Polaroid On GaGa
I'm at the ThinkLA conference and just heard a great talk by Jon
Pollock - SVP & CMO at Polaroid.
Simple
Authentic
Creative
Sharing Jon talked about Feb 8, 2008 as the worst day in Polaroid history as
this was the day they announced the end of instant. What happened afterwards will go down in Polaroid history as the turn
around of the company. A reaction from users created such a strong
voice of discontent that Polaroid had to do something. They created a
new movement 'Made in Polaroid' that basically co-opted the user
conversation. I questioned Jon on why it took this announcement to hear the user and
argued that in fact Feb 8 was the best day for Polaroid because it
forced open the door of the boardroom and Polaroid heard users for the
first time in a long time. I wanted to know from his perspective, what
we could learn from this to ignite the same level of conversation for
other brands. He couldn't really answer the question, which makes me
question whether anything was truly learnt. Luck plays a big role in marketing but do we need to rely on it so
much? Just turn your seat occasionally from the boardroom table and
look outside. The energy of the user movement acted like a rocket under the
marketing department's you know what and this led to engaging William
Morris Endeavor and the idea of Lady Gaga's involvement - the best
coup for Polaroid. She is now their creative director, which I posted about a few months
back. She is very engaged. They came out of their first meeting in
Tokyo with five design initiatives for the year. She had an influence
on all five.
