Anatomy of an Ad: Fred’s New Job …

If you’ve watched TV lately you’ve noticed that Fred Flintstone has a new job … pitching Geico. Yup, Fred and Wilma have joined the ranks for the gecko, Little Richard, and, of course, the ubiquitous cavemen (soon to be seen in primetime).



Geico has always been a great case study of communicating a consistent message in creative ways to different market segments. In the end, they have a parity problem. Their message is the same as other insurance companies — they save you money. So they rely on clutter-cutting advertising broken out by market segment to get people’s attention. The cavemen focus on the much sought-after young male demographic, the gecko (for some reason) tested really well with women in their 40s, and boomers and up are the target of the Little Richard/Peter Graves-assisted customer testimonials.



The new wave of spots trades the cavemen (they’re busy with their sitcom after all) for the Beverly Hillbillies, The Flintstones, and Cabbage Patch Kids. All are presented in faux E! True Hollywood Story fashion and position Geico as a money-saving solution that rescued them from their wayward lives of being a celebrity has-beens.



Note the segmentation at work here. I would venture to say that between the shows/dolls listed above, one or more of them recalls a nostalgic feeling in you. Flintstones and Hillbillies for boomers and Cabbage Patch Kids for Gen X and Y. A fun character from your childhood being parodied in tabloid fashion? You’ve just gotta watch it.



The point? Segment your communications. And as confusing as it sounds, be the same but different. By that I mean, at the heart of your strategy should be a very simple message (Geico saves you money — painfully simple, almost too simple if that wasn’t something that appealed to everyone!). Then, identify who you want to target and wrap this simple message in a creative vehicle that (a) gets their attention and (b) makes them stick around long enough to internalize your brand’s message. Easy, right …?



P.S. You can view all of the Geico creative here.

How This Changes Things ...

[This is a bit more than the ubiquitous iPhone blog posting. But, yes, I got one and I love it. And, yes, it was a brilliant move to drop the price — only way to grab some healthy market share plus I’m sure research indicated that there was a glacier sized chunk of people that would break free if the price was lower. And, yes, it would have been better if Jobs would have rolled out his $100 gift to the early adopters at the same time he announced the price cut. But enough of that …]

I was in an impromptu meeting the other day with a client talking about their website. It was a casual conversation and no one had laptops out. Someone asked about the website and the one of them got out a smart phone and we all passed it around and were using this manifestation of the internet to guide our discussion.

It suddenly occurred to me. More and more people carry the internet in their pockets in this crazy, fast-paced world of ours. That means more and more the internet is being downsized to someone’s small handheld screen.

How do smart phones change things?

- What does your site look like on a smart phone?
- Do all of the features work? Can you shop? Does the media work right?
- What about your HTML email? Chances are more and more people are viewing them on smart phones as well.
- Back it out a step, how can you more actively market to people with smart phones?

As we always say, it’s better to have some of the questions than all of the answers. And this is just another slice of new media that we’ll have to look at and think of some great questions for how to reach our customers on this new, pocket-sized digital frontier.

The Southwest Business Model

If you don't already know the story of Southwest Airlines, you should. Take a quick minute at the beginning of a post-holiday week for a quick refresher courtesy of a segment from last weekend's CBS Sunday Morning - you can read the text or watch the video here. Basically, it all comes down to a seemingly simple business model projected by the airline's former CEO, Herb Kelleher. He asserts that if you focus on your employees then all of the rest will fall in to place. Because if you take care of your people, then they project their pleasure onto your customers, who in turn have favorable experiences and continue buying, which in turn pleases your stock holders or whoever your business serves. Herb's also responsible for one of my favorite quotes: "We have a strategic plan. It's called doing things!" No bull. Just a remarkable company.