Streamlining Your Accounting A Guide to QuickBooks Migration Tools.pptx
Digital Creative 1
1. Welcome to the
DMA’s Creative Certification Course
Part One
Evaluating Creative
Wed., Oct. 16, 2013 — 1:00 to 4:30 pm
Presented by
Alan Rosenspan • Nancy Harhut • Carol Worthington-Levy
2. Want to reach any of us?
Alan Rosenspan: arosenspan@aol.com
Nancy Harhut:
nancy.harhut@wildeagency.com
Carol Worthington-Levy
CWL@Worthington-Levy.com
You’ll also find us in LinkedIn!
2
3. Scope of the Course
• How to Evaluate Creative
• How to Get Great Print Work
• How to Get Great Digital Work
• Questions & Answers
throughout, breaks as needed
3
5. Alan Rosenspan
Creative director in three countries, for O&M and
Digitas
My teams have won over 100 Awards – including 20
DMA Echo Awards for results.
More importantly, a working creative director and
direct marketing consultant
Client list has included American Express,
Ancestry.com, Bank of America, Capital One, Embrace
Home Loans, Humana, HSBC, Life Line Screening,
Oreck, Princess Lines, Scotts Lawn Service, Viking
River Cruises, many others
5
6. Nancy Harhut
• Chief Creative Officer, Wilde Agency
•
Decidedly strategy-minded, results-oriented
• Nationally recognized for best-in-class creative.
• She and her teams have won over 150 awards for direct
marketing effectiveness.
•
More than 20 years of senior creative management
experience honed Digitas
• Clients have included Dell, IBM, Novartis, House of Seagram,
Bank of America, AT&T, American Express, Sheraton, GM,
and more. She’s an in-demand speaker at DMA and other
marketing conferences.
6
7. Carol Worthington-Levy
Wears three hats – Design/art director, writer and
creative director/consultant for hire
A stickler for responsive creative: has read it all, tested
it all, and even attended a seminar in Switzerland to
learn what will encourage response… or crush it!
Was a business partner in a multichannel marketing
agency, which she and partners sold to Merkle in 2010
Possibly one of the only 8-time individual DMA Echo
winner in 3 categories: Mail, Catalog and Online/digital
Clients: AAA Auto Clubs, 5.11 Tactical, Adventures Cross Country
teen travel, Allstate, Wine of the Month Club, Jacuzzi, Niman Ranch
premium meats, Comcast, American Isuzu, Intuit, BMW, Dish,
DHC Cosmetics, Hewlett-Packard, and more
7
8. We’re in the trenches,
just like you!
We are all working creative directors and direct
marketing consultants
We are all teachers and students of direct
marketing
We all believe in great creative work
8
10. Who are you?
• You want to learn more about how to develop
winning creative
• You want be a better manager and motivator of
your team or your agency
• You want to be able to better evaluate creative
before investing a lot of time and money
10
11. Introductions
• Your name and what you do
• You biggest challenge…
• What makes you unique?
“I think I am the only person in this room who…”
11
12. Before we begin…
• Judgment call
• The truth about evaluating creative…
• Backgrounds and introductions
12
19. What do you think?
• What’s your overall reaction?
• Do you think it will work?
• What do you like?
• What do you think might be improved, or
what would you do different?
19
25. The Truth about
Evaluating Creative
• You are an excellent judge of creative
• You are intuitive and thoughtful…
• …when you stop to actually think about it in a
critical way
25
26. Our goals for this creative
certificate program
Help you discover…
How to get the best creative work
What to look for; what to watch out for
Provide a Checklist for “How to Evaluate
Creative”
Offer ideas for how to motivate people to do their
best work for you.
26
28. • How can you tell if it will work in
advance?
• How to give useful and welcome
feedback
• Timing & Budget Questions
28
29. First, a definition
What is the best creative work?
You’re not looking for work that
makes you laugh, or may win an
award show
You’re looking for creative work
that’s going to generate response
29
30. • Does it have to be new?
• Does it have to be different?
