Is that all we do, sell stuff?

By October 12 2009, 7:54 am 35 Comments
Tagged:

I was on the tube, on my way to the D&AD TV judging at
Olympia. Olympia is the last stop on that branch of the District
line.

 

Normally, when you get near the station, the train driver’s
voice comes over the loud speaker. “The next stop is
Olympia where this train terminates.”

 

Fair enough. It’s the basic information we need to know.

 

But this time the train driver did something different. He started singing over the loud speaker. To the tune of “I Did It My Way” by Frank Sinatra.

 

“And now, the end is near…… And now we reach…. Our destination. We’ve come from High
Street Ken….. And passed through
all…… Those other stations…..”

 

And, as he carried on singing, a strange thing happened. I looked around the carriage and people were smiling at each
other. On the tube.

 

I’d never seen it before. And, as we got to Olympia, people started chatting to each
other. When we left the train a few of us even stuck our head into
the driver’s cab. Curious to see what he looked like. And I wanted to say thanks.

 

What he did started my day off really nicely. There was no reason to do it. He wouldn’t get paid anymore for it. None of us would buy more tube tickets because of it. There was no financial benefit. No material incentive.

 

So, in advertising terms, why do it? It couldn’t be justified. And we don’t do anything that can’t be justified, ultimately,
in financial terms.

 

If a train driver wanted to sing on the tube he’d have to
make a case that it would increase either brand loyalty, or propensity to
purchase, or at least brand salience. But what if it doesn’t do any of those things? What if it’s just nice?

 

What if it just makes everyone feel better, with no
financial benefit? Why isn’t that valid?

 

That train driver contributed to our lives that morning. He didn’t want anything from us. He was just having fun. And we had fun, listening to him have fun.

 

In fact that train driver cheered me up more than anything I
saw at the D&AD TV judging. And that was all made by professionals. Professionals who would have needed consensus at every stage.

 

Consensus from the creatives, then from the account men, then
from the planners, then from the clients, then from the TV authorities, and
finally even from the production company, director, actors, and editor. You’re talking anywhere from a dozen to two-dozen people.

 

But the train driver didn’t have any of that. Imagine if he’d had to ask a dozen or more people in 6
different departments if he could sing about the last stop. It would have been at least a week before he got a decision.

 

“What’s the ROI on
singing the destinations?” “Dunno, bit of fun?”

 

Yeah, right, that’d work. So it would never have happened. It can’t be justified. And yet, I tell you what, if you need a justification how
about this.

 

I can’t remember 90% of the ads I saw during those 4 days of
D&AD TV judging. And they were all done by extremely expensive groups of
professionals from the most sophisticated advertising agencies in the world.

 

But I remembered, and talked about, and just wrote about,
that train driver. And I remember the words of his song. Even though I only heard it once. And each time I repeat it, it’s another free OTS. And, as we all know, word-of-mouth is the best media you can
get.

 

What would your clients pay for advertising like that?

 

  • Kevin Gordon

    That’s the stuff great ads are made of:
    It’s called life, and many creatives these days are dead to it.

    Here’s a few ads that still live beyond their death to prove the point:

    Ernie
    Arkwright
    The Smash Martians
    Cinzano

  • http://philadams.tumblr.com/ Phil Adams

    Sixteen years ago I was heading west from Earls Court on the Piccadilly Line. The trains were all making very slow progress, either due to some kind of signal failure or a work to rule. Can’t remember.

    What I do remember was the highly amusing running commentary that we all got from the driver. He explained the procedure he was having to follow (keeping the rear lights of the train in front in view) and gave us his best advice on how to make quickest progress to Hammersmith.

    Having examined the various options out loud he recommended that we “alight at Barons Court and expedite our journey at street level”. Lots of smiles all round.

    16 years on and I can remember his last sentence verbatim, and I think about him every time I hear the word “expedite”.

  • http://wallpapering-fog.blogspot.com Neil Charles

    Am I being a killjoy by pointing out that what the Tube driver did was free? I’m sure clients would have no problem with with us just making people feel better if it didn’t cost them any money!

