Pointers like this may be self evident to good PR people but few of them have lived the crisis from inside the bunker. And that’s what Gerry had done over and over.
At that time, the management of the auto company was kind of collectively traumatized. They don’t teach you in biz school how to deal with stuff like this. Gerry was just the kind of face slap they needed.
That auto manufacturer got through it. Those rollovers are now ancient history. And as Gerry had predicted, the CEO, after decades with the company, got the sack a few months later.
So what have we seen in the media so far? Toyota turned turtle and let the story get away from them. Had a quick fix solution and then they didn’t. Had all kinds of conflicting stories in the press. And finally, Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota and scion (pun intended) of the founding family has come forward and apologized. Although he’s only been President since June, he’s taking the hit. He described his company in rather strange biblical terms in they are “seeking salvation”. This may be too little, too late. U.S. Congress has “invited” Mr. Toyoda to come on down to Washington to “clarify the situation”. This is bad. The worst possible outcome is to have the government involved. Remember the tobacco guys?
As for Wall Street, there will be no mea culpas. I suppose, they really are too powerful. The closest we could get to a public apology was seeing MSNBC host and Wall Street head cheerleader Jim Cramer drawn, quartered, vivisected and disemboweled by Jon Stewart. Sure it felt good, but Jon wasn’t exactly picking on the big kids in the schoolyard.
And the there’s Tiger, the piano-toothed God of every cowpatch hacker on the planet. He decided to stonewall and the media just filled in the blanks with some of the wildest speculation imaginable. And that apology. That don’t know where to look it was so bad apology. The faux sincerity. The Dr. Drew therapeutic jingoism. It’s what supreme arrogance looks like when it’s forced to it’s reconstructed knees. Just about the only thing that could save Tiger’s reputation at this point would be to spend a decade washing the feet of lepers.
Or he could just accept the fact that the Tiger corporation is now closed for business. Forget the money. He could get back his amateur status and play for nothing. Play for the smell of fresh cut lawns amid the dewy haze of a summer morning. Play for the feel of a sweet pure stroke as that white ball bisects the fairway. Play just for the sheer love of the game.
Naaaaah.

Nothing cuts a gigantic wildly innovative market dominant software juggernaut down to size quite like presenting them as a cuddly incompetent dork.
And Microsoft still doesn’t appear, after all these years, to know how to deal with it.
Frankly, if I was up against a campaign this good, I wouldn’t know how to deal with it either. Their response still seems to be to just hope it goes away. Which to me, just makes it funnier.
Microsoft’s hugely expensive let’s bring in Jerry Seinfeld and Crispin Porter to go medieval on their collective Apple asses flamed out almost before it began.
And their current “I’m a PC” and I’m human and I’m interesting and I’m…trying way too hard, just doesn’t seem to be cutting it.
That’s how effective charm is.
But the charm also masks how incredibly brave this campaign is.
I have sat in endless brainstorming sessions where companies have clear benefits over the competition. The question inevitably will come up “why don’t we just show people how we’re better—you know, a side by side comparison.”
The client says “No. Why spend money to advertise the competition.”
The lawyer says “No. We’re opening ourselves up to litigation.”
The creative team says “No. It’s just so, y’know, old school.”
And if there’s anything that creative teams dislike more that being seen as unhip it’s being cute. Charm sits precariously on the borderline of the creative purgatory of Cute. Charm is a slippery slope. And no self-respecting creative person ever wants their work to be called Cute. Cute is kittens in baskets with yarn. Cute is babies in plant costumes. Creative people like to be funny and Cute isn’t funny. People will laugh at your Cute commercial, but it’ll be behind your back. Cute is creative death.
But Charm, as with all weapons, is incredibly effective when aimed accurately.
For example, what happens when Charm gets mixed together with wildly eccentric?
You get The Most Interesting Campaign Of The Year for The Most Interesting Man In The World. How interesting is he?

