I think it's stupid... but acknowledge it's brilliant!

As a child of the 70's and 80's I was a WWF fan. The Macho Man, Hulk Hogan and the assorted group of bedazzled freaks were some of my heroes.

So when the World Wrestling Federation was sued by the World Wildlife Fund for the rights to WWF I was ticked the goofballs won.

I celebrated people mocking the new WWF.

So I'm not a fan of this organization and believe they are a generally ridiculous group of folks wasting time and money on an activity of limited impact. As New Scientist pointed out the WWF is almost single handedly responsible for the wiping out of millions of Saiga Antelope. About 97%in less then a decade. They have been caught fabricating facts that have hurt countries like Vietnam and Norway. Kroger and other chains have been the victims of WWF's misunderstanding of facts. Big hearts, little brains is what this group consists of. 

So when I read their newest plan to save endangered species by having people tweet Emojis of their favorite endangered specie I immediately referenced back to the simpletons with the big hearts. But this plan was launched by a top notch ad agency Wieden & Kennedy! The W in W&K is Dan Wieden who came up with "Just Do It" for Nike. Interesting side note Dan got that line from convicted murderer Gary Gilmore when asked if he had any final words before being executed. 

Here's how the campaign works. Working with the international emoji creator Unicode and Twitter under the creative commons license, WWF will today (May 12) launch the campaign in the U.K., France and Holland, tweeting an image showing all 17 "Endangered Emoji," and encouraging its followers to retweet. For each emoji people tweet, WWF will add the local currency equivalent of 0.10 euros (10 cents) to a voluntary monthly donation. At the end of each month, people will receive a summary of their use and choose how much to donate. Anyone interested can sign up at endangeredemoji.com. 

Of course it's ridiculous. WWF isn't raising money any real money. Maybe a few million. And they are matching a fraction of that with their own money (which was given to them in large part by taxpayers of the US). But here's why it's brilliant. The type of person they are marketing to is also a simpleton with a big heart. They like to believe they can change the world by tweeting. It's called Hashtag Activism. W&K understands that's their target audience and knows how to tug on their heart strings. "Would you retweet this message to save a penguin"? Their little brain and big hearts screams 'yes'! Suddenly their friends, many of whom are similar in heart and brain stature, notice their twitter feed filling up with retweets about saving endangered species "and you can too by retweeting". They join the goofball parade. A percentage of them will actually follow the instructions and sign up on the website to donate some money. I think it's particularly brilliant that WWF is donating a dime for whatever you donate. You donate a dollar or a thousand, and WWF matches it with a dime. The real cost will be the ad campaign which will cost far more than it raises. But if they can get hundreds of thousands of people on their mailing list...that could be worth tens of millions of dollars. Either in actual donations over the years or more likely in sales of said list to other marketers. 

The lesson has nothing to do with the destroyers of my heroes, but rather in W&K simple approach. Know your audience and their hot buttons to get them to engage. That's all it takes to win.    

The new way to advertise may not be the most effective way.

 When it comes to the advertising business...business is good and looking to get gooder!

For years TV has won big and is expected to continue to win for a few more years, but the tide is turning to digital.

You see by 2018 Digital is expected to be the #1 form of advertising in America. I received an e-mail today about a press release from BIA/Kelsey who states; Online spending is growing on ads viewed through desktops, but general online ad unit pricing faces headwinds as the attention of audiences and advertisers alike drifts more towards mobile,” said Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist, BIA/Kelsey. “Online will gain just a few points of local advertising market share, as mobile nearly triples its share.”

It's all about the phone! 

The general thinking is someone is online and they search for new cars or mattresses or whatever then it's safe to believe they are about to make a purchase in searched category. At that point their inbox and sides of their social media pages are filled with ads for those products. It's obviously very appealing to a business owner to put their ad in front of someone who is looking for their product at the moment they are searching for it. BUT....

Be warned. You are suddenly in a battle that may have no winners. Recently I was searching for a watch to buy. I noticed the ads suddenly on every site I went to. Admittedly the first day or so some caught my attention. However by day 2 I had blocked them all out. I actually had bought a watch by then and for weeks everything being shot at me was attempting to influence a decision that had already passed. On top of that due to the avalanche I subconsciously blocked all ads out. It wasn't until some ads popped up for new swimming pools that I noticed ads again. I had searched for pool prices to show a friend how it would be more cost efficient to go visit a 5 star hotel the 8 times a year his family actually wanted to use a pool than to buy 1. So I wasn't in the market for a pool. But money was spent to influence that non decision. 

Clearly Digital advertising will get better with time. But don't write off Radio and Outdoor. They are under used and quite honestly under valued mediums. The power to influence people towards a product happens there. In reading or listening it's a solitary activity. There may be other people with you but if you're involved in a conversation you're not paying attention to the billboards or radio. If you're paying attention I can influence you on products you currently have no interest in.

 You are a pool dealer well put up billboards showing that instant access to family-fun is priceless. Run radio ads where I hear grown people reminiscing about the impact their family pool had on them as kids and how much they love their parents for sacrificing to get one. Once you have me thinking about this incredible product that will have my kids gushing about me for decades to come, you slide in your info. If the idea of advertising is to influence buying decisions that's one of the most powerful ways to do it.