Tag Archives: Warren Brown

What’s your best ad?

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 1 comment

If you’re in the business of creating advertising, you’ve probably heard that question before.
Sometimes it comes from prospective employers, sometimes it’s from friends, and other times it’s from strangers who have recently discovered what you do for a living.
The thing is, it’s rare to have produced an ad where you wouldn’t change at least one thing if given the opportunity. Ads are full of compromises – it might be the size of the logo, or a word you were forced to use in the headline, or even the way the client’s legal team asked you to phrase an offer.
I’m sure even many of the ads that we often hold up as the best, would have parts changed by their makers if permitted.

I wondered if anyone had ever produced a piece of work they were 100% happy with. So I asked.

Years ago, I was in Cannes for the advertising festival with my CD at the time, Warren Brown. It was very late (well, early actually) – the sun was already up, and we were making our way from The Gutter Bar on La Croisette to our hotel. It had been a big night (so I’m pretty surprised I remember this conversation). I asked Warren if he had ever produced an ad where he wouldn’t change a thing. Here was a guy that had been at the top of his game for 3o years, so I held hope that there was at least one ad that he’d produced exactly the way he wanted it. There was.

It was a poster campaign for Swan Vestas matches. He said even if he had the chance to do it again, there’s not one thing he’d change.
(Excuse the low-res copy I’ve posted here. The line reads, ‘Britain’s favourite old flame’)

Swan Vestas

As for me, my favourite ad is probably one I did for XXXX beer. It’s not one that received lots of advertising awards. In fact, it didn’t win any. It was a 60-second commercial that predominantly used library footage. And it only aired in one state of Australia during the 2011 State of Origin rugby league series. But I did receive letters from Queenslanders saying how proud it made them feel and thanking me for making it.

What about you? Which of your own ads is your favourite?

DUSTIN LANE
Brand Strategy | Advertising Concepts | Copywriting
Visit risinggiants.co or dustinlanecreative.com

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Loading up the camel

Posted on March 21, 2011 | 2 comments

A couple of years ago, we were working on a particular brand. It was quite an established player in other markets around the globe but was yet to make any real impact in Australia.

At one stage, the local client had his overseas colleagues visiting. These were people who were in charge of the brand in places like France and Japan. Anyway, the local client took the opportunity to bring his colleagues into the advertising agency to show them around and see how things were going.

After a bit of an office tour, everyone took a seat in the boardroom. Of course, the agency took the opportunity to show their wares by showing their reel and case studies of the great work they had produced for a range of different clients. Then, the client from Japan asked a very good question: ‘Okay, these are great examples of when your advertising has worked. What is the problem when it doesn’t work?’

Warren Brown, co-founder and Executive Creative Director of BMF, gave this great response:

‘Usually, when a campaign doesn’t work, it’s because there’s been a loss of focus. You move away from your single, clear objective. For example, let’s just say that the objective is to get from one side of a desert to the other. So, to meet that objective, we get ourselves a camel that’s perfect for the trip. The camel’s been trained to make that distance and he’ll do that particular job very well. But then, what often happens, is we start giving the camel other jobs to do as well. We give him extra things to carry, we change his route, etc. So while we started with a clear objective (to cross the desert) and had a fitting solution (a camel to do it), we lost focus and altered the objective. So, now that the camel has to carry extra weight and travel a different route, chances are he’s not going to make it.’

In marketing, we see this all the time. Ad agencies are often asked to alter a solution so it includes extra messaging, or appeals to extra target markets, or can be used in different media channels, or do something else entirely.

By doing this, you’re slowing down the camel so he won’t be able to meet the original objective. But worse still, in many cases you’ll even break his back.

Someone else has created this humorous video to highlight the problem…

DUSTIN LANE
Brand Strategy | Advertising Concepts | Copywriting
Visit risinggiants.co or dustinlanecreative.com

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