Premium Magic: Q&A with Jim McCafferty
Jim McCafferty’s new-business pitch is unusual, even for the toy industry. He invites people to come and have lunch in his spaceship.
McCafferty is the President-CEO of JMP Creative, an idea-generation agency whose work has spawned premiums for fast food and packaged goods brands, as well as toys and movie tie-ins.
McCafferty began his career as a magician; in the mid-80s, ad agencies tapped him to juice up their brainstorming sessions, and his consulting business evolved from there. Now his 16-year-old shop works directly with toy manufacturers and film studios as well as brand marketers, promo shops, ad agencies and package design firms on product and package development as well as premiums.
He holds about two dozen patents; his staff of 20 full-timers (and another 30 or so contractors) host brainstorming sessions and hone their own ideas in a five-building complex in Santa Ana, CA, with zany office interiors, including a laboratory and a spaceship.
“It tells CEOs, if you don’t want something really different, don’t come to me,” McCafferty said.
He spoke with PROMO about Trojan Horse marketing (secretly planting a surprise inside a product or within an ad), YouTube’s impact on premiums and the Next Big Thing.
What kind of marketer gets the best ideas?
You’ll get better ideas if you’re not an NIH kind of company—”Not Invented Here.” You also need to embrace technology, and see the tangible in the intangible. Look at viral video: Once it’s all on download, how can you create a digital-entertainment experience that uses a physical item? A tangible [premium] gets you to interact with a video and adds to the experience of watching it. Having something in hand that enhances the video also helps narrow down the choice as viral videos proliferate.
Premiums for YouTube?
You can’t control content anymore. It’s a ball rolling downhill faster than you can catch it. The question is, how can you make it go in the right direction and make it look cool as it’s rolling, so people will cheer it on?
The democracy of content, like YouTube videos, is dangerous to big companies. But they can afford to do gadgets that increase consumers’ interaction with the companies’ own videos and drive traffic to their sites.
Does adding that layer of involvement also let consumers play with the brand a little?
It builds cachet and a sense of discovery. Everyone likes a surprise. That’s why I love Trojan Horse marketing that reveals a magic. You put a gift, a surprise inside and let it be revealed later. Once someone discovers it, that’ll create buzz. We did it with Techno Robotic Puppy a few years ago: We programmed in a code that would make the dog fart. Once a few people figured it out, there were all these newscasters on the local news demonstrating how to make this dog robot fart.
What kills a good idea?
Editing. You have to disconnect the brainstorming from the editing. If you find an idea that you love, but you don’t know how to make it happen, do a separate brainstorming session to figure out how to do it. We’ll bring in experts like chemists and engineers, then coach them to say only how something could be done—or else say, “I don’t know how, but I’ll think about it.” They’re not allowed to say it can’t be done.
What should marketers do that they aren’t?
Put at least 30% of their [marketing] budgets into crazy ideas because the competition — the little guy — is putting 90% of his money behind crazy ideas. Can’t the big companies sneak out 30%? And then don’t expect it to be so measurable. Leave it to a creative, aggressive set of dreamers, and it’ll far out-value the 70%.
So what’s the next big thing?
Metals; it’s like Marbles, all grown up. It’s a collection of etched metal cylinders, about one inch long, that you can wear like jewelry and also use to play a game. When you spin them on a tabletop, the design creates an optical illusion. They’re going to be hot next year.
