Tomorrow … I want to talk about the word 'Creative' … it's starting to annoy me.

Why do we compare PR and Advertising? No, really, why?

I've been amazed by ad people over the last so many years. Men and women, both. The sharpest tools in the room, yet they let 'PR' win a battle of relevance and importance in the client's mind. We seemed to lose track with what we were about, the power we had and could also impart to business. Somewhere around the late 80's, early 90's, we all became self-conscious about what we did. Were we secretly ashamed of the big salaries? (in some cases that shame was justified).  Were we embarrassed that we got to have a long lunch every now and then, shoot TV commercials overseas and get paid for 'doing nothing more than have ideas"?  Maybe.  Whatever it was, it was a mistake. And advertising has been paying for it every since.

You see I believe that Advertising (read here 'the art and craft of creating persuasive commercials) cannot and should not be compared to PR or media. They are quite different and necessary disciplines.  But they are not 'advertising'.

Let me explain. A strong strategy, combined with intuitive, engaging creative professionally crafted by experienced writers and art directors is a powerful asset to any company. PR (and please don't write nasty letters they'll only make me cry) is a dissemination of facts to promote a favourable image. It does not and never will build a brand.  Do you think that if in the early 70's an infant sneaker company called Nike would become the behemoth it is today, if they would have only used PR? "Seattle firm launches new range of Sneakers" can only go so far. 'Just do it' went so much further. Memorable, engaging, intriguing, entertaining TV, press, outdoor and cinema…not 2000 column inches... built a spectacular brand. Great advertising transforms businesses. It captures both loyalty and imagination. And although Apple are today's masters at "Whisper PR' we are only interested in the brand thanks to campaigns such as 'Think Different' and '1984'.

We are capable of so much more. Imagine this photograph:  we're close on a basketball court in the middle of an obviously exciting game, the fans in the background are on their feet cheering wildly…in the foreground is Michael Jordan - right hand outstretched, his mighty hand enveloping a basketball. His left arm is like a long air rudder behind him. His legs are walking through the air, 6 feet above the ground. It's another 5 feet to the basket, but we know he'll dunk that ball through the middle of the hoop, as sure as night follows day.The headline could have said

"Air Jordan help you jump higher."

But no. That's too easy. That's the lazy thinking an also-ran brand would come up with. Nike, the market leader, has the confidence to say:

Isaac Newton 0.  Michael Jordan 1.

That's the undeniable power of advertising.  It's a game changer.

 

Creating talk. Generating commerce.™

A plea for more advertising. Who would have thought?

There's a great Op. Ed. piece in the latest Esquire Magazine (Feb. 2012) titled "A short prayer for Advertising - Please bring back great commercials" written by Stephen Marche. It's quite a fascinating observation on what advertising has become and what we've almost lost. "What could be more old-fashioned than actual ads? Everywhere…life has become advertising and advertising has become life". Mr Marche's keen point is that in a time when advertising has secreted itself into every facet of our lives, it has lost its once essential glamour. 'Ads',  those great imposing inventions of the 20th century, reflected our taste and our culture, showed us what we liked and what we were like. In them we found humour and wit, banality and grace. We knew 'what were good ads and good products and what were bad ads and bad products". Now we are increasingly and silently cajoled and sold in a time  when product placement is deemed  as important as brand building.

It's unfortunate that  'advertising and honesty' are seen as a contradiction in terms. (i've always treasured  the term 'the truth well told' but that's another blog). I fear that in the not too distant future, when the 30 second TV commercial is only an oddity dragged out to entertain us during extravaganzas such as the Super Bowl, we may miss the 'honesty' of a well crafted commercial.

Read the full article, you're sure to enjoy it. Either buy Esquire at your newsagent (US edition), or download their award winning app from iTunes.

Creating talk. Generating commerce.™

Social Media - all or nothing at all...

I often wonder why companies get all excited about a social media campaign and then go about it half cocked... they build a weak Facebook  and twitter page and then add lame posts, or rarely post at all, and wonder why it didn't work. To our mind that's like buying a radio campaign and just putting 30 sec of silence to air. You make a start, but don't follow through. Digital and Social media is the ENTIRE gamut. You simply can't do it half hearted and expect great (or any) results.

When we design a campaign for a client we include SEO SEM Blogger outreach, an app (skewed to making a sale), Digital and online PR, Link building, Content building, FB/T/G+ brand pages, Adwords, Online ads, generated content for Youtube, instagram, tumblr, Groupon etc

Any thing less is just a waste of time and money. If you're going to do it...do it all or nothing at all.