• What are some signs of good
creative?
30
31. Does it have to be new?
• Not for the sake of being new
• New in this category
• It must be relevant to the product
and the market
31
33. Does it have to be different?
• Not for the sake of being different
• Good creative should tell you
something you don’t know…
• …or make you think of something in
a new or different way
33
42. Product: Nationwide Auto Insurance
Affinity group target:
Members of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
Goal:
1. Generate quotes
2. Generate sales
43. HRC - Human Rights Campaign
Largest LGBT equal rights advocacy group and
political lobbying organization in the U.S.
LGBT= Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered
44. Sales Proposition
Get HRC discount when you get
Nationwide auto insurance
Plus get Nationwide’s great service
and prices
45. Barriers
Nationwide is not a low-cost option
HRC discount is small
Historically unresponsive target
Inertia- only switch if bad claims experience/price
hike
Competitors cite specific savings amounts
10¢/piece – and reflect new “Join the Nation”
branding
46. Barriers
But wait, there’s more…
Could not acknowledge target was an HRC member
Not allowed to use HRC name/logo on OE
Other insurers had much more traction
with LGBT community
47. The Solution?
“Slide in under the radar” package
Cast doubt on other insurer’s commitment to the
cause
Prove NW is a genuine HRC supporter
Highlight many discounts available + proactive
checkups
Signed by NW exec who’s also an HRC member
54. Did it work?
56% lift over the control
Client wrote: “Wilde Agency’s creative was able to
break through to the point where we WENT FROM
SHUTTING DOWN OUR MAIL PROGRAM TO ADDING
EXTRA MAILINGS NOT PREVIOUSLY BUDGETED.”
2013 ECHO Award winner
58. Letter copy: friendly, “I’m like
you” approach
What do you do if you buy
wine, and you don’t like it?
You can’t get your money
back.
We taste over 300 wines to
make sure it’s great.
I never sell wine I don’t like.
58
60. 1700 Views!
1700 views in the first couple of hours!
Over 3000 total views, and over 700 cases of wine sold .
63. The first question to ask of any direct mail
piece, advertisement or press release
63
64. “Without a big idea,
your advertising will pass
like a ship in the night.”
-David Ogilvy
“In direct marketing,
the ship will sink.”
64
65. Why are big ideas so important?
A big idea cuts through the clutter
A big idea can multiply your success 10
times over
You only need one
It costs more to do a bad idea than to do
a big idea
65
66. What is an Idea, anyway?
An idea is a change
“I have an idea; let’s do things the way
we’ve always done them before!”
The bigger the change, the bigger the idea
66
67. Letter to Ministers in Germany
They were concerned about declining church
attendance
They wanted to “wake up” ministers – and invite
them to a discussion about the problems
They used a very simple letter – with just one
sentence!
67
80. How do you know if it’s
a big idea?
Is it a new idea? Or new in this category?
Is it relevant to the product?
Does it make you think?
Not “what are they talking about?” but
about your relationships, your job, your
life, your future…
80
81. How do you know if it’s
a big idea?
Does it make you feel?
Emotion is stronger than logic
Is it credible? Do you believe it?
Does it stand out from others in it’s category?
81
83.
People have a hard time “getting” even
one thing
It’s not because they’re dumb; they’re
just busy
Make sure your message breaks
through the clutter – by focusing on
one message
83
88. One of the great secrets...
Most companies focus on their
products...or worse, themselves
The best companies focus on their
prospects and customers
88
89. Ancestry.com
The world’s largest genealogy
company
Has access to over 3 billion records,
and will help you search
Their most successful direct mail and
e-mail
89
101. The Power of Visual Thinking
People remember less than 10% of what
they’re told (and it’s always the wrong 10%)
“Follow my directions carefully”
People remember more than 50% of what
they see
They even make it up - to fill in the gaps
101
102.
Show and tell
Show me what you’ve got
Show me what you’re made of
“Show me the money”
102
113. Headlines are Critical
They should have your key benefit in them
80% of people read that – and nothing else
Subject line in e-mail even more important
Johnson box serves the same purpose
113
133. “Campaignable?”