“His blood smells like cologne.”
“He lives vicariously through himself.”
“He once had an awkward moment just to see how it feels.”
“His reputation is expanding faster than the universe.”
“His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man.”
“The police often question him just because they find him interesting.”
That’s the campaign for Dos Equis. And that’s the legend of The Man. We’re captivated. We’re entranced. And when he finally speaks to us in this TV commercial, does he go for a call to action? Does he extol the virtues of the beer? Not for him to stoop to such corporate stoogery.
“I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis.”
Don’t always drink beer? In a beer commercial?
Now that’s a charmer
In an ad category of manscaped smugsters and beer-swilling bubbahs, The Most Interesting Man In The World uses wit as a weapon. Rather than celebrating the stupid and puerile, the appeal to the 12-year-old mind in an adult body, this advertising recognizes the fact that your voice has changed, you’ve got body hair and your testicles have descended. It’s a campaign for grown up men.
And the charming man gets the girl. Not the pull my finger guy.
Apple and Dos Equis. Charm rules.
So why aren’t there more charming campaigns? The most obvious reason is that they’re really really hard to do. They rely heavily on tone of voice, wit, style, incredible casting and great restraint. All elements that are hard for a lot of marketers to get their heads around. It all feels kind of touchy-feely in the hard-charging, media-neutral, results-oriented, innovate-or-die world of marketing today. And charming campaigns don’t test particularly well. So much is reliant on nuance. Sitting down 15 guys at $100 bucks a crack at a shopping mall on a snowy night in Regina virtually guarantees focus group suicide. Go ahead, ask them if they find it charming.
But when it’s done right. When all the precarious elements work together, charming campaigns are the ones that stand out, that really differentiate and captivate.
And boy do they work.
Like a, you know, charm.

You’re an easy target—Hard as it may be to believe, there are people out there that actually can’t stand advertising. They’re waiting for a gotcha moment so they can give a piece of their mind to the chairman. If you’re going to advertise, just accept that fact that some people are never going to like what you have to say, no matter how innocuously you say it.

You’re can’t hide advertising—Get this in your head: everybody sees everything. Just because you are advertising, say, Axe deodorant spray via the prurient interests of teenage boys doesn’t mean that someone won’t see an inherent contradiction with that and your other quite famous campaign, the Dove Campaign for real beauty. Same company with diametrically opposed views of the world. Somebody’s going to call you on it. Be prepared. It’s not the end of the world. The planet is full of contradictions.

HEADS UP! INCOMING!—No one likes to be caught flat-footed. Least of all heads of public corporations. They may not share your devil may care, c’est la vie, whoopsy attitude towards negative press. If there’s a possibility of controversy, have that conversation up front. Right to the top. Bring in the PR people and have a strategy to manage the potential issue. When Apple launched the Macintosh with their 1984 ad (I know I’m going back to the dark ages) a lot of people were horrified. But Steve Jobs expected and embraced the publicity, both negative and positive, that it engendered. They were ready for it. They had a vision of the bigger picture.

You are in the Persuasion business not the Entertainment business—You can watch TV all night and see an endless parade of corpses, deviant behavior, vulgarity and irreverence. And you may be tempted to think that great advertising should simply mirror the contemporary culture that most influences us. That’s what people like, right? That’s what audiences respond to, right? Yes, but…
Advertising for whatever reason is held to a much different standard than the programming that surrounds it. You just can’t go as far as what would easily be acceptable in an average comedy or drama show. Don’t ask me why this is. I don’t really know. It just is.

Great advertising IS polarizing—I truly believe if you create great advertising with a strong point of view, you’re going to piss somebody off. Any insight into the mind of a teenage boy brilliantly executed will, for example, offend some group of parents somewhere. Will you get letters? Likely. Will it create a strong brand among your target? Absolutely. I believe, you have to do what’s right for the business and go for it.
There is always risk in advertising. Risk and reward are what make advertising and business in general as exciting as it is. The only way to win is to embrace risk. The biggest risk of all is to spend all that money and have no one notice.
And that to me is blasphemy.

Absolutely amazing.

Beyond the Gateway Recession: What CEOs Will Face Next

From George F. Colony, CEO of Forrester research.

We’ll look back on this recession as much more than an ugly economic moment. History will view it as The Gateway — a portal connecting two very different eras.

When the economic clouds clear, many prevailing elites will have been swept away, organizational structures will have fallen, and many who were formerly in control will have lost power. Those who can speak digital will thrive, and those who cannot will finally get the message and retire.

