After too long working in various and quite frankly uninspiring working environments I had finally realised the place I went to work was not the place I went to work. Confused? Not me. All too often I'd had the illusive creative spark when I was least expecting it. I remembered a couple of these spontaneous moments of creative genius. Firstly, the time I had spent almost a week of brainstorming a concept for an ad campaign with not even the chance of rain, only to have the campaign's unforgettable concept (that won the pitch) effortlessly present itself while I was cycling up the most unforgiving hill. No room for pockets in Lycras, so I had to borrow a pen from this sadly confused bloke at the bus stop and scrawl the notes on the back of my hand. Us creatives have abysmal short term memories. I do remember epiphany Número dois though. I had all the vital resources on hand to inspire my creative thinking. 70 degrees of Portuguese sunshine, a couple of ice cold Cervezas and the patio of a run down country club where I was holing up, was all I needed to create almost a whole layout pad of ideas for the branding project I was working on for the local design agency. It was almost, dare I say it easy?
In contrast, I also recall the many fruitless hours of throwing ideas around with my fellow creatives in the office. Are the best ideas collaborative, a team game? Don't think so. Ask Newton, Einstein or Archimedes and they'd have all said it was my idea and not our idea. "Eureka, Eureka" Greek (for I've found it, I've found it)" was never going to be "We' το VE το βρήκε" (Greek for We've found it)" when the last fella ran out into the street naked and frightened half the population of ancient Greece.
Whilst the idea of "team-creative" works for others it's a real burden to pure and spontaneous thought for me. I also have to be in the right place, both in mind and in body. Here's where my inspiration to create the creative space I almost promised myself has found me.
After a couple of decades working from the typical office, sorry studio interiors, the blue carpet tiles, suspended ceilings, trendy leather sofas and ergonomic desks and chairs were taking their toll on my fragile creative core. The external experience wasn't brilliant either working from a business park. Inevitably in the middle of nowhere. Great for double-glazing companies and lorry-parks but let's face it, whatever you do with the place it's going to be about as inspiring as cardboard.
Us designers need to be ambling through inspiring urban landscapes in our lunch hour and not nipping round to the petrol station for a sandwich and then shuffling past a theme pub on their way back to their desk, make that workstation.
Like I said all the good ideas are spontaneous and this again struck at the most unexpected time. No cycling or beer involved. I was in a place called Laguna Beach. A West Coast town, I found later according to research "One of the most desirable places to live in the US". For a change the stats were right. Certainly ticked all the boxes. First stop, the local Design and Art College. All distressed wood, open plan, post modernist and car park littered with classic 70's Autos, Jeeps and Harleys. I mused about turning up for work there everyday in the 70's Dodge Challenger I would buy when I landed the Head of Graphics post. How do you get a Green Card? Next stop the coastal highway. All art galleries, bohemian coffee shops, surf shacks and the odd design studio. The one I really liked was a very simple glass cube. It looked like the control tower of a 30's US airbase. That's the place I want to work I said quietly. The digital camera came out just so I wouldn't forget.
Back in the real world, actually Sheffield where I live and where your studio's vista won't be the Pacific Ocean, I found my own piece of creatopia. OK the new studio only backs onto a brook, but there was something about it that reminded me of the place in Laguna or was that the studio I'd seen in Tribeca? It might not even look out of place there when we've knocked the front about. More inspiration followed as my clients and fellow creatives pointed me at numerous websites and literature which featured the coolest spaces. The ACE Hotel in Manhattan was one that struck in my mind or was that Twitter's HQ in San Fransisco? I took snaps of surfaces, door knobs, glazing and furniture discreetly on my I-Phone all of course honouring James Webb Young's mantra of gathering relevant materials before embarking on the creative process. Designing a studio space is no different to any other media. It's got to be conceived and crafted. This time though I'm the client, so no compromises. One thought though?
Let's call it Concept House. Perhaps not, that would be a contradiction.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Worth the wait
I had the now rare pleasure the other day of costing up a print based project for one of our clients. Now whilst our agency is still prevalent in its design of brochures, packaging and display media, all of course being squarely offline and as we used to say 'below the line', it strikes me that I am spending more time in the video editing suite of late than the print shop. Whilst once the creation of 'broadcast media' campaigns were limited to a few large agencies in SW1, accessible and affordable video technology and the ability to upload movies to You Tube and social media sites free of charge is enabling design agencies like us to use moving image well beyond paid for airtime. Even if our clients don't have the budget of a Guinness Advertisement we can still create engaging viral movies, dynamic online ads, informative web casts and web embedded media with a measurable ROI that press, radio and direct mail could never achieve. Brochures now living up to their often common description as 'leave behinds', left behind on coffee tables or in the office recycling bin invariably with the direct mail flyers. Commercial radio also losing revenue at a faster frequency then ever before.
