Following on from my precious post - HHCL : the pioneers that got scalped - a flood of fresh HHCL road crash gore from the Living Dead that are the HHCL Zombies (thanks for all the suggestions guys). Here then are more industry shaping firsts to carve onto the HHCL headstone:
1. Low cost production values. Much as Punk was a reaction to Pomp Rock, HHCL took the view that cheap was often fresh and distinctive. Just got £50,000 for a TV ad? We'll give you a campaign! Check out Molson "Jim Dunk" from 1988/89 or the Citrus Spring Campaign from c. 1992 for examples. Making a little go along way - a key skill in these straightened times...
2. No job titles. Considered a bit PC and trying-too-hard-trendy back then. Now seen as rather cool and modern. For those of you who neither got the corner office NOR the big job title - sorry, this was our fault too.
3. Engagement/experiential marketing. We called it "3d marketing" in 1993. The Tango Apple tongue and the Tango Bash were fine examples. Now most agencies have some sort of spin on this experiential thang.
4. Not bothering with creative awards. Still a good pose to strike for a certain sort of agency or creative, we had a very vague attendance at those award do's. The art director on Maxell "My ears are alight" had to be put on a plane to pick up the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1990 'cos nobody was down there.
5. Idents as a creative opportunity. Check out the "Tango sponsors the Word" from the Terry Christian era (c. 1996?). "Here come the Belgians" also re-claimed Stuart Hall as a cult hero. Now seen as a major "advertising medium" in their own right. Idents that is. Not Stewart Hall.
6. Using cable TV for trade campaigns. It has all kicked off since digital has spread, but in about 1996 the Tango guys converted a request for an ad in Asian Trader into a 60" spot on Asian TV. Also file under "multi-racial casting" and "low production budgets".
7. Digital convergence marketing. We're all into it these days - or at least bluffing about it - but what about the Tango Cash Card from the late 90's? An on pack self liquidating card promotion redeemable through any cash machine. Put in any four digit PIN and see if it will cough up cash. Wow.
8. Hard wiring marcoms to business drivers. OK, we're getting a bit technical here but since the last dotcom craze and the rise of direct marketing a lot of marcomms have to build the brand AND get the phones to ring at the same time. Check out the 10" ads from 1990 era First Direct, or the direct response ads for the launch of Go c.2000.
9. Dissing the IPA effectiveness awards. Tried it once or twice, won something (once), found it about as relevant to truth, justice and effectiveness as OJ Simpson's trial. Waited for everyone else to catch on. Still waiting.
10. In house designers. For some its now all about a visual narrative or whatever. Back then we had them sitting right in the middle : the original designer brains in the advertising body.
11. The "YouTube" agency meeting. Why have a boring meeting in a hotel (OK, we did a lot of those for a while) when you can have a live TV programme in a club with video segments to illustrate the joys of filling in your timesheets etc? The Howell Henry Show VodCast was up and running in about 2000. Timesheet completion rocketed. YouTube was but five years away. One of us made a billion. Dang!
12. Advertising people as credible marcomms consultants. Did it throughout the 90's. The work dried up in the recession. Now the market is back up, everyone's doing it. One-word equity, schmequity!
13. Fees not commission. From 1987 onwards HHCL fought the corner for fees over commission. Made pots of money. Sold out. Went bust. Rather worringly, this is now the way the rest of the advertising agency world is heading.
14. Collaborating with clients. "Tissue meetings" where multiple routes were shown to clients and even - shock horror - with creatives in the room. Taken to greater heights by other agencies, HHCL broke the classic agency practice of excluding the client from the creative process and showed that collaboration works. Still does, and who asked for your opinion anyway?
There are now plans to put this and much more up on a Wikiepedia entry. Feel free to get this up an running.
It should be a Thriller.
Great list Jon,
The Word idents were Autumn / Winter 94, and also featured the first URL on an ad or sponsorship ident on British TV. The folks at Channel 4 didn't know what it was and were very worried about viewers going off and not watching the break.
The Tango Cash Card was from 1995 and none of the banks would play ball with the ATM's so we made it a telephone (Swiss) bank and you had to phone up to try your luck. To spice things up you could withdraw £100 every 3 hours, and if you got the right PIN you had the option to change it so that any previous people who had guessed the right PIN couldn't keep using it. Someone ended up with about two grand as far as I recall before someone else guessed right and changed the PIN.
Another feature of this promotion which was an HHCL thing was the extension of the brand into the legal copy. I think Adam Morgan cites this in one of his books, but someone put the promotion's legal copy up on the notice board at Ford's plant in east London 'cos they thought they were so funny.
Posted by: David O'Hanlon | 10/16/2006 at 05:29 PM