First the type director. Then the dye sub retoucher, the stat camera operator and the mechanical artist.
Can advertising wordsmiths be the next victim of the business’ transfiguration?

Here’s an interesting thought from a LinkedIn discussion group I belong to:

Jack Neary, Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director, BBDO Worldwide, says in part:

“Few creative directors want [great copywriters] any more. Verbal virtuosity is dramatically less in demand by creative directors today than in the days when David Abbott, Ed McCabe, Bob Levenson, Phil Dusenberry and many more occupied the pantheon of heroes influencing the next generation of copywriter. The wordsmith’s craft is seldom celebrated, rarely taught, and, therefore, almost never practised. Also, the increasingly fragmented media landscape has shortened consumers’ attention spans putting more of the communication burden on images, which usually connect faster than words.… “There is another culprit still. The heightened, often mindless lust for Cannes Lions has led to more visual, less verbal work because pictures generally do better than words with a cosmopolitan jury.’ I wholeheartedly disagree. As a professional with many years of experience, I find that copywriting is in more and more demand in the digital space (although often devalued and referred to derisively as ‘content’).”

Interesting. Personally, I still believe people recognize good writing (even if it’s purely a great headline); and more importantly, they respond to it. So reports of copywriting’s demise are premature. It is simply evolving in response primarily to digital media.
What do you think?

I was recently asked by a magazine editor about the differences between snail mail and email. Is one replacing the other? Is one better or more effective than the other to accomplish my company’s corporate marketing objectives?

At JMG we use both email and snail mail effectively in reaching prospects. So it is not an either-or situation. It really depends on our communications objective. There is no question that the primary challenge with both methods is cutting through massive clutter. If messaging is not unique, relevant and motivating, it won’t matter how its delivered…it will not be effective.

Email

Email requires careful upfront planning for effective use. The sender has to be sure they are using proper authentication tools that help inbound-email servers classify which of the messages they receive are authentic and which are not. If receiving networks cannot verify the source domains can be blacklisted. Consequently emails sent are not delivered. Then there are opt-in opt-out issues that must be addressed. On to the subject line. A good subject line (unique, relevant and motivating) is the most important driver of open rates. Once opened content is key.

For simple messaging, short copy can work. For more involved messages or newsletters, longer copy is involved. The more personal the relationship with the prospect, the more likely it is that longer copy will get read. Call to action. We typically want to drive a prospect to our website or a microsite on a given topic. That way we can track interest in our topic and do personal follow-ups with prospects who show interest in our message. Finally there’s integration. Email campaigns should be consistent and integrated with other digital efforts…Twitter, website, likepages, etc. to be most effective. Email is definitely not a one trick pony.

Snail Mail

Most of our snail mail efforts to prospects have one major objective: To reinforce our creativity as a company. So snail mail for the most part is limited to dimensional mailers that stand out and beg to be opened. Inside there is a something unique that reinforces the message we are trying to convey. For example, several years ago we pitched an aviation client who thought that the biggest challenge they had was the managing the complexity of the markets they served. So we sent them a dimensional mailer that contained two three dimensional airplane puzzles…one in pieces and one already built. The message on the top of the box said, “We understand that your business is made up of many different parts.”

When the box was opened, the recipient saw a bunch of loose parts in a tray.

Removing the parts they saw another message, “But we’re confident we can figure out how they all work together.”

When the tray was lifted from the box a fully assembled airplane was revealed.

This mailer proved to be a very intrusive and engaging approach which addressed the prospect’s biggest challenge.

Another technology we have used for our clients that has made snail mail more effective is the ability to personalize and customize messaging to prospects with variable data printing. This highly personalized approach allows for high quality brochures, mailers and postcards to have much more impact because each mail piece is not only personalized with the recipient’s name, but may also include copy that speaks to their special interests. Once again there should be a call-to-action to a website, a personalized URL or toll free number so tracking can be monitored.

In summary both methods have a reason to exist as part of any marketing program. The challenge is to carefully evaluate the big picture communications objective and then determine the best strategic and tactical elements to deploy based on available budgets. Obviously email is generally less expensive to implement since there is no print production or postage involved. But there could be a strong rationale to spend extra dollars on snail mail to impact high value targets. So, for best results always choose your mail-weapon carefully.

