Tag Archives: Advertising

Look what Ogilvy did with the work we did on Cisco’s new network launch: which they christened as The Network. Intuitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNXNWsfNlgU

Careful Mortar watchers (that’d be both of you, so listen up) will have caught the stealthy launch of the new Mortar website on the very last day of 2016.

Now I realize this will come as a shock to the rest of you, but THERE IS A NEW MORTAR WEBSITE! THE BACON IS GONE.

We’ve replaced the pile of pork with a simple insight: most of the time small ideas beat big. And marketers still don’t spend enough time aiming at the emotional impact they want to have on their customers.

Now why would this be?

1. We forget our job is to amaze and delight. There’s a lot to say about our companies, our products, our vision, and our contribution to the planet. So much that we forget we actually want people to buy our thing. And for that to happen we must first get their attention. The simple pressure of communicating what’s important to us overwhelms our need to prick the needle of delight.
2. People don’t actually buy ideas until late in the funnel. At first they buy delight. Joy. Fun. Awesome. A client of ours spent hundreds of thousands and months researching why people came to her organization only to find that her customers were looking for fun. Fun? Not an educational experience? Or a new perspective? Or to be a better citizen. Just a plain old great way to kill a few hours and giggle. You see, great marketing promises a result. If you haven’t defined how you want people to react when they hear of you then you are not ready to go to market. (Doubt me? Dig out a recent agency brief and scour it for something resembling the A-ha Moment you want your customers to experience).
3. Small is easier and simpler than Big. Big is bold. Big is dramatic. Big costs money and time. Big requires hard thinking, consensus, commitment and a willingness to change. Big is thus hard. For most, Big is simply too hard. Small? Small is easy to find. Easy to execute. Easy to change. Easy to replicate. Easy to test and adjust. And Small is not hard on a CEO who changes his mind, like, well, every week. (Which BTW is most of us now.) Nevertheless the right small idea can have immense power (hello Uber, who spun a small app into a revolution in global transportation).

For many of us, the future is about finding and exploiting A-ha Moments. We’ve gathered some of our best A-ha Moments on our new site. Take a look and see if you might benefit from thinking smaller in 2017.

Isn’t it time we stopped thinking about people as consumers, customers, clients or, heaven forbid, a target audience.

And started thinking about them as a community.

A group of like-minded souls with the power to engage with your organization, your products and with each other?

By helping our clients tap community, we’ve helped create over $14 billion in market value.

From software to security; self-improvement to longevity; destinations and experiences; Mortar has focused on tapping the power and potential of our client’s and their communities.

Think about it. If we are aiming our messages at a community we need to think of our audience in that way. As people who talk to one another. About us.

And we are all talking to communities. Sure, each of us is interested in a different sub-set of humanity.

Whether we divvy up our customers by job title, culture, affinity, identity, location or some other factual or emotional profile, our customers are best thought of as a group.  Community members chatter with one another about what they see and experience in text, Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, Tumbler and at the coffee shop.

Which means that we marketers should think of ourselves as community managers and leaders. As Mayors. Senators. Congressmen. PTA stewards. Chefs. Generals. Mothers. Fathers. Leaders. Educators.

If we miss this essential step we fail to understand who we are talking to and, it follows, what really matters to them. Which is why so much of what marketers say—either directly or through their agents—falls flat and fails to inspire.

Communities are shaped by common beliefs, a level of affinity and similarity. Every community has a special kind of connective bond. The links we share, the invisible dark matter that cements one human to another, is the raw material of great marketing.

Mortar is an advertising agency. Yes, an advertising agency. We don’t apologize for being what we are. And neither do we let it keep us up at night. Our job is to persuade, cajole, brighten or otherwise compel communities to buy what our clients are selling.

What sets us truly apart is in our name: Mortar. We are all about the glue that binds groups to action, thought to outcome, products to change.

We believe every single marketing assignment needs to start with deciding what unites the community we care about. Then we can make Strategic Marketing Decisions about how we will approach the group: what has the capacity to drive them wild with desire.

