You know, there’s a lot of mistrust out there in the world, and one Sydney based company, Naked Communications, is out there doing more than its fair share to fuel cynicism.
In fact, whenever I hear “Naked Communications”, in my mind’s eye I see a guy in a ponytail. Slick, confident, out of touch, total contempt for the audience, a liar.
While the best of the marketing world caught the Cluetrain long ago and many are scrambling to get their copy of Age of Conversation (two books that remind us to respect – and engage honestly – with our stakeholders), Naked Communications seem to come out every once in a while to show that they’re not afraid of damaging a client’s reputation – as long as there’s a few column inches in it.
I searched Flickr for pony tail man and got this guy – sensitive ponytail man, but he doesn’t quite look as out of touch as the Naked Comms guy in my head:
Background
It all started back when Coke’s advertising agencies conspired to cynically pretend to be activists to sell chemicals, groundwater, plastic and aluminium as a social movement (see Consumers: 1, Coke, Zero). Days after I got stuck into the “Zero Movement” campaign of Coke’s, a rep from Naked Communications phoned. She was keen to discuss why I’d taken issue with advertising people pretending to be activists, and invited me to speak to Naked – and perhaps Coke – for a fee.
I do make most of my income from talks and presentations, but I couldn’t reconcile the idea of publicly campaigning against unethical communication and then somehow getting caught up advising Naked. I didn’t do the talk.
The latest Naked Comms ponytail moment
I haven’t heard about Naked in a while, but today I read in the Herald that they’re up to their old “let’s blatantly lie our target audience and hope nothing bad happens” routine.
Today’s SMH sees journo Caroline Marcus uncover Naked’s latest less than honest marketing venture: what seemed to some to be a Sydney girl using YouTube to spark a relationship with a passing stranger turns out to be a Naked-hired actress.
The actress wasn’t very convincing, and lots of comments on the video suggested it was a stunt. In a rich moment of irony, the actress assured the Herald that her plight was real: “There seems to be a lot of cynical people” she protests. Of course there are, and in a small way, we’ve got campaigns like this one to thank.
Does Naked have a Code of Ethics at their office? Are they using it as a mouse mat?
Being socially destructive – eroding people’s confidence in each other – isn’t a simple by-product of this kind of dishonest marketing, it’s the main outcome. When you’re wrapping a fresh elastic around your ponytail, “Any publicity is good publicity” probably feels like a smart thing to say. But a brand that’s known for its values and the remarkable nature of its products is always going to beat a brand that’s famous for duping potential customers to get attention.
Naked are said to be part of Photon’s “Strategic Intelligence” business. Those are big words to live up to. Being dishonest isn’t all that strategic and being tricky isn’t the same as being intelligent.
If you work at Naked, it might be a good idea to put the two books I mentioned early in this post on your reading list – or, if you get it, give them to someone senior in the business.
Naked’s website actually boasts that “many of our clients cite our honesty as a reason they like working with us.” Based on their track record, I suspect this is a lie, or perhaps it’s just “a bold marketing move” from the Ponytail Posse?
I couldn’t agree more, Tim. I’d have thought by now that most, if not all marketing agencies were wise to the power of the (former) audience and just how savvy they are. And that they had at least a modicum of respect for the crowd.
It would appear that Naked is neither clued up or respectful. There are others in the same boat – witness the issues NAB had in 2008 with its ham-fisted attempts at garnering publicity online. Their agency knows no better.
Faked campaigns can be good – if they’re acknowledged as such and the work is clever. This is neither.
As an aside, I have just begun work with a new client – the Sydney office of a largish marcomms company – that wants to learn how to do this stuff right.
Hi Tim,
My hair is long but no ponytail I’m afraid. Thanks for taking the time to express your views on Naked. However, they have been expressed on very little evidence – you havent talked to me (or any of the other Naked Partners as far as I am aware).
I’d like to respond from both a pragmatic and theoretical perspective.
Pragmatically, we serve to solve clients and build demand led growth. Our campaigns have left clients extremly satisfied and nearly always far exceed effectiveness expectations. Including the completed one you mention in your article. We solve clients problems whilst being unencumbered with having to recommend a particular form of media – and we do a great job of it.
Theoretically: I’ve read the books you’ve mentioned – but wont get into a quoting books match (that would be slick ponytail guy). I’ve also been a consumer psychologist for many years -and understand that trust is a hugely important element when building long term relationships between brands and people. However, this does not mean you have to constantly boring, predictable, and one way in your approach. Being interesting, being unexpected, the odd clever stunt are all part of brand building today (not just for Naked but other successul brands and agencies around the world (i.e. Droga5’s Echo campaign, Diesels (ironically titled) Heidis campaign, our Hypnomarketing campaign, Wonder Breads ‘Not for ducks’)….