The signs are everywhere. Post-Gateway players: Obama; Amazon; Zappos; Jet Blue; Twitter; Facebook; blogs; Craigslist; broadband; Wikipedia; DVRs and iTunes. Pre-Gateway: GM; the New York Times; the Republican party; shopping malls; print advertising; excessive executive pay; TV networks; boards of directors full of aging plutocrats; and the TV-centered Washington chattering classes. Like the US Civil War, which separated an agrarian society from an industrialized economy, or World War I — a death knell for many European elites — the Gateway Recession is exposing fundamental weaknesses in long-standing political, cultural, and economic institutions.

Here are the new challenges and rules that await CEOs on the other side of that door:

1. Digital will be mandatory, not a choice. Pre-digital CEOs could get away with IT/BT (information technology/business technology) ignorance. No longer. Tech will be key to how you sell, connect to customers, become more efficient, and lower costs. Why is Amazon so powerful? Because it combines two old-world attributes, great customer service, and superb execution with a critical post-Gateway attribute — digital. In the new world, CEOs of all stripes will have to have it all, in the mode of Amazon.
2. Brand loyalty will be limited. For five years, Forrester has been tracking the precipitous decline in brand loyalty — particularly for complex products like cars. Brands will afford only limited protection for your company in the new world — because choice has been radically expanded. All brands are subject to consumer testing, discussion, disclosure, and transparency. You can no longer own your customer — your customer will own you.
3. Customers will look very unfamiliar. They will learn, play, work, and live differently than you or the customers you studied in business school. In the US, 18- to 27-year-olds spend 30% less time reading magazines and newspapers than 28- to 40-year-olds. They spend twice as much time playing digital games, 53% more time on cell phones, and twice the amount of time on social sites like Facebook. You may not like it, and you may not understand it, but your customer is being changed by technology — and your customer will change your company.
4. The war for people will be intense. It’s a counterintuitive thought at this moment of high worldwide unemployment, but the post-Gateway era will be distinguished by a pitched battle for good people. Basic demographics are at work — in the next eight years 35% of nurses and 40% of federal government workers will retire in the US. Already-low fertility rates in Europe will continue to fall. Yes, the baby boomers’ kids will fill the gap but not for another 20 years. CEOs will fight for people on three fronts: 1) Attracting and winning the best and the brightest takes world-class offices and factories, the best internal technology, and truly compelling corporate purpose and values; 2) retaining the best workers takes a great corporate strategy, excellent leadership, and inspiring management; and finally 3) getting productivity from the limited workforce you have — again, this loops back to nailing the technology imperative.
5. You will sell differently. You used to advertise in the local newspaper, BusinessWeek, CNN, Le Monde, or the Wall Street Journal. Many of these channels won’t survive in the new era — because the new consumer won’t pick them up or tune them in. You will have to reach customers in new ways — blogs, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and whatever supersedes them.
6. The way you innovated is dead. The era of black-box innovation has passed. Look to P&G for the new model. CEO A.G. Lafley searches for product ideas all over the world — competitors, customers, China, and India — then partners to bring the new innovation to market. The biggest change will be the involvement of customers in building your products — a concept that I call “social sigma” (with apologies to Six Sigma). The idea is that the customer, through social technologies, will spec the new product — that the customer will be an active participant in broad aspects of product development.

The forces of the recession will trigger many of these changes. But the end of the Gateway Recession will also usher in a new technology era. Tech and the Internet have been around for decades, so why is their impact felt post-recession? Because while technology changes quickly, people don’t. It has taken 15 years of cultural fermentation, generational transitions, and habit breaking for society to catch up to what technology can do. Pre-Gateway, society wasn’t ready. Post-Gateway, technology and human behavior will align to create a powerful brew.

Elites will die, but new ones will take their place. The Sulzbergers will fade from view, but the Brins and the Bezos will fill the void. New companies (and therefore new elites) will aggregate around three areas: 1) new healthcare; 2) new forms of energy; and 3) technology. As CEO, you’ll have to drop your connections to the dying elites and figure out how to form connections with the emerging ones.

Apparently I’m dying, in constant pain, infertile, incontinent, undersexed and overpollenated.

According to the diagnosis of the marketing industry, I don’t have long to live.

So let me get this out in a hurry.

You guys are some seriously confused puppies. All these pathetic, alienating portrayals of the collective Boomer group will not serve you well. We’re either the butt of the jokes or ignored all together. And as for this endless fascination with youth, well, you guys have got to grow up.