Is it just a one-shot, or can you build
a long term campaign around it?
Does it easily lend itself to other
media?
A big idea can last for years…
133
134.
Antwerp Zoo in Belgium was looking
to boost attendance
Their elephant got pregnant
Send out a birth announcement?
…or create a campaign?
134
137. Congratulations, it’s an elephant!
Multi-media campaign started right after conception
Turned all of Belgium into proud parents
Millions of people followed her 22 month
development from inception to birth – including her
first ultrasound photograph!
137
139.
Kai-Mook became the first elephant born on
the internet on May 17, 2009 – weighing a
healthy 100 kilograms.
Zoo attendance more than doubled – over
300,000 new visitors
139
141. Absolut Best Campaign
First ad appeared in 1980; still going strong 1500+ ads later
Created by Geoff Hayes of TBWA
Ads have become collector’s items; thousands of people write in
requesting their favorite
Rolled out “In an Absolute World” in 2007
141
151. Judge for yourself:
Do these upcoming examples meet that list of
criteria?...
• Big idea
• Single-minded message
• Focused on people
• Arresting visual
• Compelling headline
• Involving
• Campaignable
151
152. Comcast … see if this mailer meets
the criteria
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single-minded message
Focused on people
Arresting visual
Compelling headline
Involving
Campaignable
152
155. • Challenge: Comcast high speed internet might at first not seem
like entertainment as much as for email and website access. But
Comcast wanted to position it as a way to download movies
155
157. Did it fit these criteria?
Do you think it worked?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single-minded message
Focused on people
Arresting visual
Compelling headline
Involving
Campaignable
157
158. Isuzu B2B mailing: does this meet the
criteria too?
• This Isuzu truck is a huge seller
• It’s especially well sized for two
industries: light construction,
and the food industry
• Challenges: how to get
companies with fleets to
consider buying several instead
of just one
• Budget $90,000
158
159. Isuzu Fleet campaign
• Targeted two
markets ONLY
• Created a
mailer for
each, that is
very specific to
that industry
• This one
is light
construction:
This truck can
carry “6000
pounds of
cement”
159
160. Isuzu Fleet campaign
• This truck can
carry about
6,000 lbs of
cement –
sized specifically
for typical
construction
load
• Of course it’s
absurd – the
box is 12 in.
wide
160
161. Isuzu Fleet campaign
• A dimensional package
needs all the hardworking
elements that traditional
flat mail does!
161
162. “500 gallons of Tomato Paste enclosed”
• This one is
for the food
service
industry
• Typical load
for this
industry
would be
500 gallons
of tomato
paste
162
163. Sent out 3000 boxes
per targeted market
•
•
•
•
•
Campaign cost $90,000
We sold 140 trucks
Bottom line - $4.2 million in sales
New leads generated for future contact
Huge ROI
163
164. Isuzu B2B fleet mailing: does it meet
our criteria?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single-minded message
Focused on people
Arresting visual
Compelling headline
Involving
Campaignable
164
165. One last example:
New Pig site re-launch
Does it have…
• Single-minded message
• Focused on people
• Arresting visual
• Compelling headline
• Involving
• Campaignable
165
166. New Pig needed to launch their
new and improved website.
• New Pig has goods to help control chemical
and water spills — including the “pig”
They have developed a kooky persona with
catalogs with pigs on them, and their Leak and
Spill catalog featuring Sparky, a cartoon pig
with a hardhat
• An improved website gives them another
reason to contact customers and get them
to re-register in the updated system
166
167. …so launching the site could not be a
dull or pedestrian event…
• Customer expectations
are high – New Pig
customers expect to see
an event turn into a ‘PIG”
event!
• Step 1 Email…
167
168. Landing page pays off and generates
excitement about the new site…
168
169. Catalog wrap is essential because many
don’t check their email
169
170. Campaign targeted a
hardworking audience
who loves a humorous
break from the serious
subject of chemical spills
and hazardous waste!
