people are risking their lives.
[00:23:29.460]So, not shitting on the notion of thanking your employees,
[00:23:32.873](laughs)
[00:23:33.706]but UPS was the first and we didn't come out with a message
[00:23:36.450]that said, "Thank you, UPS employees."
[00:23:38.320]We said, "To anybody who's delivering
[00:23:40.007]"thanks for delivering."
[00:23:40.840]So, the hashtag was thanks for delivering and checking out.
[00:23:44.290]But we are remarkably respond...
[00:23:47.383]Like we and the pace that we respond to culture,
[00:23:49.280]the Martin Agency's kind of unique.
[00:23:51.600]And we have an entire group of people within our strategy,
[00:23:56.070]a department called the culture impact lab
[00:23:58.720]that is designed to keep us on the bleeding edge
[00:24:01.540]of what is happening in the culture
[00:24:02.780]so that we can be responsive to,
[00:24:06.130]that could be its own presentation.
[00:24:08.690]But it's, I'll tell you why.
[00:24:09.523]It's really important that brands stay on the bleeding edge
[00:24:14.240]of culture, that they are a part of culture.
[00:24:16.300]When I went to work at Leo Burnett,
[00:24:18.480]I was on the global McDonald's business.
[00:24:20.840]And I said to the CEO,
[00:24:21.877]"It's fascinating to me that McDonald's is a brand
[00:24:25.215]"that 26 million Americans eat that every day."
[00:24:28.870]26 million Americans eat at McDonald's every day, right?
[00:24:33.610]It's obviously an important part of the American landscape,
[00:24:37.490]but it's a brand that lives outside of culture.
[00:24:40.080]It's not a cool brand.
[00:24:41.670]It's a brand that most people will like tuck
[00:24:45.130]the McDonald's bag into another bag as they walk away
[00:24:48.300]after they picked it up,
[00:24:49.480]or they will eat in their cars by themselves and the driver,
[00:24:51.820]because they don't wanna admit that they eat there.
[00:24:54.320]Like that's a problem.
[00:24:55.700]So, if your brand is like living outside of culture,
[00:25:00.240]you gotta find ways to kind of get back into a place
[00:25:02.800]where people recognize it, because it does two things.
[00:25:05.310]One is, there's kind of,
[00:25:06.770]I tend to think about a brand's trajectory
[00:25:09.770]involving two things, consideration, which you would expect.
[00:25:12.980]Do I trust this brand? Is it reliable?
[00:25:15.440]Is it a brand that solves my problem? Is it available?
[00:25:18.510]All the things that are kinda rational components
[00:25:21.530]of decision-making needs to be there, right?
[00:25:25.120]And that can be outside of culture.
[00:25:26.730]You just need to be a brand that people trust.
[00:25:28.750]This could be an analog and introduction to the UPS
[00:25:31.010]conversation.
[00:25:32.170]But probably more important is momentum.
[00:25:35.370]Is this brand either with or ahead of the time?
[00:25:39.080]Is this a brand that is kind of finding new ways
[00:25:44.250]for people to live and consume?
[00:25:46.010]Are they solving problems of the category?
[00:25:49.000]Are they innovative? Is it cool?
[00:25:51.770]Is it an interesting brand?
[00:25:52.820]Like those becomes proxies for a brand
[00:25:55.660]that is more like Nike, constantly on the edge of culture,
[00:25:59.850]constantly doing interesting things.
[00:26:01.740]Yes, we trust them.
[00:26:02.820]Yes, they're reliable.
[00:26:04.200]Yes, they're affordable, generally speaking,
[00:26:07.370]but it's the momentum measures that keep Nike fresh.
[00:26:10.670]And so, we have to think about culture
[00:26:12.860]in terms of delivering on an extended brand momentum.
[00:26:15.350]It's a long answer. Does that answer the question?
[00:26:17.700]Does that make sense?
[00:26:19.260]Cool.
[00:26:22.550]And is this going to 11:30?
[00:26:27.390]It's a 10:45.
[00:26:28.900]I'm an hour ahead of you.
[00:26:30.500]All right. 10 45, 11:45.
[00:26:32.590]Okay, cool.
[00:26:33.423]Just keeping track of time. Any other questions?
[00:26:35.260]I don't wanna short thrift that
[00:26:36.910]because I did go through it pretty fast.
[00:26:38.410]Note, every agency has a different philosophy.
[00:26:40.580]You're gonna see as you go.
[00:26:43.718]And I'm assuming as you go into different marketing
[00:26:45.360]and advertising organizations,
[00:26:47.040]everybody has a different philosophy.
[00:26:48.600]I'm not pedaling. One is better than the other.
[00:26:50.260]That's ours.
[00:26:51.810]That's proven...
[00:26:53.410]Pardon me, successful.
[00:26:55.110]Basically,
[00:26:55.943]you use that formula now in three different shops
[00:26:58.440]and it just drives better, more interesting work.
[00:27:02.170]The momentum and consideration that I just took you through,
[00:27:04.380]we actually develop a brand relevance score for UPS
[00:27:08.550]to help them get past this consideration bias.
[00:27:11.880]And you get to a place where they recognize that.
[00:27:15.251]And I will use this as a segue that when we go out and talk
[00:27:17.220]to consumers about UPS, they say things like,
[00:27:20.867]"I want you guys to describe UPS for me,
[00:27:23.157]"just in a word or a sentence, like what comes to mind."
[00:27:25.350]And I will not be offended.
[00:27:26.890]I'm gonna share with you something
[00:27:28.040]that probably is very well aligned with your perceptions.
[00:27:30.800]But what do you think of when you think of UPS?
[00:27:36.600]Brown?
[00:27:41.760]Some of you just say something like, just be honest,
[00:27:44.970]what do you think?
[00:27:46.595]I mean,
[00:27:47.836]the fact that you don't think this maybe its own issue,
[00:27:48.669]but are there any associations,
[00:27:50.510]like somebody is gonna say something?
[00:27:51.920]I was thinking, I feel like they're more careful
[00:27:54.105]than like I've seen like videos of like other companies
[00:27:56.420]just like throwing their boxes at the door.
[00:27:57.850]And then like UPS is always the people that like send it
[00:27:59.620]nicely down?
[00:28:01.097]That careful. Yep.
[00:28:02.281]I agree that.
[00:28:04.140]They are to pick just in the interest of time,
[00:28:07.050]when we went out and asked small businesses
[00:28:08.693]because that's the campaign that I'm working on
[00:28:10.760]is targeting small businesses,
[00:28:12.660]small business owners
[00:28:13.810]and kind of leaders within small businesses,
[00:28:16.480]which represents like 50% of businesses in the U.S.
[00:28:20.049]and they all use UPS because they are careful.
[00:28:23.830]You're right.
[00:28:24.663]They are reliable. They're trusted.
[00:28:26.700]They are not as cheap as the post office,
[00:28:28.900]but they're generally of good value, etc.
[00:28:32.160]But when you ask them, like describe UPS,
[00:28:33.916]what does ups look like at a party?
[00:28:35.850]Like, show me the...
[00:28:37.800]Like, describe if UPS is a person,
[00:28:40.040]what do they look like when they show up?
[00:28:42.000]They're probably wearing khakis
[00:28:43.820]and maybe a white button down shirt.
[00:28:46.210]Maybe they've got to come over.
[00:28:48.320]They're like in their 50s,
[00:28:49.380]they're probably in the corner, kinda boring.
[00:28:52.000]Not necessarily, I wouldn't really wanna talk to them,
[00:28:54.920]but I trust them.
[00:28:57.690]You know what I mean?
[00:28:58.787]And it's like, that is not the picture
[00:28:59.620]that any brand wants to have
[00:29:01.611](laughs)
[00:29:03.124]to paint it themselves.
[00:29:03.957]But here, this this a hundred plus year old brown brand
[00:29:08.250]that is reliable and we love them for the reliability.
[00:29:12.150]It's just not interesting.
