Five Steps To Effective Ad Creative

Step 3

In my capacity as a marketing and advertising consultant, I'm frequently put into the position of advocating creative changes that, to be blunt, serious design pros resist. I do this for one very simple reason. My loyalties are not to the finished piece in someone's portfolio. They are to the performance metrics that the piece will generate.

This doesn't have to be an either/or proposition, and it rarely is. But to a time-stressed and/or inflexible designer, it can sure seem that way, especially if the changes are coming from outside of their chain of command. Advocating for effectiveness can put you into a position of stepping on the toes of personnel that got the piece through a committee to approve, and challenging the wisdom of their professional judgment.

Do this without a degree of finesse or experience, and you can set yourself up to fail by by appearing out of your element. Force the changes through with pure stick and carrot (or the designer realizing that you only have those tools in your bag), and you work without their emotional buy in. The most you can hope for in that situation is inefficient and under-effective execution. The least will be sabotage, personal drama, and other side effects of failure.

So.. how do you side-step all of that?

Step 1 - Forget the why.

Why a designer is opposing change, especially if they are not on a comfort level to honestly communicate, is an endless rabbit hole that you do not want to explore. Maybe your designer is insecure about their position. Maybe they secretly wish they were back in art school. Maybe they are trying to win awards so they can get out of their current gig. Maybe they feel that you are trying to turn them into a hack. See what I mean? Endless maybes, and all of this is not getting your job done.

Avoid the temptation to psychoanalyze, and focus on the most effective uses of everyone's time and talent. You do that by...

Step 2 - Replacing emotion with data.

In direct marketing creative, this can be done through putting metrics to practices, and ideally, by showing analagous test results that support your changes. A ghost button may be very forward-thinking and spot-on for many consumer classes, and will look sharp in a portfolio... but if the audience doesn't skew to a younger and more affluent demo, it might just be the wrong message for the brand's price point. Serving the audience gets easier when it's not your taste, but your numbers.  

Step 3 - Use the NS10s.

A small aside: in a previous professional life, I fronted a rock and roll band. We made multiple albums, in studios that had some of the best sound equipment money could buy. But when you got down to final mix for what a consumer might hear in their sound system, you had to -- absolutely and without question -- run the work through consumer-level audio.

The speakers that every pro back then used were Yamaha NS-10S. They were the industry standard that every sound engineer utterly hated, because they were flat and dry and lost many a nuance and small point that you worked like mad to achieve. But they were an absolute godsend as a sanity check.

The same concept applies in design. Working up materials that look fantastic on full screens and oversized monitors, but don't work in a mobile-first environment, can easily sink your project's effectiveness. And just saying that the piece is responsive and will render to fit a screen doesn't mean you've done all you can. Knowing how your audience will see your materials should be the start, not the end, of the process.

Step 4 - Design to individual people, not demographics.

Everyone is prone, on some level, to the Naturalistic Fallacy. (That's a philosophical construct, best simplified this way: "What is true for me is true for all.") Even if the prospect is dramatically different from the team, creative pros will choose their pet fonts, colors and favorite tactics when possible, because no one thinks they have terrible taste, or starts a project with the goal of ugging it up for the dumbos.

But when you do a fairly simple exercise in naming your prospect, you get past uncharitable work for, say, 55-year-old homeowners that skew 80/20 male, and have disposable income for lawn equipment. Instead, you start making something for a guy with progressive lenses, financial worries from kids that are in college and retirement not too far off, who uses the Web to try to keep up with new music so he's got something to talk about with his kids. (See how we're sneaking in sympathy for the prospect? See how your designer is feeling better about moving away from that cutting-edge and hard to read font, and giving you an easy call to action, because the prospect has so much more o worry about in their life than finding the buy button?)

Step 5 - Be grateful.

If you are able to get a design pro to show real flexibility, don't take it for granted. That minimizes the contribution they've made to the process, and also keeps you from having a stronger relationship in the future. Instead, find ways to bring back some of the earlier prestige points if possible, and show that you are open to collaboration. A little listening can go a long way here.

Besides, if the ad can be both effective and a portfolio piece? Then everyone's happy. For a very long time, and maybe so happy that they'll find you other gigs later.

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or visit the site. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.

The New Way To Troll

Don't Snack On Me

I'm partial to political humor in my daily entertainment mix, which means I've found any number of "YallQaeda" takes in the past day. (In case you haven't been following the news, YallQaeda refers to the Oregon militia members who are occupying a federal building in rural Oregon.) The protestors have vowed to remain for months to draw attention to what they see as an unjust criminal proceeding against two local cattle ranchers, and have managed to get considerable media attention... but now that the authorities have decided to turn off the power and wait out the occupation, rather than risk an armed conflict, the news of the day is that the protesters are using social media to ask for donation of supplies, including socks, snacks, and energy drinks. Which has led to a considerable amount of ridicule, really.

There are, of course, any number of people ready to talk about the politics involved here, or to show how the police treatment of these protestors might differ from, say, how Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, or those who come near a political convention are treated. This shows a lack of sophistication in the difference between police forces over the country, in my estimation, and Oregon is not exactly a population-dense area. But I digress, and as a consultant, it's not my role to show a side in these matters.