As the Guinness people said on one of their campaigns 'Somethings are worth waiting for" and now the waiting's over and it's been definitely worth it waiting to be pulled this heady brew. Unless you're running a newspaper or commercial radio station, where last orders is probably not far away. Perhaps paid for airtime will become a thing of the past? Although the phenomenon of an increase of over 20% in TV advertising over the last year contradicts the trend. My belief is that web based media has invigorated consumer interest in television advertising as the difference between TV and computer technology becomes finite. After all TV being the definitive moving image advertising media, it was certain to benefit.
Before the last round though, the advertising world has seen moving image and online media overtake press, radio and direct mail on a global scale. With over $458 billion dollars spent on online media and $25 billion on offline advertising in 2009 this year can only see the disparity continuing, as consumers demand their ads move and speak to them through their smartphone, I-pad, laptop and web TV and they have the opportunity to talk back through forums, groups and comments.
You didn't have to be a genius though to predict this shift would happen. As an agency we are currently using moving image in many forms. The past couple of months a number of videos for a major brand communication campaign and ongoing, the integration of a viral movie into a brand launch, all being commonplace as we regard moving image media as part of our proposition to our clients. Like the media we have to keep moving.
As the Guinness people said on one of their campaigns 'Somethings are worth waiting for" and now the waiting's over and it's been definitely worth it waiting to be pulled this heady brew. Unless you're running a newspaper or commercial radio station, where last orders is probably not far away. Perhaps paid for airtime will become a thing of the past? Although the phenomenon of an increase of over 20% in TV advertising over the last year contradicts the trend. My belief is that web based media has invigorated consumer interest in television advertising as the difference between TV and computer technology becomes finite. After all TV being the definitive moving image advertising media, it was certain to benefit.
Before the last round though, the advertising world has seen moving image and online media overtake press, radio and direct mail on a global scale. With over $458 billion dollars spent on online media and $25 billion on offline advertising in 2009 this year can only see the disparity continuing, as consumers demand their ads move and speak to them through their smartphone, I-pad, laptop and web TV and they have the opportunity to talk back through forums, groups and comments.
You didn't have to be a genius though to predict this shift would happen. As an agency we are currently using moving image in many forms. The past couple of months a number of videos for a major brand communication campaign and ongoing, the integration of a viral movie into a brand launch, all being commonplace as we regard moving image media as part of our proposition to our clients. Like the media we have to keep moving.
Monday, 5 July 2010
No bite in Big Apple
I just got back from The Big Apple (Store). After spending a few hours playing with i-Pads, i-phone 4’s and the new MacBook Pros, I took a walk down Fifth Avenue. Last time I was there it was early 2001 and the Mac store was an excellent pub and restaurant. The Genius Bar sold only ice-cold Boston lager and the place closed early at midnight. Now there’s no last orders and you can prop up the bar 24/7 any day of the year and listen to the Mac people go all Yoda on you about their products. Whilst listening to them PC bashing it did cross my mind that if Apple were to decide to start an airline, launch a new fizzy drink or form another country, as long as it’s prefixed by ‘i’ it would of course be a resounding success.
Back to New York. As anyone who has been to the City knows, it’s a great place to have your money stolen. No more though by the stealthy pickpocket on the MTA or the knife or gun wielding junkie in Times Square. Mayor Rudy Giuliani put paid to this unpalatable part of the NY experience in the mid 90’s through zero tolerance policing. Now the guilty parties have a more sophisticated weapon of choice. It’s called branding. And it’s far more effective than any assault by an armed assailant who is desperate for a couple of dollars for their next fix. Now as consumers we’re the ones going cold turkey, not the bad guys down on 42nd Street.
As Apple Inc. has demonstrated the real genius behind their success has been to create an almost religious emotional connection with their brand and well, people like me. As a pathetic i-Phone 3G user I am already feeling the need to break it to my trusted little friend that, it’s time we both moved on. Me to a higher social standing with a new 4G Supermodel and the little fellow to a place called Mazuma. Even SmartPhones don’t seem that clever when they’re always one ‘G’ away from total obsolescence. Remember ‘I-Robot’ and wonder where the concept came from? Call Will Smith we might need his help to stop global i-domination. Or perhaps not. I like it too much.