[00:29:15.790]And why does that matter?
[00:29:17.030]Because Amazon is trying to eat everybody's lunch,
[00:29:20.730]in case you haven't like paid attention,
[00:29:22.840]Amazon moves into every category and tries to take it over.
[00:29:26.250]They're dabbling in health care now and other things,
[00:29:28.430]but Amazon is both a competitor and a client of UPS.
[00:29:31.617]So, it's an interesting kinda situation,
[00:29:34.230]but Amazon is this young, sexy, they know digital,
[00:29:38.430]they're more entrepreneurial.
[00:29:39.930]Like those are those moments and measures
[00:29:42.659]that are so important.
[00:29:43.492]So, this brand that is a hundred years old,
[00:29:47.140]but wants to win with small businesses
[00:29:49.730]and small business owners who are increasingly
[00:29:51.690]between the ages of like 25 and 40.
[00:29:54.960]We have to have people thinking about this brand
[00:29:58.200]differently.
[00:29:59.737]So, I wanna take you through like a high level deck
[00:30:03.300]that we actually wrote for the new CEO who started in June
[00:30:06.310]just to orient her to this campaign
[00:30:08.140]and the things that we're trying to do.
[00:30:09.160]Some of the things we learned
[00:30:10.620]and I'm using this because the narrative is
[00:30:13.790]there was our desire to grow a small businesses, right?
[00:30:17.720]That's our strategic growth imperative.
[00:30:20.870]I'm very freshest about that.
[00:30:21.900]I want to everything that we do for our clients,
[00:30:24.490]I wanna be able to track it back to growth.
[00:30:26.150]What am I trying to do for the business?
[00:30:28.750]What am I trying to sell?
[00:30:29.620]What are we trying to...?
[00:30:30.510]What needs to be done?
[00:30:31.870]So, they're trying to grow their relationship
[00:30:34.730]and I'm not inviting them shipping with small businesses.
[00:30:37.560]Research revealed kind of some things about them
[00:30:40.820]that I'll share with you,
[00:30:41.653]but also revealed this problem that we needed to like,
[00:30:44.820]just face, that we were seen as kind of the reliable,
[00:30:48.880]but not necessarily cool or sexy brand.
[00:30:53.063]And by virtue of that, people just don't think about us.
[00:30:55.410]Like their perceptions are data.
[00:30:57.070]They don't know a lot of the new things
[00:30:58.640]that this brand is doing for people.
[00:31:00.510]So, if it's cool,
[00:31:01.460]I'll just take you quickly through this presentation
[00:31:06.670]buried somewhere on my desktop
[00:31:09.660]and I will clumsily take you through this
[00:31:13.410]because I've not looked at this deck in a while.
[00:31:17.480]We presented this in June.
[00:31:21.670]Can you see this? Cool.
[00:31:25.300]So, again, I'm trying to connect a lot of dots for you guys
[00:31:28.370]to hear some voice of consumer,
[00:31:30.330]some thoughts about the brand,
[00:31:31.493]what the brand needs to do,
[00:31:33.560]a strategy that's going to kind of bring those things
[00:31:36.040]forward in a way that is relevant to the learnings
[00:31:38.570]that we got about small businesses along the way.
[00:31:41.110]And I think that a lot of this will probably be intuitive
[00:31:43.220]to you, but very simply we did a lot of research.
[00:31:46.160]We continue to do a lot of research for UPS,
[00:31:49.560]where we do both quantum core to understand small business
[00:31:53.550]owners, kind of their motivations, their mindset,
[00:31:56.720]irrespective of shipping,
[00:31:58.490]kind of talk to them about shipping.
[00:31:59.580]And we talked about UPS
[00:32:00.620]and that kind of the competitive set.
[00:32:02.890]We look across all kinds of businesses
[00:32:05.560]from like the tiniest, tiniest micros like me
[00:32:08.340]at home making that, see Julie selling on Etsy store,
[00:32:10.580]which I don't do,
[00:32:13.580]or businesses up to 499 employees is technically categorized
[00:32:17.680]as small business in the U.S.
[00:32:19.200]I know that doesn't seem logical,
[00:32:20.420]but that's where we are.
[00:32:22.490]So, it's mostly qualitative,
[00:32:25.360]but we did quantitative again to those consideration
[00:32:27.680]momentum metrics.
[00:32:28.520]I'm not gonna take you through that today.
[00:32:30.340]That could be a call for another time.
[00:32:32.612]There's just five kind of big things
[00:32:35.440]that came out of that research
[00:32:37.580]and all of those conversations that UPS has to think about
[00:32:40.270]and that we can give out as we navigate marketing,
[00:32:42.950]people believe that they know everything there is to know
[00:32:44.910]about UPS.
[00:32:46.270]I don't really need to know anything else if you ship stuff
[00:32:49.300]and you're reliable, full stop. That's enough.
[00:32:52.050]I'm not really looking to learn more about UPS.
[00:32:55.267]Kind of surprising to small businesses
[00:32:59.080]or for UPS was to hear the small businesses
[00:33:01.350]think that UPS only cares about large enterprise customers,
[00:33:06.230]that this brand is not necessarily friendly
[00:33:08.150]to small businesses in the way that the post offices,
[00:33:11.980]that small businesses report that it's not easy
[00:33:14.810]to do business with UPS
[00:33:17.840]because the touch points are inconsistent.
[00:33:19.790]And so, whether they are going to UPS store,
[00:33:23.600]which is a franchise,
[00:33:25.179]the UPS company does not run those UPS stores
[00:33:28.310]as a franchise.
[00:33:29.840]It's like inconsistent experience versus online
[00:33:32.310]versus the app.
[00:33:34.406]And there was just a need to kind of clean up
[00:33:36.740]the interface with customers.
[00:33:38.590]So, that's kind of an operational consideration.
[00:33:42.270]Competitive threats are gathering.
[00:33:43.600]Amazon is speaking every day to their shipping abilities,
[00:33:46.940]to their desire, to support small businesses.
[00:33:49.390]They're also getting into building
[00:33:50.730]their corporate reputation.
[00:33:51.900]You've seen commercials talking about sustainability, etc,
[00:33:54.280]that are running right now.
[00:33:56.518]But all of those things might be slightly on the negative.
[00:34:00.340]The good news is that this brand has a strong foundation.
[00:34:04.120]It is the most trusted, the most respected,
[00:34:07.110]the most reliable brand of all the shipping
[00:34:07.943](indistinct) providers in the world.
[00:34:12.430]They just trial on this notion of innovative entrepreneurial
[00:34:14.750]and digital, which I've kind of shared with you.
[00:34:18.780]This is how people described, how consumers described EPS,
[00:34:22.340]a hardworking regular blue collar guy,
[00:34:24.420]probably wearing a flannel and watching sports.
[00:34:28.297]UPS knows a lot and has a lot of experience,
[00:34:30.670]but innovation can wipe out experience.
[00:34:33.560]In other words,
[00:34:34.393]Amazon just came in with one simple solution
[00:34:37.140]and that can have trusted reliable nature of UPS.
[00:34:42.502]UPS is trying to stay relevant,
[00:34:43.850]but probably has a comb over going back to that comment
[00:34:46.020]about who you think of from the UPS?
[00:34:48.443]So, these are not necessarily the images
[00:34:50.790]that anybody would want for the brand.
[00:34:52.390]I would be shocked if somebody says,
[00:34:55.807]"Yes, we're perfect.
[00:34:57.210]"There's no need for us to evolve."
[00:34:58.340]And so, the main thing that came out of this
[00:35:01.500]was the need for the brand
[00:35:03.760]to kind of hold onto those attributes around consideration
[00:35:07.290]or being reliable, trustworthy, professional respected,
[00:35:10.050]but we've got to become a more innovative digital agile
[00:35:14.890]kind of cool, if you will, brand.
