WHY BEING IN MARKETING MEANS ALWAYS THINKING AHEAD…

Marketing and advertising, in particular, music marketing, are things that I have been doing and deep diving into for a living- and for a loving- for almost forty years. 

Much terrain has been covered over this time, and every step taken has been one that has taught me something- things no school could ever teach me about strategy, brand awareness, product personality, target audience etc etc plus lessons where empathy and human interaction have major roles to play.

Sometimes, it’s a car crash waiting to happen, most times it’s a box of chocolates full of bon bons.

Is marketing a career for everyone? Some might think so, but the trick is to never outstay your welcome and where you might end up being a dweeb.

For me to process what advertising means and can be, I go back and watch reruns of the brilliant television series “Mad Men” that takes place during the early days of advertising and its epicentre in Madison Avenue, New York. 

This is where Keith Reinhard, my mentor and friend and guide and Merlin came from, and it must have been an intoxicating time with Jazz and Poetry and early Bob Dylan as the soundtrack plus so much newness and creativity and the need for those with intuitive presentation skills to market and sell a product.

I smell my dad’s Old Spice just writing this.

Jon Hamm plays the main character in the series- Don Draper.

Draper is a complex and flawed character and someone who kinda falls from the sky, straight into Madison Avenue and the fast and furious world of advertising in its infancy comprising fast cars, faster women, bourbon for lunch and always creating.

Creating what? 

Creating whatever it took to push the envelope and succeed- and sometimes creating one’s own brand personality.

All this is something Don Draper gets hooked on- this adrenaline rush of focused and ruthless ambition and winning businesses by breaking the pattern and creating something that the client perhaps never thought about or thought he didn’t need.

And here begins Don Draper’s ascent and descent into love and self loathing, alcoholism, marriage, lies, philandering and being a brilliant “pitchman”. 

He learns how to play the game extremely well, and quickly becomes a very good advertising executive with a genuine love for the art of creating words and imagery and selling these through intuitive skills, storytelling and plenty of charm.

https://youtu.be/suRDUFpsHus?si=edEXooAff67FNwJS

My time in advertising, which started in Hong Kong with a tiny ad agency taught me how lousy I was in it as a copywriter, but through mentoring and different life experiences, one became better at what it took to improve one’s self until you’re suddenly winning international awards for your work while other doors of opportunity open up.

This work suddenly includes music and all those wonderfully talented people and things to do with the art form including making television commercials, working with film makers, editors, singers, session musicians, producers etc etc. 

This network gets wider and wider and so does your thinking and the life you’re living.

Over two decades of working on the McDonald’s business was the best schooling I ever had and where I learned about a brand that had it all figured out- reaching the adult market, the teens, the tweens, the kids, and the importance of having business partners like Disney and Coca-Cola. 

McDonald’s knew how to instil pride in its crew members and some of us attended conferences in Chicago to understand the many McWays of those Golden Arches.

Some of us attended Hamburger University in Chicago to understand what staff behind the counters felt about their work and what worked and what didn’t.

There were those moments during worldwide marketing conferences when I thought I was in some school of Scientology in the Twilight Zone, but whatever it was, it was an incredible and trippy experience that money could not buy.

In Hong Kong, because of working on the Golden Arches, I met someone named Hitler Yue who greeted me at the McDonald’s counter in Central. I also found out that the girl who manned one of the shakes machines was named Milky Wei.

McDonald’s outlets were referred to as restaurants and what was served wasn’t fast food. They were meals. 

You learned that it was all in the presentation and keeping things fresh- especially, ideas and never becoming boring. 

For this, I always have Daniel Ng, Chairman of McDonald’s to thank. 

Daniel trusted my judgment, especially about people, and taught me to be brave and how we often learn more from mistakes than successes. 

This stops The Fear of Failure.

Those years of learning and absorbing is how creating something like the Happy Wednesday entertainment brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club when still with the Regional office of EMI Music came together so easily. 

It was basically changing something called Sassy Wednesday into Happy Wednesday, bringing in ‘live’ music as entertainment and making the advertising not look like it was for an escort service in Macau.

Advertising somehow shows you what’s working, what’s stalled and the difference between- to coin my new favourite expression- old school and new cool. 

I personally think that it’s time for The Rebirth Of Cool- globally.

The problem with advertising and marketing today is that almost everyone believes that they can do it. 

Same goes for music and film making and pretty much all arts. 

Technology and techniques have become the idea. 

This often means that what’s being produced these days is a hodgepodge of random ideas by amateurs and probably too many who are way too close to a product.

These are often people who believe that they not only know advertising and marketing, but also everything else including how their audience thinks, what their audience needs and what their communications should say.

They are more often than not way off strategy and still running up that hill with a product that perhaps has run its course and why consumers don’t want it in its current incarnation.

As for the advertising and marketing of Hong Kong, to say that it needs help is an understatement. 

This city is my home, and I have seen so much time wasting with so many different ideas from talking heads on how to make it a more attractive brand that the thinking appears to have become somewhat confused and potluck.

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THE BIG FULLER PICTURE 

Yesterday, I read the news about my longtime friend and globally successful entrepreneur Simon Fuller, below, being in Hong Kong to “find the city’s next pop star” and a female member from here for his multi cultural pop group Now United. 

This is part of a much bigger story that started as an idea to have the relatively unknown Now United perform at December’s Hong Kong International Races. 

It wasn’t exactly Big Picture stuff, but someone with the portfolio and experience of Simon Fuller who has seen the upside in creating a reality show filmed in the city to find the group’s Hong Kong Chinese member is publicity that money can’t buy. 

It is very Big Picture stuff. 

But how else could the Simon Fuller brand and everything else that he can bring to the table be best used by those running the city? 

The more pertinent question to ask is this: Does Hong Kong have the creative and marketing talent to understand what this means and take things beyond “press conference status” and where action speaks louder than more Corporate Speak?

NOW UNITING THOSE UNITED MOMENTS…

My personal opinion is that Now United is going to be bigger than some might think- and something extendable and sustainable. 

Forgetting the now lamentable mantra about attracting more “younger people” to horse racing, Now United brings entertainment value to the sport via their appearances plus ongoing clever promotions, positive advertising campaigns that are almost creative PSA’s - Public Service Announcements- and a music driven product that gives horse racing a ‘look’ and tone that’s likeable, interactive and inviting. 

The visual package of NU can be turned into something that inspires this city’s creative community to add something extra to the sights and sounds of the new Hong Kong- something that is Hong Kong Now.

Yesterday has come and gone.

As for Simon Fuller and his commitment to making Hong Kong jump for joy like the Mighty Quinn, he and his hand picked team CAN do it. 

They’ve started work on making things happen, well, now and NOW.

The glass is half full.

Don’t empty it.