How NOT to Moderate a Focus Group

This is hilarious - BUT - I have had clients such as these AND seen Moderators worse! Be careful out there!

Wendy's

The word is out today from Advertising Age Online. The "Wendy's" spot, featuring a dude in red pig tails, "is big on smiles but short on sales". In other words, while people find the commercials vaguely entertaining and maybe a little creative, no one is deciding to run out for a Frosty or Single with Cheese. Same store sales are flat, while competitive fast food restaurants are increasing sales. 

Big surprise - amusing does not equal effective. We learned that with Mean Joe Green - one of the most popular commercials of ALL-TIME did NOT increase Coke sales. 

What gives with agencies these days? What blows me away is that anyone could look at these commercials and think they would motivate ANYBODY to go to Wendy's. They're SILLY, and violate one of the cardinal rules of advertising - namely not to insult the intelligence of the viewer. 

Do you think the agency did any research with this series of ads? What kind? With whom? And what were they trying to accomplish? I doubt it. 

And who at Wendy's could possibly have signed off on this boondoggle? Did they have any independent research backing up the decision? My guess is no. Why not?

The "Lunacy of Focus Groups" - Cavemen

The blogger showed this well-done video as as example of "the lunacy of focus groups and how they can kill good ideas"...

To me, it's a better example of the following:

• A misapplication of the focus group methodology. Focus groups should never be used to present totally new concepts for a "go or no go" reaction. It's too much to expect people to grasp in a few minutes.
• A very poor moderator - He did nothing to bring out the other participants, and allows "Grog" to dominate the others.
• The presentation of the concept and the opening question were terrible. Much better would be "Let's explore the ways these might be useful in your life now". 

Take a look and tell me what you think!

Truth in Advertising!

A GREAT story about the creation of advertising by people who seem more than a little jaded. Be warned, if bad words offend you, go no further. This will REALLY piss you off! 

This fantastic video highlights some of the things that are so frustrating about being in the Agency biz - and anyone who had worked on more than two campaigns will see something that looks painfully familiar.

Note that NO mention is made of marketing research - not even "We'll commission thousands of dollars worth of focus groups, and then ignore everything those idiot participants said!"