jonathannausner

jonathan nausner

in no particular order: ideas, creativity, inspiration, storytelling, strategy, planning, the blurry borders of analogue and digital, berlin, advertising and whatever will be next. about | books | links | archive
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links for 2010-03-31

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What if Economists were in charge?

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I am a big fan of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s Freakonomics, both book and blog, and their refreshing perspective on „the hidden side of everything“. Only recently they have launched Freakonomics Radio, a regular podcast which I recommend to everyone who is observing people and numbers.

I just got around to listen to the last episode What Would the World Look Like if Economists Were in Charge? This speculative question opens another truly entertaining and informative podcast episode. I had to laugh out loud at Mart Laar’s description of his encounter with Margaret Thatcher. I found Stephen Levitt’s anecdote of his daughter at the end especially insightful, as it explains why negotiators (like lawyers) and not number people run the show in politics.

Superfreakonomics is already on my bookshelf, but given my current workload this will have to wait until July i am afraid.

Hello Sunshine

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Long time no see, old friend. (have I mentioned that I love Winter solstice?)

Let’s be clear what we are talking about…

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Last week this commercial for the Austrian Lotteries went on air. I actually like it. It has a good idea, the main protagonist is perfectly cast and it is amazingly subtle and still funny – for Austrian standards.

Last year’s „Dog“ was also a good idea in my eyes. Got Lowe GGK showered in awards, but internationally only shortlisted (i.e. Cannes). 

Yet, despite being brilliant ideas and quite successful, I believe these ads could look a lot better if the agency would be clearer about what they are talking about.

These commercial have a looong history: Along with the tagline „Alles ist möglich“ / „Everything is possible“ they have been showing the depressing status quo of a person contrasted with the glorious golden future of that person being a lottery winner.

These two commercials have completely left that look-at-that-terrible-job-you-are-in-now-and-the-lottery-will-get-you-out-of-there strategy and tell a much clearer message:

Play the lottery because it will you make so filthy rich that [insert commercial idea here]

I have my doubts that there has been a true strategical decision towards this message. Rather good ideas that were pressed into the old corset. The execution is still stuck in that old tradition of how these spots must be made.

So in „Opera“ they spend 15 seconds telling nothing of relevance, because that was the way we have always done it. It makes no sense, does neither help story nor punchline, and it costs extra money each time the ad is aired. And it will go no further than the Cannes shortlist.

Just my two cents.

Google Zeitgeist 2008

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Google has published Google Zeitgeist 2008 this week. This yearly summary of the year’s most popular searches at Google. So what is interesting here? 

Google Zeitgeist 2008

The results for the most popular searches in Austria are odd: youtube, orf, ebay, hotmail, wikipedia, herold… Not just Austria, all over the world people seem to mix up address bar and the search field.

This implies a few things: first, this seems to be a basic design flaw in internet browsers. Of course, the address bar is commonly placed on top, but for most people attention is drawn to the all important input field in the center of the start page. (Or, if I recall correctly, in Internet Explorer people’s inputs in the address bar are redirected to a search engine when no website is found)

Whatever the cause one can’t help but notice, secondly, people (the significant majority) are nowhere near internet-savvy. In some countries more, in some countries less. Really successful in the web business are the people who really acknowledge and exploit this fact: hackers, phishers and spammers. On the legal end of the spectrum, most internet advertising and market seems to just talk and connect to the experienced internet user segment.

Thirdly: Why bother printing your web-address on ads? Or, if you are internet service like check24.de or monster.at: Why bother confusing your clients with adresses? What has to stick is the brand name, and then you have to make sure you own the search results when it is entered.

And lastly, it probably pays to buy yourself into the searches for names of your competitors. Say someone wants to get to eBay, googles eBay and as first result gets the paid ad for Ricardo.at, an Austrian auctioning site. Admittedly, eBay know their stuff too well, but for most other brands you can position yourself right in front of your competition’s gates.

New Amnesty International commercial: „You Are Powerful“

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Usually, I am not a big fan of the commercials made for AI or other human rights groups. Most of them feel like lion bait with lots of emotion, shock etc. instead of seriously trying to win people for the cause.

But I do like this new commercial for Amnesty International. I like that it dramatically visualizes what I believe Amnesty is about (and why I am a member): normal people stepping in when human rights are violated. You might discuss the effect that effort has in reality, as in the YouTube comments. But without Amnesty and all the people engaging, the world would be a much worser place.

Edit: Agency is Mother, London. http://www.motherlondon.com/

Lucky charms

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I had to wait 30 years for my first bowl of Lucky Charms only to realize that no responsible parent should ever give their kids these sugar-coated sugarbombs.