Lovemarks – Mediacat Forum

Thursday, 9 November 2006 - Istanbul, Turkey

Mediacat Forum Kevin Roberts

Presentation Summary

A speech to an audience of senior staff working in Turkey’s advertising and media industries. This keynote presentation offers ten ideas to make magic in Turkey – Lovemarks, sisomo and the Attraction Economy.


My wife Ro, daughter Bex and Ro’s mum Rita are with me in Turkey. Istanbul is a Lovemark for us, filled with magic and destiny. We love it here. Thanks for inviting me back.

For media cats these too are days of magic and adventure. Mass marketing is dead. Advertising has never been more fun. Media has never been more exciting. Creativity has never been more important.

We’ve moved into the Age of the Idea.

TEN IDEAS TO MAKE MAGIC IN TURKEY

#1 Give in to Emotion

Lovemarks is an idea, an emotional journey to a better world for all. It starts with the answer and works back. The answer is always people, and what drives them, what holds them together.

People are powered by emotion, by love – not by reason, rules, rationality or regulations.

  • Reason tries to work through with the brain. Emotion explodes through with the heart.
  • Reason looks through the eyes of companies. Emotion sees through the eyes of consumers.

“Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action.” – Neurologist Donald Calne

#2 Go for Attraction

From Information Economy, Knowledge Economy, Interruption Marketing (aka the Mass Market), Permission Marketing, the Experience Economy, Attention Economy to the ATTRACTION ECONOMY.

The future of communications lies in Attraction.

ATTENTION ECONOMY ATTRACTION ECONOMY
Interruption Engagement
Directors Connectors
One-to-many Many-to-one
Reactive Interactive
Return on Investment Return On Involvement
Heavy Users Inspirational Consumers
Big promises Intimate gestures
What you need What I want

#3 Pour Lovemarks into Life

In the Attraction Economy consumers want more. Beyond benefits, attributes, performance and function. Beyond brands. They want real emotion, Lovemarks.

From products to trademarks, from trademarks to brands. From brands to Lovemarks. Lovemarks are the future beyond brands.

  • Lovemarks are built on Love and Respect.
  • Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.
  • Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them, not by companies or marketers. 

www.lovemarks.com has more than 10,000 stories by people from over 100 countries. From flags and shoes to breakfast cereals and beer.

Here’s a Lovemark from Brazil.

  • Lovemarks offer huge commercial advantages. We have proof and a unique methodology to measure Lovemarks and emotion.
  • Lovemarks aren’t just Irreplaceable. They are Irresistible.

Local or global, you recognize Lovemarks instantly.

  • Harley / Suzuki
  • iPod / The rest.

Here’s one from back home.

The Lovemarks Effect is our latest book, just published. It shows Lovemarks in action in the store, in research and in great companies like Diesel, Benetton, Ben & Jerry’s, Camper, Mandarina Duck.

#4 Rise above Respect

The Love/Respect Axis maps the global market.

lovemarks-axis

The Love / Respect Axis

Low Respect. Low Love. Raw materials. Spam slams. Click frauds. Media trapped in the commodity marketplace. The Black Hole of communications.

High Love. Low Respect. Hero today, zero tomorrow. Fads and infatuations full of fast energy and fun. Snakes on a plane. J Lo Jeans. Paris Hilton on YouTube. Maradona before he fell from grace.

High Respect. Low Love. Brands stuck on the “-er” words: bigger, better, faster. Media that puts interruption ahead of attraction.

High Love. High Respect. Lovemarks. Perpetual attraction. Irresistible appeal. Customized, differentiated. Loyalty beyond reason.
#5 Explore the 3 Secrets

Brands have Performance, Trust and Reputation. Lovemarks infuse Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy. Istanbul, Turkey is loaded with mystery, sensuality and intimacy. Mine this reservoir. Put it on tap…

Mystery draws together the stories, metaphors, dreams and symbols that give a relationship its texture. A fusion of past, present and future.

Turkey bridges east and west, yesterday and tomorrow. Ottoman enchantment to modern advancement, the world wants your deep richness.

Embed and unfold surprise, texture, nuance and mystique. It’s what we don’t know that attracts.

Sensuality is a portal to the emotions. Vision, smell, hearing, touch, taste… how we experience the world.

At P&G in the ‘70s, I went missing for weeks in the Souks of Sana’a, Al Ain, Casablanca. Experiencing genine emotion, absorbing chatter and buzz, visiting homes to see our products are actually used.

Project your unique impulses, sensations and authenticities across markets and media. Online transactions and services are desperately seeking sensuality.

What’s your scent? İt matters. It impacts purchase more than everything else combined, LG Electronics has a lavender-scented cell phone keypad, chocolate scent sells their chocolate phones. Sony style stores have vanilla-and-mandarin aroma. Pepsi releases black-cherry vanilla in magazine and store.

