Is it time for a new set of values for a new era of advertising?

Words can be like brands and one word that has now got the worse brand image of  all time must be 'greed'. T-shirts are already appearing in markets with a Thatcher cartoon on and the slogan "greed is good for a few and bad for the rest of us".

The recession has exposed an indefensible amount of unethical behavior by bankers who's only value has been greed. Eric Daniels, Andy Honby, Lord Stevenson and the rest may have got a good grilling by the press and politicians and stimulated a lot of public anger, but when you have been pocketing obscene bonuses for years it's a small price to pay as you sip vintage champagne on your yacht in the Maldives. Saying "sorry" and then defending bonuses as "well earned" isn't washing (Bob Diamond got paid £20m at Barclays in 2007). As the Independent on Sunday said, 'what planet are they on? A different one from the rest of us.'

Apparently, the backlash has resulted in lots of students signing up to left wing groups and anti-capitalist organizations in colleges. The next generation doesn't sound like it's going to be very ad friendly.  The recession has left almost everyone asking the question, "what is the true cost of making money?" While religious leaders are quoting "money is the root of all evil" in their Sunday sermons and most of us are starting to agree as we fear for our jobs and homes.

Money is a twin edge sword that can motivate or corrupt. One agency (that will remain nameless) discovered how bonuses brings out the bad in people. Account handlers started fiddling invoices and double billing clients to make targets and get big
bonuses. As this legendary story goes, the agency nearly ended up in court and had to pay back all fees to one client to avoid a public scandal. The simple rule I read (I think in a Peter Drucker or Tom Peters book) was, if you have to use money to motivate people to do their job properly you have the wrong people. I haven't yet met a really good creative who did better work for a bonus. Or a nurse, policeman, soldier or teachers. I've heard of lots of stories of bent traffic wardens though.

The Triple bottom line – People, Planet & Profit has been at the core of many ethical businesses but even mainstream brands must be looking to be a little more ethical given the public outcry. Could this result in a move to more ethical business models like Quaker, Puritan or even Islamic models? These all balance a businesses need to make money with making a positive effect upon society. Brands like Cadbury's built houses, schools, churches and health centres for their workers. Brands like The Body Shop and John Lewis make employees part of their business. There are many brands that prove that you can make money without abandoning basic social values or exploiting people.

Of course the ad industry is going through many changes and the big question is, is the current model  (largely based on the 60's model) right for the future? Has it become too fat in places with too much admin? Could the recession be the perfect
catalyst for a positive change, after all we are one of the last creative industries to change.

In these dubious times redundancies are so common they no longer make the pages of the news and all of us in the ad industry have got friends who have been laid off in the last few weeks. Freelancers and juniors are getting an equally negative message, "we're not hiring" or "we're cutting back on freelancers." It's a tough business and the really tough bit is to treat people fairly and with respect. I've recently heard some disgusting stories of how some agencies have been trying to get people out without decent pay offs. Cutting costs isn't the same as making money and trying to save on redundancies packages only puts us in the same hall of shame as those bankers.

Equally as concerning in these times is the pressure those still in a job are going to be put under. The work needs to be done but with less people how will this impact upon families? Will we see more stress related illnesses? Are clients aware of the outcome of paying less but demanding more?

What if the ad business turned over a new leaf and tried to be more ethical? To adopt new values? Having worked with many charities, how would it be if agencies were set up as social enterprises? This means they can't make money for shareholders but have to reinvest any profits back into the business – people, talent, training, resources, etc. This model has worked really well in other industries (especially ethical business) as it's a value based business model not a profit based one. This
forces the business to focus on its core values. Makes you think, how different would an ad agency look?

My book - Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer: Marketing in the New Ethical Economy

Futurism, QR codes, ethical knickers and iFood – it’s a changing world out there.

On Feb 20th it’s the 100th anniversary of the launch of Futurism (founded by the Italian Filippo Tommaso Marinetti) a movement that looked to the future and embraced new ideas, technology and challenged the old ‘museum’ way of thinking. Look forward not back was the gist of it.