Why?

Let’s start with this delusional pursuit of youth. Last time I checked, the purpose of marketing was to get the largest amount of money from the largest number of people as frequently as possible. Those under 30 years olds are the most susceptible to the vicissitudes of this recession. They have the highest jobless rate. They have the lowest discretionary income. And they are understandably hoarding what little they have left.

And the Boomers?

We’ve got the money. Baby Boomers control some 70% of disposable income. And we still comprise about 40% of the population. Based on U.S. data “50+ consumers earn $2 trillion annually, have 2.5 the discretionary spending power of any other group and by 2010 will be responsible for over half of all consumer spending in America.”

We’ve paid off their mortgages. There are no more daycare bills. In fact, the kids are out of the house and we’ve got cash burning a hole in our Hugo Boss jeans.

But of course, conventional wisdom goes, we’re not going to spend it on your product. Boomers have made their choices. We’ve chosen the brands we’ll stick to for life. Everyone knows that. So why spend money getting us to change when we never will?

Wrong again.

A recent Roper ASW study shows that consumer’s in their 20’s and 30’s are actually more averse to trying new brands than those in their 50’s. Give us better quality. Give us something more interesting and we’ll effortlessly change brands. Boomers are the original experimenters. Remember President’s Choice? This is the generation that rejected supermarket brands en masse in favor of better, more interesting Memories Of Dave Nichol offerings.

But at least we’re loyal to our cars. Nope. We went from American cars to Japanese cars to German cars and now Korean cars. The fact that more hybrid cars are sold to 50+ consumers proves that Boomers are as ready today for a new idea as they ever were.

“I’m a Pontiac Guy and always will be.” The guy said. Ok, who exactly is that guy? He no longer exists. Dead as Pontiac.

And we buy a lot of cars. Boomers are estimated to buy on average another 9 cars before we shuffle off this mortal coil. Look at our driveways. We even buy them 2 at a time.

You’ve got a target group that’s easy to reach: we still watch TV, we still read newspapers, we still listen to conventional radio. We spend a ton of time online and we’re easy to find there. We’re methodical in our decisions. We pay on time. And once more for effect—we’ve got the cash.

Who’s driving that new Lexus convertible? Who’s dining in the hottest restaurants? Who’s flying full fare to Europe? Who’s buying 3000 square foot condos. Who’s decked out like Lance Armstrong and riding that exotic $6,000 titanium/graphite alloy road bike? It’s the guy with the gray hair.

But, you CEO’s say, in 30 years they’ll all be dead and gone.

30 years? Really? REALLY? Dude, you’re just trying to make it through the next 2 fiscal quarters.

Granted, we’re in a recession now. Stock portfolios and RRSP’s have taken a major hit. The vast majority of those portfolios were held by Boomers. So we’re all a little bummed right now. But we know that money is coming back. How do we know? Because we’ve seen this before. And when it does come back, we will be the first ones spending. And spending big. You are going to see a spending spree of Russian mobster proportions.

And who are we going to spend our money with? The people that haven’t given a rat’s ass about us? The people that portray us as old-aged, doddering, hair-plugged, sad-ass, It’s-Patrick-and-he’s-bought-life-insurance doofuses? What do you think?

I’ll leave you with the wise words of the bewildered, frustrated man being carried to the Plague death wagon in Monty Python’s The Search for the Holy Grail. “Bring out your dead!” called the soldier pulling the wagon full of corpses.

“But I’m not dead yet!” said the older man as he’s tossed onto the pile by his callous stone-hearted son “I’m actually feeling much better!”

I’m actually feeling pretty good myself. I think I’ll go out and buy something.

Why?

Have times ever been any more unpredictable than now? Have they ever been any more insecure? Have they ever in your life been this weird?

Not in my brief time on the planet.

It’s a time of overwhelming consumer upheaval—insecurity about jobs, money and life. Institutions people have known and relied on cease to exist seemingly overnight. It’s a technological revolution—our habits, our time, what we know and how we know it has completely changed in a very few years.

Yet what is the overwhelming majority of what marketers put out there right now. What are the messages for these times? Without getting all German, how are we capturing the zeitgist and working it to the advantage of our brands?