[00:35:16.720]Like that opportunities,
[00:35:18.370]depending the attributes that we enjoy
[00:35:20.750]that really kind of lift up this brand
[00:35:23.150]is just simply having greater momentum
[00:35:24.720]and being more interesting generally to a small businesses,
[00:35:28.630]but in culture, there's volumes of research paint,
[00:35:32.900]every one of these slides.
[00:35:33.910]So, if you guys have questions and want me to stop,
[00:35:35.870]I'm happy to,
[00:35:36.703]I'm just of giving you the high level takeaway.
[00:35:40.050]So, that's how they thought about UPS, right?
[00:35:42.716]What is it about themselves that UPS can kind of pair with
[00:35:47.460]to bring forward the greater need
[00:35:50.050]to be seen as an innovative brand role.
[00:35:51.820]Small businesses tend to think of themselves
[00:35:54.600]as not at all surprisingly entrepreneurial,
[00:35:56.870]that they see themselves as relatively innovative,
[00:36:00.110]whether it is their product being innovative
[00:36:02.590]or just their ability to solve problems,
[00:36:04.930]to drive business, to drive their own business
[00:36:06.990]and get things done.
[00:36:08.551]They are driven, ambitious, hardworking,
[00:36:15.280]pragmatic kind of mindset.
[00:36:17.770]That is very...
[00:36:20.340]I generally avoid like mass stereotypes
[00:36:22.900]when it comes to consumers,
[00:36:24.110]but in this case, it's so blatantly true
[00:36:26.450]that that is where those are the basic requirements
[00:36:29.890]for all small businesses to be successful
[00:36:31.900]is to just kind of have that kind of orientation.
[00:36:34.980]So, in order for UPS to win with them,
[00:36:38.200]UPS has to reflect that drive.
[00:36:39.980]You have to reflect that ambition.
[00:36:41.960]You have to empower them, right?
[00:36:43.570]You can't just sell them something.
[00:36:45.480]You need to get in the trenches with them
[00:36:47.020]and empower them and help drive that success
[00:36:49.870]and show that the brand has ways to help grow
[00:36:52.960]their businesses.
[00:36:53.793]So, you can't just say,
[00:36:54.626]"We can let us shift for you reliable,
[00:36:56.577]"rather you got to bring some energy to the conversation."
[00:37:00.760]And so, when we started to thinking about UPS
[00:37:04.562]and the need to be more innovative
[00:37:05.560]and that kind of drive for small businesses,
[00:37:08.200]we started to thinking about what kinds of brands,
[00:37:11.610]I'm gonna do off screen so I can see you guys.
[00:37:14.370]what kinds of brands reflect that ambition?
[00:37:18.649]So, I'm curious when you think about innovative brands,
[00:37:21.590]what brands come to mind?
[00:37:24.270]Brands that are driven or ambitious?
[00:37:26.470]Like any of them come to mind for you?
[00:37:30.022]I think of Apple.
[00:37:31.623]That's a good example.
[00:37:34.280]Constantly introducing new things, known for innovation,
[00:37:37.427]they solve problems we didn't even know we had.
[00:37:40.982](laughs)
[00:37:44.135]And if you love them, they make your world better for it.
[00:37:47.090]Certainly more seamless.
[00:37:49.380]Any others?
[00:37:52.630]Thoughts?
[00:37:56.956]I think of Adidas.
[00:37:59.198]What was it?
[00:38:00.188]Adidas.
[00:38:01.083]Adidas. Nice.
[00:38:02.860]It's a perfect segue.
[00:38:03.693]That's where my head went.
[00:38:05.310]When I'm like, man,
[00:38:06.143]when I think about brands that are innovative and driven
[00:38:09.730]and hardworking, ambitious,
[00:38:11.940]I think of like Nike and I think of Adidas or Adidos,
[00:38:16.180]depending where the world you are.
[00:38:18.620]And so, I started thinking about
[00:38:20.310]what if we didn't think like a shipping company?
[00:38:22.740]What if this brand look more like a small business, right?
[00:38:27.550]But in a way that is elevated,
[00:38:32.440]in a way that is really focused on performance,
[00:38:36.130]in a way that in the way that you're bringing forward
[00:38:39.460]Adidas is about empowerment,
[00:38:42.220]but also about that drive just kind of reflecting
[00:38:45.090]the spirit of athletes.
[00:38:46.240]So, we started thinking about the small business owners.
[00:38:50.720]When we started thinking about Adidas or Nike as an analog,
[00:38:54.620]that these are not small business owners.
[00:38:57.960]They're really industrial athletes,
[00:39:01.230]the way that they need to move,
[00:39:03.770]the way that they need to perform,
[00:39:05.830]the way that they are always on the go,
[00:39:08.270]the way that they're always seemingly training
[00:39:09.830]for what's next, the hard work, the fortitude,
[00:39:12.740]all of that are kind of hallmarks of athletes, right?
[00:39:17.080]So, what if this brand became,
[00:39:21.550]turning from a shipping company into a performance brand,
[00:39:24.210]what if UPS started looking like more like Adidas or Nike,
[00:39:28.390]right?
[00:39:29.690]Which is an interesting provocation
[00:39:32.840]because the performance brands are empowering.
[00:39:35.340]They're passionate, they're ambitious, they're unafraid,
[00:39:38.290]they're agents of change.
[00:39:39.970]They are focused on results and outcomes
[00:39:42.570]and they are catalysts for actions.
[00:39:44.460]And that is what a small business owner is looking for.
[00:39:47.190]That's how they think about themselves.
[00:39:49.310]And that's what they want from partners, right?
[00:39:51.560]Don't just sell me something, reflect my drive.
[00:39:54.520]And so, again, there's Adidas,
[00:39:57.940]Impossible is Nothing.
[00:39:59.270]There's Apple, Think Different.
[00:40:04.366]Delta, even as an analog with this notion
[00:40:05.896]of keep climbing and that's the position,
[00:40:07.485]of course, Nike would just do it.
[00:40:08.318]And we can all think of commercials
[00:40:09.151]that came to live in that innovative space.
[00:40:10.774]But the other thing that I would say about these brands
[00:40:13.240]is that while they're ambitious and hard working,
[00:40:15.290]they're pragmatic, they make things tangible.
[00:40:19.100]They help us get results and achieve things.
[00:40:22.430]And that's really important
[00:40:23.263]because that is the thing about UPS that makes this work.
[00:40:27.040]This is a brand that is always just simply about
[00:40:28.940]getting stuff done,
[00:40:30.860]getting things from point A to point B in a more dependable
[00:40:34.660]and reliable ways than anybody else, right?
[00:40:37.190]So, there's a little bit of a manifesto here
[00:40:40.830]that I'm gonna, I think we'll play for you guys.
[00:40:44.010]I hope it does.
[00:40:46.310]That kind of brings this to life.
[00:40:49.558]It's gonna take some while.
[00:40:53.707](indistinct)
[00:40:56.300]All right. This is not the video,
[00:40:58.370]this is just animated for presentation.
[00:41:00.782](chuckles)
[00:41:01.940]So, I'm gonna read you the manifesto that was designed
[00:41:04.160]to bring this forward, right?
[00:41:05.240]It never stops.
[00:41:07.150]The heart, the drive,
[00:41:08.320]the ambition to make something different
[00:41:09.910]for yourself and by yourself,
[00:41:13.280]the desire never stops.
[00:41:15.910]Neither does the grind that it takes to do it.
[00:41:19.190]You wish you could bend time to schedule,
[00:41:21.190]make the world both smaller and bigger.
[00:41:23.730]You'd love to know all the tricks up all the sleeves,
[00:41:26.800]because then nothing could stop.
[00:41:30.270]You wouldn't be daunted by paperwork
[00:41:34.280]or wary of cost hiding in the weeds.
[00:41:37.040]You'd never be stopped by that thing you didn't see coming.
[00:41:40.830]Everything would be a go, green light, forward motion,
[00:41:43.800]not missed opportunity.
