Head East For Creative Inspiration

“Think different” said the Apple campaign from a few years back – good advice for agencies who want to bring their clients fresh new ideas. The problem is, here in the USA even the most bizarre ideas quickly become business as usual.
•    Rock stars and athletes are so last week; today teens want be like the bloodsucking undead.
•    A billionaire offers to have his head shaved as part of a pro wrestling promotion.
•    A porn producer offers Octomom a million dollars to make a film….a rival offers her the same to keep her clothes on.

What’s an agency to do? Here at R&M we know one resource that’s as good or better than the standard “anything goes” brainstorming session. We look at what they’re doing across the ocean in Japan.

For a really big product introduction idea, tie-in with a high visibility fast food chain. To introduce Windows 7 to Japan Microsoft tied in with Burger King to create a Whopper stacked with 7 beef patties. (A previous Microsoft promotion for the ill-fated Vista operating system listed features and benefits in Japanese, on rolls of toilet paper. Not a big idea, but an honest one.)

Need a real life “spoke-hero” for your brand? Minimize controversy by borrowing a prominent figure from another culture, as the Japanese do with Barack Obama action figures.

Do distribution differently for your product or service. While everyone else moving to the Internet, consider a tried and true channel: The vending machine. In Japan you can drop in your money and press the right buttons to buy live lobsters, umbrellas, and underwear.

Get your employees involved in a long-term strategic initiative to assure that your company will have customers 20 or 30 years in the future. Japan’s population is aging –so Canon gives its employees time off to go home and make babies.

Weirdness is in the eye of the beholder. In Japan these ideas are no weirder than the vampire trend, Donald Trump and Octomom examples are in the USA.  Their value is as idea-starters, ways to start seeing things from a different point of view. But they’re not good candidates for direct imitation in American marketing – unless you’re one of our clients’ competitors, in which case we urge you to go ahead and print your features and benefits on toilet paper.

Tags: action figures, bizarre marketing, Burger King, Donald Trump, Japan, Octomom, Twilight, undead, vending machines, vista, Windows 7

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Alan Maites, Cool/Funny/Unusual, Robinson & Maites. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.