Current TV - Entertainment v Message

It turns out I inadvertently addressed a real issue for the folks at Current TV. I was asked to make a promo for them as part of their New Icons series: I had to go to Current.com and then tell a webcam about my experience on the site.

I had expected to become engaged with videos about the global warming situation (well it is Al Gore’s company) or with some other deeply meaningful cause. But instead I was completely entranced by a video of a fellow in The Netherlands who has a pocket full of remote controls and who surreptitiously uses them to turn off TVs in public places – during the soccer finals. Chaos and desperation ensues as the fans try to figure out why their match has disappeared and our hero just moves anonymously on to the next set of victims. Yes it was irresponsible – but it was utterly hilarious.

So this is what I told the webcam - and this, it seems, is Current’s issue (and not only theirs). How to make good and important causes entertaining enough to divert us from such frivolity. You can see my video on Current TV on December 14th.


See the final edited video.

Selling Statement for a film director

This talented film director had left a career making TV commercials to write and direct a Feature Film (which incidentally had some very big stars in it - we were impressed!) and to shoot TV shows.

Now he wanted to find a new balance in his career between feature projects and TV spots. He needed to reintroduce himself to the ad agency and production company market, so he asked Pollock Spark help him to develop a Statement defining his style and to craft a presentation that would get him back into the competitive world of TV spots.

Here’s what the director said of Pollock Spark's work: “This is terrific. I really like the Statement … Seems very sellable to me, easy for a rep to remember and for an agency to repeat to a client.”

This is what we all need - a simple statement of our value proposition. And it is not easy to craft that for yourself - seeing yourself as others see you is very hard.

UPDATE 3/28/08
He's been booked solid for the last eight weeks - see what he says.

Pollock Spark works...

...For a successful 22 yr old animation company.

Under new ownership, this company wanted to know where it stood in the marketplace, how it was perceived by its advertising agency clients and what it needed to do to reach new levels of success.

Pollock Spark was able to reach out to the company's former clients and potential clients. These senior ad agency creatives told this independent interviewer things they would never tell the company or its reps. We learned some things that “surprised” our client and were invaluable in formulating a new strategy. The learning and the analysis, inspired by Pollock Spark's insights, led to a retooled strategy for the company and a new marketing plan.

“I am excited about moving forward” said the owner after spending a day absorbing the results.

Green Clutter or Social Awareness

Most US consumers think of themselves as environmentally friendly, according to an Environmental Leader article citing BBMG's "Conscious Consumer Report."

In addition to being eco-friendly, nearly nine in 10 US respondents self-identified themselves either as "conscious consumers" or "socially responsible."

That contrasts with respondents who self-identified themselves as "green." About two-thirds of respondents in the BBMG study said that the term described them "well," and 18% said it described them "very well."

"In a world of green clutter, conscious consumers expect companies to do more than make eco-friendly claims," said Raphael Bemporad, partner at BBMG. "They demand transparency and accountability across every level of business practice."

Thanks to emarketer who sent us this information. And to Greenpeace for the image.

Barry Diller's Mouthfuls

Barry Diller, recently the nation's highest paid executive, is breaking up his
IAC/InterActiveCorp.

"While we have created a lot of value," Mr Diller said, "I have always believed that our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity of understanding with all our constituencies, including investors."

Could this be true of your company too?

Win-win for a brand and a cause

A powerful and productive partnership was created when our sister nonprofit The Cyrano Project introduced Carissa Phelps and filmmaker David Sauvage to Virgin Mobile.

The no-contract wireless provider screened a special preview of a moving new film about Carissa's harrowing young life on the streets and in the motels of Fresno. Directed and produced by Sauvage and executive produced by Davis Guggenheim (Oscar winner for "An Inconvenient Truth") --it was shown at the Virgin Mobile RE*Generation Art Gallery Auction and Benefit in New York in November.

The downtown art crowd was there, young and beautiful and buying art for the cause of
Youth Homelessness. The nonprofits who work on the streets with homeless kids were there - there are about a million teens and children on the streets of the US today. And VM staffers were there - telling anyone who'd listen that they are so proud to work for a company that does this.

To learn more about the artists whose work was on sale you simply had to dial a number on one of the fantastically decorated VM phones that were on display.

It was terrific branding for VM, whose prime customer is young and who empathizes with the plight of these homeless kids.

The event raised money and awareness for the cause, it was great entertainment and made complete sense as a brilliant branded promotion.

I should add that VM has sponsored Congressional legislation making November,Youth Homelessness Awareness Month and Carissa - a phenomenal woman who is no longer on the streets and has just earned a law degree and an MBA - is their national spokesperson. So this thing has legs.

There must be a perfect cause for your business. Let us help you find it.

