Women rock. And our girls keep us rolling.

Amy Poehler and two of her talented friends are out to change the world. One amazing young girl at a time. If you have not already seen Smart Girl At The Party, here’s my favorite episode so far.

Is advertising crap or art?

For me, the first line of this trailer sums up what it’s like to be a creative in the wild world of advertising. The rest, including interviews with some of the icons I’ve revered (and also some I’ve hated) over the years just makes me want to see it more.
If You’re in one of the cities where this independent film is debuting this weekend, make sure to go. Love it or hate it, there is no doubt that ads, the good the bad and the ugly, do become part of our national dialogue and culture.

Different Strokes: How to have fun at 30,000 feet

Like many women my age, I am going through a “phase.” The women I know who no longer have kids at home are in full-blown re-invention mode, but I’m not quite so free. I’m simply trying to get out of my comfort zone and not bore myself to tears on a regular basis. Granted, this is hard to do while running a business and shuttling two kids around, but hey, a girl’s gotta try. So when a friend invited me to a discussion about “creativity and sexual energy,” I checked the location, saw there was food and wine involved and said yes.

Upon inquiring further about the coming evening (no pun intended) I was told it was about sex transmutation. This didn’t really clear things up for me. From what I can gather, it has something to do with tapping into an energy that’s always ‘out there’ and connecting to it in a more fun-loving way than you usually do. According to my friend, she has actually had an orgasm during a flight from D.C. to Atlanta. I’ve done that trip and didn’t find it all that exciting, but she says she was just sitting there and realized, “Oh my God, I’m about to have an orgasm.” And she did.

This piqued my curiosity. You have to appreciate someone who can join the Mile High Club. Flying solo. From the comfort of her own seat.

But when the time comes to either show up at the meeting or not, I’m torn between breaking out of my rut or getting to bed on time. Turns out that bordeom can be a hard habit to break. But I do go and there we all are, 30 women with wine glasses in hand, ready to take in whatever’s about to be dished out from this well respected PhD and business coach.

The thing is, we’re GAME. Marketers take note (I’m sure many of you already have.) Women of a certain age with money and energy and a desire to live a better life are ready to openly consider new ways of living, eating, dressing and, yes, traveling. If you’ve got a SINCERE and REPUTABLE product or service to help us achieve our goals, we’ll at least give you the time of day.

And if you can do all that AND make air travel more fun, you’ve got yourself a winner.

(A version of this post appeared on nursebarb.com)

When good things happen to great spots

Congrats to the team at Almap BBDO that created the Gold Cannes award-winning spot for Volkswagon/Brazil. So human yet so strange and wonderful. It makes you feel good about VW and even manages to show off a few features. The team’s best creative decision may have been selecting BITT Animation to do the CGI and post-production work. As a woman who just returned from the beach with her REAL dog, they nailed every single mannerism that pet lovers everywhere will recognize. And love.

Pass the tissue & hand over the $500k: Marketing in real time.

Two nights ago I joined 500 other women from Impact Austin at the Dell Community Center to listen as 10 local non-profits presented their plans for using the money we were about to donate. The catch? Only 5 of the organizations would “win” a $100,000 donation. The other 5 would go home wiser but empty handed.  The winners would be chosen that night, just moments after making their presentations.

Reality TV has nothing on this event.

It’s hard to send 5 worthy causes home without money and the number of teary eyes and tissues in the audience proved it. It also proved that the company with the most focused and compelling pitch wins. This was marketing in real time.

It’s my first year as a member of Impact Austin. There’s probably a group like this where you live. Look for one if you’re not already member. This kind of giving is really fulfilling. The concept is to find 500 women who each donate $1k, thus pooling their money to create $500k. The group then takes applications from non-profits and begins a very thorough vetting process to narrow down the nominees to 10 (2 in each category.) Finally those 10 present live, the members cast ballots, and the votes are counted right then and there. The  5 winners are announced within 30 minutes. The whole process works like a well-oiled machine, albeit one led with real heart by founder Rebecca Powers.  The donation size  is enough to make a real impact, and each non-profit who “wins”  has to report their results. I’ve never felt so good about giving in my life.

I’ve also never felt more certain about the necessity of a really good brand story.