What I find new and interesting about this, especially from a marketing and advertising perspective, is how advances in communication technology allow for fundamentally different interactions between citizens. The protestor message may be brought to you by cable news and and the mainstream media, but the response sure isn't, especially when a postal address is given. (Yes, there's some good fun to be had from anti-government activists collecting supplies through the use of the US Mail. Stay with me on this.)

Imagine, if you will, how moments in our nation's history might have been fundamentally altered with social media and the Web. The Boston Tea Party as flash mob. William Randolph Hearst's efforts to foster fervor around the sinking of the Maine with a timely hashtag. Pancho Villa would have been all kinds of a sensation, honestly.

I don't mean to make light of what might turn into a terrible event. As a nation, our history does not always stay comedic when individuals take up arms against federal employees. But what's different about this is striking and substantial, and speaks to how the news is now not just an industry, or a profit making enterprise, but also a participation sport. Either from the breaking of the event through the use of social media, the escalation of the same, or the changing nature of it. Especially if that P.O. box fills up with items of note.

What does this mean for marketers and advertisers? Well, you have to wonder if a youth-oriented snack brand is going to take a shot at nearly free publicity by putting their wares in the box. No reward without risk. Or if supporters send enough of one brand to make it a de facto sponsorship. Lots of companies make socks and energy drinks and the like, and the temptation to get on the social media gravy train might be too strong to resist.

As a consultant, I'd probably advise a client to steer clear of this if we had any kind of standing in the marketplace. The humor could drain from this situation very quickly, after all, and no one wants their brand to be at the scene of a tragedy. But if I had an entirely new brand and no PR dollars, or was an also-ran or failing already? I just might roll those dice.

And as for what else might come out of this? Well, that's the intriguing part of social media. Supporters and detractors find you the same. And what one group might send to satirize or diminish your position might be very different than what you were asking for.

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Post-Season Potpourri

Cleaning up in many ways

Two unrelated items as we get back into the swing of things after the holiday break...

First, on the off chance that anyone in the audience is involved in the creation of movies or animation, I've got a new tale to pitch. Saint Necassrius, the post-holiday embodiment of putting away all of the trimmings of the holidays, so that your house doesn't turn into that sad place at the end of the block where everything is up for way too long. Won't you sing with me?

Hail good Saint Nescarrius
He cleans up all our crap!
Halfway through his task you just
Might find him taking a nap!
(because he is a middle-aged 
demon who enjoys his naps)
Hail good Saint Nescarrius
He cleans up all our crap!

I'm thinking Walter Wolf, but either with a Krampus horn or elf trappings. Really, it depends on whether you want to scare your kids into helping, otherwise their stuff disappears, or if you are more happy with them clearing out and giving you time and space to yourself. (And yes, my kids get odd holiday traditions, the foremost of which is the Christmas Weasels.)

The second involves finally getting around to taking the better half to her popcorn movie of choice, which is the latest Star Wars installment. I'll defer from getting into any major plot points in this, since that sort of thing is just poor form for those who haven't been yet, and are still planning to go, but I've got complaints. Minor ones, for the most part, and pointless because of the astounding success it's achieving in the market (see, this turns into a business column after all), but to wit...

1) There is, I read, some actual Oscar buzz around this film, because people seemingly feel bad about big money blockbusters never getting critical acclaim. To which I would say... um, why?

You don't go into a sci-fi blockbuster looking for people who are acting up a storm. You go in for explosions, effects, and other feet up, brain in a box stimuli. (And yes, I know, plenty of smart people like to entertain themselves with populating the Star Wars universe with additional content. That doesn't make it Art. If the audience can do better than the creators, in my opinion, that doesn't speak well to the efforts of the professionals.)

2) You might have heard how George Lucas, the maker of the first six of these franchise events, is disappointed with how the latest has turned out, because it feels to him like a retro event, and that the new corporate owners (Disney) have done more work at this with a merchandise and licensing angle, rather than make something new.

It reminds me of nothing so much as an aging rock band that makes the audience suffer through the new album, rather than play the hits. You can do the former, of course, if you are willing to make less money, play smaller venues, and live with lower crowds. Heck, for a true validation of your art, you can do what David Bowie did in the early '90s and not even use your own name on the marquee, just announce it as a different band. That way, everyone who comes knows what they are getting, and you aren't tempted to use the crutch of past hits to get the crowd on your side. You'll live and die with the new tunes.

But that wouldn't single-handedly save Q4 for theaters, or even generate some weird back-hand award talk now, would it?

As a marketing and advertising consultant, I've always known what acts I was doing for love, or art, and which ones I was doing to pay the bills. If you are very lucky, you can sometimes mix the motivations and hit it with your whole heart, and true pros never give away the game of when it's just a mental exercise.

But no one gets to do just what they want to do, all the time, without compromise or commerce.

It's just a shame that Lucas had his moment of discovering this in front of a reporter, really.

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Feel free to comment, as well as like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes. RFPs are always free, and we hope to hear from you soon.