Coles CMO: ‘I don’t care what adland thinks’
Chief marketing officer of Coles Supermarkets Simon McDowell has told an audience at the Mumbrella360 conference that he was trying to create a “famous company” and “isn’t particularly interested in anything that resonates with the advertising industry”.
In a keynote speech this morning, McDowell said when asked about the polarising reactions to Coles’ most recent ads, including the “meet the family,” the Flybuys campaign featuring Dawn French, and Status Quo’s reworking their 70s and 80s songs into jingles: “Do I care what adland thinks? Not a bit. Not one bit.”
“In fact I love it when I see a Mumbrella article because everyone has a view and the medium we’re working in is very subjective, isn’t it? What I would say is that Coles business is in a turn around and under Ian McLeod’s leadership, it has totally been transformed. We have more customers spending more money at Coles than we ever had in our history.
“Like the advertising or hate the advertising, we are trying to build the most famous, most compelling, most engaging brand in Australia and if you work for a brand that is already like that, then all the power to you, but we’re really trying to be that brand and we’re very passionate about that. If you can get 100,000 kids singing ‘down down, prices are down’ with their mums, then best of luck. We’re not apologetic about it. We don’t always get it right, we certainly don’t, but we’re trying to be bold and creative and make something that resonates with Aussie families. I’m not particularly interested in anything that resonates with the advertising industry.”
Interesting point of view, not caring what adland thinks, as adland is representative of the wider general public. Still, aim something at the lowest common denominator and it’s bound to work, that’s how Hits and Memories radio stations and reality TV shows work.
Question is: how bad do the ads have to be before they actually turn people away? Is it worth going down the “bad advertising is good advertising as long as people are talking” road in order to make your company “famous”?
What ‘adland’ thinks? Fine. Make your own ads if that’s how you feel about the value of advertising.
@Rosscoe
Adland is definitely not representative of the general public.
@Rosscoe – ” adland is representative of the wider general public” hahahahaha .. you cannot be serious.
More like representative of middle & upper middle class caucasians and people fleeing england (more middle and upper middle class caucasians)
I thought it was a great talk… they clearly know what they’re doing.
what @mike said. Adland is a LONG way from the ‘general public’, no matter how much research we do….
Adland can complain all they want.
You can’t hear them over the constant ring of the cash registers.
That’s music to the ears, aint it?
I like what he’s saying – and doing – and adland needs to take note
What he means is it’s RAKING IN THE MONEY so who gives a toss if it has any class or not? I guess that’s reasonable!
Coles is more like Tescos every day. And I recommend you all take a look at Tesco, and what they’ve done in the UK.
I wish I could agree with Roscoe – but alas, only the sentiment. Better expressed by “Just another CD”.
Ironic, given it’s this very ‘Vanilla’ advertising that his Marketing ilk bemoan. Catch 22 it would seem.
Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t.
The sooner we accept it’s all about the $ (both for business and employees) the better.
@rosscoe….
Adland is most definitely not representative of the public when it comes to advertising…how can we be?
Fair play to Coles though, why should they give a sh!t what we all think? we are a bunch of piranha’s when it comes to ‘reviewing’ ad campaigns….just look at the comments left along with 90% of these articles.
I’m amazed ‘Adland’ thinks Coles ads are bad. Most of them are created by Ted Horton… an ad guy if ever there was one… and from my perspective a guy with a golden touch when it comes to being relevant to the broadest possible audience. If that’s ‘Adland’s’ idea of ‘bad’… then ‘Adland’ is irrelevant. Well done Simon… and well done Ted.
McDowell knows exactly what he’s doing. Down down works for 50% of the consumer market, those motivated by price.
The rest of us, including most who work in advertising are NEO consumers. NEOs research purchase decisions and look for genuine value, not discounts. NEOs shop at growers markets and authentic delis and organic butchers for fresh food and Aldi for canned.
I’m sure Coles’ Business Intelligence has worked out who they are appealing to and who they can piss off with low standard ads about low prices…
How could is the IGA ad with Anh Do!
Yes…who’d have thought that a bunch of 60-something rockers who haven’t had a hit in over 30 years would “resonate” (love that word) with grocery buyers.
I wonder who’s next? Chicago? Suzi Quatro? Sweet?