It’s not only Apple who are remarkably top of their game in the art of separating us from our hard-earned cash, even in the worst recession in modern history. Just one block away from the Apple Store you’ll find Abercrombie & Fitch. If the heady scent of success emanating from their store doesn’t get your attention, or could that be Lotion après-rasage d'Abercrombie? You won’t fail to miss the endless queue, or should I say, the line of customers, many of whom are already attired in A&B and Hollister. Every one of them patiently waiting to be efficiently ushered into their flagship NY store by bare chested male models. Whilst joining the line with the other middle-aged blokes who were soon to be humbled by the lithesome physiques of the male dominatrix on the door, I thought about the poor folk from the once mighty and now regularly half-empty GAP store just a couple of blocks away as they wandered past their nemesis, quietly crying into their Starbucks Skinny Latté and saying “Where did we go wrong”? I don’t know better ask your agency.
Now whilst I was essentially only shopping, my obsession with all things brand deems that this was more like a sort of field study. In fact my observations start in the airport and even before I get to the final destination. As my all knowing associate said. If you want to see real marketing at work, just park across from any McDonalds. I took his point even though he was indirectly admiring his own work, as they were his clients at the time. Trust me though. Any students on marketing degree courses should take a gap year or two, save your tuition fees and don’t go back on campus. You’ll learn a lot more hanging around in shopping malls. Look and learn. Look and learn.
Closer to home and on another shopping, sorry make that field trip, I found myself in more humble surroundings than Fifth Avenue at a factory outlet near Castleford. The stark contrast of prevalent footfall in the enduring brands’ shops such as Nike, Adidas and even M&S was killing the other retailers off, with many units empty and some up for let. I realised how vital a great brand was in a recession. Not just a logo. Whilst there is no shortage of information on any conceivable thing we think we need through the Internet and in the past decade plenty of design studios create smart-arse visual frippery, it’s reality time. That’s reality time for anyone who likes creating art at his or her client’s expense. The power of the word is back and so is accountability. Yes we’d all like to have a Clio Award and a couple of Abercrombie & Fitch’s in our portfolio, but most of us haven’t. Still there's no excuse for not trying on the next brief. No matter who it’s for. Even if it's a couple of brave souls who've just mortgaged their houses to start their own business or an established company whose been through numerous hard times and are looking for a bit of magic. Let’s all remember who pays our wages.
Also remember at some point in the past Nike (Formerly Blue Ribbon Sports), Abercrombie & Fitch, M&S and McDonalds were all business start-ups. Nike has been ‘Just doing it’ since 1962 and McDonalds Lovin’ it even longer from 1955. A&B’s interiors are probably just as dark they were in 1892 when David T Abercrombie made his first sale in a gas-lit store and you can still spend a penny and buy sensible knitwear in M&S even though they’ve been around since 1884. At some point though they all will have needed ideas from their agency to create an initial brand proposition to get them on the road to making their cash registers kerching. ROI wasn’t invented yesterday, even though most CIM graduates think so. They call it ‘Brand Metrics’ now. Perhaps ROI was the pre-decimal version when every penny spent had to make a shilling and not a Euro or Dollar.
Where are we now? Yes some of us will miss the regular income from public sector projects, even if we had the mind-numbing experience of winning the contract on a 30-way pitch, but the real survivors will value the opportunity to work with the Ray Koch’s and David T Abercrombie’s of the future, even if we don’t know exactly who they are right now.
Back to New York. As anyone who has been to the City knows, it’s a great place to have your money stolen. No more though by the stealthy pickpocket on the MTA or the knife or gun wielding junkie in Times Square. Mayor Rudy Giuliani put paid to this unpalatable part of the NY experience in the mid 90’s through zero tolerance policing. Now the guilty parties have a more sophisticated weapon of choice. It’s called branding. And it’s far more effective than any assault by an armed assailant who is desperate for a couple of dollars for their next fix. Now as consumers we’re the ones going cold turkey, not the bad guys down on 42nd Street.
As Apple Inc. has demonstrated the real genius behind their success has been to create an almost religious emotional connection with their brand and well, people like me. As a pathetic i-Phone 3G user I am already feeling the need to break it to my trusted little friend that, it’s time we both moved on. Me to a higher social standing with a new 4G Supermodel and the little fellow to a place called Mazuma. Even SmartPhones don’t seem that clever when they’re always one ‘G’ away from total obsolescence. Remember ‘I-Robot’ and wonder where the concept came from? Call Will Smith we might need his help to stop global i-domination. Or perhaps not. I like it too much.