[00:41:46.370]Everything would move. Everything would just flow.
[00:41:49.660]That's what we do.
[00:41:51.670]We break down the barriers, take up the friction,
[00:41:53.840]keep it all doing.
[00:41:55.890]So, in a world that never stops,
[00:41:58.050]you can be unstoppable, UPS has been unstoppable.
[00:42:01.250]So, that's the basic idea,
[00:42:03.060]like the business notion of movement that is so critical
[00:42:06.020]to small businesses,
[00:42:06.980]that's a part of a performance brand
[00:42:09.610]and tearing down the friction that gets in the way
[00:42:11.870]of that movement and that momentum.
[00:42:13.540]That's the essence of the API for UPS.
[00:42:15.837]So, this actually is a video, and I will play this for you.
[00:42:20.010]This was a manifesto video.
[00:42:21.470]I'm guessing you guys have made these.
[00:42:22.770]Yes, we all do this,
[00:42:25.575]but because it's such a rich way
[00:42:26.408]of just kind of getting the idea across,
[00:42:28.240]you know what I mean? By helping people
[00:42:29.610]not just get the words on a page with the emotion of it,
[00:42:32.520]the kind of the poetry,
[00:42:34.310]the kinda the desire for dynamism,
[00:42:38.090]all of that kind of stuff.
[00:42:41.233](upbeat music)
[00:42:44.790]When everybody else was talking and dreaming
[00:42:49.776]about making it happen, you were actually making it happen.
[00:42:54.769]And guess what?
[00:42:56.802]They are still talking about you,
[00:42:59.270]you're still dreaming, still leading,
[00:43:01.660]still flying, still smashing old barriers and those things,
[00:43:06.250]still learning as you go.
[00:43:08.110]Still moving, still grooving, still zooming,
[00:43:11.700]still, never satisfied.
[00:43:14.580]The only thing you don't do is stop.
[00:43:19.270]And with the same, still proving,
[00:43:21.990]still guiding, still rising,
[00:43:24.340]still learning as we go,
[00:43:26.570]still leaping and still making it happen
[00:43:30.060]and still entrenched right by your side.
[00:43:33.500]You're the one to make this whole world turn,
[00:43:36.620]so be bold, be powerful,
[00:43:41.529]be unstoppable.
[00:43:43.623](upbeat music)
[00:43:51.860]So, that's a video that just sums up a lot of research,
[00:43:56.920]lots of talking to consumers about themselves,
[00:43:59.260]talking about the relationship with shippers,
[00:44:01.840]digging into a little bit performance brands, etc.
[00:44:04.212]And when we played this back to consumers,
[00:44:08.130]I can honestly say that I attest small businesses
[00:44:11.500]not to consumers.
[00:44:13.500]I honestly have never seen such a positive reaction
[00:44:16.460]to anything in my life.
[00:44:17.410]Like I look at it as I'm like, "It's good."
[00:44:19.310]But they were like, "Yes, that's who I am.
[00:44:21.687]"I am that ambitious. I am not driven.
[00:44:24.907]"I do work damn hard,
[00:44:26.277]"and doing somebody in the trenches with me."
[00:44:28.790]And so, all of the things that we wanted to play back
[00:44:31.860]in terms of thinking about UPS
[00:44:35.250]and seeing themselves reflected in it, checked,
[00:44:37.970]the other kind of, what's really fascinating about it
[00:44:40.184]is that they're like, this is a completely different UPS.
[00:44:44.840]This is not the UPS that I thought that I knew.
[00:44:49.230]And maybe I have not been thinking about UPS the right way,
[00:44:54.620]right?
[00:44:55.775]And when we said,
[00:44:56.608]"Is it believable that UPS would look and feel this way?"
[00:44:58.030]does this like, cause they would say,
[00:45:00.654]"This feels like something Nike would do."
[00:45:01.487]And we said,
[00:45:02.544]"Was this believable coming from IPS?"
[00:45:04.310]We asked the question.
[00:45:05.143]And they said, "Yeah, of course,
[00:45:07.447]"because this brand has always been about moving things.
[00:45:09.367]"It's always been about moving things forward."
[00:45:11.960]And so, they can take it back to a really simple concept.
[00:45:14.610]So, from a research perspective, yes.
[00:45:16.984]Lots of research here too.
[00:45:18.600]We went around and have a lot of conversations
[00:45:20.401]with small businesses.
[00:45:21.860]That's what we heard.
[00:45:24.792]This is a video that just kind of capture
[00:45:26.760]some of that sentiment.
[00:45:27.593]I'll play a little bit of this just for you guys
[00:45:28.930]just so you can see it on for yourself
[00:45:31.200]since research is part of this.
[00:45:35.466](upbeat music)
[00:45:40.052]Reliable, dependable.
[00:45:41.436]Relatively affordable.
[00:45:43.040]For some reason,
[00:45:43.873]think that FedEx is faster than you UPS.
[00:45:45.760]There still across some of the lenses.
[00:45:48.395](upbeat music)
[00:45:52.773]They're so youthful, plugged in, unmoved.
[00:45:56.700]Inspired.
[00:45:58.280]It's contagious said that.
[00:45:59.360]And she does the higher,
[00:46:00.520]it's like let's get something out of that idea
[00:46:02.770]and create something out of that idea.
[00:46:04.170]I felt like it was beyond shipping.
[00:46:06.200]It was more like they help you achieve your goals.
[00:46:09.120]Just pushing boundaries, being innovative.
[00:46:11.480]They're going through this with us.
[00:46:14.777]I'm sure they're a huge company
[00:46:16.110]and they wanna address you individually.
[00:46:18.547]I think it was innovative, driven, fresh.
[00:46:22.750]Always trying to reinvent themselves.
[00:46:25.117]They're essentially transforming their company
[00:46:29.490]from just being a shipping company,
[00:46:32.790]to an entity that unlike anything
[00:46:37.490]that we currently are familiar with.
[00:46:40.210]And it felt like it was almost (indistinct).
[00:46:43.173]Give me an impression all about company
[00:46:45.060]that I would like to do more business with.
[00:46:47.589](upbeat music)
[00:46:53.418]Edited for the CEO,
[00:46:54.251]but still very fruitful and the consumer's own words.
[00:46:58.360]So, they love this idea.
[00:47:01.539]I'm just gonna kind of go forward into the show you
[00:47:03.380]some of the work.
[00:47:05.350]So, this is like really digital.
[00:47:07.340]Like we wanted to create a campaign that kind of meet people
[00:47:09.820]where they are.
[00:47:10.800]So, just tactically, it looks more like this.
[00:47:13.766](upbeat music)
[00:47:16.120]Every day is another chance to change the world.
[00:47:19.510]That's why I don't wait until Monday.
[00:47:21.953](upbeat music)
[00:47:51.960]You think I'm not fast enough that I can't keep up?
[00:47:55.970]Look over your shoulder.
[00:47:58.160]That's not where I am.
[00:47:59.924](upbeat music)
[00:48:19.196]So, a little bit different than maybe the UPS
[00:48:22.790]that you're thinking about
[00:48:24.410]when I asked the question upfront about just the dude
[00:48:26.840]in brown and the green stuff (indistinct).
[00:48:29.890]But it's been a really,
[00:48:31.260]like I'm giving you obviously appropriately
[00:48:33.720]the condensed version of it.
[00:48:36.039]But I think you're seeing the value of asking yourself,
[00:48:38.810]what is it about us that we need to preserve,
[00:48:42.840]but also what do we need to improve?
[00:48:45.520]Like where is the brand's kind of weakness
[00:48:49.770]in terms of perceptions and its ability to land in culture?
[00:48:53.810]And a lot of people never move past that.
[00:48:56.520]Like a lot of like marketers, brand strategists,
[00:48:59.400]like just staying that brand place.
[00:49:01.500]And if you don't bring forward the consumer
[00:49:03.510]into the thinking to reflect them in a meaningful way,
[00:49:07.320]I think that you've done only 50% of the work.