Sweet…now there’s a 70s band with potential. “Prices are down….sweeet”!
Hmm
He runs a grocery shop.
He spends marketing $.
He gets more customers & sales as a result.
= Great ROI
A small group of people are well paid to advise on how to spend marketing $$ to get more customers & sales. A small % of those people think he is wrong. I wonder how their ROI looks.
Love it. Love how some people continue to be shocked that Coles…a major supermarket retailer…is seeking to appeal to Joe Average and MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE.
They’re called commercials for a reason you know. Geez…if that disappoints you you’re really in the wrong game.
Stuff the advertising. I just wish their damn supermarkets were a fraction as good as their UK counterparts. Please, just one palatable ready made meal. Can’t be that hard, can it?
At the core of their corn is an entirely consistent message that resonates with consumers: a pledge of lower prices. They drive that message home consistently across their products and services. Sure, it’s not advertising as art, but it is very effective and disciplined advertising that speaks to consumers on a base level.
I find that most of the campaigns that Adland applauds are often are the ones that most of the non Adland people I know think are incredibly self indulgent exercises in wasting money. Good one Coles. Aren’t we meant to be in the business of making clients money? How about we concentrate on applauding Coles success rather than dragging down achievemeent.
McDowell is right.
The grim reality is that for the incumbent supermarkets, advertising of any intelligence doesn’t really matter that much. As anyone who has worked on Coles, Woolies et al. is painfully aware.
You could have a locked off shot of a branch blowing in the breeze for visuals, but as long as you land a category price point with a warm fuzz, then you’re laughing.
And that in itself is a function of lacklustre competition.
Agree with a stack of comments here. Coles are here to make money – if an ad is bad, if it works, isn’t it good?
Hey Joey – 2 members of The Sweet are dead so probably rules them out.
Suzi Q be good though, singing “48c Crash” or “Price Cut Drive” 🙂
So some people in adland with beards, skinny jeans and eating from Gelato Messina think are representative of the general population. Perhaps that’s why Coles have elected to do this stuff in-house where they clearly have a grasp on the needs of the general population.
The quicker adland stops celebrating “art” that sells nothing the better.
All the supermarkets in OZ are pretty much identical aren’t they?
Shoppers just go to the nearest one don’t they?
UK has a more nuanced selection. Waitrose and LIDL have different shopping experiences and price factors to consider.
What or who is “adland” anyway?
Coles is killing it. While I find “down down” annoying, it’s memorable and gets the message across. The 1D promotion is a fantastic idea. Sure, not my cup of tea either but the bait is going to catch a lot of fish.
Adland is a mystical place where clients write cogent, timely briefs that rely on an engaging product truth rather than a commoditising price-point.
And agencies execute crafted, integrated campaigns that meet these briefs.
‘Tis a silly place.
Obviously a genius in the marketing sphere. I mean a great fit No Direction and the State of Origin. (NOT) It must have cost six figures to have the half time break to announce 10,000 free tickets… As my son said he would have to be paid to go and see No Direction. I would guess that 80% of the viewers of last night would have been of the same mind. Surely Revenge and ten other female biased progs would have been a much better fit. But then this is Marketing genius we are talking about here.
The interesting thing is that Coles are leading the way and Woolies plays catchup….Creative execution is one thing, but being first with an angle and getting it heard is what communication is all about….isn’t that how Singo got started?
And who remembers those annoying Best & Less ads? Not a work of art but they sure made the cash registers sing.
@ Just Another CD. It’s made quite clear they create their own ads in house. Perhaps unsurprisingly these ads are fucking shit, however I might add this in not exclusive to in house created ads. He doesn’t care that his ads are fucking horrible though because they are experiencing a growth in sales. So we can look forward to more absolute shit being wheeled out for us to digest and retards humming songs so cleverly re-written for the purpose of advertising.
Can some of the detractors of inhouse advertising departments please tell us why people who once worked at an agency and therefore were appropriately qualified to pump out great advertising, suddenly become cretins because they decide to go work for a brand and do the same thing only inhouse?
Nice one Beery…some people are good at criticizing when they really mean:
“Gee I wish I had that account” or
“I bet that cost a motza….why can’t it be me?”