It’s not only Apple who are remarkably top of their game in the art of separating us from our hard-earned cash, even in the worst recession in modern history. Just one block away from the Apple Store you’ll find Abercrombie & Fitch. If the heady scent of success emanating from their store doesn’t get your attention, or could that be Lotion après-rasage d'Abercrombie? You won’t fail to miss the endless queue, or should I say, the line of customers, many of whom are already attired in A&B and Hollister. Every one of them patiently waiting to be efficiently ushered into their flagship NY store by bare chested male models. Whilst joining the line with the other middle-aged blokes who were soon to be humbled by the lithesome physiques of the male dominatrix on the door, I thought about the poor folk from the once mighty and now regularly half-empty GAP store just a couple of blocks away as they wandered past their nemesis, quietly crying into their Starbucks Skinny Latté and saying “Where did we go wrong”? I don’t know better ask your agency.
Now whilst I was essentially only shopping, my obsession with all things brand deems that this was more like a sort of field study. In fact my observations start in the airport and even before I get to the final destination. As my all knowing associate said. If you want to see real marketing at work, just park across from any McDonalds. I took his point even though he was indirectly admiring his own work, as they were his clients at the time. Trust me though. Any students on marketing degree courses should take a gap year or two, save your tuition fees and don’t go back on campus. You’ll learn a lot more hanging around in shopping malls. Look and learn. Look and learn.
Closer to home and on another shopping, sorry make that field trip, I found myself in more humble surroundings than Fifth Avenue at a factory outlet near Castleford. The stark contrast of prevalent footfall in the enduring brands’ shops such as Nike, Adidas and even M&S was killing the other retailers off, with many units empty and some up for let. I realised how vital a great brand was in a recession. Not just a logo. Whilst there is no shortage of information on any conceivable thing we think we need through the Internet and in the past decade plenty of design studios create smart-arse visual frippery, it’s reality time. That’s reality time for anyone who likes creating art at his or her client’s expense. The power of the word is back and so is accountability. Yes we’d all like to have a Clio Award and a couple of Abercrombie & Fitch’s in our portfolio, but most of us haven’t. Still there's no excuse for not trying on the next brief. No matter who it’s for. Even if it's a couple of brave souls who've just mortgaged their houses to start their own business or an established company whose been through numerous hard times and are looking for a bit of magic. Let’s all remember who pays our wages.
Also remember at some point in the past Nike (Formerly Blue Ribbon Sports), Abercrombie & Fitch, M&S and McDonalds were all business start-ups. Nike has been ‘Just doing it’ since 1962 and McDonalds Lovin’ it even longer from 1955. A&B’s interiors are probably just as dark they were in 1892 when David T Abercrombie made his first sale in a gas-lit store and you can still spend a penny and buy sensible knitwear in M&S even though they’ve been around since 1884. At some point though they all will have needed ideas from their agency to create an initial brand proposition to get them on the road to making their cash registers kerching. ROI wasn’t invented yesterday, even though most CIM graduates think so. They call it ‘Brand Metrics’ now. Perhaps ROI was the pre-decimal version when every penny spent had to make a shilling and not a Euro or Dollar.
Where are we now? Yes some of us will miss the regular income from public sector projects, even if we had the mind-numbing experience of winning the contract on a 30-way pitch, but the real survivors will value the opportunity to work with the Ray Koch’s and David T Abercrombie’s of the future, even if we don’t know exactly who they are right now.
Monday, 19 April 2010
A Lesson from History
Arriving at the venue of two free workshops courtesy of the local Business Link, I considered my reasons for attending. One may have been the free lunch, but the main aim was the opportunity to share the wisdom of others on e-marketing and social networking media. Both of which, as a Creative Director of a design and marketing agency, I have an objective interest in.
The pre-free buffet presentation was an "Everything you need to know about database marketing" session. A nice bloke with a Madonna-style earpiece and projector gave the expectant SMEs and a few heckling know-alls the AV equivalent of the prior-knowledge based instruction leaflet you get with your new DVD player. Except this quick guide was on how to effectively use database marketing to promote your business. I watched as the free pens and notepads were put to idle use copying the on-screen presentation almost verbatim. The clunky ‘Death by PowerPoint’ slides quickly lulled my brain into idling mode and I unconsciously visualised the executives all back in their offices the next day plotting world domination by spamming a few postcodes, sociodemographic groups and universes with their new found toy, or more likely sending e-shots to all the folk whose business cards they'd grabbed at the event, including mine. I lucidly practiced my reply in my head to the imminent unsolicited message in my Inbox "No I don't want a spring water machine or a personal trainer at the moment". My hand was already hovering over the ‘unsubscribe’ button on my imaginary laptop.
