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What can we learn from the Mad Men in a digital age?

Feb 182011

Well, in terms of social interactions, I hope there is very little we would want to learn, but there are some advertising basics of the 1960′s that may be useful to reflect upon.

The 5o’s and 60′s were driven by some of relatively new ideas, if not new technologies. A key driver was psychology, particularly behaviourism. This was allied to the discipline of research and particularly consumer motivational research. This was such a hot-button issue at the time that Vance Packard’s seminal 1957 book, ‘The Hidden Persuaders’ soon became a best seller. Link these concepts to an age where the copywriter was king and you have the ingredients for a cocktail more powerful than a dry martini. The important point to note is that the industry was people-focused – people talking to people, communicating persuading and motivating.

Technology in the following 40 years or so has changed the landscape dramatically – but change has always been in the nature of the industry. The media mix has changed from predominantly print, through broadcast media to digital and mobile. Computers brought us electronic typesetting, desktop publishing and digital photography. They have placed imaging, audio and video production directly into the hands of creatives, and more critically, into the hands of the public. A massive proportion of the communications channels is now in the hands of the audience.

The way the communications industry makes its money has changed radically – from the ‘agencies’ generating their income on media commissions, advertising production and mark-up on bought in goods and services, the whole sector has been forced by technology to reconsider its revenue models.

The technology changes have been primarily about means of delivery, new channels and production. They are about facilitation and in our fascination with the new (and advertising has always been fashion obsessed – nothing sells like novelty) perhaps the people dimension has slipped into the shadows.

Now perhaps is the time for the communications business to look at getting back to what it should do best – simply creating great advertising – bringing the people back into centre stage. Communications is fundamentally about people, ideas and emotions – that is what the Mad Men can remind us. Now… where is my layout pad?

Why does there seem to be a lack of vision for the creative industries?

Marketing No Responses »

Nov 272010

The UK creative sector is a major contributor to the UK economy, yet despite fine words there seems to be little actual vision to supporting and promoting this key revenue earner, even in these difficult times when every export pound is vital. Government only ever seems to notice by hindsight when British design, music, computer games, film and theatre are shown to be big export contributors. There is almost an element of surprise, as though it has crept up on everyone. Consider the figures below… Continue reading »

Back to basics - time to dust off your SMART objective.

Marketing 1 Response »

Sep 302010

We were recently asked to list the ten top tips for creating a marketing project brief: everyone agreed the first was setting a clear objective, then as we kicked around other key points such as building in measures of success and taking account of available resource, it dawned that most of the points could be addressed in that first point – ‘setting a clear objective’. If you dusted off that old, tried and trusted technique, SMART objective setting.

Okay, it’s been around for years and most of you are probably familiar with it, but it is still a valuable tool for setting objectives for colleagues, staff, suppliers… and yourself. For those of you not familiar with it, or those of us who have not used it in a while, it is a very useful mnemonic:

S – Specific: clear, precise, not fuzzy.
M – Measurable: You need measures in there to measure the success or otherwise of the project. Success criteria and failure criteria.
A – Achievable: All goals and objectives should be challenging, but if they are not achievable, those involved in the project will either become disheartened or you will start moving the goalposts.
R – Realistic: People often used to ask what is the difference between ‘realistic’ and ‘achievable’ – well, we bring in the other ‘R’ – Resource. Is there sufficient resource (time, personnel, cash etc.) to realistically achieve the objective within all the other parameters.
T – Time based: We all knoiw we need a timescale otherwise things don’t happen.

These five factors can form the structure around which to hang a more detailed project brief, but they are critical. They are tools of the brief-writer, but should involve consultation. Two of the factors may be variable – M, the measures and T, the timescale. You may need to manipulate these for A, achievable and R, realistic to work. This is where consultation matters. Discuss these with the people you may need to call on to execute the project. It is far better to get these right at the brief stage than have to go back and change the objectives as the project is in progress.

So, get SMART… let us know what you think.

Glass box - black box - glass box

Brand Development, Marketing No Responses »

May 222010

There is a new post on the Brandmaster blog, that discusses the issues of ‘concept branding’ and ‘concept marketing’. This impacts upon all aspects of creativity and innovation in business, marketing and communications. In essence, the creative process starts in a ‘glass box’, where all the background, research, analysis and planning is visible to all – it then passes briefly into the ‘black box’ where the fruits of this evaluation can be interpreted into something memorable, pedestrian or poor. Then it passes back into the glass box where the testing analysis and application process is visible and empirically understandable.

The key argument is that ideas do not spring from the ether. They are the product of pragmatic background processing. Sometimes this process is not formal, but part of the normal practice of the organisation. This in no way belittles the critical importance of brilliant creative minds who make the difference between great solutions and the mundane – but the best creatives are quick to acknowledge the importance of skilled planning.

http://bit.ly/9mYMd9

Creative businesses are different.

Marketing, Training & coaching No Responses »

Mar 022010

There is a sound reason why we provide specific mentoring and coaching for owners and managers of creative businesses – that is because they are different.