    Been having an interesting discussion along the lines of ‘is sales what ads do?’ over on Eskimon’s blog recently http://eskimon.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/advertising-and-sales/

  • http://g9rilla@googlemail.com Grilla Login

    If
    we
    were
    plummeting
    from
    a
    tall
    building
    and
    our
    life
    was
    flashing
    before
    our
    eyes
    how
    many
    ads
    memorable
    or
    otherwise
    would
    that
    montage
    contain
    ?

    Mr
    Krone
    would
    approve
    of
    Grilla’s
    use
    of
    typepad
    ; )

  • Dave Trott

    Thanks Neil,
    You’re right about eskimon.wordpress.com/…/advertising-and-sales
    I followed your link and that’s a really good blog.
    I’m going to be printing it out.
    I definitely recommend everyone to read it.

  • Kevin Gordon

    I mean,
    Dave bought a tcket to get on the tube.
    He didn’t get a free ride.

  • Kevin Gordon

    Hi Grilla,

    Most of us would probably be thinking this…

    And now, the end is near……
    And now we reach….
    Our dest …

    SFX: THUD

  • paul constable

    Nice story. And I’ve heard a few like this from the misery of tube travel. And like you, it will have effected your fellow travellers in the same way. In the context of this blog, the point here is the unexpected, against the norm, you can’t/shouldn’t do that, emotions, emotions, emotions.
    It’s as simple as Why? Why not.
    Me. I’m quite happy watching a Gorilla giving it some on a set of drums

  • http://www.creativeorchestra.com CHRIS ARNOLD

    Remember when buses were fun to be on? When they had conductors. Conductors not only served an important role – collecting fairs – but more importantly, they engaged the customer. Good ones were friendly, polite, helpful to the old, gave directions, advice and always up for a chat. Now you have a grumpy driver who drives like a maniac. Somewhere we lost something. Why? Accountants, they just see the cost not the benefit! Some people don’t get the value of emotional interaction. And alas nor do many ads these days.

  • http://g9rilla@googlemail.com Grilla Login

    Dave, considering the number of flaming hoops an idea has to jump through on its journey to poster, page, airwave, doormat, on and offline screen, or indeed, plane-trailer in the sky, projection on the side of a passing elephant, is it any wonder memorably good examples seldom make it?

    Kevin, hi to you.

    Alternatively, we could be thinking, OMG, I’m gonna finish up in that dog turd, and that wasn’t the plan…

  • http://networkequipment.wordpress.com/ Mark Cadbury

    Dave

    Excellent story. There is something underlining your story – and that is ad agencies do not have the creativity they once did.

    Why? You are probably best to answer that, but my feeling is that the smart,creative-types are simply not going into ad agencies as they think it isn’t that creative and is dying.

    Your thoughts?

    Mark

  • John W.

    I’m sure the marketing director of the tube that very morning put out a directive for the drivers to sing in order to maintain brand loyalty or was it an idea from Boris to flag up London’s friendliness pre-Olympics?

    As for ad agencies creative credentials, my theory is that too many middle-class and academically educated individuals prevail in the industry. Shaking it up by hiring ‘exoctic’ foreigners doesn’t cut the mustard either. I can’t recall any time that agencies looked for creative talent away from art colleges. Not that they are all ‘useless’ but ‘we’ need to widen our net for creative talent if we want to be back on top of the game…I’m sure there is a tube driver somewhere who can come up with ideas!

  • Dave Trott

    Hi Mark,
    My theory is that planning ruined creativity in advertising.
    But not in the way most people mean.
    Before the advent of planning, copywriters had to think a lot more.
    The brief wasn’t someone else’s responsibility.
    Great ideas often came during or (gasp) even before the brief.
    It was about intuitive insights.
    Now it’s a linear, conveyor-belt process.
    Copywriters and art directors are mainly stylists for someone else’s thinking.
    .

  • John W.

    Very true Dave but don’t you think that conveyor belt of pre-conditioned thinking starts a lot earlier…like at school and art colleges for instance.
    Surely some evidence of life outside of advertising or academia would bring about thinking that was more intuitive to ‘ordinary’ people.
    Looking at the ‘Mad Men’ wasn’t Don Draper ex forces?
    What was his qualification to become a creative ?