Back in the real world where marketing campaigns demand more than a DIY database and a pirate copy of Excel, e-marketing can be very effective. I know, because we’ve used it successfully for many of our clients. But it needs to be part of a broader mix of activities. Also, whilst it is a powerful marketing tool in the hands of professionals, it’s broadly ineffective in the clumsy fists of enthusiastic amateurs. With everyone and anyone now able to create a campaign online and at the cost of often sub one penny a mailing. The prospects aren’t good for e-mail marketing in the long-term, as this proliferation of worthless information to the masses continues and we find it as annoying as cold-calling telemarketing. And it’s only a matter of time before SPAM killers nuke almost everything we receive. Some are already calling it grey-mail as social media, online chatting, texting and SKYPE are becoming the preferred instant message media. Whatever happens, buy shares in spam killers in the short-term and you'll make a good return on your investment. And remember the SMEs I mentioned earlier? Their badly conceived templated e-newsletter is probably sat in your Junk Mail box now. Did you want a spring water machine by the way? I guess you probably don’t unless they’ve identified you as a thirsty KDM or perhaps your company’s SIC code has alerted the sender that you too are in the office rehydration business and are not a viable recipient of distance selling materials. I doubt they know either.
The after lunch session was again delivered with the obligatory 'La mort par Powerpoint', but this time with discreet clipped on microphone. I was disappointed as the bloke’s delivery was like stand up stadium filler Michael McIntyre. The ‘Material Girl’ headset would have completed the illusion. No alternative comedy here though just the heads up on social networking media. Again the now depleted freebie pens and tired clipboards quickly emerged as the SME people fought to keep up with the guy's quickfire presentation. As they doodled away I again mused at the scenario the next day at the office, probably around the spring water machine someone had been persuaded to buy, as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Linkedin profiles were eagerly opened and the poor souls all pondered on what to say about themselves and think of a memorable username and password. It wasn’t long before I received the offers to be a fan, was tweeted by some bloke out of marketing, and followed by one of the people who had again got my business card. What was I thinking when I let them into my world?
Again, objectively the social networking guy was very slick, but he worried me. As Gerald Ratner had proven, telling ‘the truth’ about your product can be commercial suicide. Like the shiny gold dealer the presenter was congratulating himself on allowing the consumer the ability to get the warts and all view. Emphatic on opening debates on the products they were supposed to be selling and was squarely customer side in promoting the value of this intrusive and in-depth product information though forums, groups and fans. As marketeers it’s not our job to point out to consumers that, for instance the chassis on the much adored Audi-box is in fact from a Skoda or that you can get that very same bottle of Parfum français fin from ASDA for 20 quid cheaper than the price you paid in France. I personally don’t want to chuck a bottle of Boss Orange Label in the trolley with the ready meals and toilet ducks thanks. Buying premium brand products like these are a treat and I won’t have the purchasing experience ruined by some ‘Buy designer aftershaves at lower prices' group. They’ve probably all got beards anyway.
Information overload can seriously impair our ability to create an emotional response with consumers. We’ve all been there or probably now won’t go there again. You find great hotels on Expedia and just about to make your booking. When you hit the Trip Advisor ‘Travellers reviews’ button. Scrolling down past the ‘We’d definitely stay there again’ comments you find the ‘A traveler from Wisconsin does not recommend this hotel’. Point is again abundance of information does not sell product, it has created a doubt in our mind based on mixed expectations. Whilst social networking allows us to know supposedly everything about the people, products and businesses we are connected too the connections are raw and clumsy. Far better for the consumer to know less and create a personal emotional connection with the product and not take the word of an anorak from the Midwest. Great jazz is the space between the notes. Not an incessant hum.
Both presenters whilst being well meaning and believing in their case had no doubt given their audience some useful advice, but empowering amateurs to create their own marketing campaigns, be it through e-marketing or social networking media can only have one catastrophic ending. Even as we speak a Tsunami of e-shots, tweets, offers to connect and requests to be friends from over-zealous spring water machine suppliers are on the horizon. Prepare to be saturated in more ways than one.
The pre-free buffet presentation was an "Everything you need to know about database marketing" session. A nice bloke with a Madonna-style earpiece and projector gave the expectant SMEs and a few heckling know-alls the AV equivalent of the prior-knowledge based instruction leaflet you get with your new DVD player. Except this quick guide was on how to effectively use database marketing to promote your business. I watched as the free pens and notepads were put to idle use copying the on-screen presentation almost verbatim. The clunky ‘Death by PowerPoint’ slides quickly lulled my brain into idling mode and I unconsciously visualised the executives all back in their offices the next day plotting world domination by spamming a few postcodes, sociodemographic groups and universes with their new found toy, or more likely sending e-shots to all the folk whose business cards they'd grabbed at the event, including mine. I lucidly practiced my reply in my head to the imminent unsolicited message in my Inbox "No I don't want a spring water machine or a personal trainer at the moment". My hand was already hovering over the ‘unsubscribe’ button on my imaginary laptop.