Don’t be afraid of the future and accept change. Ok, they did a have a few negative thoughts – war is good. However, their ideals are something we could well all benefit from in the ad industry at the moment. Instead of moaning about recession, living in the past and defending change, lets embrace it. It’s maybe ironic that a new model agency is launching on Feb 20th with a very new way of working. I’m sure Campaign will be covering it in a week’s time – there’s bugger all positive or exciting news about. at the moment

QR CODES TO CHANGE THE FACE OF ADVERTISING So what’s a QR code? If you don’t know (and don’t worry most Brits or sales assistants in phone shops don’t) ask any Japanese kid with a mobile. Simply put, it’s a sort of bar code (a matrix code) that a mobile phone can read. It’s square in appearance and looks like lots of pixels. So what? you may say but in Japan there are everywhere and have become the new love of all marketing directors. QR stands for ‘quick response’, when a phone scans the graphic it can decode it as text or take you direct to a web page. Forget phone numbers or urls, this is modern technology at work.

The downside is there look worse than telephone numbers on ads (art directors will hate them as much as packaging designers hate bar codes). They really will change the face of ads – mutilate may be a better word as they will sit on ads in a very nasty way. But as an additional marketing technique they’ll add to effectiveness.

What is surprising is that something so linear in thinking has been picked up by creatives and played with. Several artists have used them, Sergio Kano has made a series of images up from over 500 of them, each QR code represents a well known brand slogan. The French street artist ‘Space Invader’ has been placing tiles around the world for years, each one based on the space invaders game. Now he’s converted his mosaic style to QR codes. If you spot one of his tiles then scan it into your phone and it’ll give a message like ‘have a nice day’.

KINICKERS TO ETHICS More than pretty knickers have made an impressive commercial to highlight their new range of ethical pants. This is one step on from Pants for Poverty who got several hundred people to parade around St Pancras station in knickers only (one of which was a female creative director of an ad agency – I’ll mention no names to save embarrassment). The ethical knickers campaign uses a sexy catwalk commercial (directed by Verity White, ex BBC) to highlight the unethical aspects of most underwear. The commercial is excellent – take a look. Did you know that the cotton industry spends $2bn on pesticides – and uses more than any other industry? Or that sweat shop workers get less than a penny per kicker? Or that for every kg of cotton produced they use 20,000 litres of water? Makes you think.

iFOOD I recently suggested to one publication to set a brief to see if 3 agencies could turn a piece or marketing around to get people to pay for it. Lets be honest, if you put a price tag on most advertising would anyone (besides the client) pay for it? This opens up a new idea – what if we aimed to create marketing communications that people did pay for? Stuff they really wanted? Like the Gorilla or Sony balls ads. Like that 24 mailer or that NIKE brochure that sold on ebay for a $60. Well it seems some smart chaps at Kraft foods in the States have achieved just that. They are getting Americans to pay to get ads with food planning tools. It’s become a big hit on the iPhone and now other brands are looking to smart phone applications as the next generation of technology driven marketing.

ECO-VALENTINES DAY This Valentines Day you’ll have a dilemma, should you buy nice red rose from Holland or ethical ones? Which is more ethical, low carbon footprint ones or Fairtrade ones? Maybe you should just opt for chocolates. Again, should you pick the organic or Fairtrade? How about a gift instead - well you’ll have lots of ethical dilemma choices there too. The eco-ethical movement have started to hi-jack Valentines Day as an ethical expression of love – if you love someone then you’ll only buy an ethical gift. It’s a fair point but if you are finding it all too much you can always take the left wing green anti-capitalism view – Valentines Day is a capitalist attempt to generate extra consumerism – so buy nothing.

ETHICAL MARKETING & THE NEW CONSUMER If my regular readers are wondering why I’ve been off blog for a while it’s because I’ve been finishing off my book for the publisher’s Wileys. Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer, which can be found on Amazon (you can pre-order at half price). When it launches it’ll be one of the first multi-platform launches of a book with a website and smart phone applications. Watch this space for more updates.