[00:49:10.540]And so, what makes this work so powerful
[00:49:13.010]is that it is able to solve the problem
[00:49:15.620]that UPS need to have solved,
[00:49:16.950]which is we cannot be a brand that is just reliable.
[00:49:20.143]That makes us vulnerable to anybody who comes in
[00:49:23.550]and innovates because in today's world,
[00:49:26.980]the most innovative brand wins. We'll stop.
[00:49:30.610]Every day we are willing to like buy something new,
[00:49:33.790]change the way that we do things
[00:49:35.000]because somebody comes in with something more innovative.
[00:49:37.760]So, we had to bring this brand forward
[00:49:39.580]and make it appear more innovative, cool, digital, etc.
[00:49:44.330]But also it was a win because we could do that
[00:49:47.020]just by virtue of bringing out kind of the qualities
[00:49:50.930]that are self-defining for small businesses, right?
[00:49:54.360]Is it a little hyperbolic? Yes.
[00:49:57.670]Do small businesses want to see themselves as this way? Yes.
[00:50:01.770]That's why it's okay.
[00:50:02.970]That's why it's okay that we bring
[00:50:05.320]that kind of Nike performance brand kind of sensibility
[00:50:09.020]to UPS because it's...
[00:50:11.400]I always say that you can hold a window up to people
[00:50:14.110]or you can hold up a mirror,
[00:50:15.530]and nobody wants to look in the mirror at themselves.
[00:50:17.820]We'd much rather look at the window and imagine ourselves.
[00:50:21.120]And so, that's what we're doing with this campaign.
[00:50:23.510]We're holding the window and we're saying,
[00:50:25.527]"Let's imagine a better world.
[00:50:26.957]"Let's imagine ourselves together.
[00:50:28.307]"Let's imagine all the things that we can get done
[00:50:31.097]"when small businesses come together with UPS
[00:50:33.017]"to be unstoppable."
[00:50:36.010]So, I think also when your strategy is that tight,
[00:50:41.410]you can present it in like 15 minutes.
[00:50:45.560]and that should always be visible.
[00:50:46.393]Because if you are...
[00:50:48.020]Now, and I had a client at Union Pacific eons ago,
[00:50:50.390]Bob Turner, who I loved,
[00:50:52.740]such a awesome smart guy and he had the best one liners.
[00:50:56.510]And he would say to us,
[00:50:57.343]"Lance, if you're explaining, you're losing."
[00:50:59.930]And so,
[00:51:01.488](laughs)
[00:51:02.321]if it's not in a sentence or two,
[00:51:03.830]and it isn't intuitive, then you're gonna fail.
[00:51:07.200]So, but that's UPS,
[00:51:11.040]that's kind of a long journey
[00:51:14.560]distilled into a handful of slides
[00:51:15.990]and a couple of videos.
[00:51:18.140]You guys are buying it?
[00:51:20.240]Does it appeal to your intuition?
[00:51:24.490]Does it align with everything that Val has taught you today?
[00:51:27.360](laughs)
[00:51:30.800]You've just undone eight weeks of clap.
[00:51:32.710]No, I'm kidding. Not at all.
[00:51:36.547]I mean, I can't get it.
[00:51:37.820]I honestly,
[00:51:39.951]the other thing that I thought I would share with you guys
[00:51:42.030]is kind of how you get into thinking about consumers
[00:51:46.850]a little differently.
[00:51:48.090]So, I wanted to share with you an initiative
[00:51:50.390]that we just launched,
[00:51:53.230]it's designed to help us get into that mindset of consumers.
[00:51:58.960]Just find the deck first.
[00:52:03.410]In the meantime,
[00:52:04.243]three people reactions about the UPS video and the UPS work.
[00:52:11.090]I thought that it was obviously very different
[00:52:13.940]than what, yeah.
[00:52:14.900]Like you said, what most people think like UPS is about.
[00:52:18.546]But I feel like as a consumer watching that commercial,
[00:52:22.620]it like kinda makes you excited.
[00:52:25.709]And like maybe what to like,
[00:52:27.862]I guess if you're shipping packages like ship through UPS
[00:52:29.690]instead of other providers,
[00:52:32.040]because of the way that they were portrayed
[00:52:34.160]in that campaign.
[00:52:37.950]Great.
[00:52:40.282](indistinct) that.
[00:52:42.640]I thought it was super cool
[00:52:43.843]because my dad has his own business
[00:52:45.443]and we always like make fun of him that like,
[00:52:48.400]he like works like in our house.
[00:52:50.690]So, we always make fun of him that like his only trips
[00:52:53.210]throughout the day are to the UPS store.
[00:52:54.740]And like those are his friends that he sees and stuff.
[00:52:57.380]So, I just think it's funny that like,
[00:53:02.150]I think it did a good job of like elevating
[00:53:05.460]the brand to like match the people that it's serving,
[00:53:10.950]like a lot better than what you originally picture.
[00:53:18.900]That's awesome.
[00:53:22.690]I thought it was cool that it focused on the consumers.
[00:53:26.410]And like their small business does themselves.
[00:53:29.510]And like by doing that,
[00:53:31.140]they kind of reinvented the way that UPS was seen
[00:53:33.950]without really messing with it.
[00:53:41.040]Yeah. Like it wasn't saying that we're not reliable,
[00:53:43.140]that we're not these things that you think we are.
[00:53:45.510]It's just, we're more than.
[00:53:46.610]We're not just reliable.
[00:53:48.387]And we can also help you power through a world
[00:53:49.857]that's kind of constantly changing.
[00:53:55.710]All right. I mean, there's a couple of things
[00:53:58.510]that came out of that that are not the main message
[00:54:00.420]to Val's point that are very intentional.
[00:54:02.230]One is, the scenes that they're small businesses,
[00:54:06.230]they have kind of a digital orientation to them.
[00:54:09.845]You know what I mean?
[00:54:10.825]Like these are businesses that even if they are repairing
[00:54:14.650]something like a motorcycle,
[00:54:16.080]you still try to bring forward something that made it feel
[00:54:19.010]like it's a little bit more digital
[00:54:20.500]and we're getting credit for that.
[00:54:22.590]The other thing that it has delivered in spades
[00:54:24.490]is diversity.
[00:54:25.900]Like people, one of the main takeaways
[00:54:28.360]is that this feels very diverse.
[00:54:29.920]This feels like a brand, that is delivering on diversity
[00:54:34.610]and inclusion, which is, and we're always striving for that.
[00:54:39.140]But for that to be such a prominent takeaway,
[00:54:41.120]what was very cool.
[00:54:47.090]Trying to find this darn presentation.
[00:54:49.020]So, one did not open.
[00:54:52.090]Any other questions? Thoughts?
[00:54:54.800]Well, as you're still looking, Lance,
[00:54:55.960]I had an interesting thought
[00:54:57.750]on what you sort of said in there.
[00:54:59.240]You said, if you can't voice something in a sentence or two,
[00:55:02.510]you're gonna fail, or you are failing.
[00:55:06.950]Like one, could you like explain further on that?
[00:55:09.650]Because oftentimes, you have all this research
[00:55:10.913]on this one side,
[00:55:12.130]like explaining it as the reasoning for it,
[00:55:15.040]the decisions you're making,
[00:55:16.720]but there's obviously like there's usually an off,
[00:55:18.910]this should be a lot to it that supports it.
[00:55:21.430]So, like bridging the gap of,
[00:55:27.171]explaining all of that and showing all of that,
[00:55:28.240]that you did find and those insights and those research
[00:55:30.960]findings,
[00:55:32.140]but also still like keeping it short and simple that.
[00:55:34.543]It's the...
[00:55:41.043]Oh, you cut out there.
[00:55:47.645]Where did I cut out? Sorry.
[00:55:52.303]Like a minute ago.
[00:55:53.156](laughs)
[00:55:54.530]Well, but just kind of like...