Back in the real world where marketing campaigns demand more than a DIY database and a pirate copy of Excel, e-marketing can be very effective. I know, because we’ve used it successfully for many of our clients. But it needs to be part of a broader mix of activities. Also, whilst it is a powerful marketing tool in the hands of professionals, it’s broadly ineffective in the clumsy fists of enthusiastic amateurs. With everyone and anyone now able to create a campaign online and at the cost of often sub one penny a mailing. The prospects aren’t good for e-mail marketing in the long-term, as this proliferation of worthless information to the masses continues and we find it as annoying as cold-calling telemarketing. And it’s only a matter of time before SPAM killers nuke almost everything we receive. Some are already calling it grey-mail as social media, online chatting, texting and SKYPE are becoming the preferred instant message media. Whatever happens, buy shares in spam killers in the short-term and you'll make a good return on your investment. And remember the SMEs I mentioned earlier? Their badly conceived templated e-newsletter is probably sat in your Junk Mail box now. Did you want a spring water machine by the way? I guess you probably don’t unless they’ve identified you as a thirsty KDM or perhaps your company’s SIC code has alerted the sender that you too are in the office rehydration business and are not a viable recipient of distance selling materials. I doubt they know either.
The after lunch session was again delivered with the obligatory 'La mort par Powerpoint', but this time with discreet clipped on microphone. I was disappointed as the bloke’s delivery was like stand up stadium filler Michael McIntyre. The ‘Material Girl’ headset would have completed the illusion. No alternative comedy here though just the heads up on social networking media. Again the now depleted freebie pens and tired clipboards quickly emerged as the SME people fought to keep up with the guy's quickfire presentation. As they doodled away I again mused at the scenario the next day at the office, probably around the spring water machine someone had been persuaded to buy, as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Linkedin profiles were eagerly opened and the poor souls all pondered on what to say about themselves and think of a memorable username and password. It wasn’t long before I received the offers to be a fan, was tweeted by some bloke out of marketing, and followed by one of the people who had again got my business card. What was I thinking when I let them into my world?
Again, objectively the social networking guy was very slick, but he worried me. As Gerald Ratner had proven, telling ‘the truth’ about your product can be commercial suicide. Like the shiny gold dealer the presenter was congratulating himself on allowing the consumer the ability to get the warts and all view. Emphatic on opening debates on the products they were supposed to be selling and was squarely customer side in promoting the value of this intrusive and in-depth product information though forums, groups and fans. As marketeers it’s not our job to point out to consumers that, for instance the chassis on the much adored Audi-box is in fact from a Skoda or that you can get that very same bottle of Parfum français fin from ASDA for 20 quid cheaper than the price you paid in France. I personally don’t want to chuck a bottle of Boss Orange Label in the trolley with the ready meals and toilet ducks thanks. Buying premium brand products like these are a treat and I won’t have the purchasing experience ruined by some ‘Buy designer aftershaves at lower prices' group. They’ve probably all got beards anyway.
Information overload can seriously impair our ability to create an emotional response with consumers. We’ve all been there or probably now won’t go there again. You find great hotels on Expedia and just about to make your booking. When you hit the Trip Advisor ‘Travellers reviews’ button. Scrolling down past the ‘We’d definitely stay there again’ comments you find the ‘A traveler from Wisconsin does not recommend this hotel’. Point is again abundance of information does not sell product, it has created a doubt in our mind based on mixed expectations. Whilst social networking allows us to know supposedly everything about the people, products and businesses we are connected too the connections are raw and clumsy. Far better for the consumer to know less and create a personal emotional connection with the product and not take the word of an anorak from the Midwest. Great jazz is the space between the notes. Not an incessant hum.
Both presenters whilst being well meaning and believing in their case had no doubt given their audience some useful advice, but empowering amateurs to create their own marketing campaigns, be it through e-marketing or social networking media can only have one catastrophic ending. Even as we speak a Tsunami of e-shots, tweets, offers to connect and requests to be friends from over-zealous spring water machine suppliers are on the horizon. Prepare to be saturated in more ways than one.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Thinking. Again.
As another business year ends I find myself reflecting on what the future holds for all of us in the creative industries and more importantly, what we can do best for our clients in these very different times. One thing is certain, everyone is looking for short-term fixes that will cost less and yet bring in the vital revenue to pay the next month's bills. Now more than ever this is the simple need that as creative marketeers we must strive to achieve in everything we do. Gearing our own business to our clients’ needs and not to our own agenda.
With the economy slowly emerging from its depression this is where we are. The people entrusted to sell our clients’ products and services to their consumers. We may look for the rusted signs along the way to reassure us of the progress of our steps, but unlike before there are none. This time the change is for good, but only good for those of us who are willing to change ourselves.
