How to start a fire

The ever-increasing number of companies, means ever-increasing competition. The market is busy and now, more than ever, brands need to stand out in a sea of sameness.

You need to start a fire, to blow up the competition and get famous.

But don’t be mistaken, this isn’t a new concept. Nooooo. The best of the rest have been lighting fires for a while now…

“You’ve been Tangoed!”

If you’re over 35, you’ll know what this meant.

In the early 90s, a fat orange man ran up to a Tango-drinking guy and slapped him round the face. The commentator rewound the film, while a smooth, deep voice told us: "You know when you’ve been Tangoed."

Genius. But was it?

Creator Trevor Robinson didn’t see it like that at all.

Working for the then-small agency HHCL, he and creative partner Al Young were: "desperate to make a name for ourselves, and knew we had to do something bold, standout and memorable to make sure we didn’t find ourselves back on the dole."

Tango wanted to compete with big hitters like Coco-cola. It was a big feat, and as Trevor recalls: "Advertising in the 90s was an intense world: hard to get into and with an established set of rules. That’s what made the Tango brief stand out. Here was a client saying ‘you can write whatever you want, just make Tango famous'."

And that’s just what happened. ‘You’ve been Tangoed’ was then a 90s phrase used more than Trump’s Twitter finger.

The big Orange fella ran in from the left. From Tango.

Of course, it didn’t run smoothly.

There was uproar when 'Tangoing' in the playgrounds allegedly led to serious injuries and deafness after kids were slapped on the ears. The 'slapping' ad was replaced by the orange Tango man kissing his unsuspecting victim instead. But it didn’t affect the brand. It made them even more famous, and the original version was ranked 3rd in a list of the '100 Greatest Adverts' in a 2000 poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.

What did it take for this UK brand to gain notoriety? A bonkers creative idea that stands a mile apart from its competitors, and having the guts to put it out there.

So what does it take to stand out? Unique ideas, and a brave client. The ideas that at first seem utterly ridiculous are often the best ideas. Think about doing the opposite to everyone else, and if that single barmy thought makes your stomach flip and bowels rumble when you imagine putting it on primetime, it’s probably the right one.

Do a 180°, flip the birdie to the competition and if you wouldn’t want your granny to see it then hell, you’re probably on the right track.

If you’re a marketing manager wanting to earn their stripes, then take heed. Do you want to get your brand noticed? Then do something different.

Today’s problem

What’s the problem in today’s market? There’s too much choice. And what do their marketing teams do? They give us the same style, the same direction, the same concepts – and blend into the background. Perfume ads with sultry looking models, car manufacturers driving along a coastal road – we’ve seen it all before.

Brad Pitt, proving you are never too rich to sell out. From Chanel.

Look at what people actually want. Stop searching Google, stop looking at your analytics dashboards and start watching people. Their loves, their hates, what makes them laugh, what makes them cringe…

Because that’s what starts a fire. Going against the grain. Do something that makes Jeff from sales share it on his footy What’sApp 'Laaaaaads' group come Monday morning.

That’s all it takes to be famous – being talked about.

And what do people talk about? Things that shock them, things that embarrass them, things they wouldn’t dare do themselves and people that dare to be different.

Dave Trott has been banging the drum for years about doing the opposite to the mainstream. He shouts about shouting about something, and if that goes wrong, if it hits a bump in the road, use it to your advantage.

The ‘Streisand effect’

Dave wrote about The California Coastal Records Project, it documented the California coastline, photographing the entire length of California in a helicopter, 12,000 pictures in all.

Barbra Streisand was pissed. She’d heard one of the pictures was of her beachfront home in Malibu, so she sued them for $50m, for invasion of privacy.

On the website, her home was simply 'Image 3850' and had only been viewed four times - but immediately after the lawsuit became public, the picture had been viewed more than a million times.

Barbara the puppet master. From Wiki.

The story ran in publications worldwide. Before she had tried to get the image removed, no one even knew about it, but once she issued such a massive lawsuit, the picture became a must-see.

By trying to censor the picture, she created the exact opposite of what she wanted. That’s the Streisand effect. Go for it all guns blazing, and there may be a small cock up, but it’ll definitely get you noticed.

Screw it, give it a go

Steve Henry, founder of HHCL said: "maybe we all need to fuck up more."

What does he mean?

"HHCL is now garlanded with accolades but, in the first three years, we were a laughing stock."

"Despite the fuck-ups, good stuff happened because we learned to break the rules but connect emotionally with the audience."

Nobody seems to have found the answers, he says. But so what? Keep pushing the boundaries.

Henry recalls the infamous Pepe Jeans ad: "We broke the rules. We took kids onto Tooting Common, they messed about, may have got stoned. 50 seconds of ordinary kids, laughing hysterically, then the end line: Pepe Jeans. Because one day you’ll die."

"The ad dive bombed and the client fired us. But we broke rules, we weren’t bothered about the reaction."

Did Steve Henry see this as a failure? Christ no. It was an idea, one idea of many. Pure, unrestrained ideas with no limits, no rules and no regrets. Breaking the confines of the standard templates and learning along the way.

As General MacArthur said: "You are remembered for the rules you break."

Break at least one rule, and outsmart the competition

This ain’t easy if the competition has a bigger budget. But remember they won’t have bigger ideas.

Avis were always second best to hire car giant, Hertz. They knew this and used this to their advantage. Back in the 60s, they brought out press ads singing the praises of Hertz.

Headlines like 'When you’re only No.2, you try harder or else' hit the billboards. Their self-deprecating manner seemed liked they were kicking themselves, but it worked in their favour. They knew they were second best, but their ideas were definitely better. They outshone, and their ads are still talked about to this day.

How can you start a fire? Have the freedom to do something different, and know it’s okay to cock it up along the way. Break the rules. Be the brand that gets up in their grill. Be do everything in your power to get famous. Be more Tango.

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And finally, the header image for this article was expertly nabbed from Attitude Magazine.