What will people think of this campaign when the store opens? Will they think those evil marketers deceived me – how dare they trick me? With something as trivial (in their world) as this -I doubt it. In a marketing saturated world people want brands to be playful, entertaining (and sometimes they just want to be left alone). They want brands to stop interupting their relaxation time. Ultimately, they want to enjoy their lives through pleasure, mastery and connectedness – brands should ask how they can contribute – as they’ll get rewarded for it.
OK OK I will be ponytail guy and quote a book I’ve read (hope you spot my irony here. In Mark Tungate’s book ‘Adland’, he says The advertising agency of the future is Naked Communications because “It believes inlooking at its clients needs and coming up with innovative solutions – which may or may not have anything to do with conventional advertising”.
Have I changed your mind? I doubt it. However, please call me on 0413 633344 if you want to chat this through.
Adam Ferrier
Planning Partner
Naked Communications
Nice post Tim, it’s sad to see that companies prefer to trick the market than focus on providing a good experience around the product, service and brand.
[…] spite of the (frankly belligerent) protestations of Naked’s Adam Ferrier at the abovementioned blog posts, and […]
Hey Tim
Nice work on the blog. It’s epic! I would like to add to the debate that even though it’s important to be honest it’s more important that we have the freedom to be dishonest. There is no dividing line between the two, rather a merging with each person adding their dividing line depending on their perspective. I think it’s better to leave it up to the audience to make the decision about whether or not someone has been deceptive. So in the case of advertising, if the public feels unfairly treated then they won’t buy the product. To think they might be deceived into buying could be a little patronising. Maybe what Naked are doing is being subversive, which is a great thing. If the following organisations were subversive how would we feel about each; Nike, Oxfam, Coca cola, Amnesty. Each person and the organisations that control them should be treated fairly so if it’s OK for Buggerup to be subversive then it’s probably OK for a campaign for Coke to do the same. Then that raise the bar for the public subversives to find imaginative ways to hit back. Finally, we viewers of advertising are not stakeholders, we are the decision-makers. Contrary to accepted wisdom we are the top of the food-chain, without us those companies won’t survive so they’d better not be too disrespectful of their audience….OK, I got a bit carried away in the last two sentences.
Excellent debate people. As a fellow thought leader (or “idea tugger” as I like to style myself), can I just say that I’m sure that Naked/Witchery would have gotten a far more effective result if they had used “fax” technology as the basis of their campaign.
[…] expert Tim Longhurst describes Naked’s staff as “The ponytail people”. Telling how he came across Naked when they were involved in faking blogs ahead of the launch of […]
“Does xxxxx have a Code of Ethics at their office? Are they using it as a mouse mat?”
Nice work Tim. I don’t care what you say, I’m taking that line and using it as my own from now on!
That would be deceptive, obnoxious and stupid. Any ideas where I could get a job in social media?
Cheers.
I don’t find fault with Naked so much as i do the lazy news media reporting non-stories. It’s not news, it’s fairly obviously a PR stunt and it doesn’t deserve the coverage it got.
I think it was a succesful campaign – it made me (and thousands more) watch the youtube, and i even thought the jacket didn’t look half bad.
I think astroturfing is deplorable and reflects poorly on the PR industry – but in this instance i’m more offended by the poor standards of our news media.
Hey Tim,
Great post, I couldn’t agree more.
We all are struggling to get noticed, the challenge is getting noticed for the right reasons.
If brands seek a relationship with consumers based on affinity, trust and relevance then maybe start with stuff that adds value to that relationships and doesn’t leave consumers feeling like dicks!
I sure those pony-tail guys have plenty of one night stands with people who never want to see them again.
And if we’re quoting I’m pulling out the big guns:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” George W. Bush (I hear he’s started growing a pony tail and preparing his CV)
In my view, the point is there’s no point in deceiving people like this – its not clever and its not cool and as Tim rightly points out it erodes trust – as if to underline this i received an email just after reading Tims post pointing me here: http://www.findingdawn.org.au/ and i found myself immediately questioning the authenticity of this website before feeling slightly ashamed as i realised it was indeed a real life tragedy. In a world where marketers invade our heads pretending to be something other than they are we are forced to question the authenticity of our social interactions constantly – and that’s a real shame. And to make it even worse it was done so poorly! Sorry but the actress just wasn’t remotely convincing AND its not original and smacks of the lonely girl hoax so its just a bit sad on that level too though thats of course not the point! In a way it’s less bad because it IS so badly done and was easily debunked (maybe?!).