The cost of the ad vs the media spend.

I've never understood this. But then, I tend to look at advertising creative differently to most. There's an argument that says the production budget of an ad (and let's talk TV here) is proportionate to the size of the media spend. On the surface that sounds reasonable. But let's think about it.

If the media spend is two million dollars the production budget has every right to be 10-15% - $200,000 - $300,000.  And if the media spend is $100,000 the production budget should be the same %, about $10,000  - $15,000.  So the more or less you spend on media decides the more or less you have to create the persuasive message. The one thing that can transform a business.

Does this seem ludicrous to anyone else? What on earth do the two budgets have in common?  Aren't the real questions: "How much money do we need to  connect with the target consumer/demographic?" AND "How much money do we need to create the best possible, most persuasive idea we can?".  I fully understand company's have budget constraints, but let's make that the decider on the production budget rather how much is being spent in media.

Look at it another way:  A 30 sec spot on the Superbowl costs $1m+ -  does that mean you have to spend $100,000 on production.

No it means you have to spend whatever it takes to connect with the millions watching the event. And you know what, that could be just $40,000, or $10,000 or another $1million.

I've presented creative ideas (both in digital and traditional) and when the client asks the production estimate responds with "But that's almost as much as the media spend!" And even though they loved the idea and thought it would effectively do the job required, have canned it and asked for something less breakthrough/involving/standout. No kidding, I've heard that.

This is not an argument for big production budgets. It's an argument for giving your communication company a realistic production budget, irregardless of what your media budget is.

As we say: Create talk. Generate Commerce.©

 

Creative vs Media - No the argument has not gone away.

It seems the new king of the block ( 'new'  =  'the last 10 years') is media. Traditional or Digital, it doesn't matter.  And it's understandable because  it's all so quantifiable. So predictable. So definitive. "You're talking to these people,  at these times and it will cost this much." and "that demographic will see your ad exactly 4.5 times".  A client will gladly spend millions of dollars when presented with that thinking.  Sure they may tweak the plan at the edges, but more often than not it will get through. Now it's time to remind ourselves of an immutable truth uncovered by Mr Bernbach and his peers some 50 + years ago:  Advertising is the art of business. (Not marketing, advertising). When it is crafted by experts, those interested in their client's success, not their personal success at award shows, there's no more powerful force for business transformation on the face of the planet.  So powerful in fact that when created properly, it can mean less money needs to be spent on media.

Did anyone else hear that pin drop?

Here's a story, it's true and involves the enigmatic Steve Jobs. Before they launched the Apple Macintosh in '84, Mr Jobs and his agency created a spot called '1984'. You must have seen it, it's gone down in advertising folklore and was voted 'best ad ever' by people who know. The point of the story is that the then Apple board, when shown the ad prior to broadcast, demanded that it never be shown, that all copies be burnt and that Steve Jobs question his grip on reality.  But never one to be deterred by old thinking, he managed to get the ad to air. Once. During the Superbowl.

Held as the most effective single showing of any ad, ever, '1984' not only helped redefine creative advertising but also turned the Superbowl into an advertising event more than a football event.

How many times have you seen one bad ad over and over again - wearing you down with its banality - driving you to sticking forks into your eyes?   Time to re-question the industry and decide what we're really doing and how we can do it better,  help our clients spend less, and succeed more.

see 1984 here http://youtu.be/OYecfV3ubP8

 

 

 

Can we do everything?

Boy, I hope not. These days, being a 'Jack of all trades' is a sure fire way to fail. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, isn't it a better idea to be great at one thing and utilise expertise in other fields. (production etc) After all, you don't want your Dentist to also be your mechanic, do you? Take persuasive ideas as an example. From where we stand, the most important part in the communications mix is the idea. (Call me old fashioned, and I'll have my detractors, but it ain't nothin' without an idea!) You need to come up with an important communication idea first, one that will intrigue, engage and entertain your market. One that will fulfil all the stuff we learnt about brands from Messers Burnett and Bernbach. Then you need to translate that across today's different mediums. Impossible? Hardly. If you can make the core campaign idea work across TV and Outdoor, two diametrically opposed media, why can't you also make the same core idea work in digital? A good example is the classic line of the 80's 'Pepsi - The choice of a new generation' That thought was perfectly expressed in countless TV commercials, radio and billboards and no two looked the same. It was cleverly translated into the strengths of each medium. Same rule applies today. Whether you're building an app, a facebook page or TV ad. The salient point that seems to escape most people is - understand the core of the idea. Once you understand that you can express it in as many different mediums and executions as you can imagine.