All the members had received a very thorough report about the finalists from the nomination committee, and believe me, every finalist was extremely worthy.  Many of the members had already decided who they were going to vote for before siting down to watch the presentations. But guess what? Those votes often changed based on the 5 minute pitch each non-profit made on stage. And the ultimate winners in each category had presentations that had three things in common:

1. A concise and compelling goal

2. A very human story that illustrated how the group had impacted lives

3. A passionate, often charismatic leader making the presentation

Sounds easy, huh? Certainly the stringent vetting process was enough to make every group edit and focus their goal. But telling a compelling story and having a leader who could make the audience FEEL that their donation would go even farther on the wings of their vision and passion, well, that’s another thing entirely.

For those of you lucky enough to live in Austin, the winners will be presented with their checks tomorrow (Friday, June 12th.) Presentations will be made on site rather than at the Capital so that all the volunteers from each organization can be part of the ceremony. Try to make it to at least one. I’ll be at the GENaustin event at the Ann Richards School For Young Women Leaders at 2:15pm. The other event times and locations (and links) are below.

9:00 a.m.
People’s Community Clinic
2909 N. IH 35
Austin, TX 78722

10:15 a.m.
Capital IDEA
504 Lavaca Street Suite 1008
Austin, TX  78701

11:30 a.m.
YouthLaunch
Urban Roots farm at Hands of the Earth farm
7651 Delwau
Austin, TX 78725

1:00 p.m.
Ballet East Dance Company
Eastside Memorial High School
1012 Arthur Stiles
Austin, TX  78721

2:15 p.m.
GENaustin
Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders
2206 Prather Lane
Austin, TX 7870

Walk a mile in my heels

New York Times editor Dana Jennings blogs every Tuesday about his life fighting advanced prostate cancer. As usual, this week’s post about the hormonal side effects of his medication is insightful, brutally honest, thought-provoking….and FUNNY.
Strangely enough, his latest musings got me thinking about marketing. Namely, how much more effective we’d be at our jobs if it were possible to truly FEEL what it’s like to BE our customers. (OK, to be honest, I was thinking how much easier MY job would be if I could wave a wand and POOF give some certain male CMOs a short-lived jolt of estrogen.)
Sure, the little nuggets and insights we get from research are illuminating. And yes, empathy can go a long way. But I doubt Dana would have ever truly appreciated the sheer power of the HGTV-peanut-butter-M&Ms-combo after a crying jag if all he’d done was peruse a report about menopausal mood swings and weight gain.
Granted, the idea is not a new one. We all remember the movies, What Women Want and Tootsie. But there is a certain Aha! moment that’s inspired ] by hearing a real guy like Dana relate his own epiphany about the “mysterious and hormonal” world of women. Send his post to a man you love who has to love you through good times and bad.

We’d never wish Dana’s experience on anyone, but we might as well learn from it.

Why advertising needs more women creative directors

I’ve just discovered a new site and I hope you’ll take the time to tune into the conversation going on there. The subject is one that needs to be dragged into the open (as the “powers that be” kick and scream)  and talked about honestly so that we can begin to change it for the better.

At issue: Are smart, creative women more adept at creating compelling campaigns targeting women than smart, creative men are? I think so and certainly recent studies on how our brains work would support the theory. But it’s not a very popular view and it’s undermined by the generally accepted opinion that the creative done by women isn’t up to par.

Pshaw. I believe that one reason SOME campaigns that are concepted and directed by women are not as creative as they could be is that women are often serving two masters throughout the creative process. On the one hand, they want to create a campaign that truly resonates with and moves women. On the other, they must protect their status in the creative department  at the ad agency by creating work that impresses their (usually) male bosses and those male bosses are in turn wanting any work to impress a (predominately) male awards jury.

The problem is that what appeals to male creative directors is often vastly different from what appeals to the average female consumer. The result can be work that appeals to no one. 

However, the most harmful result is that the client gets short changed. This, over time, has contributed to the distrust that many clients have for agencies in general and the creative department in particular. Righting this whole situation will take more than honest conversation, but it’s a start. So please tune in to adwomen.org and two specific interviews. One is with Ruth Lee, Chief Creative Officer for DDB, and the other is with Lali Giraldo, a 2009 jury member at FIAP. Both are winningly honest and smart.

