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Baker Street
January 29, 2018
Brian Bacino

The Valentines Sale

By:

Did you know only 54% of Americans celebrated Valentine’s Day last year? That’s down 10% vs. 2007.

Did you know that 41% of people “dread Valentine’s Day”?

Our Behavioral Economist, Howie Leibach, did. And what he discovered drove the brief for this year’s Northern California Honda Dealer’s Valentine’s Day promotional event: There are a lot of things that women do not want for Valentine’s Day, and frankly, what they do want, they are happy to get for themselves.

“Lunch Date” :30

To bring this discovery to life, we brought in Best Selling author of “Otherwise Engaged” and Baker Street Irregular, Suzanne Finnamore, who teamed up with BSA Design Director, Ken Woodard, to craft the perfect voice. It’s authentic. It’s real. (Actually, the first draft was a little too real for Prime Time TV!) We also enlisted Director of Photography, Svetlana Cvetko, to create an elegant film look blending beauty and strength. Finally Umlaut Editor, Jessica Congdon, gave “Lunch Date” the perfect final touch.

The Valentines Monologues:

“Guess What I Want” :30

“Please and Thank You” :30

Using the Interrotron, a camera rig that helps the director make eye contact with the subject while looking directly into the camera lens, we were able to get beautiful authentic performances as Suzanne asked our women what they really wanted, and even more humorously, what they didn’t want for Valentine’s Day. And Rough House Editor, Penny Krueger, found just the right answers.

Baker Street Advertising Credits:
President: Jack Boland
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Bacino
Chief Strategy Officer: Don Donovan
Copywriter: Suzanne Finnamore
Design Director: Ken Woodard
Producer: Brody McHugh
Social Media Video Editor: Harrison Chapman
Creative Manager: Lesly Pyle
Senior Strategist: Howie Leibach
Group Account Director: Dan Nilsen
Account Supervisor: Christine Rodriguez
Senior Account Executive: Megan Boland
Senior Account Executive: Lisa Coonts
Media Director: Glenn Yajko
Media Broadcasting Supervisor: Sheila Taylor
Media Supervisor: Jena Benzel
Senior Broadcast Buyers: Shelly Kalianis/Cel Vital Bella

“Lunch Date” Production Credits:
Film Director: Brian Bacino, Baker Street Advertising
Executive Producer: Mark Dwyer, Dwyer Films
Director of Photography: Svetlana Cvetko
Production Manager: Jon Bowden
Production Coordinator: Mack Thomas
Editor: Jessica Congdon, Umlaut Post Production
Colorist/Graphics: Ivan Miller, Umlaut Post Production
Post & Graphics Producer: Nick Brown, Umlaut Post Production
Audio Mixer: Andy Greenberg, One Union Recording

“The Valentines Monologues” Production Credits:
Film Director: Suzanne Finnamore/Brian Bacino, Baker Street Advertising
Executive Producer: Mark Dwyer, Dwyer Films
Director of Photography: Svetlana Cvetko
Assistant Director: Harrison Chapman, Baker Street Advertising
Production Manager: Jon Bowden
Production Coordinator: Mack Thomas
Editors: Penny Krueger, Rough House Editorial
Graphics: Eric Stafford, Rough House Editorial
Post Producer: James Hagedorn, Rough House Editorial
Colorist: Roger Krakow, Rough House Editorial
Audio Mixer: Andy Greenberg, One Union Recording

Brian Bacino, Creative Chief B2, Data Analytics, Honda

October 25, 2017
Brian Bacino

NorCal Honda Takes on Millennials

By:

#Millennials #and #Adulting

While developing work for Honda’s latest campaign, targeted toward younger car buyers, we discovered The Holy Grail of Millennial Marketing Secrets:

Millennials are young humans!!!

There it is. We shared our billion bitcoin secret.

We also created a campaign that taps into a powerful life stage our 20-something target is experiencing: “Adulting” — that moment when you find yourself, for the first time, doing very grownup things. And to break through the skepticism, millennials have toward slickly-prepared advertising, we enlisted Bent Image Lab to create a look that seems to be homemade and organic, yet jumps from the small mobile screen with cutting edge technology. By the way, Millennials would hate that last sentence.