What’s worked best for you?

On a couple of recent occasions, I’ve had friends ask about tips for leading brainstorming sessions, or at least how to get more out of them.  There are a variety of tactics I use – some are borrowed, some are original.  Most have become second nature, but in an effort to capture a meaningful list of tips, I decided to write them down.

The keys to success include everything from preparation to expectations to location to actual facilitation.  Each group and topic will be different, and the facilitator should always be sensitive to the situation and be flexible.  But regardless of the specific session, I have found that most of these practices, when implemented, will yield stronger results.

Overall

1. Goals:  where there is no vision the people perish. Are you trying to develop a mission statement, solve a problem, come up with a new idea, or refine a current program?  If you don’t know exactly what you want to accomplish before you begin, chances are you will end up with a bunch of discussion but little accomplished.
2. Planning:  the devil is in the details. Everything from location to participants to discussion topics to brainstorming tactics is critical.  Yes, you want the group to have a casual feel, but that doesn’t mean that you need a casual approach to planning.   The more thoroughly you prepare, the more you will accomplish.
3. Focus:  keep your eye on the ball. Because brainstorming is open and free-flowing, and because there are “no bad ideas,” there is sometimes a tendency to get off track.  It is critical that the facilitator continually steer the group towards the overall objective.  This takes tact, because you don’t want to spurn participation, but it is critical.
4. Inclusion:  there is no “I” in “TEAM.” It is important to include all participants in the brainstorming.  You cannot afford to let one or two people dominate the group, nor can you let anyone quietly remain silent.  There is a reason each person is involved, and each person’s opinion is valuable.

Preparation

• Expectations: When inviting attendees, set clear expectations about why they are involved.
• Invitations: Make sure all participants know when, where and how long the session will last.  Don’t begin the session until everyone has arrived.
• Commitment: Make sure everyone in the group is committed to the goal, to attending and to participating.
• Attendee Preparation: While it’s okay for attendees to have a general idea why they are attending, they generally should not bring prepared ideas.  This leads to people “selling” their pre-conceived ideas versus trying to come up with the best ideas as a group.
• Group Size: Brainstorming can be done with groups of all sizes, but generally a minimum of four and a maximum of eight people is best.  If you need to conduct sessions with larger groups, then be prepared to introduce topics and divide into smaller sub-groups (e.g. if you have a group of 24, then introduce the topic, break into six sub-groups of four, and then have each group report back).
• Topics/Questions: The facilitator should come prepared with enough topics/questions/thought starters to fill the time and achieve the objective.  However, they should also have the flexibility to move in the direction the brainstorming leads, as long as it ultimately results in achieving the overall objective.

Space

• Location: Pick a space that is private, free of distractions, relaxing and preferably different than most are used to (e.g. avoid a conference room normally used by the group, go off-site).  Also pick a room that fits the group (you don’t want 20 people in a small conference room or six people in a gymnasium).
• Supplies: Have plenty of flip charts (or butcher paper), pads of paper, pens and markers.  Also supply drinks and snacks.  Another good idea is something for people to do with their hands while thinking (clay dough, small plastic toys, nerf balls, hacky sacks, etc).
• Distractions: Remove/turn off all phones, email, televisions and other potential external disruptions, including cell phones.