We aren’t. What we get is same old same old.

So here’s a novel solution: It’s time to turn pro. It’s time to embrace the original. It’s time to get creative.

But why in the name of all that is holy would you do that? Budgets have been cut. People have been let go. Corporate insecurity has never been higher. Why get creative?

Because so few are doing it.

An example: watch TV tonight. Watch the commercials. There will be 2 strategies you will see for 80% of the spots. They are:
1) Life is just so darn busy. Thank goodness there’s (insert product here). It lets me get the job done and spend more time with my family.
2) Life is just so darn complicated. Thank goodness there’s (insert product here). It just makes life real simple.

By simply avoiding these 2 strategies you will already have differentiated yourself from most of the messages out there. See how easy that was? And I just saved you a bundle on strategic planning fees.

So let’s assume you’ve come up with an original strategy for your brand, now on to the creative. Considerably more anal minds than I have noted that we see well over a thousand marketing messages a day (they’ll have a more specific number. They’re anal). So what do you remember? What messages stand out? What was memorable? What was famous? What car commercial? What cellphone banner ad? What radio spot for a bank? Think about it. I can wait.

In a time when it’s never been more important to make every marketing dollar count, we’ve collectively done a duck and cover. Instead of embracing remarkable ideas, they seem to be looked upon like a live hand grenade in the boardroom. And no one’s going to take one for the team.

Here’s what I believe creative is. Roll this one around in your head and see if it sticks: CREATIVITY IS A STRATEGIC WEAPON. And every single time you interact with your customer is an opportunity to do something memorable for that customer. Your packaging, your logo, your office, your trucks, your website, your advertising, your billing, your shelfspace, the roof of your factory, the furniture in your lobby, what your employees wear, even the way you answer the phones—it’s all an opportunity to be creatively remarkable to your customer.

What do I mean by creative. Here’s some examples of the good stuff.

How about a product demo? Just about the oldest idea in the book. This online campaign shows just how good a demo can be when you take it way too far:

A bank is a bank is a bank. They all promise about the same thing. They’re sincere and paternal and have good service and lousy hours. That’s about it, right? Wrong:

You’ve probably seen this. But I think this guy is just about the coolest damn human being on the face of the earth:

And when you say “We can’t do that. That’s not who we are. We’re a great big company. What will the board of directors say?” keep in mind this spot from a great big company called Kraft:

And finally, what could be more overanalyzed and creatively stifling than a political campaign. There’s no room for creativity or being “edgy” or potentially alienating anyone, right? Here’s something from the campaign of some guy named Obama:

The world is weirder than ever. Nobody has all the answers. But I’m pretty certain the best strategic weapon isn’t banality. I can’t think of a better time to get creative. Get out there. Do something great. And reap the rewards.

“Now we live in an attention economy, where the most in-demand commodity is “eyeballs.” Says Laura Miller of Salon Magazine. “As more options crowd the menu, direct appeals to the reactive mind in the form of bright colors or allusions to sex, aggression, tasty foods and so on, take over.”

Easy right? Not so fast.

It’s not about how much money you spend on the creative, it’s about big, unusual this-is-just-crazy-enough-to-work ideas and completely unexpected executions. It’s about making FAMOUS advertising part of the mission.

So what are the new rules?

ADVERTISE TO KILLER BEES. Killer Bees respond to bright colours and loud noises. In our ADHD, constantly distracted world, you need to capture attention immediately. Is it intriguing and unexpected from the very first frame? Use slapstick, quick cuts, odd music and sound effects. Maintain attention.

You can’t take your eyes off of this one.

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER.You are online. The media’s free, remember? Your ads can be any length–5 second blips, 30 seconds or 5 minutes. Whatever your story dictates. Just make sure every frame is building your story. You don’t need lengthy and gratuitous product sell. If they like you, if you’re famous, your website will be overrun.

BE CURRENT. TMobile in England created a flashmob in Trafalgar Square in London getting 13,500 people to sing Hey Jude. Absolutely of the moment and charming and riveting.

UGLY WORKS TOO. Beautiful sunset vistas set against swelling violins may be nice, but the quality of picture and sound online really doesn’t matter. It’s about the idea. How bad can it be and still be great? Look at this from GEICO as part of their online campaign.