The majority of creative based businesses are owned or controlled by the people who founded them, and these are creative people. Far from being ‘head in the clouds’, these people are extremely well qualified to run and grow businesses.

Starting and building a business is a creative process in itself.
One of the skills that many non-creative based companies invest in is innovation and creativity – skills which are the stock in trade for these businesses.
These same levels of thought and approaches are applicable to all the business disciplines.

It is not that creative people need to learn new business disciplines to handle what some see as the essential, down-to-earth skills: what they need to do is to learn how to apply their own skills and innovative thought processes to the wider business disciplines. For these people training is not the right solution. If it can be argued there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for business growth and development, this is doubly true for creative businesses.

Problems tend to occur with growth, when businesses replace entrepreneurial flair with accountancy expertise – while such skills are vitally important in business there is no reason why the hand on the tiller should not be a creative one

We advocate coaching and mentoring as the most efficient development route for creative businesses, where those valuable talents and energies can be directed in their own distinctive direction.

In creative based businesses there is tremendous intellectual and emotional energy – properly directed it can achieve miracles: wrongly focused it can be unwittingly destructive.

Please get in touch if you would like to learn more about creative business mentoring and coaching – we understand both business and creativity – it is what we do.

Second the emotion

Brand Development, Marketing No Responses »

Feb 122010

In today’s climate of rationalisation, measurable results, ROI calculations and the rest, it is too easy to overlook the emotional dimension of communications. But it is our emotional responses that create memorable experiences. If you were asked to note your top 5 brands, favourite ads, most interesting websites etc. it would be those that stirred excitement, laughter, pleasure or moved your spirit in some way.

It is too easy to overlook the two ends of the communications channel – the people. People buy from people and are engaged by the same things - whether this is in the consumer or the b2b sector.

We’ve just been looking at the emotional dimensions of brands – check out the post on http://bit.ly/cIQrEq.

When creativity is not enough.

Marketing No Responses »

Feb 092010

An issue I often come across when helping creative companies market themselves is actually coming to terms with why people buy from them. Almost without exception they say, ‘The quality of our creative work’. Well sure, that is almost a given but that just leads you into a beauty contest, and leaves you at the mercy of client subjectivity.
A quick customer satisfaction survey often brings surprising (to the company) results. I recently carried out such a survey and the reason clients quoted was quality of customer service – a small victory for ‘the suits’. A similar survey for a successful web development company looking to international markets cited, ‘Responsiveness and human contact’ – it seems digital companies in general are quite poor at responding promptly – or picking up the phone.
There is a lesson here for many businesses, not just creative ones. There is a natural tendency to focus on the quality of your product or service and believe it is the best in the world. But your actual proposition is a combination of a number of factors which may include, quality, price, speed of delivery, customer service, responsiveness, pro-activity. It is how you manipulate the combination of these things that allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition with a unique offer.

What will be the three big digital things for 2010

Digital Marketing, Marketing No Responses »

Jan 172010

New year is always a time for predictions and I’ve been looking through the crop on various blogs and in trade magazines, and, not to be outdone, here are the three things that ring bells for me.

Visual internet

The web will continue to get more and more visual. Sure, it will still be a text based medium at heart, but but more broadband has brought us more images, animations, Flash and of course video (okay, for ‘visual’ read ‘audio visual’). The boundaries of possibilities for marketers are expanding with increasing rapidity. The facebook/youtube generation is driving communications and conversations.
While we live in very exciting times I do have some worries, with my accessibility hat on, as we move away from text and hope everyone keeps in mind users with disabilities.

Mobile

There is little doubt that mobile is going to be very big in 2010, as it has been threatening for some time, but in what shape we still have to wait and see. It is a slippery concept – just when you think you have got your hand on it it moves on. Undoubtedly mobile apps fuelled by the iPhone and Google are driving one end with social internet revving up the other. Watch out for more mobile blogging.

Electronic PR

ePR has been galloping away in a quiet revolution and has already become a powerful and cost effective tool. Those who thought of it as just an electronic delivery system have had to think again. Social internet is still a bit of a wild child, but the borders between Web 2.0, online publishing, PR and web-promotion are becoming increasingly blurred and I suggest that in 2010 we will see agencies emerging offering a radically new type of service. While budgets continue to be squeezed, savvy communicators will be looking to ePR.

New whitepapers added

Brand Development, Marketing No Responses »

Jan 152010

We have added two whitepapers on branding from the Brandmaster blog. Check them out – follow the whitepapers link.

How to develop strong international brands.

Brand Development, Marketing No Responses »

Jan 152010

A training course for businesses wanting to make their brands punch hard in the global arena.
We have a new course covering the key aspects of international branding.

The course was created in response to a demand from many companies on export training courses who had questions about brands and branding development. So, this one-day course was developed to answer some of those questions and also to address some wider issues in terms of brands and branding, such as clarifying international offers, language and cultural issues and protecting IPR.

Contact us for more information