[00:56:00.966]Like what is the bridging point between keeping it concise
[00:56:05.030]to be successful, but also still providing all those insight
[00:56:08.893]and those findings that you do find that resulted
[00:56:11.615]and directed your decision,
[00:56:14.190]like while still including those,
[00:56:15.460]but keeping that concise will be successful.
[00:56:18.124]I think it comes down to distillation.
[00:56:20.552]Like I always, I mean, I always try to imagine,
[00:56:24.070]what do I think that people knew and rather than pretending,
[00:56:26.680]like they've never heard things before.
[00:56:28.150]I try to just kind of like,
[00:56:30.360]I'm sure that we all have this orientation.
[00:56:32.060]So, rather than give people the long form,
[00:56:34.700]I just kind of do, I give people the headlines,
[00:56:36.500]but it really comes down to a slide.
[00:56:38.730]Like that, say, reflect the drive of the small businesses.
[00:56:40.874]I don't remember the other two points,
[00:56:43.180]but there's two only three bullets on that slide
[00:56:46.150]that were enough explanation for people to understand
[00:56:49.570]a little bit about small businesses,
[00:56:51.030]but it's knowing your audience in this case,
[00:56:52.590]I'm talking to a type A CEO.
[00:56:56.100]But I think that it really just comes down
[00:56:57.550]to a very simple distillation.
[00:56:59.350]And I think that you should be able to fit it
[00:57:01.670]into a brief or into a single kind of
[00:57:04.040]like overview document.
[00:57:05.490]That can just be a page.
[00:57:06.720]I think that you have to do all of the work
[00:57:11.808]to get it to a place where you are able
[00:57:13.760]to kind of put it into a page,
[00:57:17.150]just staring at a page and then trying to make it up
[00:57:19.120]is impossible.
[00:57:20.280]But the distillation of candidate strategy
[00:57:22.640]into a single page is not difficult.
[00:57:24.780]You're just being very choiceful about the words.
[00:57:28.370]So, I don't know if you guys try briefs,
[00:57:29.920]if that's a part of this class or that's a different class,
[00:57:31.890]but the value of writing a brief is to do the work,
[00:57:36.180]to be able to get to a place
[00:57:37.430]where you can actually put your thinking into something
[00:57:39.420]very short and simple.
[00:57:41.760]So, distillation is kind of everything.
[00:57:47.050]I mean, I sat through this year on an Oreo
[00:57:49.580]from a different agency.
[00:57:50.760]It's not an indictment.
[00:57:52.060]They did cannabis strategic recap that was 62 pages.
[00:57:55.430]And you're like, "This is not necessary."
[00:57:57.960]Like kind of know your audience basically.
[00:58:05.050]It's not easy.
[00:58:07.040]I cannot find the presentation, but I know where this lives.
[00:58:11.130]I'm just gonna share this with you guys.
[00:58:14.750]Cause you can access this and kind of roll around
[00:58:18.980]in it a little bit if you want to.
[00:58:23.961]We, earlier this year, kind of as Black Lives Matter
[00:58:29.020]was reaching a fever pitch in June,
[00:58:31.690]started thinking about is strategy part of the problem
[00:58:34.900]in advertising and marketing?
[00:58:37.795]Like are we doing enough strategically
[00:58:39.260]to get people to think about some of the tenants
[00:58:43.680]around visibility?
[00:58:45.380]Like making sure everybody's represented, diversity, etc.
[00:58:50.530]And it's not just...
[00:58:51.628]I think that the industry tends to like reflect diversity
[00:58:57.010]just by casting.
[00:58:58.630]And I think that as a strategist,
[00:59:01.320]if that's where you're leaving it,
[00:59:02.560]if you're leaving it to production
[00:59:03.980]and you're thinking, you're leaving it up to somebody else
[00:59:05.840]to decide like, "Do I have an Asian person?
[00:59:07.477]"I gave her, it's not a woman and a black person,"
[00:59:10.070]then you've done your work.
[00:59:11.850]It feels like we're just not doing enough, right?
[00:59:13.650]The world is moving into an incredibly rich place
[00:59:18.490]where if you don't know the stats
[00:59:20.520]around kind of where we're headed as a nation,
[00:59:23.690]the last white majority has been born.
[00:59:27.480]Like if you you're born as a white kid today,
[00:59:30.880]you will not be the majority when you graduate
[00:59:32.980]from high school.
[00:59:33.813]So, we are becoming a more diverse
[00:59:36.180]and an even more rich country
[00:59:38.160]that we as a strategy community have to reflect.
[00:59:40.863]It's our responsibility.
[00:59:42.910]And so, we created what we call the visibility brief
[00:59:46.560]that is designed to, as you think about strategy,
[00:59:49.339]and you think about consumers and getting the consumers,
[00:59:52.570]I'll let you guys dig into this.
[00:59:54.018]It's on our website. It's also on LinkedIn.
[00:59:56.310]You can find it just with a quick Google search.
[00:59:58.861]There are prompts in there across consumer, category,
[01:00:04.820]culture, community,
[01:00:06.490]which is obviously the different communities
[01:00:08.110]that people belong to as well as category.
[01:00:11.250]So, we're taking the kinda the four, now five Cs,
[01:00:14.890]and we're asking ourselves strategically,
[01:00:16.790]what kinds of things should we be asking?
[01:00:19.300]So, there's kind of the typical questions
[01:00:21.210]or the questions that I think we're all trained
[01:00:23.680]to think about, who is my growth consumer,
[01:00:25.220]what are the psychographics, demographics, etc?
[01:00:27.750]But then there's the visibility questions
[01:00:29.550]which are about kind of digging in a little bit deeper
[01:00:32.630]and understanding the kinds of consumers
[01:00:35.150]that we need to connect with.
[01:00:36.720]Thinking about whether or not diversity inclusion
[01:00:38.970]is represented within the category, etc.
[01:00:41.580]So, check us out.
[01:00:43.830]Kind of go through and see if it's at all helpful
[01:00:47.070]in terms of understanding different approaches
[01:00:48.940]and ways of thinking about getting that strategy,
[01:00:52.890]getting that understanding consumers,
[01:00:54.900]looking at the category in a way
[01:00:57.190]that is probably the most modern way of thinking about it
[01:01:00.650]right now.
[01:01:02.080]That doesn't preclude you from creating kind of a custom way
[01:01:05.810]like we did for UPS
[01:01:06.643]and thinking about what do I need to know?
[01:01:09.070]How do I dig into this?
[01:01:10.260]Just as a way of bringing forward for greater sensitivity
[01:01:13.590]that I think in today's climate can be a really rich way
[01:01:16.980]of writing strategy.
[01:01:19.470]Maybe to that end, I'll show you very quickly,
[01:01:21.510]the new Ritz Cracker positioning that we rolled out
[01:01:25.930]earlier this year,
[01:01:26.763]because it really is leaning into culturally
[01:01:28.690]this kind of an opportunity.
[01:01:31.460]But any questions while I'm digging,
[01:01:33.130]because, guys, questions buys me time.
[01:01:40.520]Nope. Okay.
[01:01:42.870]So, here's just another example. Food for thought.
[01:01:50.273]You guys are all familiar with Ritz?
[01:01:52.700]Here's all about Ritz crackers.
[01:01:54.840]Earlier this year,
[01:01:55.673]we rolled out a new strategy for them
[01:01:59.650]and I'm gonna adjust.
[01:02:01.901]I'm gonna get into this at a lightening pace,
[01:02:03.420]just so you can see a different way of approaching a brand
[01:02:06.050]and strategy.
[01:02:07.560]It's a brand that you all eat every day.
[01:02:10.700]Lots of people eat every day.
[01:02:16.612]Let me just start here.
[01:02:18.550]And so, there's hyper familiarity.