There are of course the agencies that will not be able to align themselves to this new environment, due to the incumbent overheads they cannot reduce or dispose of. Whilst it seemed a good idea to have large commercial premises to arrive at everyday and leave once the day’s work is done, owning or renting ‘Concept House’ is now not such a good idea. The banks agree and won’t even secure an overdraft against the property if you own it and often look for personal guarantees against what they consider a liability and not a capital asset.
Businesses are also demanding a direct contact with the creative doers and thinkers and not managers and administrators. Again this additional middle-tier of people cost both the agency and ultimately the client, often more than the designers, web developers and production teams who in reality do and think the most.
There are some of us who have made the change. Some profoundly and others more progressively. The ‘virtual agency’ is now a reality. I know I own one and it works.
Blame it on PDFs, SKYPE, 100meg broadband, social networking media, smartphones or perhaps its inevitability was born in the demise of the economy and its impact on how we all had to change, like it or not.
Like all industries the creative sector was grossly top heavy. With many projects funded from abundant public sector budgets, property developers’ wallets and a credit fuelled retail sector times were good. But like our clients, we were seduced by the ride and with every rollercoaster you have to get off at the end. It wasn’t long before there were casualties participating in such adrenaline fuelled activities.
But every solution has its day and we now have to ensure we take this opportunity to be as creative in the way we approach our business as we do our next creative brief.
I too am sure that online media will continue to erode traditional methods. As an agency we are now 80% online biased, including all aspects from brand, web, e-comms and through to SEO. With print, press and display media an increasingly rare opportunity to demonstrate our design and copywriting skills. We still regard the brand and its proposition continuing to be our client’s most formidable asset, regardless of its media application. Be it on an exquisitely art directed 96 sheet poster or a three minute YouTube movie. The best ideas still sell.
As before there is as always a cyclic aspect to the journey, but for our own industry this paradigm shift which in my view will be irreversible is here to stay. This time of hand-in-hand challenge and opportunity a time to start thinking again. As after all that's what our clients pay us to do isn't it?
With the economy slowly emerging from its depression this is where we are. The people entrusted to sell our clients’ products and services to their consumers. We may look for the rusted signs along the way to reassure us of the progress of our steps, but unlike before there are none. This time the change is for good, but only good for those of us who are willing to change ourselves.
There are of course the agencies that will not be able to align themselves to this new environment, due to the incumbent overheads they cannot reduce or dispose of. Whilst it seemed a good idea to have large commercial premises to arrive at everyday and leave once the day’s work is done, owning or renting ‘Concept House’ is now not such a good idea. The banks agree and won’t even secure an overdraft against the property if you own it and often look for personal guarantees against what they consider a liability and not a capital asset.
Businesses are also demanding a direct contact with the creative doers and thinkers and not managers and administrators. Again this additional middle-tier of people cost both the agency and ultimately the client, often more than the designers, web developers and production teams who in reality do and think the most.
There are some of us who have made the change. Some profoundly and others more progressively. The ‘virtual agency’ is now a reality. I know I own one and it works.
Blame it on PDFs, SKYPE, 100meg broadband, social networking media, smartphones or perhaps its inevitability was born in the demise of the economy and its impact on how we all had to change, like it or not.
Like all industries the creative sector was grossly top heavy. With many projects funded from abundant public sector budgets, property developers’ wallets and a credit fuelled retail sector times were good. But like our clients, we were seduced by the ride and with every rollercoaster you have to get off at the end. It wasn’t long before there were casualties participating in such adrenaline fuelled activities.
But every solution has its day and we now have to ensure we take this opportunity to be as creative in the way we approach our business as we do our next creative brief.
I too am sure that online media will continue to erode traditional methods. As an agency we are now 80% online biased, including all aspects from brand, web, e-comms and through to SEO. With print, press and display media an increasingly rare opportunity to demonstrate our design and copywriting skills. We still regard the brand and its proposition continuing to be our client’s most formidable asset, regardless of its media application. Be it on an exquisitely art directed 96 sheet poster or a three minute YouTube movie. The best ideas still sell.
As before there is as always a cyclic aspect to the journey, but for our own industry this paradigm shift which in my view will be irreversible is here to stay. This time of hand-in-hand challenge and opportunity a time to start thinking again. As after all that's what our clients pay us to do isn't it?
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Why we are One
I suppose this opening post serves as a positioning statement for my newly created design and advertising agency Jepson One?