And the warm breath of Intimacy. Empathy, commitment and passion.

The intimate connections that today no one takes for granted.

#6 Seduce with sisomo

Lovemarks are accelerated by sisomo – Sight, Sound and Motion, the pulse of the Attraction Economy, the title of our book for the Screen Age.

“Television is still the most powerful and the broadest-reaching medium.” – AG Lafley at the ANA Conference, Oct 06

TV is the old master of sisomo. It is still the No. 1 global medium and the best selling tool ever. 2.5 billion Households in the world have one.

Bosphorus to Boston, everyone can use one. People love to watch. Incredibly, the average American home now has more TV sets than people.

But Sight, Sound and Motion have broken free from TV. TV is morphing beyond the screen in the living room to screens everywhere.

TV will stay No.1 but gather more emotion, pace and interactivity, with consumers doing advertising.

And now the real story.

sisomo is Sight, Sound and Motion on screen. A visual revolution.

  • sisomo is on-demand, on-the-go ideas on screen – created by an Oscar-winning director or a kid after school.
  • sisomo brings technology, marketing and creativity together.
  • sisomo plays across the Family of Screens.
  • sisomo inspires new formats, stories, characters and ways for consumers to communicate, participate and to explore.

sisomo attracts consumers when they want, where they want, how they want. Our recent Yaris campaign included the first real-time multi-player game within a banner ad – for the elusive 18 -34 year old group.

#7 Connect “And” with “And”

The digital revolution is transforming marketing, entertainment and technology everywhere.

The boundaries between media and advertising, content and products, creator and producer, audience and critic are dissolving. Everything is media.

Video never killed the radio star…. No medium replaces another. sisomo is seamless. Consumers want And / And, not Either / Or. To get connected across TV, online, mobile, outdoor, cinema…. Thirty-second clips, three-minute spoofs, 30-minute sitcoms, TV dramas, movie blockbusters, Google Earth, Second Life where Toyota is blazing – name it.

Advertisers need to network ideas, suppliers, media and technologies. They need connectors not directors.

  • Connectors with velocity – sisomo is moving so fast, it’s over before research makes a call. Speed is vital. Innovate or die! Fail fast, Learn fast, Fix fast. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
  • Connectors with foresight – Elevate consumer insight into foresight, fact to feeling; complexity to simplicity, this is the source of real ideas.
  • Connectors with partners – For Toyota USA’s new Tundra truck marketing campaign – the biggest in history – Saatchi & Saatchi is connecting and coaching 11 different companies.

Silos and egos will lose. Networks and families will win. It’s about connecting a great idea with strategic partners on multiple scales.

Connectors with Inspirational Consumers – Welcome Inspirational Consumers as a new medium. They love your brands, get there first, spread your story and innovate for free.

Word of mouth was always the most effective form of advertising. It’s timeless – now exponential. One friend talking with another friend – because you’d rather believe your friends than Brad Pitt!

Viral is tough to get right but electric when you do.

#8 Look through the Eyes of Shoppers

The next creative revolution is in-store. How, where and when we shop is changing everywhere. The store is the last frontier of mass marketing, a goldmine if the consumer experience changes.

Saatchi & Saatchi set up Saatchi & Saatchi X to create Lovemarks in store. To understand what creates Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy. To turn shoppers into buyers. To engage with the whole shopper cycle of planning, searching and selecting.

Every store is full of potential for Lovemarks. Check out five retail revolutionaries:

  • R-T Mart in China – bringing drama to a commodity.
  • Sunka in Spain – making grocery shopping a pleasant experience.
  • Wal-Mart’s new supercenter in Plano Texas.
  • Freitag’s new flagship store in Zurich – selling bags made from recycled truck tarps in a shop made from containers!!
  • Your mobile phone!! sisomobile will orchestrate shopping, compare prices, download recipes and movies, pay as you go.

Transform the store into a Theater of Dreams.

#9 Head for Paradox

Breakthrough innovation is grounded in paradox. Working with two complex opposites at the same time so they enhance each other.

There is no room to trade off or trade down. This is And/ And in overdrive. Toyota gave America a masterclass they’re still catching up on – short and long-term. Economy and innovation. Gas and electric.

  • It’s Local and Global.
  • Old and New Economy.
  • Rational and Emotional.
  • Low income and high income.
  • Urban and rural.
  • Familiarity and Innovation.
  • Online and Instore and on the go.

#10 Be Inspirers not Managers

Business is about inspiration, not management or just leadership. It’s about being the best you can be, helping others to step up, to go beyond themselves and make a difference.

The role of business is to make the world a better place. Let’s go – before it’s too late.


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