[01:02:19.990]So, there's just a different orientation
[01:02:21.730]in terms of like what is going to be an authentic strategy
[01:02:24.523]for this brand,
[01:02:26.010]because consumers will tell you,
[01:02:27.400]like there is no elasticity for a brand
[01:02:29.937]and what they can do that you have to stay with them
[01:02:33.270]because if you move outside of it people,
[01:02:34.600]like this is unbelievable.
[01:02:35.700]I don't buy this and it'll actually destroy the brand.
[01:02:38.740]This brand was created during the great depression
[01:02:42.030]very quickly.
[01:02:42.863]It became a kind of a symbol for welcoming,
[01:02:46.110]which is why, if I ask consumers today,
[01:02:48.180]they often will say things like,
[01:02:49.187]"Oh, it reminds me of home."
[01:02:51.400]It's always that family holidays and celebrations,
[01:02:54.420]it's always greeting me of Thanksgiving.
[01:02:55.950]Like there's just kind of a hyper association of Ritz
[01:03:00.360]with home.
[01:03:01.690]And somebody putting out as like a tray of Ritz crackers,
[01:03:05.270]the snack with like different ingredients on top of them,
[01:03:07.350]that is kind of an American psyche.
[01:03:09.810]And that is not accidental.
[01:03:11.840]This brand has been living in this kind of social space
[01:03:14.940]for a long, long time.
[01:03:19.270]And it continues to be kinda this social snack
[01:03:20.940]that people use to invite others in.
[01:03:22.480]I love some of these quotes.
[01:03:24.370]I love this one.
[01:03:25.203]It was my first day of high school
[01:03:27.530]and I got to my English lesson early
[01:03:30.390]so I could sit at the back of the classroom.
[01:03:32.540]It was the teacher's first day and she was very nervous.
[01:03:35.900]She sat next to me before the lesson started
[01:03:38.250]and shared a Ritz cracker with me.
[01:03:39.560]So, this brand has this kind of like natural social
[01:03:43.320]kind of welcoming or inviting nature to it
[01:03:46.664]that makes the brand kind of opens the opportunity
[01:03:50.610]for this brand to become a more of a symbol of welcoming,
[01:03:54.180]creating more of those belonging moments like that teacher
[01:03:57.140]and that student, the new kid in school
[01:04:01.190]that is going to ultimately be true to the brand, right?
[01:04:04.840]Full stop.
[01:04:05.673]We could stop there
[01:04:07.674]and probably just do some interesting work based on that.
[01:04:11.290]But the truth is, that what makes this brand interesting
[01:04:15.260]is that this brand does not want anybody to feel excluded.
[01:04:19.530]When it's used to invite people into its homes,
[01:04:22.790]when it's used, like at potluck.
[01:04:25.130]So, think of all the places you've seen Ritz crackers
[01:04:28.010]manifest, it's because it's trained to help people
[01:04:30.380]feel like they are invited and like they belong.
[01:04:33.340]And it would never as a brand want to exclude anybody.
[01:04:36.520]So, this brand would fight against exclusion, right?
[01:04:39.420]No matter where you are in the world,
[01:04:40.860]everyone has had that feeling of being excluded.
[01:04:43.950]You feel like you're an outsider,
[01:04:45.070]not worthy or altogether forgotten. It hurts.
[01:04:48.970]Even if it's unintentional
[01:04:50.060]and makes you feel like you don't belong.
[01:04:52.060]Blame whoever or whatever you will,
[01:04:53.980]but as a cultural,
[01:04:54.813]we become more and more welcoming,
[01:04:57.400]minorities feel unwelcome in the streets.
[01:04:59.490]Women feel more and more likely to dump along in positions
[01:05:01.920]of power,
[01:05:02.753]dads feeling welcome in the parenting and conversations.
[01:05:05.770]The queer queer community feels
[01:05:07.210]like they don't have a place in society.
[01:05:08.890]And kids more and more feel unwelcome in schools.
[01:05:12.550]The world has become a place where people feel
[01:05:14.160]like they aren't free to be themselves.
[01:05:15.497]And that in turn has made people feel
[01:05:17.150]they don't belong anywhere.
[01:05:19.100]And that became kind of the opportunity for Ritz,
[01:05:21.800]was to be a brand that believes in the power
[01:05:25.380]of a simple invitation to make people feel welcomed.
[01:05:28.730]And by virtue of that,
[01:05:29.870]our purpose is to make the world a more welcoming place
[01:05:31.940]so that everyone feels like they belong.
[01:05:34.100]And the cultural backdrop for that is that this notion
[01:05:36.630]that the world is unwelcoming and people feel excluded,
[01:05:39.500]super simple, kind of orientation to strategy.
[01:05:42.228]This is a video that I can play you at bank.
[01:05:48.368]And that kind of brings it to life,
[01:05:50.770]maybe or not.
[01:05:56.850]I'll send it to Val. I don't know why it's not clicking.
[01:06:00.408]But there you can see, like,
[01:06:02.300]rather than go at it straight from a consumer sensibility,
[01:06:05.980]we talked about what does this brand's role in culture?
[01:06:08.450]Like what is this brand's role in people's lives?
[01:06:11.200]And how can we start to synthesize that
[01:06:13.170]into a simple thought that can be married
[01:06:16.070]with something that is meaningful in the world
[01:06:17.610]or meaningful in culture?
[01:06:19.030]So, that's kind of a different way of approaching it,
[01:06:21.430]maybe more brand first than consumer first.
[01:06:24.310]But again,
[01:06:25.143]you can see that the consumer and the brand
[01:06:26.820]are both really important,
[01:06:29.469]equal ingredients and how we think about strategy.
[01:06:31.810]And yes, we did research for it's too.
[01:06:33.630]We had lots of conversations where people describe
[01:06:35.820]their recollections of reds, how they described it.
[01:06:38.935]And it was fascinating how often welcoming,
[01:06:42.600]inviting, and belonging were used over and over and over.
[01:06:46.080]So, back to you, it's like simplicity,
[01:06:48.290]or how to think about distillation of research as well.
[01:06:50.660]That's the fucking strategy,
[01:06:51.990]like welcoming, inviting, belonging. It's so clear.
[01:06:55.485]And does the work deliver on that?
[01:06:59.040]Are we showing a world being a more welcoming,
[01:07:01.400]inviting place that creates belonging?
[01:07:05.690]I know that there's commercials in this,
[01:07:07.447]but I don't think that any of them are gonna work.
[01:07:13.370]So, I'll leave it at that.
[01:07:14.203]Knowing that we only have a few minutes.
[01:07:22.810]What's your favorite or most proud project
[01:07:25.330]that you've worked on?
[01:07:31.950]That's a very good question.
[01:07:35.147]UPS is pretty cool because it's like taking my brand
[01:07:37.430]in such a, like a new direction.
[01:07:40.340]Early in my career,
[01:07:41.173]about I worked at Union Pacific railroad,
[01:07:42.910]that continues to be kind of a hallmark candidate in my life
[01:07:47.040]where we took that brand from Rena relative to the position
[01:07:49.550]of building America,
[01:07:51.720]predicated on the fact that the brand was signed
[01:07:55.090]into existence by Abraham Lincoln in 1862
[01:07:58.660]to literally build the country.
[01:08:02.420]So, that was pretty cool.
[01:08:05.000]If you ever saw, it's been like five years old,
[01:08:08.120]but we did a really cool American greetings video for moms,
[01:08:12.120]for Mother's Day.
[01:08:13.770]And it was called world's toughest job.
[01:08:15.460]You can Google it and find it.
[01:08:16.940]You did that? I forgot that.
[01:08:18.962]I'm sorry.
[01:08:19.795]You did that? I forgot that.
[01:08:20.900]Yeah.
[01:08:22.031]Good.
[01:08:22.864](laughs)
[01:08:24.745]And it was predicated on the insight that,
[01:08:28.133]I don't remember what the exact stuff,
[01:08:29.510]that was like 55% of people will text their moms
[01:08:32.920]happy Mother's Day, right?
[01:08:35.400]And so, we created this, like how awful was that?