  • Dave Trott

    Hi John,
    Creatives, like everyone else, are lazy.
    So creative students expect to be given a brief before they start work.
    I usually give just them the name of the product/brand and nothing else.
    So they learn to do research, write a brief, and do a crude media plan.
    Most students have been taught that this is beneath them.
    The brief (and strategic thinking) won’t be required.
    So they miss out on 75% of the creative possibilities.

  • http://eskimon.wordpress.com/ eskimon

    This anecdote is a great illustration of Paul Isakson’s “Stop Campaigning, Start Committing” manifesto. As Paul says, we need to “start looking at marketing as a progressive story, instead of as quarterly campaigns.” (from here: http://paulisakson.typepad.com/planning/2008/09/modern-brand-bu.html)

    So much marketing seems suffocated by the need to hit quarterly sales targets, but that mentality is akin to someone trying to go ‘all the way’ on a first date: even if it works, it’s not a great way to build a lasting relationship.

    This is something John Willshire’s been talking about recently too. He makes a great comparison between advertising and firework displays: the results often seem great during the show, but as soon as they finish, the crowd moves on (from here: http://feedingthepuppy.typepad.com/feeding_the_puppy/2009/08/advertising-firework-social-bonfire-pt-ii.html)

    John suggests that we’d do much better to employ a ‘campfire’ approach. In other words, we don’t need every ad to deliver a direct sale, because the most valuable relationships are built over time, through a balance of give and take. Sometimes, an ad that gives something back to the audience without expecting anything in return will be far more powerful than a great sales-oriented piece.

    The tube driver in your story seems to have demonstrated this. Let’s try doing it his way.

  • Kevin Gordon

    This is what the industry suffers from…

    Aaaaarggghhhhh, good evening, good afternoon, good morning and good God do you think there may be people listening?
    Aaarggh, you may be wondering who doth assault your listening lulus on this the 789th anniversary of Shakespeare’s mother.
    My name for those of you unfortunate enough not to know is Warrington Minge – which is not, as some have suggested a statement of intent.
    As you can no doubt guess I am ……unemployed. Or as we like to call it in the noblest profession since Mata Hari first lifted her veil, resting.
    Those of you still more unfortunate to actually know me can tell the rest that I am….wait for it, wait for it…..an Actorrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
    HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE…..
    Oh no,….apparently they’ll be adding that later.

    …but unfortunately they are not unemplyed.

    Go round the office now, and see if you can spot your own
    WARRINGTON MINGE.

  • A Y

    The way I see it, the driver WAS paid, a salary to take one and all to their respective destinations. Above all, he saw it in his capacity to add value to everyone’s day WHILST he was fulfilling that first responsibility.

    Advertising continues to be paid for by clients to sell. It’s the only way they can pay for more advertising, if anything.

    I don’t think anyone would argue about people who go the extra mile. But consider this…

    Had the driver not taken anyone to their destination, but had his own fun WHILST still getting paid his salary… you would have paid the fare, gone nowhere, and risk paying more just to get to the place you were supposed to be driven to in the first place! And you would be very, very late!!

    I don’t think anyone would think it funny then, would they?

    The driver would be cruxified… which brings us back to the creatives who create ads for “creativity” sakes… (for awards, really).

    What does the industry do? Give them bigger jobs and pay them more!

    Go figure.

  • Dave Trott

    AY,
    I agree, it has to be ‘as well as’ not ‘instead of’.

  • http://networkequipment.wordpress.com/ Mark Cadbury

    Dave

    Your blogs do get people going.

    Thank you for your reply and I think that you’re right about the process, when I was at Microsoft we were encouraged to spend time with the creatives – not on writing briefs but on getting together and talking – which lead to some really good creative work, that seems to have changed with over planning and over account management.

    Mark

  • http://www.bobashwood.com Bob Ashwood

    I used to take the Northern Line to Mornington Crescent. One particular morning, the driver gave an articulate summary of every stop along the way! “The next stop ladies and gentlemen is Mornington Crescent, one London’s oldest underground stations architecturally noted for its ornate ceramic tile facias and spiral staircase. During the war …bla…bla..” It was brilliant. Everyone smiled, learnt something. A worthy tourism tactic.