Facilitation

• Moderator Role: The moderator is a facilitator – not a participant.  Their job is to focus on guiding the group, soliciting feedback and moving the discussion forward.  They should not be offering their own ideas.  Also, the moderator needs to have energy.  If you drag, your group will follow.   And remember, brainstorming should be fun . . . not work!
• Documentation: Make sure ideas are being captured, usually through flip charts.  Flip charts are good because they are visible to everyone, people know their ideas have been captured, ideas remain visible to spur other discussion, and you can refer back to earlier ideas.
• Support/applaud ideas: There are no bad ideas, even if it is a bad idea.  The quickest way to quell ideation is to start judging and shooting down ideas.  Remember, often off-track ideas lead to other ideas that move towards the solution.  Don’t let people in the group judge or put down ideas.
• Parking Lot: Create a “parking lot.”  This is a flip chart where you write an idea down to come back to later.  This is a great tactic for keeping the group on track.  When someone brings up something that isn’t relevant say, “let’s put that in the parking lot and come back to it later if we have time.”  This way you don’t have to ignore someone, yet you can keep the group moving.
• Process: Separate brainstorming (idea generation) from the judging of ideas.  Many times when a group needs to get to a final short list of recommended solutions, they have to go through a multi-step process (oftentimes over multiple sessions).
  • Step 1:  Brainstorming (get all the possible ideas on the wall)
  • Step 2:  Evaluation (everyone votes, discusses and narrows down to the best options)
  • Step 3:  Combine/Refine (combine some ideas and refine others)
  • Step 4:  Finalize (determine the final recommendations)
• Probe: When preparing for you group, come up with a variety of different questions to get to the same end.  For example, if I wanted to know what someone enjoys doing, I could ask the following similar but different questions:
  • What is your favorite thing to do?
  • What is the coolest thing you have ever done in your life?
  • If you could spend this afternoon doing any one thing, what would it be?
  • If you had one day left to live, what three things would you do?
  • If you could spend one day with your favorite person in history, what would you do with him/her?

How about you?  What needs to be added to the list?  What techniques have worked for you?

The New Rules of Marketing & PR

Here’s a “must read” book that in my opinion, does a great job of presenting how the web has changed things in a big way for us marketers. The full title is The New Rules of Marketing and PR, How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

The author, David Meerman Scott, is a well qualified authority and internet veteran having launched a marketing strategy with online content to reach buyers directly on the web way back in the early ’90s. He’s spent the last 18 years or so speaking and consulting with corporations on how to use web content to sell products and services. This book evolved out of David’s vast blog experience and an ebook he published called The New Rules of PR. After more than 200,000 downloads, David decided he had a hot topic on his hands so he went full bore into writing a hard cover. He broadened the subject matter to address marketing as well.

So here’s the essence of David’s insight…

The Internet has not only changed the way people communicate and interact with each other, it has also changed the way businesses can and should communicate with their customers and prospects. We all remember the old days when companies could only communicate indirectly through pricey mass advertising and press releases. The internet has changed all that because now a business can speak directly to and build closer relationships with customers and buyers.

Niche buyers can also be reached more selectively with targeted messages that cost a fraction of the traditional big-budget ad campaign. So rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, David advocates the internet allows a business to focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time. And when people visit a company’s Web site, he says they aren’t there to get more ad fluff. They want value, information, interaction, and choice. As the book cover overleaf states:

“This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process.”

To top it all off he also includes some great case studies to prove his points.

In a separate presentation David made he summed up the old rules and the new rules of marketing like this:

The New Rules of Marketing™

Advertising, in all its forms, has been around for a long, long time.

And if you look hard enough, you’ll always find remnants of old ideas in today’s new concepts. The trick is to avoid using a library of knowledge to shoot down good ideas. And it doesn’t take long to find someone in an agency, usually a grizzled ACD or CD (wait, before you can say anything, guilty as charged. But only on occasion), who uses their memory to make you feel, well, like a schmuck. You don’t want to become one of those insufferable ad people who looks at every concept and says something like, “so-and-so did that at DDB in 1986. It’s in the 15th edition of CA!”

There’s an inherent danger in recalling the past too much. Your brain begins to resemble a file cabinet where large chunks of memories and history are stored, gathering dust and cobwebs, gradually leaving less and less room for new ideas and thoughts.

Yeah, advertising is a young person’s industry, and we live in a short-term memory society as it is.

But history should serve as lessons for us. Not to discourage experimentation and innovation, but as a building block to always consider the possibilities and prepare for contingencies.

Ultimately, we can use the past to avoid costly mistakes—and sell better work to our clients who can then sell more of their own products and services. So it’s a good idea to know a bit about the past. But even once you know it, you have to focus on living in the present and creating ideas for the future. And now, with the rapid expansion of new media and all its various and at times maddening acronyms, you have to concede that, “okay, I know a lot, but I don’t know everything.”

One needs to step back, take a deep breath and recognize that you can learn an awful lot from co-workers who have no clue, nor care, about how we did it back in the day.

Because if you’re not forward-thinking, your career in advertising will soon be history.