Why do banners suck the creative life out of you?

It used to be that Direct Mail was one of the loneliest creative jobs you could ever find yourself doing. That was up until the advent of the banner ad. After all, how could you do anything remotely interesting, let alone creative, in a Leader Board or a Big Box. Online media is something that you just get done, not done well. Send us the production specs and timelines and put it all in the production line. When it’s over, clock out, grab a beer and set your mind on something interesting with real creative potential. That’s right, creative potential. And if you are our competition, please continue to think this way.

Why? Because it’s wrong to think that online media is a creative Bermuda Triangle when online media, including banners, offer tremendous creative flexibility and opportunity.

A banner ad that mirrors tea steeping and the relaxation that you can feel.

The real key for success is to know the medium and understanding that online media isn’t locked into a straight banner ad. It is an unlimited canvas that can be stretched and molded any way your imagination can take you. There are opportunities to re-skin an entire web page so that your brand truly owns every pixel. You can use interactivity to create engaging experiences including games, art, polls, contests… anything can be crafted within the actual media placement and before you click-through to the destination site. You can even serve banners in many spaces that go beyond the internet, including live in-game advertising where you can reach consumers within a video game environment as they are playing.

Powerful communication can show product benefits while getting attention

While the online media environment can be a challenging one, it can offer great potential when developed well. But this is no different than realizing that radio and billboards are difficult to craft, but when they are done well, wow… they are powerful.

Demonstrating how much gum you get through an interactive game.

Welcome to the banner world where a bad banner is easily ignored but a great banner not only captures your attention, but keeps you engaged and involved. But if you’re our competition, banners really do suck.

The boardroom table is getting full, how the agency model is shifting

A new inter-agency model is changing how marketing works

An interesting analogy was once made by Mark Smyka, former editor of Strategy Magazine, about the state of the marketing industry and changes over the past few decades. He talked about how twenty five years ago you could find a boardroom table. At that table, you had the Brand Manager sitting at the head and the advertising agency was at her right hand side. She would have briefed the agency of her objectives and then she would have leaned over and asked what she should do. The agency would tell her “We think you should do this!” and that’s what she did.

Then you skipped to fifteen years ago, where the boardroom table increased. There were more people surrounding it and you still had the Brand Manager sitting at the head of the table and the advertising agency sitting to her right. Only then, you also had someone from Direct Marketing, another from events and promotions and a scattering of other agencies all looking for scraps at the table. The Brand Manager would turn to the agency and ask, “What do they think?” The agency would go around the table and tell the Brand Manager what each of them thought. The Brand Manager would then again turn to the agency and ask what she should do. At that point, the agency would tell her “We think you should do this!” and that’s what she did.

Moving to ten years ago, the boardroom table continued to increase with even more people. In addition to the staples from before, you now had the initial beginnings of online, direct purchasers and planners of media, new media salespeople for everything from washroom advertising to pool table advertising and a whole lot more. From week to week, the people would sometimes change and sometimes remain the same, but it wasn’t the old boardroom anymore. Now, the Brand Manager turned to the agency and said, “Shut up, I want to hear what they have to say.” She would go around the room and ask questions one by one. Then she would turn to the agency and say “What do you think we should do?” The agency would then say “We think you should do this!”. Only now, the Brand Manager would reply “I’m not convinced. I think we should do this! Please make sure it gets coordinated!” And that’s what the agency did.

Well, it’s ten years later and much has changed in the marketing and advertising landscape. In 2010 the boardroom is a very different place than ever before with many boardrooms of various sizes and many people within ears reach of the Brand Manager. Sometimes the Brand Manager coordinates separate meetings and initiatives with individual agencies, listening and executing on specific initiatives. And increasingly, the boardroom constitutes an inter-agency made up of key people from each specialty. You will have new media, public relations, events and promotions, media and advertising all working together from different agencies for one sole purpose… integration. Often, the advertising agency isn’t even at the right hand of the client but is simply another seat contributing to the overall plan.