Mouse pad
with contact
info
170
171. New Pig re-launch campaign:
does it meet our criteria?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Single-minded message
Focused on people
Arresting visual
Compelling headline
Engaging
Campaignable – well, yes, it IS a campaign…
171
172. Make People Do What
You Want Them To
(Nancy Harhut on Insider tips on the power of direct
marketing creative)
178. Online Advantages
Quicker to produce & measure
Easier & cheaper to modify between rounds
Click to respond
OLA = animated, dynamic
178
179. How to give yourself an edge
Study your mailbox/inbox for “repeats”
See what’s proven to work in the marketplace
Read the masters
John Caples “Tested Advertising Methods”
David Ogilvy “Ogilvy on Advertising”
H.G. Lewis “Effective Email Marketing”
Follow the trades
Test, test, test
179
184. Overarching Creative Guidelines
Appeal to human motivators
Save $$
Save time
Self-improvement
Feel special/recognized
Look good to others
Feel smart
Make life easier
Discover new things
Feel safe
184
191. The Secret to Getting
Great Creative
Creative people always have choices. They can’t always
decide what they will work on; but they can always decide
how much of their effort and heart they will put into their
work.
Your goal is to make them want to go that extra step for
your projects, your product , your company – and of
course, for you.
191
193. Briefly speaking
• Successful creative starts with a well thoughtout brief or Creative Strategy Form
• It doesn’t end there – but it starts there
• The more time and effort you put into your
brief – the more likely you are to get effective
work
193
194. The Briefing Meeting
• A brief should never simply be handed-out
or e-mailed.
• It should be an interactive process; with the final
brief emerging from the meeting
• You need to encourage comments and questions –
and get the answers as soon as possible
194
195. Your Role in Briefing
Creative
To initiate the project and provide the
information necessary to complete it
To be an “expert” on your business; or to get
the answers they need before the work is
completed
To be open to new ideas and solutions
To give constructive and specific feedback to
help improve the work (when necessary)
195
196. Not Your Role
To dictate the work
To withhold information or fail to provide it on a
timely basis
To not have the answers
To create false deadlines or emergencies
To abuse creatives in any way, shape or form
196
197. The Role of Creatives
To represent the consumer’s point-of-view
To be an “expert” on their business – advertising
and direct marketing
…and to become an “expert” on the clients
business
To come up with big ideas
197
198. Not the Role of Creatives
To give the client only what they asked for…
To postpone the work and do a last-minute
scramble
To give up, or do less than their best
To think that that account people, or clients,
aren’t smart or good at their jobs
198
201. The Creative Strategy Form
Every company has a different format
It is a blueprint of the job -- and a contract
It should be developed, agreed on and signed by everyone
involved in the project - particularly the most senior person
It can be used to evaluate work
It has to be simple, understandable – not just filled with
jargon
201
203. The Creative Strategy Form
1. Project Description
What are we doing? Why?
2. Objective
What are we trying to achieve?
What do we want people to do?
Be as specific and realistic as possible
3. Target Audiences
The more specific, the better
203
204. The Creative Strategy Form
4. Main message and proof
What is the single most important reason that someone
will buy our product or respond to our mailing?
Why should anyone believe you…?
204
205. The Creative Strategy Form
5. Offer
What do they get?
What do they have to do to get it?
6. Key points
What other benefits do we need to communicate?
7. Ways to Respond
Did we make it easy?
Did we give them a choice?
8. Tone and Manner
Consistent with the product?
205
206. The Creative Strategy Form
9. Mandatories
Legal, logo, etc.
10. Budget
How much do we have?
Let the value of the customer drive the budget
11. Schedule
How much time is left?!!!!
206
208. Put time on your side…
You want to give creative people time to do their
best…
..but you also want your project to stay top-ofmind
Plus you don’t want them to forget anything, or
worse, do it at the last-minute
208
209. Think in stages
Ideally, you want them to come back with rough
ideas within 5-7 days
This keeps your project fresh in their minds and
motivates them to get started right away
After this first meeting, you can give them more
time to refine, make changes, add to the mix
209
210. Two questions you must answer
12. What is the target market currently using/doing?
Understand their mindset
Are they using a competitive product? Making do
without?