Back in 2006 I was the joint Managing Director of a regional design agency I had founded with a friend of mine in 1989. Over the years we had inevitably acquired all the 'resources' we'd need; big shiny offices, even shinier company cars, sales representatives, business development directors, account handlers, designers, artworkers and web developers, the head count lately growing in numbers almost daily. Arriving at the office every morning and seeing 'what's his face' and 'who did she used to work for' huddled at their respective workstations did nothing to reassure me of our future success. It was getting to the point that I couldn't even remember some of our people's names. And we had to keep all these bodies busy. There must be another way to approach what we do and how we do it?
Around this time and well before Chuck and Cindy's lifetime dream of owning a mansion like Paris Hilton's without the benefit of any sign of sustainable form of income had been the catalyst of global economic armageddon. Anyone in business with any common sense would have started to build a fall-out shelter or at least start applying a bit of prudent objectivity on what the future might hold for their company. The economic virus might have started in the US but everyone including the UK design and marketing businesses were going to sneeze at some point.
Although I'm no economist or expert on macro-economics I did voice my concerns at a few board meetings that we'd best start being conservative about the future. Perhaps presenting a biblical sized memo to my co-directors, titled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business" might get their attention? But Jerry Maquire had beat me to it. Anyway I don't have the Kwan of Tom Cruise and this was the real world with people's futures depending on my leadership. No Goldfish in hand, just a healthy remuneration for my shares, we parted company and I surveyed my options.
I of course honoured the inevitable compromises which were agreed as part of my share payment and even carried on working as a consultant on a number of projects. Then two years all promises fulfilled I was ready to start where I'd left off.
Meanwhile in the time of my brief respite and the hour it took me draw a vertical line and write the do's and don'ts for my new agency Jepson One, the economy had gone even further back into default mode.
The design, advertising and marketing industry was making a paradigm shift anyway, with not just the economy driving change. Any businesses with incumbent overheads were now finding it tough to compete with the more flexible and agile studios. Clients were also demanding more value and results in not only ROI and brand metrics, but in trust and confidence in their agency's ability to perform on tighter budgets. New marketing channels such as social media and online marketing were also empowering businesses to undertake their own campaigns. All bad for business. Or is it?
Whilst this new environment is an uncomfortable place for many, I believe there are even greater opportunities for studios like ours. It's late now and I'm going to the Xerox copy shop. Time to get some copies of that memo I should have done in 2006.
Ray Jepson
Creative Director
Jepson One
Back in 2006 I was the joint Managing Director of a regional design agency I had founded with a friend of mine in 1989. Over the years we had inevitably acquired all the 'resources' we'd need; big shiny offices, even shinier company cars, sales representatives, business development directors, account handlers, designers, artworkers and web developers, the head count lately growing in numbers almost daily. Arriving at the office every morning and seeing 'what's his face' and 'who did she used to work for' huddled at their respective workstations did nothing to reassure me of our future success. It was getting to the point that I couldn't even remember some of our people's names. And we had to keep all these bodies busy. There must be another way to approach what we do and how we do it?
Around this time and well before Chuck and Cindy's lifetime dream of owning a mansion like Paris Hilton's without the benefit of any sign of sustainable form of income had been the catalyst of global economic armageddon. Anyone in business with any common sense would have started to build a fall-out shelter or at least start applying a bit of prudent objectivity on what the future might hold for their company. The economic virus might have started in the US but everyone including the UK design and marketing businesses were going to sneeze at some point.
Although I'm no economist or expert on macro-economics I did voice my concerns at a few board meetings that we'd best start being conservative about the future. Perhaps presenting a biblical sized memo to my co-directors, titled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business" might get their attention? But Jerry Maquire had beat me to it. Anyway I don't have the Kwan of Tom Cruise and this was the real world with people's futures depending on my leadership. No Goldfish in hand, just a healthy remuneration for my shares, we parted company and I surveyed my options.
I of course honoured the inevitable compromises which were agreed as part of my share payment and even carried on working as a consultant on a number of projects. Then two years all promises fulfilled I was ready to start where I'd left off.
Meanwhile in the time of my brief respite and the hour it took me draw a vertical line and write the do's and don'ts for my new agency Jepson One, the economy had gone even further back into default mode.
The design, advertising and marketing industry was making a paradigm shift anyway, with not just the economy driving change. Any businesses with incumbent overheads were now finding it tough to compete with the more flexible and agile studios. Clients were also demanding more value and results in not only ROI and brand metrics, but in trust and confidence in their agency's ability to perform on tighter budgets. New marketing channels such as social media and online marketing were also empowering businesses to undertake their own campaigns. All bad for business. Or is it?
Whilst this new environment is an uncomfortable place for many, I believe there are even greater opportunities for studios like ours. It's late now and I'm going to the Xerox copy shop. Time to get some copies of that memo I should have done in 2006.
Ray Jepson
Creative Director
Jepson One
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