Mick Greer has an impeccable record in advertising.

He has worked for Saatchi & Saatchi of course, Lowe, BBDO and McCann Erikson in the UK and abroad.  Mick ran his own agency in Sydney.  His campaign experience includes Vodaphone, Coca Cola, BP and Cathay Pacific.  And he is even going to work on a project with me in the new year – an undoubted highlight.

So down to business:

What can PRs learn from advertising professionals?

Too many PR stories, I believe, don’t have the compelling hook.

You only have a second to engage your audience.  Sure PR has its moments of brilliance, but we are talking about using a small moment time to hook your readers.  Are PRs measuring up?  I am not sure they appreciate that the window of opportunity to engage with their audience is so, so small.

Do you remember The Sun’s “Up yours Delores” and “Stick it up your Junta” headlines?

Alright, you might not be a Sun reader, but at least it understands its audience and writes accordingly and reels them in.  If you don’t believe me why has it got over  four million readers?

So what makes a campaign a success?

Well, you cannot tell if a campaign is going to be a success.

The Cadbury’s gorilla campaign was amazing.  The creatives and more so the client were brave to put that forward and make it work.  It had a touch of genius.

But ask me why and I cannot tell you.

It comes down to: Is advertising an art or science?  It is the perennial debate.   I have found intuition can be a powerful way of guiding your efforts and should not be discounted.  I do my research thoroughly just to let you know and build my creative work from there.

What I can say is understand the issues, think about the problem and then work harder at the solution.

Social media will badly affect traditional advertising, an accepted wisdom, right?

No, I don’t think so.

Traditional media will not go.  Internet devotees are still pushing the myths that the Internet is the only game worth noting and that you hold it in awe at all times.

You know that more people listen to radio than MP3 players or that more people (in the US) are watching TV than they did 5 years ago?  Traditional advertising spaces on well patronised spaces are still there in abundance.

It all means the Internet, although attractive for advertising revenue, is still one of a number of options.

The point I want to make though it that with the Internet as well as traditional channels, it is how you engage that is important.  What is the point of someone getting to your site and not being engaged?

It used to be get a site up, anything.  Then it was get them there.  Now it has to be let’s make our online communications so compelling they come back again and again and build a relationship with the brand.

How we need another Bill Hicks.  Am I the only person not interested in X Factor, celebrities being humiliated in inhospitable climates or how someone in a soap I have never heard of is doing ballroom dancing?  If you are like me listen to Bill Hicks, it will keep you sane.

And to the main event of the evening:

Now I am in PR so I don’t know if I am the subject of Bill’s fury here.  Sorry to all my marketing  and advertising friends – leave a comment, argue back, give me some content.

You might not agree with Bill, but if you check out his catalogue on YouTube or video you can see a rare intelligence.

And the lesson from all this?

If something really impresses you tell the world.

Speaking from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, he said that advertising revenues for traditional media will not bounce back with a recovery.  Indeed he called this a “reset” and not a recovery, as this implies that things return to as they were.

The only question is how long print has got according to his arguments: as little as 10 years.  He argued that within this period all content will be consumed digitally.

Ballmer was unable to say how traditional media could cope in maintaining its current advertising revenue nor could he actually give a model of how digital could make substantial profits, bar a reference to Google.

It is a big statement, especially as his predecessor Bill Gates’ record with the Internet hardly matches up to his record with software.  And Ballmer gave no idea of how things might actually work in future, it all seems a little “attention grabbing” and “we have heard this all before.”

Where is the insight from the managing director of Microsoft?

There is no doubt that newspapers and magazines are facing challenging times and that some will not survive, but some of this must surely be down to the recession.

I believe Ballmer is in part right: print media is going to have to think long and hard, as is digital.  But the thing about predictions is they are often wrong, especially if you make them as absolutes.  Thankfully I am not in the prediction game.

Yes, print media is facing unprecedented challenges and will need to adapt – it might be much reduced in size within a few years.  Yes, some print and digital will disappear as the environment changes but I would be surprised if newspapers are not with us at all in 10 years.

As one of the comments left (and this is one of the polite ones) from MediaFace says: “I’m prepared to place a hefty wager with Mr Balmer that I will still be buying newspapers on a Sunday.  Along with a good few million others.”

But don’t take my word for it have a look at the advert, which has to be the funniest and most cringe worthy thing I have seen in a long time.

