After a Few Centuries, Goodbye to Classifieds as We Know ‘Em.

Rob Schoenbeck sent me a list today, “25 things About to Become Extinct in America.” Among which:

23. Classified Ads. The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.

Now, your newspaper classified ads? They’ve been around since the 1600s. A weekly newspaper called The Public Advertiser consisted almost entirely of ads for a wide range of services and products – books and other trade goods (retail), quack doctors (healthcare), coffeehouses offering not just “cophee” and chocolate but an “excellent…China drink, called by the Chineans tcha, by other nations tay, alias tee.” Also: Fairs and cockfights (entertainment) and coach departures (destination marketing).

By the way, that “tee” was “by all Physicians approved.” There really isn’t anything new under the sun – except maybe government regulation.  The first issue of PA was May 1657.

The online world is simply the continuation of advertising by other means. Technology just keeps changing up those means and some take longer than others to have an impact. Radio never actually replaced the newspaper despite dire predictions. And certainly, there are plenty of forecasts that the time of print-edition newspapers is almost up perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

You may well look for motorcycles or forklifts or kitchenware on Craig’s List. Get your ads over your iPhone now that we’ve been assured that mobile apps are the hottest thing going. But even though the numbers of users are changing fast, there will be plenty of overlap – lots of time for more mature users like me to get used to new media.

The April 24, 1704, edition of Boston Newsletter ran this ad for classified advertising:

All persons who have any houses, lands, tenements, farms, ships, vessels, goods, ware or merchandise, etc., to be sold or let, or servants run away, or goods stole or lost, may have the same inserted at the reasonable rate of twelve pence to five shillings.”

Now, of course, just put any of it up on eBay and say bye-bye to that nasty printer’s ink.

NOTE: This old stuff about newspaper classifieds? It’s from the 1892 Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities, William S Walsh.

Betting McDonald’s Brand is Recession-Proof despite The Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, McDonald’s got zinged by Julie Jargon writing in The Wall Street Journal. While admitting that “The recession helped McDonald’s Corp. more than other restaurant chains as consumers traded down to fast food,” the reporter also noted:

Lately, though, the company's same-store sales growth has begun to slow, leading some to wonder whether investment opportunity is shifting to the casual-dining sector…. If US unemployment continues to rise – as it did last month, to 9.8% – it could hamper any broader industry recovery and hurt McDonald’s results in the US, where the company gets most of its profit.

Now I have to say, first, that Jargon’s report is much more balanced than the excerpt implies. But second, the article knocks the company in front of a particular group of McDonald’s stakeholders that may have little interest in the brand but lots in the share price. Jargon raises a question where none really has existed.

I am not a shareholder. I’m not following the charts and the graphs. But I do think that the McDonald’s brand is extraordinarily strong. Unlike the US manufacturers of cars, consumers still love this brand and keep buying its products: It is America.

With McDonald’s, I believe that unique personality that no competitor can claim is the reputation of America’s Restaurant. How do we capitalize on that reputation? By relating McDonald’s to our lifestyle – our own human experience.

Jack Smith, who would retire as Group President and Deputy Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett, McDonald’s long-time ad agency, said those words in April, 1986, to the company’s franchisees. He said in the same speech:

Reputation advertising is the kind that works very hard on the…long-term sales and top of mind. You (McDonald’s) are America’s Restaurant and nobody’s going to take that away from you.

Over this past quarter-century or so, McDonald’s has, like the rest of us, suffered many slings and arrows, although I can’t recall personally suing the company for clumsily spilling apparently hot coffee over myself. It’s been criticized repeatedly for being too large. Too unresponsive. Too exploitive (of beef, grass lands, workers, plastics, paper products) and too liberal and too conservative. It has been accused, all by itself, of causing Americans to be fat.

Through all this, McDonald’s has hardly ever lost sight of the fact that it is, de facto, America’s Restaurant. That’s how the company behaves. That’s how the company responds to economic crises. That’s how its corporate behavior appears in radio and TV commercials, billboard, print ads, websites, promotions – well, you name it.

Leo Burnett’s Smith spoke 23 years ago about TV commercials that now appear to be old-fashioned. Yet McDonald’s keeps to the same vivid brand theme. And if it’s the World’s Restaurant now, instead of just America’s, I’m lovin’ it. It’s a fine long-term brand ROI.

Thanks to Rob Schoenbeck for the timely sharing of Jack Smith’s 1986 speech.

“Poopzapper” Portrayed

Second installment, also from Graham Rust, is an “advanced technology” answer to the Fedog bag set I posted about yesterday.