Digital agencies and brand agencies are changing how they work

Dashboard, being a small creative boutique, has benefited from the new boardroom set-up. We would also like to think that the client has as well. What the new boardroom requires though, are new rules and new behaviours. Most important for a successful plan, is new attitudes from everyone involved. No specialty leads the idea process, but open conversation, dialogue with strong debate and a willingness to allow the idea to flow and not be stopped because “it didn’t originate here” become paramount to success. While this can be difficult at times, the overall benefit to all parties are stronger ideas that resonate with consumers and reach places that traditional thinking didn’t allow. It also allows larger more traditional agencies to become educated outside their safe zones and realize new opportunities through new vehicles to bring the brand. They learn how to evolve into a more diverse agency from one that can only think radio, television and print. The smaller non-traditional agencies benefit from being allowed to contribute as strategic partners instead of suppliers who are involved as an after-thought. They are also allowed to become involved in developing a much broader idea on a much larger scale for increasingly larger brands.

The result are campaigns that allow more meaningful touch points for the brand and a greater connection with the consumer than ever before. We would love to hear your comments and experiences around the boardroom.

Toyota readies dealer fix for faulty accelerator pedals

Hans Greimel
Automotive News — January 28, 2010 – 11:10 pm ET

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. is fine-tuning a dealer remedy for faulty accelerator pedals in 2.3 million recalled vehicles and aims to announce the fix as early as next week, a person familiar with the matter said.

The procedure involves inserting a metal shim into a gap in the friction lever of the pedal. Doing so will reduce friction and prevent the pedal from sticking, the person said.

“As early as next week, we will have some guidance for dealers,” the source said. “We are still trying to solve a few technical issues.”

Among the last-minute tweaks are testing for durability and ensuring that the remedy is something that dealers can easily employ.

“We have to make sure that dealers can do this according to the instructions without making mistakes,” the source said.

Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said the automaker hasn’t yet decided on a final dealer remedy and is still unclear on a timeline for rolling it out.

The actions come as Toyota grapples with a Jan. 21 recall in which the world’s largest carmaker called back the 2.3 million U.S. vehicles to address gas pedals that can return too slowly to their original position or even, with age, get stuck and cause unintended acceleration.

Toyota is taking a two-pronged approach. It has to develop a remedy for the cars already on the road that the dealers can implement. It also has to develop a new part that can go into cars on the assembly line. The solution is likely to be different for each set of vehicles.

One of two supplier’s of the pedal mechanism, CTS Corp. of Elkhart, Ind., today said it is shipping replacement parts to Toyota’s assembly plants in North America.

Toyota and CTS changed the material used in that mechanism and also some of the measurements to ensure that it won’t stick, the source said.

CTS also said it was working with Toyota on a dealer remedy, without providing details.

In addition, Toyota is looking at having the other supplier of the pedals, Japan’s Denso Corp., provide replacement pedal mechanisms for vehicles being manufactured and for cars that are waiting in factory lots to have their defective pedals replaced, the source said. But the issue of interchangeability remains an obstacle, partly because Denso and CTS use different wire harnesses.

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Getting some stress relief… and the chance to shoot each other.

Team Dashboard

Last Thursday we had a great afternoon of paintball. A lot of fun and great stress relief. Thanks to Junior and Sgt. Splatters Paintball. I think we need to start a league…

Dashboard announces new creative steward… Catherine Baird

Think strategically, act creatively, and be ingenious. This has been our mission statement at Dashboard, but it equally describes our new Associate Creative Director, Catherine Baird.

Catherine Baird, new creative vision for Dashboard Toronto

Formerly Co-Creative Lead at Henderson bas as well as having gained past experience at Draft fcb and ecentricarts, Catherine brings exceptional creative experience as well as a great personality into our creative department. It doesn’t hurt that Catherine is very highly awarded and respected within the digital space, both in Canada and internationally. Her past experience includes Mercedes, Capital One, Joe Fresh, HBC, Virgin Mobile, ebay, Coke, and ING Direct to name a few of the brands Catherine has touched.