Men and women think differently.

It sure beats the back scratcher I asked for.

You like me! You really like me!

Hey Moms, have you gotten the great video proclaiming you the, “2009 Mother of the Year,” compliments of CNNBC? If not, send me your name and email and I’ll make sure you get one. You ( and all of us) deserve this funny, upbeat, and perfectly executed bit of Mother’s Day goodness. Here’s the one I got. It’s the brainchild of a group called MomsRising and their mission is to help “moms and the people who love them change the world.”

For those of you who are marketers as well as mothers, there is a great lesson to be learned here. And that lesson is…wait for it…

Mothers really do have a sense of humor!

The Motrin baby-wearing debacle and sour, vocal mommy-bloggers aside, humor is CRAVED by women and Moms. And it’s particularly welcomed when the tongue-in-cheek is so wonderfully mixed with the tender and honest truth. This video strikes a perfect balance. I would love to know who the creative team is that’s behind it. My guess is that there’s either a woman who’s really in touch with her mommy friends or a mom herself as writer. Kudos to all either way.

I want to thank my friend, Barb, for sending this to me. My 10-year-old daughter, Izzy was so impressed (and, let’s face it, baffled) that anyone would proclaim ME mom of the year, that by the time Beyonce hit the screen celebrating my award, all I could do was hand the computer to my husband and grab my stomach.

Is there anything quite like a good belly laugh? Happy Mother’s Day.

Brother, can you spare a thought?

When speaking at TED, Kevin Kelly threw out a belief that most of us accept as fact these days: Attention is currency. Certainly everyone is clamoring for it. There’s not a consensus, even from Yankelovich, as to how many marketers clamor for us to take notice of their messages each day, but estimates range from 3,000 to 5,000 as you probably know.

However, the number is not the point.

The point is that we feel inundated, bombarded, ambushed (ever noticed how many battle descriptions are used with this statistic?) and occasionally overwhelmed by it all. The point is that all these messages are fighting for ever-diminishing head space and that this head space is precious property that we keep promising to give to truly important stuff like the loves of our lives and the meaning of life and our ultimate contribution to the world. If only we could find the time. But we can’t because, at least in my case, first we have to figure out whether it’s our day to run carpool and, if so, whether we’re supposed to be at the soccer field or the football field.

The point is, that calling our attention “currency” completely devalues it.

We are ultimately what we give the most of our attention to. My attention, your attention, is one of the most precious pieces of ourselves we can give away.

So why do marketers keep thinking it’s OK to steal it?

If you’re trying to get my ATTENTION as a precursor for creating INTENTION to buy, tricking me into watching an ad or making noise just to get noticed is not the way to go my friend. It just pisses me off.

The latest attempted purse snatching was done by Australian agency Naked on behalf of a men’s jacket maker called, appropriately enough, Witchery. It was covered well by Marketing Profs and others and there’s been a lot of talk about whether it’s ethical for advertisers to use the sort of trickery that Witchery did so well and, as someone who has been in advertising for 20 years, listening to ad folks talk ethics is always amusing.

But ethics is not the point.

The point is that it’s misguided, ineffective advertising. Unless ALL you want is attention. In which case, that and three bucks will get you a coffee. And my undying aversion to your brand.

The average guy or gal on the street is not spending a lot of time worrying about whether the most recent fake viral video was moral. They’re momentarily irritated and then off to the next thing on their never-ending ‘to-do’ list. (A stop to pick up that jacket won’t be one of them.)

If you want access to my headspace, the cost of entry is that you give me something worth putting there and remembering. And no, it’s not enough just to be entertaining. For a look at how to do a viral video that’s worth watching, honest and successful, see JC Penny’s, Dog House. Want to know why?

Hold that thought……

Top 5 Questions About Marketing to Women

Well, it’s happened again. Just as it does with every new client with a product that’s used by both genders. They’ve got research in hand that shows their customer satisfaction among women lagging compared to their ratings with men. They seem to be losing women to online and/ or competitors.

Actually, ignoring them will make them (and the their money) go away.

They know they have to do something, but there is a fierce and palpable resistance to doing it. I have been in meetings with C-level executives who have reliable research in which customers give their stores and service a lukewarm review, and I am still asked, essentially, why they should really act on this information.

