I think the mistake I made in the last blog was in trying to talk about something very complicated while under the influence of very strong dental anaesthetics.
The blog was a complete mess.
And I apologise to my loyal readership of one man and his dog.
(Apparently the dog in question is the one which featured on X Factor recently as one half of an act claiming to be a singing duet. After the act had finished, and the human half had sung but the dog had done nothing, Simon Cowell delivered the immortal line - "Your dog doesn't sing, does it ?"
(I love it. I mean - how many dogs do sing ?)
Anyway, because I'm still suffering with my upper right rear molar, I'm going to attempt a less ambitious topic this time.
Which is Marilyn Monroe's bottom.
As both of you will know (try to keep up, Bonzo) she was famous for coming up with the line "Chanel no 5" when an interviewer asked her what she wore in bed.
(And if you were Chanel no 5, you couldn't buy publicity like that. Although these days you would try, and, as a result, it wouldn't be half so effective.)
But I'm thinking of another occasion.
This was the time when she kept John F. Kennedy waiting at a party for 2 hours. And the reason she was so late was because a friend of hers was helping her into "the tightest goddam dress I have ever seen on a woman".
The quote comes from the friend in question, a certain Milt Ebbins.
When she arrived at the event, the guests apparently "parted like the Red Sea". One guest described her entrance as being "magical ... Everything stopped. Everyone stopped."
By the end of the evening she and JFK had swapped phone numbers - and later went on to sleep together.
She achieved impact, awareness, positive interest, desired customer response, sampling and an ongoing relationship.
She went all the way down “the funnel of response”.
Which is essentially what people in marketing all want to achieve through their creativity.
What can we learn about this ?
1. She aimed high. Don't try to pull the guy in accounts. Pull the President.
2. She didn't care about deadlines. It was more important to be right than to be on time.
3. She really cared about initial impact. First impressions are 90% of the battle.
4. She realised she would only achieve her target by doing something extreme. ("The tightest goddam dress" etc.) In any creative endeavour, you need a first or a most.
Of course there are a series of other questions which are raised.
Like - who is Milt Ebbins, and how did he get that job ?
And - was it polite for everyone to stare at her entrance ?
But essentially MM was demonstrating the sheer chutzpah needed to achieve ambitious targets.
Then again, her stated ambition was "to be wonderful".
Is that something which most brands would be brave enough to claim ?