What inspires me most about Catherine isn’t her creative talent, which is awe-inspiring, but it is her capabilities as both a leader and a mentor. It is one thing to be a great art director, but it is quite another thing to be an innovator, leader and mentor. Catherine isn’t afraid to be challenged and she understands her role as a mentor of great talent. Her success comes from the combined success of everyone who reports to her. This is a role that she is obviously very comfortable in and our team is better because of her guidance. With Catherine, we welcome a creative leader and great strategic mind to our team, knowing that she will help lead us into an exciting 2010.

New site, New Year.

Well 2009 has been a challenging year. This is a kind statement at best for most of us. Our industry and the world was turned upside down last year. There was worry, fear, hope and determination. This isn’t the first time that the economy has tanked and it won’t be the last.

For Dashboard, 2009 proved to be a good year. We admit that there were challenges we needed to face and push through, but we survived in the face of industry upheaval. I would even say that we thrived. This is a testament to our team. After all, it isn’t when things are going well that you learn who you can count on, who is dependable, who is determined. It’s when all goes to hell that you realize whether the people around you are solid, stable and dependable. Guess what, I learned how strong our team was at Dashboard during the worst moments. I learned that our team had each other’s back and the back of each of our clients. I’m proud to work with this crew, each and every one of them.

What better way to start 2010, then coming off 2009 with a solid, dependable and talented team with killer work developed over the past year. Now it’s a new year and a fresh start. I think this is why I’m glad that our office and our website have had a whole new refresh. We are looking forward to 2010 and all of the exciting possibilities and new opportunities to do great work as a team. While you may not know our team yet, you will get a chance in our site to see what we do and what we have done. I thank our team and our clients for 2009. Without them, we would be nowhere. While 2009 was challenging, the work and the experience of working with this group of professionals has been inspiring and rewarding at the same time. To our old friends and friends to come in 2010, we wish you a happy and rewarding new year.

Social media is realized when it creates social movements

At Dashboard, we are proud to have clients that break boundaries. But when you are able to break boundaries with brands that stand for something real, you find yourself in the best place a marketer can find themselves. You find yourself changing perceptions. You also realize that social media can affect positive social change.

Back in 2007 and 2008, Hellmann’s kicked off a program called the Real Food Movement. This initiative was encouraging people to grow, eat and talk about real food. The brand partnered with Evergreen (www.evergreen.ca) and sponsored 1,500 community gardens in Canada and awarded an additional 100 plots in urban centers. Moving forward to 2009, Hellmann’s wanted to do even more by motivating Canadians to engage and participate in the Real Food Movement at a deeper level. The evolution created a dedicated website, eatrealeatlocal.ca.

The website is a resource that provides Canadians with opportunities to take action and make a personal commitment to get more local food into their diet. Every action, pledge and/ or commitment using social media was counted with a target of 100,000 actions. If, through various pledges and actions that used Twitter, Facebook and other social media elements, the target was met, Hellmann’s would donate $25,000 to Evergreen. We extended the website by integrating all of the social media into an online conversation that we termed a “blog carnival”. This featured a national cross section of real food bloggers who spread the word and sparked conversation revolving around local food. Needless to say, we surpassed our initial goal very quickly, having sparked interest and action in the Real Food Movement that generated online and offline PR across Canada.

While our marketing and brand goals were met and surpassed, the real power of the program came from our consumer audience. They engaged with the brand to build a community and convey a message that was meaningful and relevant. They connected with Hellmann’s to strengthen everyone’s voice and empower each other to create a social movement behind local food. It is this shared conversation based on positive change that provides the real power in social media. The power to connect and to change perceptions for the betterment of all.