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The Netflix Horror Show

By Andrew | Published October 26th, 2011

netflix mailers on computerWhat was Netflix thinking?

It was as if the company had a death wish. First, it announced that subscribers could no longer get mailed DVDs and online streaming for one price. Going forward, for those who wanted both, subscription rates would be raised by as much as 60%.

Not surprising – at least to everybody else in the world other than Netflix – subscribers went bonkers.

Then, in the middle of this self-created firestorm, the company announced it was splitting itself in two, making the rental of DVDs one operation, and the online streaming of movies and television shows another separate operation. If you wanted both services you would have to deal with two different sites.

In other words, more money and more hassle.

Customers said, “See ya!”

Netflix lost around 800,000 subscribers and its stock price dropped like a rock. The decision to split up the company was eventually reversed, but at that point it was a case of too little too late.

Talk about a business and public relations nightmare…

And this was a company that had once been way ahead of the curve, seeing a good business in mailing out DVDs, when everybody seemed more than comfortable stopping in at their local video store. Few, back then, would have been able to envision that Netflix would ultimately put those local stores out of business, as well as bankrupt the once mighty Blockbuster video chain of stores.

So, really, how did they get this one so wrong?

It seems that once again they were trying to get out ahead of the curve, only this time they went speeding around that turn with such reckless disregard that they jumped the guard rail.

Apparently, Netflix sees ahead to the day when nobody will want actual DVDs anymore. Streaming is the future. They thought if they split off the DVD service and charged extra for it, few would care.

Also, they figured they could use the extra income of the price hike to buy more programs, which they would eventually make available to their streaming customers.

But that’s just it – at the moment there really aren’t that many movies available to streaming customers. DVDs are still relevant. The future isn’t here yet!

And, it was as if Netflix was saying to customers, we want you to pay for us to get some new movies, so we can buy them and some time later rent them back to you.

Really?

The decisions Netflix made might not have flown at any time, but they certainly weren’t going to fly at this particular time. Not when it seems recession is the new reality.

Any business today that doesn’t respect how carefully people are counting their pennies is more than likely to get slapped upside the head.

Just ask Netflix how much that slap can hurt.

 

 

The Creative Process

By Karen | Published July 14th, 2011

One of the more fun aspects of working in advertising is participating in creative brainstorming sessions. While there’s always serious thinking and a back-and-forth flow of ideas going on, typically, there’s also equal parts laughter. So much so, that the people in the offices across the hall have been heard laughing for no other reason than that they hear us laughing — it’s a contagious response.

That’s the thing — we’re in this business because we love creating new ways to look at and to think about the world. We love playing with ideas. We love jamming. We love letting ‘er rip. We love going where no minds have gone befo… Well, you get the idea.

So, what’s the process? Process of Creativity When a client comes to us with a project, we start with looking at what their objectives are.  After the information gathering stage is complete, we get together and let the words, images, and ideas flow. Our job at this point is to riff with reckless abandon — no editing allowed. When the creative dump has run it’s course, then we start sifting, sorting, combining, discarding, and finally, selecting.

Our process can be structured or improvised, individual or group, planned or spontaneous, consciously executed or subconsciously percolated. The number of ideas generated tends to be a function of the amount of time the client gives us and the information we’ve gathered during the initial phase.

While it’s true that creativity can be sparked through a social process, you don’t need a meeting or an involved format to be creative. Just as often, our best ideas happen in the solitary space of our own minds working at our own desks. Really, just a brain, some desire, and some time are all that are required.

So, if you have a desire to express your creativity in some way, don’t let yourself be hampered by anybody else’s rules. Just grab hold of an idea that fascinates you and do what this guy did.

 

Tell Me Something Profound

By Karen | Published February 14th, 2011

My daughter was on her fourth hour of homework when she looked over at me wearily and said, “All these math problems I’m doing are so meaningless. Who cares?” She shoved her geometry book aside in protest, propped herself up on her elbows and said, “Tell me something profound, Mom.”

Slogging through my own pile of “homework,” her question jolted me upright. But as I thought about it, I knew exactly what she was asking:

  • Tell me something that matters.
  • Then tell me why I should care.
  • Then put it into some useful, meaningful context, so I can relate. So it isn’t just more noise.

In my daughter’s case, sadly, her teacher believes he doesn’t have the luxury of time to offer real-life context for why it might be useful to know that the sum of the squares of two sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.

I say “sadly,” because that’s exactly what’s needed to make geometry memorable and relevant; to make it matter. Because we all know that’s the difference between motivating kids to get excited about learning and discovering vs memorizing to pass a test and then promptly forgetting.