Why should they switch to yours?
13. “You know you need it when…”
When does someone know they need your product?
Puts you in their shoes
Identifies points of pain
You’re looking for agreement...
210
212. Best Practices
Allow them to finish their presentation, before
you jump in
Start by acknowledging how much work has been
done, and what you like
Review the brief to make sure that everything
important has been addressed
212
213. Be constructive
See the big picture first – don’t nitpick
Never get personal. Not “I don’t like that
headline” but “Does this headline have the main
benefit?”
Go through the Checklist with them
213
214. Moving ahead
Take the time to provide thoughtful, useful
feedback
This is your first exposure to the work; they have
been at it for days
Resist the urge to change for change’s sake
214
216.
Never say “The client will never buy this…”
Don’t try to anticipate what others will say or
think; give your own opinion
Remember you are all on the same side
216
217. How do you know
if it will work
before it goes out?
217
219. Besides…
“Creative” packages don’t usually work
The “ugly” stuff almost always seems to win
Even the best work seems to produce a
disappointingly low response
219
220. How do you know…?
The only guarantee in direct marketing is a
moneyback guarantee
It can be very surprising what works and what
doesn’t
However, if you use the following checklist, you
will maximize the probability of success
220
222. 1. Is it on strategy?
2. Is it appropriate to the product
and the positioning?
3. Is there a big idea?
Does it come through?
4. Does it have a striking visual or
graphic?
222
223. 5. Do the offer and main benefits
come through quickly and clearly?
6. Does the offer stand out?
7. Is it believable? Are claims
supported with facts or
testimonials? Is there a
guarantee?
8. Does it include a strong call to action
in every element?
223
224. 9. Does it make you think or make
you feel
10. Will it stand out from others in this
category?
11. Are all the elements working as
hard as they can for you?
12. The big question:
would you respond?
224
225. These are all the
ways to evaluate
creative for regular
advertising.
But direct marketing
has to work even
harder
225
226. We have to get people to
act
Go to our website
Call a toll-free number
Send in an application or response form
Bring something into a store
226
227. 1. It must be 100% absolutely clear
• Above all, it must be clear and easyto-understand
• If people don’t “get it” – you lose
• You need to be direct in direct
marketing
227
228. 2. It must have a compelling offer
• “If you want to dramatically improve your
response, you must improve your offer” – Axel
Anderson
• They must know exactly what you want them to
do, and how
• They must have an urgent reason to act now
228
229. 3. Credibility is king
• We need to prove what we claim
• We must use numbers, specifics, facts, lists
• Testimonials are critical
• One false note can kill response
229
245. What do you think?
• What’s your overall reaction?
• Which package did you like best?
• Which do you think worked best?
• Why?
245
246. We told you that
you’re an excellent
judge of creative!
246
247. Back to The Big Idea
• Big ideas are what’s needed to give a product or
service an advantage in the marketplace
• Every good product has a USP – Unique Selling
Proposition.
• This USP is one way to find your way to your
Big Idea.
• For example…
247
251. Name some big ideas…
• Can you name some big ideas that helped
a product or service rise above the rest?
• What comes to mind?
251
252. Workshop segment:
Create your OWN big idea
• Who would want your product or service?
• What are your product’s features and benefits that
make it worth having and using?
• What is your product’s Unique Selling Proposition…
that is, what makes your product different and better
than all others?
• How could you describe or illustrate this to have
immediate meaning to your customer?
• Brainstorm with the person next to you to discuss
these questions for 10 minutes each… and then we’ll
discuss a few of your ideas.
252
253. Thank you!
Alan Rosenspan,
Nancy Harhut &
Carol Worthington-Levy
See you tomorrow at
Part 2: Creative Rules that Work for Print
Thursday Oct 17, 2012 — 8:30am - 12:00pm
253