More seriously though and closer to home (for me and the Raise The Bar team) there’s been a backlash to the AHA’s Dont punish us campaign which also deceived people into thinking it was a grass roots campaign when it was an AHA funded one. They copped a lot of flack and bad vibes from the punters for that one too – and rightly so.
wow! nice post, but I thought maybe the chance to speak with their team could have allowed you the chance to explain the rationale behind being client centric not central to world…
im agreeing with @Dan it was a PR stunt but they sure got value for the client now everyone is wondering about those jackets and next time they are shopping for a men’s jacket they will just ask the salesperson what is that brand that was featured with that girl from the youtube video and there you have it a successful campaign. Its not something where you had to remember the brand just make the campaign memorable enough. I think the PR done around this campaign was the best element, in under 2 weeks it has had 170,000+ views on youtube. Not to mention im sure there will be spoof clips that will soon appear, man in the prada dress, man in the gucci handbag…
think about since VB launched VB Gold, who sponsors the Beach Cricket. Now don’t google it think about it… ok so the colour scheme is similar… keep thinking.. well its XXXX Gold, but when you are at the shops and you see vb gold you may just grab that because of the colour assocation. This is a successful for VB but bad for Gold. If you went and asked about the ad about the beer and the island with the dog, they would know that you are talking about XXXX Gold.
[…] 23, 2009 in Social Media | Tags: pr stunts, viral marketing, youtube wow! nice post from Tim Longhurst, he talks about his experience with Pony-Tail people and his views of viral campaigns. He is […]
Wow.. Your blog is off the charts.. So much discussion here.. Love it Tim.
I got so bored by that you tube video and the girl’s repeated insistence that she was genuine that I stopped watching before I ever saw the jacket it was trying to sell. I still have no idea what it looked like or what brand it was, and have no interest in googling it to find out. That is probably a good thing, as I think I would automatically associate that brand with a similar sentiment to Tim’s post.
I can’t believe anyone a) got to the end of the video and b) deemed it newsworthy.
Thankfully for my ability to give my 2 cents someone did, and I (regretfully) read the story. To be a pedant, why would a (normal) girl effectively steal the jacket of a guy she was interested in rather than put a witty note with her phone number in the pocket for when he returned to pick it up? And more importantly – what cafe would allow a customer to walk off with another customer’s lost jacket which they’re bound to come back for?
If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing with realistic details.
Generally though I think it was an interesting idea which would have been much more effectively spread via email with a credible story – and a “do you know the owner of this jacket?” line rather than clicking on the (terrible and horribly long) video from a news site with an increasingly suspicious news angle as I suspect most people who watched it did.
Hey Tim,
Finally able to read your posts in full so sorry about the late addition to this conversation!
In my humble opinion this post is essentially detailing astroturfing [http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=AntiAstroturfing.HomePage].
I believe this (initially confined to political lobbying in the USA now moving across many sectors) is now quickly moving into our communication and advertising culture as evidenced by a number of recent high-profile case studies not limited to Naked’s Witchery woman.
Recently the chk chk boom episode with ninemsn and some major news outlets, gave us an insight into the community’s views and reactions to both: deceit and conspiracy. A lot of people online debated whether this girl was a PR stunt. The jury is still out, but what it did show once it was unveiled as a fake, was that people don’t find this funny nor harmless anymore.
So, I’m wondering if the grass is now greener again on an honest, transparent and raw way of communicating? Surely there is now an opportunity for communications and generally all business thought-leaders to embrace a truly honest way of delivering messages to their market. One where a consumer or voter, share-holder or viewer can feel fully informed, weigh the decision and make the choice – leading to a sustainable and genuine transaction? Perhaps this old-new way of thinking could now be enough to cut through in this crowded market…
I think the fact that Mathew Baxter got fired (oh sorry pushed asside) over this one shows that even if consumer psychologist Adam doesnt understand someone certainly did.
If marketing people want to move above carsales people in the trustworthiness ranks then I think they have to have a good hard look at their tactics.
Dude. You have hair jealousy. Or bald man syndrome. Isnt there a help group for guys like you?
Hi Tim,
Just came across this site from a Google Alert (don’t know why it comes up now). Without joining the discussion, I should disappoint you, by pointing out that several Naked People have contributed to the second edition of the Age of Conversation book, among them us from the Copenhagen office.
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