And we all know this is the difference between effective advertising that prompts action vs advertising we can’t fast-forward through quickly enough.

As I thought more about it, when a client comes to us looking for help on how to differentiate their product or service in a flooded marketplace, it’s exactly the above questions that we at Imagine That have always dug deep to answer in order to create memorable advertising that leaves a lasting impression. I believe it’s one of the qualities that sets us apart. I’d just never thought to sum up our process so elegantly.

So don’t be surprised when, among the questions we ask you about what sets your product or service apart, we include something very much like, “Tell me something profound.”

 

No Go On The Logo

By Andrew | Published January 24th, 2011

Parents are not what they used to be. A generation ago, they were strong authority figures, comfortable punishing transgressions with a paddle. Over the past few decades they’ve become more like friends to their children.

The trend towards mutual respect and understanding (at least on the part of parents) is, doubtless, a healthy one. It also has its drawbacks. The loss of parental authority can make it seem at times like the lunatics are running the asylum.

Which finally brings me to a thought provoking article about corporate logos in the January 15 edition of The Economist.

Companies are not what they used to be. A generation ago, they were strong authority figures… Apparently, now, there are companies out there who would like to change their logos, but their most vocal customers won’t let them. Two examples are Gap and Tropicana. Presumably both spent quite a bit of money and time coming up with new looks for their logos, only to have the outcry over the changes become so loud that they abandoned their new designs altogether.

One reason this happened it that these companies have “friended” their customers. They’ve said that they really and truly do care what their customers think, and openly have asked for their opinions on all kinds of matters. (But maybe not logos.) And their customers have vociferously weighed in.

The Economist offers a few explanations for this outcry:

  • Some people just need to get a life.
  • Some new logos are just plain dumb.
  • Sometimes a comfortable familiarity is much more important than being snappy and new.

The news tag on this article is the plan Starbucks has to change its logo this spring. The drumbeat against the change has already begun. It will be interesting to see if Starbucks pushes forward or abandons its plans.


 

If You Live Long Enough…

By Andrew | Published December 21st, 2010

When I was a kid, my grandmother lived with us.  “Gram” cooked for us five kids, cleaned up after us, stuffed dollars in our pockets for spending money. And, often as not, she served as our partner in crime– she’d cover for us when we did something that needed covering. In short, though my mother might have a different opinion, she was a kid’s dream for a grandmother.

While Gram could be a bit of a character especially in her old age (she lived to be 96), she possessed a fair amount of wisdom. She was as likely to toss out a thought-provoking comment as she was to toss out the squirrels from the yard.

I can recall several favorite sayings she repeated with some regularity. There’s one in particular that sticks in my mind these days: “If you live long enough, you see everything.”

It was usually said with some measure of chagrin; Gram thought many of the changes in the modern world were not for the better.  But there were also times when it was said with a sense of wonder.

Lately, I too find myself thinking that very thought, “If you live long enough you see everything,” with both amazement and worry.

The change that technology has wrought in our lifetime is nothing short of astounding.  I’m dating myself of course, but I can remember on my first copywriting job delivering copy to clients by car, because the fax machine hadn’t been invented yet.  Today, thanks to the Internet, we have immediate client communications that allow us to complete projects with remarkable speed.

There are days when I wonder if this technology, and its resulting addiction to instant communication, is taking us in the right direction. The way this has amped up our collective heartbeat causes me concern.

Take the Twitter thing, for instance.  I wonder if that’s not the world gone a little mad.  While there may be some small beneficial use, the abuse can border on the bizarre. Do we really need a moment-to-moment, blow-by-blow of anybody’s life or thoughts?

Is this just a mad dash smack into world-wide Attention Deficit Disorder?  A disorder that is becoming so ubiquitous that it seems the norm, making the norm seems out of whack? I fear that it’s only a matter of time until people like me who run and workout without an iPod will be considered freaks.  Maybe I’m already a freak.

I suppose the question about all this is, So what?

My short answer is that I don’t think we’re geared for so much stimulation.  Not this fast in our evolution. Recent research corroborates my observations: more people today feeling anxious and agitated than ever before.  More people don’t sleep well, don’t have much patience, don’t care about much except just getting through the day.

Since the genie is already out of the bottle, maybe it’s time to institute a new rule:  On Sundays there shall be no texting, emailing, phoning, tweeting, facebooking. In short, all electronic gadgetry –cell phones, iPods, computers, et.al—shall have their day of rest.

It would be like the old blue laws that prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sunday.  Only the intent this time wouldn’t be to keep us from sin, rather, to keep us from getting a terminal case of the blues.

 

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