Remember the Comfort Wipe is only $19.95 if you buy today.  Click here to see video.

I will be back on serious entries after this.

Found through the power of Twitter and Sally Whittle’s RSS feed.

Matthew Guy, a graduate designer, is looking for a job.  It is competitive to get a foot into an advertising agency.  What do you do?

You could put your portfolio online.  Check.  You could put a bio up.  Check.

Or you could come up with something really creative.

Matthew has put cardboard cut outs of his site on advertising agency doors where he wants to walk through as an employee.

But I really like his Subservient Graduate website where you can go and command him to do your bidding (it is all pre-recorded).  Showing a sense of humour, originality, persuades you to spend the time to have a look at his work, which looks good.

Very impressive!

Postscript

I have seen a few comments on the Scamp blog that say that these ideas are not new.  Who cares?  Little under the sun is.  I generally still credit anyone who can use ideas and remould them to their aim effectively.

Still have a look at Subservient Chicken from Burger King, which is live.

Consider the following:

Did TV destroy the cinemas?  They did suffer for years (for a number of reasons) but when they were re-branded and marketed they gained a whole new audience.  Cinema has become a vital industry again.

Another example.  Did mail order catalogues destroy shops?  I am sure it was muted when they started to make an impact, but how much do we use catalogues now?

Clicks and mortars doing the same thing to shops once again in the tech boom?  Yes these all have an impact, after broadband arrived in force.  My camera shop is now the base for a Internet based camera business and Jessops across the road won’t be there much longer based on how it is doing.  But look at rent hikes and supermarkets and their impact on many retailers.  Nevertheless shops remain, of course.

I have been watching The Money Programme about changes in the media.

Television has been under pressure from the Internet and drops in advertising spending, some transferring budgets online.  But it is seeing new models emerge.  TV is not only being forced to live with the Internet, it is also learning to use the Internet – one example being to generate interest in new markets abroad as it rolls out franchises of its hits and also to sell in programmes.

I am sure you can argue with some of my examples.  After all it is a big subject and I am making gneralisations, but surely the best PRs will adapt, create new business modeals if necessary and learn to profit from the Internet.

One instance was Kate Moss’ tongue in cheek TV ad about getting the most exciting contract of her career according to her agent, as he signed her up to Virgin mobile.  This all happened after Kate had been involved in a scandal about her cocaine taking.

The advert only ran three times on TV according to the program, but generated a lot of PR coverage for Kate and Virgin.

PRs are adversaries more often than not of traditional advertising agencies.  You can find plenty of references comparing PR to advertising on Google.

The interesting thing was how clever advertisers use the advert with the PR in mind, knowing the extra value it creates.  But even though creativity and extreme or offensive advertising ideas can be used in this aim, it is not an exact science.  Still just a thought….

You might have heard or seen the work of Banksy, the satirical and very sharp Bristol graffiti icon.  It is worth having a look at more of Banksy’s creative work.

As I was flicking through the above link I came across this image.  So my idea discussed below is sort of original, a dog and a cow are not exactly the same and anyway dogs hit a better demographic and are more mobile.

NW Business Insider had a wonderful piece on the dog advertising concept in their current feature on guerrilla marketing.

I originally came up with this concept after selling in the story of a certain dog called Dante in to the South Manchester Reporter. The story of the curry loving pooch spread to the Metro, Manchester Evening News and even The Guardian.

It seemed obvious that there was original and possibly effective advertising mileage to be had and so I teamed up with Mick Greer and Phil Howells, well- seasoned advertising pros.

The lucky recipient was a family lawyers called Greens & Co.

It is some fun but also when there is so much competition to grab our attention it is a little different and attention grabbing.

A quick note: Has no-one done it before? I don’t know. Churchill said an original idea is just a good one everyone has forgotten.

BBC4 showed and is showing a biography of David Ogilvy – “the father of advertising.”

It is quite a story as Ogilvy was approaching 40 when he set-up his ground breaking and highly successful agency Ogilvy and Mather.  Within a few years he had Shell, Lever Brothers and Rolls Royce as accounts.  Billings were over $100m after 10 years in business.

Ogilvy’s career was built upon a number of disparate experiences that he drew upon, from AGA cooker door to door salesman to farmer in Amish country.

If you have time it is well worth finding out about this media icon, even if the biography just creates a greater a enigmatic view of Ogilvy for you.