Museum of Creative Process

So we were driving innocently through the wonderful Vermont fall countryside when we spied a sign that told us that a couple miles further on we would find the Museum of the Creative Process.
Well, well.
I said that I thought it would be a lot of people sitting around looking desperately at blank pieces of paper.
My wife thought it was the house of a graphic designer who never threw anything out and whose wife told him in exasperation that he should charge people to come and see the mess.
Sad to say we never found the Museum.
I think the sign is all there is. It started our creative processes and left us to come up with our own ideas - though admittedly not brilliant ones. All process and no outcome - ah well.

CRM and WOM

Okay - personal story from yesterday. A perfect example of brilliant cutomer relations (CRM) leading to great Word of Mouth (WOM). This is how it should be done.

My shaving oil was melting parts of my Gillette Fusion razor blades. So I wrote to customer service through the Gillette website. They are now P&G of course. I got an email back from them within hours. And it wasn't one of those automated : "We-got-your-email-and-you-are-now-in-the-system" emails. It specifically addressed the particulars of my issue: they are sorry; they are sending me a new one; oils are not recommended - they suggest gel or foam; and here's the capper:

"Because of the unusual nature of this situation, our quality department would like to examine the used portion of the product. I'm also sending postage-paid mailing materials you can use to return the used portion to us for examination."

Now this is truly responsive customer service. I am enchanted and impressed.

By last night I realized I had told this story to three people as an example of how brilliant Gillette/P&G are with their customer service. So the Word of Mouth was working full blast. I guess that makes me an influencer.

In a nutshell there is all we need to know about taking care of customers - even when they have a problem - so they will become our advocates.

"Mo||erf||ker, A Movie"

Last year I was advisor/mentor to a very smart young filmmaker called David Casey as he was making a film about a notorious and influential New York rock and roll party.

Here is what the Village Voice has written about the film:

Motherfucker I'd Like to Film
A new doc touts New York nightlife as it should (and might not always) be
by Annie Fischer
October 9th, 2007 5:37 PM

The documentary opens on the train. Director David Casey and crew are headed to the apartment of Motherfucker's Michael T, who answers the door in a robe and leads them to the bathroom to witness, in his words, "the transformation of Michael T." It involves a confidence that his party has become known for: a queeny, cocksure swagger that comes from the decision not to take the shit you took as a kid, he says. It also involves assloads of blush.

To hear his fellow Motherfuckers tell it, Michael T is the "mother" of the group, which has been producing balls-out dance parties where guests dress to impress—like, really, if they want to get past Thomas Onorato at the door—in Manhattan eight nights a year for the past six, specifically on national holidays, for New Yorkers who either can't afford to leave the city or just don't want to. And to hear Michael tell it, Johnny T is the father—or at least the "cool uncle who does a lot of good stuff but sometimes screws up." Georgie Seville serves as peacemaker. Justine D represents the scenester. Together, the quartet serves as the muse for Casey's latest film, Motherfucker: A Movie, which debuts at the CMJ Festival next week.

According to Casey, who recently moved from New York to San Francisco to work for Al Gore's cable-television network, Current TV, the project grew out of a failed attempt to document the "rock 'n' roll genesis of 2000"—the musical takeover by the Strokes, Interpol, etc.

"Within 18 months, that whole movement had been swallowed up—they'd all gotten pushed out or signed," says Casey. "But I was hooked on doing something regarding the immediacy of New York. I'd interviewed Justine D in regard to the earlier project, and Motherfucker made so much sense. We would be able to shoot amazing, beautiful, really professional stuff in a short amount of time—in seven months, from New Year's Eve 2005 to July 3, 2006, we shot four parties. And then I also conducted 152 interviews myself. I wanted to talk to everybody I could about the changing landscape of nightlife in New York: Moby, Andrew W.K., Tommie Sunshine, Tricia Romano, etc. They had to be done quick, because with documents of nightlife, you either want immediate or 20 years down the road. You know, look what you could be doing now—or look at what you missed."

In this case, it's the former. Motherfucker is still going strong: The most recent party took place at Eugene on Labor Day. And the movie, which clocks in at just over an hour and a half, succeeds in showcasing its continued spirit—the drag queens, the drugs, the dancing. But the administrative obstacles faced by New York's nightlife crafters continue to grow, and despite all the look-how-fun footage, that sense of gloom provides an undercurrent for many of Motherfucker's interviews.

There's also an obvious frustration apparent when talking with Casey, who says he wasn't prepared for how challenging the project would be. "Finally, my executive producer just had to tell me to stop," says the Hunter College grad. "We had over 200 hours of footage—he was like, 'You've got to make something with what you've got.' I would have liked to do more interviews, had a little more time, taped a couple more events. But you can only do so much. If it's going to be a slice of life in 2006, then that's what it is—you can't make a definitive statement in just six months."

Casey fears, however, that he missed a chance or two to do just that. "At the 2006 Halloween party, we filmed a screener of the doc, and the next day when I went to pick up my projector, the doors were locked," he says. "The Roxy didn't reopen for 10 more days. On the day they finally let me pick it up, I walked in and nothing had been cleaned up from that night. There were, like, those giant blow-up lawn decorations, like those pumpkins, still blowing by the front doors. Bottles, trash, and vomit everywhere. Michael had performed a scene from Carrie on the stage, and it was covered in fake blood. Nothing had changed from that night. I felt like I was witnessing the aftermath of the end of the world. I was like, Fuck, this is the most perfect end to the film, and the police wouldn't let me go get my camera. It was so frustrating."

