Spotting bushfires and helping the lonely feels more virtual than reality
Increasingly, agencies and advertisers are turning to tech ‘prototypes’ which get either limited runs or never see the light of day to shift product. But as the seriousness of real-life problems they address escalates, Mumbrella asks if this is really the future of marketing?
There is a curious and growing trend in the world of advertising, taking prototypes and launching them with all the fanfare of a fully proven, ready to buy product.
A product that doesn’t exist, or is so limited in its availability it may as well not.
Medibank hopes to alleviate loneliness with VR devices
In the past they have been campaigns aimed at consumer products – in the last couple of years we’ve seen weather predicting pegs and internet interrupting pepper grinders flogging washing powder and pasta sauce – harmless enough.
I completely agree with your article Simon, agencies like M&C are hot air generators for ideas designed to win creative awards vs. having a genuine impact in the world. I worked at an agency who services OPTUS and the client said to be verbatim “We have no clue what to do with “Clever Buoy”, and that “it is winning at award shows but no-one within OPTUS takes it seriously”. This raises the central issue in the industry, what value are we actually creating for society?
Whilst the scepticism towards these sorts of projects is expected (and in some of the examples provided above, somewhat justified), that NRMA FireBlanket is actually a good idea. If it passes CSIRO feasibility, then it may be something the governments could implement at scale, saving lives and dollars.
Great article Simon.
Spot on.
good work keeping the pressure on Mumbrella. Everytime a campaign like this is published and awarded, we celebrate mediocrity and abuse of client trust. In the long run, a business and an industry can’t survive on either.
@Antony – sure it is a good idea, but im sure Saatchi will be entering it into awards shows in April, rather than in 5-10 years if and when it is implemented. And once they win they’ll never speak of it again.
@keep digging. Maybe you’re right, but an idea this potentially good shouldn’t be overlooked just because the creative accolade system is not to everyone’s taste.
As a long time Medibank prisoner…I mean customer…the only “joy” I want from them is the return of a stay in a private room when in hospital (having sneakily removed this from policies without making customers aware until they wake up in a ward full of people).
How about…”This Christmas, we’re putting the privacy back into Private Health Insurance…” That one is for free.
Honestly. As an ad agency person who is surrounded by these ideas all the time and has countless meetings about how to win more awards – I find these ideas embarrassing
Everyone associated with these ideas should be completely ashamed of themselves. Don’t promote it until it’s real. Or you’re just promoting a storyboard.
Pepper grinders and pegs – who cares. But when saving lives becomes a scam opportunity then it sickens me.
How can these people sleep at night. It’s embarrassing.
Rather than a prototype category, why not introduce an innovation effectiveness category? Might mean a touch more effort goes into taking things beyond the prototype stage – effectively channeling the pursuit of metal for large scale good.
If M&C was producing outstanding work for it’s major clients, then perhaps this would be seen in a less skeptical light. But they’re not, the work is consistently mediocre – particularly for NRMA.
M&C, Leo Burnett and JWT need to stop chasing awards and get back to the real business of advertising.
Agree with all of the above. Don’t forget about Brainband by Leo Burnett – the device that will put an end to all rugby player concussion.
Prototypes are the shiny new award trinkets that agencies are creating because they are : tech, PRable, cause related so they tick a lot of boxes.
And in the case of this latest one, it had already been done by a Spanish agency, so it will be curious to see whether they pursue it as they won’t be winning any metal. Methinks it will quietly go away.
http://www.generalibirdhousealarm.com/en
… how can you hope to have a shred of credibility when you say ridiculous things like “91% of the country… is bushland”.
Was there a small bushfire in your pipe when you wrote this article?
Australia is 70% semi-arid, arid or desert. Those terms mean no bushland, bucko.
Sorry, start again.
And next time, try not to smoke the rage and bitterness you’re peddling.
Hi “Sorry but Simon”,
You appear not to have read the very next sentence that notes the 10% of people living near bushfire-prone areas – a figure used by the NRMA itself. Yes, I talked about the 91% of bushland (based on a range of government studies) which is a patently ridiculous number – hyperbole if you will – but that is the point. I’m simply calling bullshit. In 2009 173 people lost their lives in the Black Saturday bushfires. Real people, real lives, real tragedy. When FireBlanket is real, then it should be celebrated. But right now it is a PR device being used to garner free publicity to sell insurance policies.
Simon – Mumbrella
… It’s a real prototype going into further testing. It’s announced as a “prototype / project” everywhere it appears, so there is no so-called “bullshit”: it’s not claiming to be a finished working product.
So in your wizardly mind, should no product ever announce a prototype? Not even Google’s self-driving car or Tesla’s battery?
They did and others will keep doing so. Why? ‘Cause they get more funding and attract 3rd party interest for testing, more prototyping and, eventually, rollout.
This is just the way innovation works.
I call “bullshit” on you. You just have a very obvious personal axe to grind.
It’s obvious to many of us
it’s clear you thought “91% of Australia… is bushland.”
There’s no allusion there at all.
FireBlanket doesn’t say that.
You did.
Pretty ridiculous mate.
I’m with Simon. Utter bullshit.
Please keep calling this stuff out. Perhaps also hold clients equally accountable ie Follow up every 6-12 months on how the prototype is progresssing.
Clients will be less accepting of these ideas if the negativity starts to put individuals associated in the spotlight.
I’m not with Simon.
Eat this “scam prototype” news:
https://cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/38262877
This is why you should announce a prototype. Publicity = attention = investment = R&D = rollout.
Not announcing is stupid.
As is this article.
Who cares? I just didn’t write the same moniker in the Name box every time. Cause it’s boring.
Like FireBlanket, I wasn’t pretending to be more.
That’s your paranoid grind-axe.
Which we all “note”, Simon.
So Simon, are suggesting that agencies should just “stick to making ads” and not dabble in innovation, new methods of communication, or helping large business innovate in ways that align with their business? Should R/GA have stuck to building websites and banner ads rather than create a “scam” app for Nike+ back in 2006? Should agencies leave all New Product Development to internal client teams, and make sure that marketing and media teams, who have some understanding of business and customer issues, don’t get involved?
Whilst I completely understand the issues around scam ads, to bundle up and write off all innovative devices and activities that come from marketing and communications as desperate attempts to win awards with scam products is a little bit of a “baby with the bathwater” approach. Most businesses need to pursue some sort of digital innovation and transformation agenda, and some of the talent within agencies is well suited to assisting with this. It would seem a little short sighted for Mumbrella to be suggesting that agencies should just “stick to their knitting” of traditional advertising approaches, rather than innovate.