Strategic Insights – We’ve Got Ideas

Hypocritical as it may seem, I listen to a lot of XM radio. Not just because it’s commercial free, but because of its sheer breadth and selection. On any given day, I could punch a few buttons and sample stuff by George Jones, the Ditty Bops, Oscar Peterson, Franz Ferdinand and Blossom Dearie in the span of a few minutes. Sirius aside, that’s one unique product with a powerful message and benefit.

Recently, I called XM customer service to report a signal loss and got put on hold. What do you think I heard next? Remember, XM has nearly 200 channels of “commercial free” music, talk, news, comedy, sports and weather to choose from.

This is what I heard next: “While on hold, you may experience a period of extended silence. Please do not hang up. Your call will be answered shortly.”

XM-cuse me? Talk about a missed opportunity. What a letdown–it’s a little disoncerting to witness a company losing sight of its own benefit right before your ears.

As a disturbing post-script, more than one of their channels, including my kids’ annoying favorite, Radio Disney, is now playing commercials on a regular basis.

What was that promise again?

Bill Cokas
Creative Director
Strategic Insights

Like any intern, I was nervous on my first day of work at Strategic Insights. Those butterflies could have been the fault of the unambiguous display of awards and recognitions that wallpaper the halls of our office, or perhaps I just needed to get use to the 6 foot propane superhero that stares at me from my desk. Either way it was certain I was in the presence of a very creative and unique group of individuals.

With characters like Propane Joe, Strategic Insights delivers more than just advertising savvy, they bring branding and personality to the clients they represent. In my first month I have been saturated with the concept that a brand is a promise, symbolic of everything that defines a company or a product.

In my most recent meeting with Dr. Haygood we discussed the value of a solid Brand Architecture and the long term importance of branding. Brands must have that consistent, identifiable image, establishing enough to keep consumers coming back to their products year after year.

Strategic Insights creates brand loyalty by conceptualizing their clients, connecting customers with a feeling and an instinct that occurs when a product is mentioned. Once this feeling of recognition is implanted our clients establish unbreakable relationships with their customers, directly resulting in growth and expansion of their companies. You can not extend a brand with an inconsistent personality.

Took my kids to the circus recently. Not Cirque du Soleil or some generic tent-in-a-parking-lot circus, but THE circus. Thanks to P.T. Barnum (whom I indirectly probably owe my career to), the one also known as “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

Or is it? Might be time to rethink that tagline, Bello.

Admittedly, it had been a few decades since I’d been under RBB&B’s “big top” (the Capital Centre in Landover, MD when I was a kid, and now the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC). So maybe nostalgia was tinging my expectations. But the circus I saw had Gunther Gabel-Williams, white tigers, Emmett Kelly and guys riding motorcycles around in wire mesh ball.

This circus did have the motorcycles and the mesh ball and thank God, because otherwise, the most impressive thing offered up was a guy who laid on the floor and had a truck drive across his gut. Seriously? The Greatest Show on Earth?

The Highest Prices on Earth were encountered upstairs at the concession stand: $14 cotton candy and $10 snow cones. All I can say is, I’m glad my kids (both liked it and weren’t as jaded as I was. I tried not to let my disappointment show, but I couldn’t keep from thinking that this particular circus needed to inject more “wow” factor into its show or downplay its own importance in the grand scheme of global entertainment.

Has a tagline ever lied to you?

Bill Cokas
Creative Director
Strategic Insights

We shot a spot called “Trophy Room” a few months back for the North Carolina Department of Forestry. The message was to try to convince landowners to “manage their land” lest it get out of control and bleed them dry with fire or disease. The action revolved around a big game hunter relating his latest harrowing encounter in the forest to a group of young admirers. The eager audience shouts out their best guesses, one of which was scripted as “loblolly root rot.” This is an actual pine tree disease which can be brought on by rampant pine beetle infestation. It is also quite amusing to the ear.

Unfortunately, for our untrained amateur actors (remember, we were working with a state government budget), it was also quite difficult to say. So “loblolly root rot” became “fallen trees.” And the point was still made. In honor of the stricken phrase, we have vowed to use it as often as possible around the office as an expletive. Try it yourself–it’s quite satisfying when accompanied by a pounded fist on the desk.

Bill Cokas
Creative Director
Strategic Insights