    The thing is, if London Underground were to consider such a thing, as has been noted above, a consensus team would put in place who would insist on it all being pre-recorded using Joanna Lumley or John Shrapnell, or any other such gravitas orators. I’m sure someone must have considered ‘Radio Tube’. After all, shops have their own in-house broadcast, why not the Tube? But it would be best if the driver could be his own philosophical self and run the show. Never happen. Not on Boris’s watch.

  • Kevin Gordon

    I travelled on Aeroflot from Moscow to Sochi on the Black Sea with a plane full of Muscovites. My wife told me there was a group of “Groozier Muzikants”
    Russian for “Ukranian folk band” on tour on the plane.

    After lunch (and a few glasses of wine) they decided to give us a personal rendition of their music. The whole band just unpacked all their instruments in-flight, and started to play. It was such a wonderful experience because they went the extra mile.

    I like the fact that Dave decided to take the tube when many would have travelled by Taxi. It’s all about being out there and mixing with life.
    That’s where real inspiration is.
    It doesn’t usually come from sitting staring at the walls.

    Life is just fantastic, and so many creatives hide from it.
    Why?
    We’re not on the set of “Blade”.
    Sunlight won’t kill (most of) us.

    I was told once how a team came into an agency,
    locked their doors and recieved briefs only under the door. ..
    they would pass the finished work under the door to be collected by the account team.

    I mean, come on guys.
    This is the communications industry.
    If we can’t share ideas…nobody will benefit.

  • Dave Trott

    Hi Kevin,
    I got the subway habit in New York.
    There it’s for speed, getting a cab just means sitting in a traffic jam.
    In London, the great thing about the tube is how much reading I get done.
    You can’t read a book in a taxi.

  • http://www.gravitythinking.blogspot.com Andrew Roberts

    I remember watching the end of the last series of Mad Men when the aforementioned Don Draper professed “I sell products not advertising” and thinking how different those times were when advertising was the only real channel available – now products have to consider every touchpoint and appropriate messaging therein – maybe this is part of a new TfL social media initative – what next ? we already have a social network for “connecting the Capital” – Talk on the Tube http://www.talkonthetube.com/ or maybe Boris actually blogging himself rather than using his team – http://www.boris-johnson.com/ !

  • A Y

    Thanks, Dave. I really do enjoy reading your blog.

    Still, I don’t think the planners killed creativity in advertising. I think the lazy (as you so correctly pointed out) creatives did us all in.

    The likes of Bernbach, Ogilvy, Burnett, Rubicam, etc. (Trott included?) created the legendary works they did because their very careers depended on them.

    Today’s “creatives” create the “award-winning” works they do as their very careers depend on these pencils, statuettes, etc.

    Nobody gave an award to the Underground driver, but he made Dave’s day.

    And you know what? He made mine, too…

  • http://www.bobashwood.com Bob Ashwood

    I’m not really sure that I’ve ever done anything ‘like my career depended on it’. I suppose it’s a bit like Bill Shankley and football, it’s not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that. I’m always trying to connect. The rest is secondary. As I read this, it sounds like a bit of a wank. But, I really mean it. It’s a risk talking like this in open forum. Maybe that’s why I like that too.

  • Dave Trott
  • http://rubyrosamund.blogspot.com/ Ruby Rosamund

    Maybe it’s cos I’m a country bumpkin, but the guys at Berwick-Upon-Tweed station always had fun on the intercom. when getting picked up and dropped off during driving lessons, I got quite used to their mis-pronouncing, funny accents, singalongs, ‘accidental’ background chatter etc.

    I got the impression they enjoyed their jobs, which is an important thing for me in any consumer situation. A coffee made with love is better than a coffee made begrudgingly – I think I would say the same for public transport services.

    I once had an incredibly rude woman sell me at a London Underground station. She put me off more than just asking for the platform – she made me want to take the bus. She contributed to my loathing of London – what an unfriendly, grim and bitchy place. Good work, Miss Miserable.