Then there are the challenges presented by the medium: Regardless of how beautiful the footage is, Motherfucker's audience will still never be at the party. The music and the booze are missing, and the experience simply can't be replicated two-dimensionally. "Michael T is just this craftsman of moments, but when you're visually capturing a party, the camera stands between yourself and the fun," Casey says, pausing. "That was hard—trying to depict what I saw as the truth versus what the Mofos feel they see. If someone had been in the basement of Studio 54 with a camera, you probably would have seen that it's just a dingy basement with leaky pipes and rats. But when you read about it, you don't visualize that stuff. You're just like, David Bowie was there."

That's not to say Casey isn't happy with the finished product, as he should be—hearing what the four producers are willing to admit about each other is alone worth the price of admission. (Justine on Johnny: "I don't like how Johnny deals with certain matters, and I don't really like how he deals with me. He can be a real asshole." Michael on Justine: "She can be a little ... just adolescent-like." Johnny on everyone: "We don't always love each other.") Casey says that his first Motherfucker party—2002's Andrew W.K. fete at the Roxy—opened him up to a world he'd never experienced as the typical "downtown/Brooklyn hipster," and that his documentary is a love letter to the city he'd never seen before that night.

"Motherfucker might not necessarily be the most original idea, but it's the most true to what New York can represent in terms of nightlife—it's willing to be seedy and play great music, but also to be free," he concludes. "There's not a crazy amount of security, there's no bottle service, there aren't tons of drink specials. Those four hold fast to the old New York legacy. There's just nobody else like them."

Click here for more images and to learn about the film.



Photo credit: Jenny Askew

How we identify your Main Message

The key to an effective marketing plan is an intelligently crafted and consistently used Main Message. This must be informed by a company’s unique capabilities, its goals and an understanding of its clients and competitors. It will be the idea expressed at all touch-points: from website to portfolios, from samples to sales presentations, from PR to the way the phones are answered.

Pollock|Spark uncovers the unique strengths and goals of a company and creates a compelling and focused Main Message to be the foundation of all their communications.

Here’s how we do it for a typical creative company. This plan is fully adaptable to work for individual creative talents or for larger organizations

“Who do they think they are? And who do they want to be?”
Internal inquiry: Pollock|Spark conducts in-depth interviews with key principals/staffers to discover the company’s strengths relative to its competitors, the talents and services it offers, and their hopes and dreams. These interviews are face-to-face for best results and greatest insight. A review of the company’s work and a marketing audit are conducted.

“Who do their clients think they are, and what are they looking for?”
External inquiry: Pollock|Spark conducts telephone interviews with selected clients. These interviews will uncover their views of the company’s capabilities and their level of satisfaction with performance and product as well as whom they regard as the company’s competition.

Insights: Main Message
Pollock|Spark brings fresh eyes and objectivity to what it has learned. The company’s Main Message is crafted from our insights and is informed by our years of experience. This is not a tag line or a piece of advertising – it is an expression of the company’s unique value proposition and it will be used as the basis for all communications. In most cases it can be used as a brief “elevator speech” to describe the company. A report of the top-line findings and analysis will also be provided.

Projected Timeframe
The complete process usually takes around four weeks. The time is dependent on availabilities for interviews.

Deliverables
Main Message
Top-line findings and analysis report

Fees on request

Brainstorming sessions
Facilitated half-day brainstormings on a selected topic can be most valuable. These include such favorites as:
* Incorporating Message into the company’s DNA
* Communications/marketing planning
* Focusing the creative offering

About Pollock|Spark
Pollock|Spark, A Catalyst for Creative Businesses, is a management and strategic
consultancy that helps creative businesses to focus their vision and grow. We help make running a business fun again. To learn more, visit us at www.pollockspark.com

What Pollock|Spark clients have said:
"Michael (Pollock, Pollock|Spark) has a very strong ability to focus deeply on a company and draw out important, often overlooked, issues. His suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent. Michael has been instrumental in helping us clearly define goals and working towards achieving them."
David Gioiella, Partner, Northern Lights

“The Pollock|Spark report has served as a trusted guide for the board of directors and the professional staff. It has helped navigate the substantial structural and behavioral changes the association has gone through, helped change the way AICE conducts its business and the way it informs and engages its membership. The difference has been extraordinary. From the attitude of the board to the renewed sense of purpose of the membership, AICE is a reinvigorated association thanks in no small part to the careful and insightful work of Pollock|Spark.
Burke Moody, Executive Director, AICE

“(Pollock|Spark) navigated a potentially difficult internal political situation at our company very well (difficult because of the self-perception differences between the partners), advertised your services accurately and delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement.”
David Starr, Partner, Curious Pictures

Ask us for a quote - we would love to help you.