 

Change is scary. But in this economy, many brands need to do it quickly and smartly or die.

Here are some of the top questions I get when brands realize they need women but don’t really want to evolve.

Q: Does marketing to women mean excluding men?
A: No. Of all the harmful marketing-to-women myths out there, this is the one we need to sacrifice first. Improving your marketing to women doesn’t require painting your product pink or excluding men or being “for women only.” Often the only thing required is to be a bit more human. To look a little closer at the details. To simply respect a woman’s intelligence rather than ignore her existence. 
It means inviting her in. She’ll reward you with her loyalty if you do it right. And she generally brings her friends and family with her.

Q: Why worry about women if you’re marketing to both genders?
A: Because the steps you take to make your brand and product more desirable to women will make it more desirable to everyone. Women are the world’s toughest customers. Please them and you’ll please all. I call this MARKETING TO GENDER 2.0. It’s the next phase. It’s where brands like Apple already are.
 It’s why Best Buy is the last big box electronics store standing. It’s why Wii was the game to buy this past Christmas.


Q: I have lots of information and insights about women. Isn’t that enough to make my marketing to women effective?
A: No. If information were all it took, there would be more success stories like Apple and Best Buy and Curves and Dove. What’s required is to place just as much passion and energy into crafting messages, ads, and communications as you do uncovering the insights that inform that creative. Research alone will not create a great brand campaign. Knowing what a woman wants doesn’t mean much if you can’t communicate that fact to her. And women do have a language all their own. Details matter. There is an art to it. Inspiration, intuition, and talent are required. It helps to think like a woman, laugh like a woman, love like a woman. And yes, it can help quite a bit to be a woman. Research is where you start, but translating it properly is how you finish.

Q: Are you anti-male?
A: No. I’m pro common sense. Here’s my logic. The vast majority of women don’t feel they’re portrayed accurately in advertising (they’re not), and many are actually offended by the very advertising that’s supposed to entice them. I really believe this is an indictment of the way U.S. advertising agencies operate. 97% of the creative directors are men. Think about that for a second. That means men decide what gets presented and produced and all the details inbetween. And here’s the ugly truth – if those male creative directors decide an idea won’t impress the awards show judges at Cannes (who are overwhelmingly male), that idea will never get out the door to you, the client. You won’t even have the honor of seeing it. 

So, remember that great insight you finally unearthed? The nugget that practically guaranteed a favorable female response, provided it was served up properly? Sadly, it probably won’t get served up at all. This is not an indictment of men, but of the way ad agencies have always been run. 



Q: Why make a big deal about gender? Shouldn’t we be beyond that by now?
A: I couldn’t agree more. We should be talking to our own tribes of customers regardless of chromosomes. But, it is a scientific fact that men and women get excited by different things, laugh at different jokes, and travel different paths during the decision making process. Until marketers learn to invite women into their brand and pay attention to the details that matter to them, they’ll continue to lose a very valuable consumer.

Now for the bonus question. This is the one I’m often asked when people find out I specialize in marketing to women.

Q: Why women? Isn’t that a rigid niche?
A: Women are not a niche – they control 80-90% of every consumer purchase decision being made right now. 

Women control seven trillion dollars in spending – roughly equal to the entire Japanese economy. 



Women are TWO for the price of ONE: Impress a woman, and the husband and family comes with her. Turn a woman off and the husband and family goes with her. 



The Economist cites women as the single most powerful force in the global economy. 



What makes a brand more appealing to women usually makes it more appealing to everyone. 



According to Tom Peters in his book, TRENDS, (which gives a very very compelling story about why marketing to women is smart) says women make the BIG purchases: 
personal computers – 66% 
consumer electronics – 60% 
vacation decisions – 89% 
home furnishings – 94% 
new home sales – 75% 
kitchen appliances – 88% 
healthcare purchases – 80% 
new cars – 60% . And these are old stats. The percentages have actually grown, but I always site Tom and encourage people to buy this book because the message carries more weight when it’s delivered by a guru.



Women are loyal and vocal. Other women trust them. They have book clubs. Everybody knows that’s where the important stuff is discussed.