FREE YOURSELF There are a lot of censors for TV commercials. Online you have more freedom to create more sophisticated messages for narrower target audiences that people will want to pass along.
Like this one for a great big company called IKEA.

WOULD I SHARE? This is the most brutal test. Is it good enough to send to a friend. Is it entertaining enough—funny, outrageous, involving, make me cry. Do I get an emotional response that I would send along to other people and would make me look good in their eyes.

Ray Ban makes it outrageous for a younger target group in this spot.

By the way, if you check the hits on all the spots linked here, you’ll see that they had enormous appeal, seen by millions and of course, all the media was free.

So time to pay attention.

We’re living in a 3 screen world. We move from screen to screen to screen constantly. That hasn’t diminished television viewing–we’re watching as much as we ever did–but tube time has become increasingly distracted. We’re on the computer (31% of internet use happens while we’re watching TV), we’re text messaging—so television increasing becomes audio wallpaper instead of the life of the party.

And the screens have become interchangeable. We watch TV programs on YouTube. We play computer games on television. Over 100 million cellphone handsets are now video capable. IPhone apps are now a common way of creating brand experiences.

And among all those screens there’s a load of advertising–on average we’re exposed to 61 minutes of advertising every day from them.

That’s a lot of persuasion opportunity. But how well are advertisers using all those eyeballs as they dance from screen to screen? Are we transitioning our campaigns and messaging seamlessly? Do our brands live where our consumer lives? Are we even acknowledging that we live in a 3 screen world?

The answer is some are. And most aren’t. But the best campaigns, the ones that really capture our 3 screen culture live by 3 simple rules.

RULE 1: TV IS THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY. The very best advertisers structure their broadcast campaigns to do two things, sell the brand and continue the story. Your TV commercial must be as great an ad for the brand as it is for the website. Why should anyone go to your site? What will intrigue them, interest them, captivate them? Your TV spot should no longer be a contained message. It needs to be the carnival barker to get you into the tent. The Whopper Virgins campaign for Burger King did this really well. The TV spots were simple side-by-side comparisons. The online was this weird kind of anthropological study of remote indigenous peoples trying their very first burger. And preferring the Whopper.

Another note, and some people will hate me for this, but do not blow your brains out on TV production. If you are going to be a 3 screen advertiser, you need to invest production dollars in the other media. They need to be equally as wonderful as the TV, not an afterthought. We have produced almost all our TV commercials for under $80,000 to make sure we have budget for virals, branded content and other weird and wonderful ideas that continue the brand story.

RULE 2: ADVERTISE THE ADVERTISING. Here’s a little math: in 1965 you could reach 80% of adults with 3 showings of a TV commercial. Today you need to run 120 prime time spots to get the same results. People are watching just as much TV, they just happen to be watching 400 channels instead of 3. But you’re not looking to reach everybody, just your (I hope) incredibly tightly defined target group. The better defined the easier to find. You need to reach out to your consumer and bring them into your advertising, your brand story, through every source available. And that goes beyond just search engine optimizing, it means getting right into their world, particularly social media—Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumbleupon—there are a number of conversations involving your brand going on right now that you need to reach out to and be a part of. You can influence your consumers and bring them around to your story. You just have to accept you don’t completely own the message anymore. When that ShamWow guy got punched out by a prostitute, I suspect it had at least some affect on sales no matter how much Pepsi the amazing ShamWow can soak up from a shag rug.

RULE 3: DO FAMOUS WORK. There’s a reason they’re called a target audience and not target mindless zombies irresistibly drawn to your every word. Yes, relevant strategy is vitally important. However, it’s equally, if not more important to realize your target now watches your advertising content by permission. And that content has to be interesting or they will ignore you. Well duh, you say. But how many brands have a website that’s just brochureware or simply runs the TV spot on their site? I just saw that on TV, why do I have to see the identical ad online? You have an opportunity to spend upwards of 20 minutes with your consumer. That’s more than they’ll individually spend with your whole TV/radio/newspaper/outdoor campaign combined. And how much did that cost? You’ve got to give them a great, funny, unusual, memorable experience that they will pass along to like-minded people. Don’t blow the opportunity by boring them comatose. Take a look at the Numa Numa guy with the Geico gecko http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HItwu7PNdNo to see how you can extend your brand online famously. And cheaply.