Web Videos

“Civic Reasons” :30

“Speed vs Space” :30

“Iceberg” :30

“Run The World” :30

Baker Street Advertising Credits:
President: Jack Boland
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Bacino
Chief Strategy Officer: Don Donovan
Copywriters: Brian Bacino/Robert Leon/Sarah Inglis/Bob Dorfman/Lesly Pyle
Art Directors: Sarah Inglis/Ken Woodard
Producers: Julie Costanzo/Brody McHugh/Lauren Finerman
Senior Strategist: Howie Leibach
Group Account Director: Dan Nilsen
Account Supervisor: Christine Rodriguez
Senior Account Executive: Megan Boland

Production Credits:
Directors: Soloman Burbridge, Joshua Cox and Rob Shaw, Bent Image Lab
Partner/Executive Producer: Ray DiCarlo, Bent Image Lab
Executive Producer: Anthony Greene, Bent Image Lab
Producers: Brianna Vitale/Gabi Villasenor, Bent Image Lab
Sound Engineer: Lance Limbocker, Limbocker Studios

Brian Bacino, Creative Chief B2, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Honda

August 19, 2017
Howie Leibach

Are Millennials About To Kill Ads Too?

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According to new research from The McCarthy Group over 84% of Millennials no longer respond to traditional forms of advertising, nor do they trust it.

And Only 1% of Millennials say a compelling ad would make them trust a brand more.

It sounds pretty dire; but does the ad industry actually believe this?

BSA has noticed a shift in ad strategy to “address” the polarizing belief that Millennials — the same awful generation who killed cable TV, the beer industry, hotels, and even Applebees — will soon want to kill ads too.

Curious how some agencies are beginning to please these Millennial “media-killing” machines?

Here are 3 big trends I’m seeing right now:

1. The product takes a back seat to content.

So Millennials don’t like ads? Let’s just hide the product behind good content!

Recently Chase created a Battle of the Paddle video to promote Chase QuickPay. Rather than hard-sell their payment product anywhere upfront, Chase was more concerned about great content. They got high profile names to play in a competitive game of ping-pong, and only after breaking lots of furniture at the very end do Steph Curry and Serena Williams subtly use product at the end.

Here, Chase realizes that people are coming to watch the stars. They aren’t necessarily interested in shoving the product down people’s throats. Chase’s value proposition is compelling content, not the product — which is downplayed, but promoted towards the end.

This soft-sell strategy relies heavily on attracting organic eyeballs first, with the hope that Chase’s product trickles down to interest just some of the majority of people — most of whom only came for Steph and Serena content.

2. Destroy the ad.

So Millennials want to skip ads? Let’s just blow it up before they can!

This strategy is being utilized by a few gutsy agencies with a defeatist (or perhaps honest) mindset: if you can’t beat them; join them!

Geico grabs your attention by bragging “You can’t skip this ad because it’s already over!” They know you don’t want an ad to begin with. So just skip it … courtesy of them!

Geico, and other top brands like Honda are filming ads with a new POV: the whole concept of an ad is perhaps too aggressive and silly — and they’re willing to play along.

This rather transparent approach says “hey, we know that you know that all we really want is your attention so let’s just be honest about what’s happening here, make you laugh, and maybe you’ll like us a little more long term.”

Sometimes humility goes a long way and you might take interest in the brand. And sometimes they just entertain you for 6 seconds and you move on with your life.

It could go either way.

3. We’re in on the joke!

Millennials are over ads? Let’s just disguise them as something else altogether!

Netflix was caught trolling themselves in order to promote a new comedy lineup.

To promote their new big comedy lineup Netflix disguised billboards throughout LA as rude Netflix insults. Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer and Adam Sandler all have multi-million dollar deals on Netflix.

By making themselves the butt of a joke, Netflix got lots of blank stares, but also got lots of people talking — and created a PR firestorm in the process.