  • Neil Hopkins

    Why do you think that it can’t be justified?
    The driver was delivering on a customer service promise that the network make – and he exceeded that promise.
    Had he told the passengers to “f-off because the train don’t go no further. Innit” your conception of the service would probably plummet and you may consider alternative methods of transport.
    However, one little some made life just that little bit better so, when you think of the tube network, you won’t be thinking of the works, the closures, the upheaval, the sweaty armpit of the guy next to you rubbing the side of your face – you’ll be thinking about that one time when you felt just that little bit better about life.
    Brands spend millions trying to get that warm glowy feeling and judge their ROI accordingly. This guy’s done the network a favour – so yes, it is justified.

  • http://g9rilla@googlemail.com Grilla Login

    Will all customers of DTB alight here as your thread has arrived at its conclusion.

    Thank you for traveling with us, have a nice day.

  • Kevin Gordon

    Hi Dave.

    I know what you mean.
    It’s use of dead space.
    I spent 3 hours a day travelling.
    15 hrs a week.
    60 hours a month.
    720 hours a year.
    That’s a real waste of time.
    So I took a degree course reading on the train back and forth to london.
    6480 study hours later I had what I wanted.

    This is the main point:-
    Had I not bothered,
    I’d still have travelled for 6480 hours
    and be none the wiser for it.

  • Kevin Gordon

    Hi Grilla,

    I think there’s a lot more left in this blog yet.
    And we’re certainly not at the end of the road.

    For instance.
    What’s the ROI on singing the destinations?
    What made the Driver do it?
    What did Dave say to the Driver when the passengers went up front?
    and
    “is that all we do, sell stuff?”
    Well do we?
    Do we do the ads we really want to do?
    or are we guilty of chronic people pleasing?
    (£££) and ruining the business in the process?

    One school of thought may say yes.
    Another may say no.
    and the client’s view?

    What did John Webster think when he did an ad?

    Did he think:-

    This is going to make a shedload of money.

    or

    This is a great ad,
    and because it’s great,
    people are going to love it,
    and because they love it,
    it’s going to make more money
    than anyone has ever imagined,
    because this is a great ad.

  • Michael

    The commuter trains here have recently added an automated announcement system, which is well and good, but the computerized voice mispronounces the names of the station stops – and I mean mispronounces them very badly – all in this smug, flat automated tone of voice. It really is quite funny. And it has been going on for days now. All of this to the amusement of the passengers, providing a certain amount of tittering and shared joking amongst strangers on the train.

    So a system that was designed and built to do X (automate announcements), does not do X very well, but unexpectedly does some Y (community building). From a results oriented perspective: In what sense is this system a success? In what sense did this system’s designers go the extra mile? In what sense does this system exceed its promise?

    mm

  • gotnoteef

    Michael – sounds like the system deilvers beautifully.

    There’s nothing so warming as a shared joke and a smile with a stranger – makes the day a little better for both of you.

    We’re social creatures – communicators – sometimes the daily grind makes people forget.

    My personal favourite is to spend a couple of minutes having a chat with the checkout lady at the supermarket while I pack my stuff.

    So many people go by without anything more than a cursory ‘hello’ (in many cases, not even that) – and she’s just sat there, in front of them.

    A bit of interest in each other’s day costs nothing and – as Kevin says above – the time is there to be used, so why waste it on silence?

    Perhaps the mispronunciations are a deliberate ploy.

    Now there’s an idea.

    C*ck-ups for the sake of entertainment

    – it’s also a great spin for when something goes horribly wrong with humourous consequences.

  • Michael

    RE: Michael – sounds like the system deilvers beautifully.

    Yah exactly. My point is that you can’t discount how much is delivered by accident. Yes sure, one makes one own luck. Just as much as one makes one own talent. But even the best of them aren’t blind to how much of it all is just blind luck, and they ARE the best simply because they somehow remain open to the luck; open to the talent. It clearly comes (at least in some great part) from without oneself, and you have to remain flexible and light on your feet.

    Believe me; in the software development corner we are simply nuts about process. We test and test, and quadcheck everything, and peer review requirements until every box is filled. Probably makes your type of planners and portfolio managers seem like Pollyannas. But if our team trips down the staircase and lands on its feet with a fully developed package – we’ll take it no matter how it comes about.

    mm

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