The most effective solution, Graham wrote, is a team of helmeted guys riding along the pavement on quad bikes equipped with long vacuum cleaners, zapping (rather than “scooping”) the poop, a triumph of form over content.

Then: Rich! By an almost unbelievable coincidence, on the square below our office, Prague’s waste company is running a PR event, and so I have a photograph (above) of the poopzapper to add a multimedia dimension to your blog!

You have the thanks of the world, Graham. Nowhere else (not even on the Prague Municipal Waste Management website – I looked) has this powerful secret weapon in the war against dog poop been revealed. And Prague is doing PR events about it!

Prague Bag

This is a simple post about dogs and the people who love them. Sort of. It’s also a post about cities. Human ingenuity. Advertising. Let’s start with the fact that Rob Schoenbeck brought me a pass-along souvenir from his recent trip overseas: a Fedog bag (that’s it on the left).

In Czech, this is papírové sáčky na psí exkrementy – a paper set for dog crap. It was invented in 1995 because, “The daily amount of dogs’ excrements comes up to 20 tons in Prague alone.”

It’s a combination unit, the paper bag plus scooper plus advertising.

See how it works on the website – it offers an animated demo. “The paper bag is easily degradable in the nature. The scoop minimizes the aversion to pick up the excrement. The bag together with its content can be composted. The full bags can disposed of by burning, depositing in dumping grounds or recycled by composing.” I’m not making fun of the English writing here – I couldn’t even start in the original tongue.

I went straight to my long-time Dialogue International resource, Graham Rust, the great and powerful principal of Rust2 in The Czech Republic. He ‘splained:

Prague is plagued with dogs. It’s not like Bucharest which apparently has packs of feral dogs roaming the streets, but like citizens of all around the world, Praguers just don’t see the problem with keeping a huge animal in a fifth floor apartment in the city centre.

Some time ago the city installed special litter bits with bag dispensers (left) and sometimes you even see them being used.

The other glut we suffer from is advertising, on anything which stays still long enough, so it’s no surprise to see someone trying to sell space on this sharply targeted medium. Not sure there will be many takers. Public opinion on advertising is pretty low, but things are not so bad that we deserve a literal interpretation of McCluhan’s “the medium is the message.”

The engineer in me (of which there is precisely none, really) is intrigued with the concept of putting the carboard scooper inside the bag and putting the whole set in a handy dispenser. The city-dweller in me wishes to see this in the US, though we seem more conscious of the effect of many dogs on local sidewalks – and more willing to do something about it at the moment of generation.

The ad guy says, “This is outstanding – for somebody else’s clients.” And actually, I could see some real value if an entire city program was underwritten by a major veterinary clinic in the area or even a dog food manufacturer like Purina®. I can see Nestlé Purina PetCare underwriting an effort like this.

As Graham notes, the Fedog set is a precisely targeted medium – the smart advertiser could use that to its advantage and add a bit more environmental shine to its brand.

As I said, go to Fedog.cz – Czech it out for yourself.

My OTC

This seems a good day to break cover and resume posting to the blog – especially since Susan Kirkland has written a post that a number of consultants will likely read and ponder. The energy industry does not come off well, though it’s really not the subject of Susan’s post.

As I mentioned in my response to it, though, I have devoted the past 30 days or more to maintaining connections with colleagues, clients and prospects at OTC.08 – this year’s Offshore Technology Conference here in Houston.

It’s the world's largest offshore energy event. This year’s attendance reached 75,092, the highest in 26 years and 11% more than in 2007: With more than one-half million square feet of exhibition area, the show included 2,500 companies from more than 35 countries in an area the size of 13 football fields.

With oil at $128/barrel, it’s not surprising that there is plenty to see (from gigantic hardware to advanced software) and do (visit clients on the show floor, shake and howdy with people from a dozen or more countries).

In no particular order, thanks to my colleagues – Rob Schoenbeck of area51, Philippe Holtzweiler of Hope Communications – who attended breakfasts, luncheons, cocktail events and the exhibition itself; handfuls of clients who welcomed me into their booths and their activities; hundreds of Englishmen, Scots, Germans, French and Belgians who opened up their hands and their hearts to meet one more Houstonian. And the thousands of OTC volunteers who, every year, make a trade exhibition like this possible.

Do you believe that doing better business depends on how effectively you can communicate benefits, advantages and features of your brand one-on-one?

OTC.08 was a massive example of how well you did your job. My clients did great, though I say so myself.