UPS Whiteboard Commercials

Whelp, we've arrived. At least at Madison Avenue. Oh, and on the televisions and monitors of millions of viewers.

With the current UPS advertising campaign, the visual language of graphic facilitation is being used to explain the company's new value proposition. In recent years, UPS has made the move to position itself away from competing with FedEx and DHL for fast overnight delivery services, to positioning the company as a key asset in a business' supply chain.

So, what can Brown do for you? According to an article in Fast Company:

 

UPS is tapping into a powerful trend. For years, Peter Drucker and other management gurus have argued that companies are better off focusing on the front office and leaving the back office and similar functions to someone else who specializes in those areas. In other words, find a company whose front office is your back office. By offering to take on many of the various tasks known as the "supply chain"--which can encompass every step in producing a product or service and getting it to customers--UPS is trying to be that company.

This has proven a difficult message to explain across the organizational hierarchy. Seems like UPS has hit on the K.I.S.S. principle in promoting the concept.

The on-line ads and television broadcast spots--titled simply "UPS whiteboard"-- use a graphic facilitator (who is that guy anyway?!) to illustrate concepts like outsourcing, global value chain, procurement and on-line billing.

In the end, this makes an easier job of explaining what a graphic facilitator does for a living:

Explain complex concepts in a simple, graphic form that enables organizations to decide what to do next.

[Thanks to Sue Shea of Minneapolis for the link!]

Comments

[Hrbek]

That guy is an actual creative director at the Martin Agency, which created the spots. Not an actor.

[John Colaruotolo]

Funny, huh? I noticed this and you can send an email note to your friends from UPS.com... and that guy will "write" (though very computer-primitively) to your friend.

- jc