[01:08:38.850]Like, what did we become?
[01:08:40.930]We're monsters.
[01:08:42.380]But this notion that we wanted to remind people
[01:08:47.080]why a text isn't sufficient.
[01:08:49.510]And so, we created a situation foe,
[01:08:52.352]let me see if I can find it.
[01:08:53.185]It's just too good to match.
[01:08:54.590]We created a situation where we just wanted to remind people
[01:09:06.950]of really what it meant to be a mom.
[01:09:09.050]This might take me one minute or over,
[01:09:12.010]but this is a perfect way to wrap.
[01:09:19.820]Cause the insight was so simple.
[01:09:23.100]You'll see this.
[01:09:27.510]Just give me one second.
[01:09:28.480]Sure.
[01:09:29.569]Sorry.
[01:09:32.330]Two minutes. Thank you.
[01:09:34.440]Hi, good afternoon. Sorry about that.
[01:09:43.060]Hi, nice to meet you.
[01:09:44.613]Nice to meet you as well.
[01:09:45.717]Have you ever done one of these interviews
[01:09:46.550]over the camera before?
[01:09:47.458]No.
[01:09:48.291]Let me tell you a little bit about the job
[01:09:49.124]to get started with.
[01:09:50.190]It's not just a job.
[01:09:52.170]It's sort of probably the most important job.
[01:09:55.390]The title that we have going right now
[01:09:56.910]is director of operations,
[01:09:59.370]but it's really kind of so much more than that.
[01:10:01.730]Responsibilities and requirements
[01:10:03.400]are really quite extensive.
[01:10:05.510]First category for the requirements would be mobility.
[01:10:09.240]This job requires that you must be able to work standing up
[01:10:12.470]most or really all of the time, constantly on your feet.
[01:10:16.150]Constantly bending over, constantly exerting yourself,
[01:10:19.470]a high level of stamina.
[01:10:23.790]Okay.
[01:10:24.770]That's a lot.
[01:10:26.147]Like for how many hours?
[01:10:28.590]135 hours to unlimited hours a week.
[01:10:31.700]It's basically 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
[01:10:34.460]I'm sure you'll have to change from time to time
[01:10:36.160]to maybe just sit down here and there, yeah?
[01:10:38.540]Oh, you mean like a break?
[01:10:39.373]Yeah.
[01:10:40.206]No, there are no breaks available.
[01:10:43.520]Is that even legal?
[01:10:44.690]Yeah, of course.
[01:10:45.523]Yeah.
[01:10:46.999]Okay. So, like no lunch.
[01:10:47.832]You can have lunch,
[01:10:48.665]but only when the associate is done eating their lunch.
[01:10:53.780]I think that's a little intense.
[01:10:55.729]No, that's crazy.
[01:10:57.010]Now, this position requires excellent negotiation
[01:11:00.940]and interpersonal skill.
[01:11:02.060]We're really looking for someone that might have a degree
[01:11:04.370]in medicine and finance and the culinary arts.
[01:11:07.500]You must be able to wear several hats,
[01:11:09.220]associate needs, constant attention.
[01:11:11.550]Sometimes they have to stay up an associate
[01:11:14.330]throughout the night.
[01:11:15.163]Being able to work in a chaotic environment.
[01:11:17.440]If you had a life,
[01:11:18.273]we'd ask you to sort of give that life up.
[01:11:19.710]No vacations.
[01:11:21.208]In fact, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and holidays,
[01:11:23.780]the workload is gonna go up and we demand that.
[01:11:26.450]With a happy disposition.
[01:11:28.970]Ah, that's almost cruel.
[01:11:30.982](laughs)
[01:11:32.153]That's almost a very, very sick twisted job.
[01:11:33.990]But when there's time to sleep or...?
[01:11:36.800]Oh, no time to sleep.
[01:11:39.340]Yeah. All encompassing almost.
[01:11:41.220]That's exactly right.
[01:11:42.550]365 days a year?
[01:11:43.660]Yes.
[01:11:44.629]No, that's inhumane.
[01:11:46.750]That's very insane.
[01:11:48.090]The meaningful connections that you make
[01:11:49.740]and the feeling that you get from really helping
[01:11:51.910]your associate or inmate.
[01:11:53.891](dog barks)
[01:11:56.620]Also let's cover the salary,
[01:11:58.240]the position is gonna pay absolutely nothing.
[01:12:01.740]Excuse me.
[01:12:03.210]No, nobody can do that for free.
[01:12:06.389](laughs)
[01:12:07.222]Yeah, pro bono. Completely for free.
[01:12:08.100]No.
[01:12:08.933]What if I told you there's someone
[01:12:10.578]that actually currently holds this position right now?
[01:12:14.490]Billions of people actually.
[01:12:15.974]Who?
[01:12:16.807]Moms.
[01:12:18.307](laughs)
[01:12:21.160]Yeah.
[01:12:22.222]Moms.
[01:12:23.055]That's awesome.
[01:12:26.551](laughs)
[01:12:33.847]And they meet every requirement. Don't play.
[01:12:36.526]Oh my God.
[01:12:37.359]Is that unfair?
[01:12:38.758]Yeah, there's no pay. There 24 hours.
[01:12:42.360]They're always there.
[01:12:43.919]Now I'm thinking about my mom.
[01:12:44.752]Yeah. What are you thinking about her ?
[01:12:45.954]I'm thinking about all those nights and everything.
[01:12:47.740]Thank you so much for everything you do.
[01:12:49.650]I know it doesn't seem like I appreciate a little bit.
[01:12:51.910]But I definitely do.
[01:12:53.970]So, mama, I wanna say thank you
[01:12:55.727]for everything that you've done.
[01:12:57.720]I love you very much.
[01:12:59.090]You've been there through thick and thin
[01:13:03.514](soft music)
[01:13:06.820]My mom is just awesome.
[01:13:07.990]She is awesome.
[01:13:09.670](soft music)
[01:13:19.147]$50,000.
[01:13:20.848](chuckles)
[01:13:23.140]I presented a million times.
[01:13:24.350]I can never present it with like,
[01:13:25.875]like I always get to the end of that,
[01:13:27.380]even though I've seen it hundreds of millions of times.
[01:13:29.751]Hey, and that's one of my favorite projects.
[01:13:31.740]I think anytime you can kind of turn convention on its head,
[01:13:35.811]which is kind of what I love to do more than anything else.
[01:13:38.810]Like whatever you think I'm gonna turn that, sit down,
[01:13:42.100]maybe deliver a little surprise
[01:13:43.900]that it can still be emotional and heartfelt, etc.
[01:13:46.750]I think is some of the most part of (indistinct).
[01:13:51.130]That time, you guys have been fun.
[01:13:53.834]That was awesome. Thank you so much.
[01:13:58.480]My pleasure.
[01:13:59.313]If there's follow ups and I'll hola
[01:14:01.329]and I'll be happy to like answer any questions
[01:14:02.710]as they keep you up at night,
[01:14:04.380]which I doubt will be the case.
[01:14:07.010]Perfect.
[01:14:07.843]And everything's for staying a couple of minutes over.
[01:14:10.100]That was a great place to end.
[01:14:11.860]But yeah, if you have questions for Lance, let me know.
[01:14:14.251]We can shoot them his way
[01:14:17.030]and I hope you got a lot out of this.
[01:14:19.660]Lance, thank you so much for taking the time.
[01:14:22.390]My pleasure. It's always fun to talk to you,
[01:14:25.908]and your students.
[01:14:27.061]Lance, it's great to see you.
[01:14:28.160]Likewise.
[01:14:29.891]All right.
[01:14:30.724]Enjoy the rest of your day.
[01:14:32.075]You too and to everybody.
[01:14:33.927]Ciao.
[01:14:34.760]Happy day, Lance.
[01:14:35.593]You too.
[01:14:36.426]Bye.

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Lance Koenig, SVP, Global Strategy Director of The Martin Agency

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