WINNING HEARTS AND MINDs

Avi Krauss and Assaf Fasi run a successful advertising agency. Their company burst upon the national scene when they ran Naftali Bennett’s election campaign. They are a young and fresh team who think out of the box and know how to touch people’s hearts. * Twenty-five years ago, the Rebbe said we need to publicize his prophecy, so we asked them for tips on how to publicize the Rebbe’s message.

By Oholiav Abutbul

The road leading to the offices of the Fasi-Krauss advertising agency is surrounded by greenery and the mountains of Yerushalayim. The pastoral drive does not prepare you for your encounter with Avi Krauss and Assaf Fasi. Their fresh and audacious way of thinking stands in stark contrast to the serene panorama out the window.

This pair of publicists came to national attention when they linked up with Knesset member Naftali Bennett, who was then head of the Yisraelim movement that he founded. After a successful primaries campaign within his party, they ran the national election campaign in which they were responsible for the social media aspect and were tremendously successful. Together, they have established a company which is achieving success in business, politics, the social arena and the media.

Today, the Fasi-Krauss agency is a leading firm in the world of digital public relations. Their expertise lies in developing content and advertising on social networks. “Yediot S’farim,” the Bayit HaYehudi party, the “Royalty” company, Radio Galei Yisrael, the V’Tein Chelkeinu organization and others are part of a list of major clients, which places the agency as a leading force in the digital market in the religious-Zionist and chareidi sectors.

Twenty-five years after the Rebbe said “to publicize to all members of the generation,” we spoke to them about the world of informational advertising or “new media” as it is known, which is reinventing itself every day. The challenges today for advertisers are far greater than they used to be. Previously, you could release an ad/announcement to the newspapers with minimal graphics work, but today, the thinking needs to be out of the box, of course, without veering from your message.

As young campaign launchers, tell us how an advertising campaign is run today.

The principles in the world of advertising are that any business or individual who wants to “sell” a message must define exactly what his product is, who it is for, and what the target audience is. Many people say or think that their product is good for everyone and just by introducing it the public will come. This is naive thinking and it can be a disaster when it comes to a campaign, because you can totally miss your target audience.

We first identify the target audience and only then start developing the right marketing strategy. A proper advertising campaign will begin after defining your marketing strategy. You then pick an original, pithy slogan, the sentence which accompanies your message, briefly explain what your service is, and run a smart, coordinated campaign.

As your target audience is more exposed to your messages, you begin to take a more prominent place in their consciousnesses.

As people who handle campaign strategy, at what point do you feel that a campaign is successful?

The moment that we sense that the feelings we had back in that small room and in our thoughts are reverberating within the broader public.

That is a very powerful sense when it comes to national elections, or when we market a new brand name and see how we have been able to take a product that was unknown two months earlier and make it a household product.

Sometimes there is the feeling that the public is shallow and it makes no difference what the thing is, as long as you know how to market it you’ll be successful. Is that correct or is the public smarter than that?

The public today is very smart and discerning and the messages have to be developed accordingly.

The crowds on social media networks will test every claim you make. If there is the least bit of superficiality, the public will judge and dismiss you. If, once upon a time, the advertising world looked down on the masses and played with their emotions, at this point, whoever doesn’t operate with a sincere respect for the wisdom of the masses, simply won’t be able to sell. We believe this is a good thing that is happening throughout the consumer and marketing worlds.

How can you take a complex, abstract, spiritual, deep message, which only a relatively small percentage of the population “gets,” and share it with everyone?

By simplifying the concept. Talking as equals and trying to speak everyone’s language

Good advertising is when you have a message which is understood by all kinds of people, each on their level. The goal is that no matter how deep or complicated the general message is, it will have some element which everyone can relate to.

We selected a bunch of slogans that were used over the years by Chabad organizations. Can you pick the best of them and analyze what makes it good? Hichonu l’Bi’as HaMoshiach (Get Ready for Moshiach’s Coming); Boruch Haba Melech HaMoshiach; HaPitron HaYachid Moshiach ben Dovid (The Only Solution is Moshiach, which rhymes in Hebrew); Moshiach. Do a Mitzva and Be a Partner; Moshiach. Because there is Only One Real Leader; Moshiach. Another Small Deed and He’s Here.

Personally, we relate most to “Hichonu L’Bi’as HaMoshiach.” I think that if your question was polled you would get the same answer from people on the street. There is the element of taking action (hichonu/prepare) but it does not demand that the simple man on the street do any specific thing; you are just including him in the experience of anticipation and getting him to relate to the urgency that in another moment something is going to happen and he can miss out if he doesn’t keep up. This slogan gives hope and doesn’t judge anyone. And as I said earlier, it has a number of meanings that people can relate to, each with his understanding and where he’s coming from.

It’s no secret that there is great admiration around the world for the leader of Chabad, the Rebbe. How do you think we can translate this admiration to convey messages that are a bit more complicated for the public to digest?

The branding and admiration that Chabad and the Rebbe have is one of those things which all can learn from in the world of advertising. This success story comes from the fact that the Rebbe and his shluchim operate from a place of truth.

When there is a feeling that the person facing me wants to give to me unconditionally and he proves to me that he has integrity and true love, the heart opens up. After succeeding in creating that initial trust comes the stage where you can slowly deepen the message. When you speak to people as equals and with humility, you can convey the deepest and most complicated messages.

We have seen this time after time even in political campaigns where we had to create messages that went beyond the “basic” propaganda. When you take down the curtain between the advertisers and the public – voters or consumers – you can speak in depth and they will understand you and believe you too.

When we ran a media campaign to raise funds for a chareidi organization, with the help of “softening up” the public, and targeted messages for different kinds of people, which the new media makes possible, we were able to enlist thousands of secular people in this campaign and raise a very large sum of money from people you would never imagine would donate to this cause.

Over twenty-five years have passed since the Rebbe said to publicize the prophecy of “hinei hinei Moshiach ba.” What can you suggest to Lubavitcher Chassidim who want to do this in the most effective way?

You showed me this sicha and I think there is one thing that touched me which I think every Chabad Chassid needs to take with him.

“We have merited that G-d chose and appointed someone with free choice who, on his part, is incomparably greater than the people of his generation.” When you take on the task of educating an entire generation, you cannot reach people from a place of superiority. You need to understand that at the core you are not worth more than the security guard at the entrance to the mall or the checkout person at the supermarket. If you have the knowledge and the talents to fix the world and influence people, use that in the best possible way to fix the world, and don’t forget that you’re not better than anyone. You are just a shliach.

When you operate like that, you can put yourself in their place and try to understand what will touch them. This is how we operate even when we advertise a brand of jewelry or books. We try to put ourselves in the place of the consumer who sees the ad and think about what we would be receptive to.

Ultimately, especially today, with all the computers and smart phones, it all starts and ends with the heart.