We enshrine this strategic decision in writing. And we match it with a sudden gasp of surprise—a A-ha moment. You will understand it as the moment a promise connects with an individual and fuels a conversation.

These three elements: a belief that connective tissue is the key to understanding today’s customer, that a decision must be made about which way to go, and that everything needs to ladder up to a single a-ha moment, differentiate our work.

None of it makes sense without a solid, unyielding, firm grasp of what unites—and separates.

Here’s the simplest and soundest way to bang heads effectively.

For the past few months we have been writing about the perils of the Big Reveal and more effective ways to include clients in the creative process. Many of you, dear readers, have asked for help doing just that. So we thought we would share our favorite collaboration method: Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats.

Six Thinking Hats, One Straightforward Goal

What: The Greeks taught us to debate issues by attacking one another’s ideas, so that only the strongest survive. But there are plenty of other ways to debate ideas. Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats brainstorming technique is both simple and astonishing. By separating thinking into six dimensions or perspectives— the metaphorical “hats” — groups can be aligned to explore and vet alternative ideas in a non-confrontational, structured manner.  And like most of our favorite brainstorming techniques, it can be deployed quickly. Plus you get to wear hats. Which is always good.

When: Six Thinking Hats works best with a well defined idea/question to explore. You need a starting point that the group can agree on, otherwise you’ll quickly descend into a maelstrom of “I think we’re wasting our time here.”

Who: Groups of four to 12 are ideal.

How: Carefully sequenced and structured collective thinking. The team considers the idea/problem from the same perspective and at the same time. [Great hatters capture all the goodness on a whiteboard-Ed].

We suggest you move the group through the hats in this order:

Blue Hat: The moderator’s hat. What the Blue hat says, goes. The moderator organizes the session, sets the agenda, captures insights and enforces the code of the hats. The Blue hat starts the session and explains the rules. This is the only hat worn by a single person, who will remain the moderator throughout the session.

White Hat: The fact hat. What are the plain, simple and undeniable facts about the problem at hand? White hat thinking is often easy and fast (but it can be hard to keep speculation out). Stick to the facts and only the facts. Facts set the foundation for the later stages of informed thinking. Good White hat questions include: What do we know is true about X? How big is X? How much does X cost? How many customers does X have?

Red Hat: The emotional hat asks “How do we feel about the issue?” Giving participants permission to share their emotions about a subject is illuminating. It has the added bonus of removing anxiety by validating opinions. Be sure everyone has a chance to wear the Red hat and give voice to their gut. Ask participants to share why they feel the way they do.

Black Hat: The negative hat. Black hat thinking asks, “What is wrong with this idea?” Black hat thinking frees the group to indulge their dark side and revel in unfettered pessimism. What could go wrong? Why won’t it work? Why bother? Empty the issues and challenges out on to the whiteboard for all to see. Don’t worry about obsessive Black hat thinking scuttling the entire process. The group needs to work through negativity to see the light.

Yellow Hat: The sunny hat. The Yellow hat asks, “What makes the idea great and why will it work?” This hat  encourages a positive disposition by allowing the group to focus on benefits and positive impact. If you spend 10 minutes in Black hat thinking try and spend 15 here. Capture all the good things onto the board.

Green Hat: The “Then what happens?” hat. Closing a Six Hats session with the most optimistic of all the hats leaves participants with a strong sense of possibility. Green hat thinkers look to the future: If we introduce X what will happen next? What are the implications of this move and how will it change the world?

Next Steps: Close the session by reviewing the whiteboard and asking the group to highlight what they found stimulating or surprising. Take a snap of the whiteboard and send it to participants.

Last words: Wearing real hats makes it infinitely more merry.

To get through everyone’s ideas you’ll need at least 5 minutes per hat (anything less than 60 minutes overall is unsatisfying).

Fancy managing your own Six Thinking Hats session?  Download our handy guide here. There’s more on the creator of the hats, Dr. Edward DeBono, here.

Follow our “What If” series and join the #WhatIfMortar conversation.