Like most of their disruptive content, Netflix got by on word-of-mouth for years. So this approach feeds into their DNA — let’s get people talking first — and worry about the construct second.

So is it finally time to flip your Millennial campaigns up-side-down?

In short…no.

At BSA, we believe you should embrace your product benefits; not hide from them. Yes, you need creativity as all the digital concepts above definitely have, but don’t underestimate the most basic and essential ingredient for success: purchase intent!

In BSA’s most recent NorCal Honda Millennial campaign, we are flashy, fun and hopefully trendy. But we also play up the notion that Millennials are ambitious and want to make things happen. The Honda car models tap into their psyche, offering aspirational benefits — Rule The World, Climb The Ladder, Be the Man/Woman You Want To Be!…It all comes together in a Honda….But first we remind them that it can only happen by getting into the dealership.

Ad Trends

These experimental ad formats are a response to Millennials becoming hyper-stimulated, super-low-attention-span-clicking digital natives who get inundated with 1000s of ads each day.

It leads to a risky agency POV of “whatever we put out there for picky Millennials must now be game-changing content they’ve never seen before!”

But Millennials don’t actually want hyper-stimulating, outside-the-box content. They just need content to be relevant, intriguing and useful.

Yes, Millennials skip ads if they’re bored (59% of them skip) but 29% of them actually watch online ads to full completion.

So of the 80 million Millennials out there, at least 23 million will hear you out at any given moment.

Just make sure you have something to say.

Sources:
Huffington Post
Google Images
Adage
Business Insider
MillennialBranding.com
ClickZ.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-skip-youtube-ads-and-thats-ok-2017-1
http://millennialbranding.com/2015/millennial-consumer-study/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-tyson/millennials-want-brands-t_b_9032718.html
https://www.clickz.com/84-percent-of-millennials-dont-trust-traditional-advertising/27030/
http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/millennial-gen-z-youtube-netflix-video-social-tv-study-1201740829/

Analytics, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Honda, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research

September 5, 2016
Howie Leibach

Can Data Predict “Correct” Advertising?

By:

 
In 2008, Nate Silver predicted Barack Obama as the next president of the United States way before the election took place. While the pundits relied on “gut-feelings,” Nate was skeptical. He rolled up his nerdy sleeves and crunched probabilities that leveraged historical data and micro trends within each municipality — something TV pundits simply weren’t doing.
 
Nate_Silver_2009
Pictured: Nate Silver, Statistician
 
In 2013, Netflix famously predicted “House of Cards” would be a huge hit, way before ever having the green light to produce it. Instead of guessing what show to fund first, Netflix looked at the completion rates of loyal users. Using Venn diagram data, they discovered that the melding of David Fincher’s “The Social Network”  and the British political thrillers was scoring off the charts. The analysis was so strong that they threw $100 million into season 1 — and the rest is history.
 
house-of-cards-kevin-spacey
 
Data is prophesizing BIG things like U.S. Elections and hit TV shows. So you might be wondering: Are we at the point where data can spit out the perfect ad?
 
The answer is, almost.
 
In 2016, IBM created promotional content based on machine learning. With little to no human assistance — the A.I. processed what it considered to be the best message for humans. While thought-provoking, there was a huge problem with it. The ad sucked.
 
This means one thing. Human creativity still matters immensely, and it will for decades. But data is growing stronger, and if used correctly can make a huge difference.
 
In 2016, the BEST creativity isn’t just head turning — it’s action-oriented; inspired by data to work harder. This means stronger segmenting, better ideas, and proof.
 
Baker Street takes this to heart.
 
Like Nate Silver, we embrace historical data for pin-point accuracy.
 
Like Netflix, we predict campaign success (with algorithms and velocity demand) before anyone writes a big check.
 
It’s a rare creative process that gets vetted from start to finish.
 
So while agencies are years away from churning out “the perfect ad,” Baker Street ensures that by coupling data with creativity, it’s more “correct” than ever before.  

Analytics, Data Analytics, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research