7. Class 3: As a team: find a great creative ad and a lousy ad (creatively
speaking) large enough to hang on wall and discuss. Prepare to support
your opinion. NO TV or VIDEO — has to be telegraphic.
Read Felton Chapter 1–3.
Always be looking for, looking at, and collecting great work.
Develop your frame of reference, taste and judgment.
27. There are a lot of reasons that
brands advertise. It might be to
generate awareness. Increase
consideration. Build traffic.
Deliver an offer. Drive sales.
Induce loyalty. Inspire sharing.
Get liked. Start a conversation.
Put simply, advertisers advertise
to call people to action. Maybe it’s
to get a consumer to buy
something right now. Every brand
wants that. But long-term thinking
also demands that sometimes our
only purpose is to get people to
like us. Or talk about us. Or see
us in a positive light.
44. If you think about how a customer
becomes customers, there’s a lot
to be done.
Look at the purchase process
from her perspective. A prospect
customer, let’s call her Emily, first
has to become aware of your
brand and feel good about it. Or
at least be interested.
If Emily is at all diligent, she’ll do
some basic exploration, go
online, visit a website and check
in with friends. If Emily needs your
product or service right away,
she’ll start the consideration
process. If not, you’ll at least want
her to file you away in her
memory (actual or digital) under
“want it some day.”
45. Note you still haven’t secured
Emily as a customer since the
online or in-store shopping
experience can change her mind
or present her with an even better
option.
A friend’s opinion might raise
questions. Emily’s newfound
interest in the category could
open her eyes to someone else’s
advertising. And on an on it
goes. You’ll want to be there
every step of the way. Even if
things work out and Emily
becomes a customer, you’re still
not done. You’ll want her to return,
become loyal and finally
recommend you to her friends.
46. Advertising plays a role at every
point along the journey, which, by
the way, is not necessarily linear.
Emily might learn about you from
a TV commercial, from a friend on
Facebook or even from the sales
clerk who converts her from the
brand she thought she preferred
until she got to the store and was
presented an alternative right at
the moment of truth.
Content, events, social media and
experiential all come into play.
58. Recap: So, brands advertise for
a lot of reasons, not just to get
you to buy now.
The advertising they create takes
on many forms and runs in all
kinds of different media.
Some of that media is paid media
(TV, print, outdoor.) Some is
owned (websites). Some is
earned (press and blog coverage
and/or online buzz.)
59. And they have to be in the right
place at the right time for the
right reason with the right content,
utility, information.
Depending on what they are
trying to accomplish.
60. In the days when most
advertising was paid media — TV,
print, outdoor — brands and their
agencies would come up with a
single, focused brand campaign
and deliver very consistent work
— ads and messages — across
all the media. There was a desire
to leverage that consistency to
achieve awareness, brand name
recognition and make sure that a
viewer knew what brand she was
looking at.
61.
62.
63.
64. the emphasis was on consistency and
talking to a prospect or customer
66. Does the work reinforce the
brand? Is it the right content for
the medium, the technology
and the context? No need to
repeat yourself over and over
again in an age when people can
so easily tune you out.
You have to stay fresh, new,
interesting all the time.
93. Once you decide what you’re
trying to do you have another
challenge. Think it’s easy to get
Emily’s attention? Think again.
We live in an age of information
and content overload. (There are
9,854 tweets, 2,504 Instagrams,
and 106,021 YouTube videos
posted every second.)
From Emily’s perspective that’s a
good thing. She can access and
filter content by email, Twitter,
Snapchat, iMessage, Facebook,
Netflix, Instagram, Periscope
and maybe even linear television.
She can find what she wants
when she wants. And she can
rely on friends and trusted
contacts for recommendations.
94. From an advertiser’s perspective,
it’s not such a good thing. Emily
has AdBlock plug in installed on
her Chrome browser. She scrolls
past paid posts in her Facebook
stream. Skips pre-rolls the
moment the skip button appears.
And even pays for a Spotify
subscription to assure there are
no ads.
Most of the advertising that does
worm its way into her media
arrives uninvited. At best it’s
intrusive; at worst it’s downright
annoying.
95. Which is why all advertisers —
despite the new tendency to
worship at the altar of data —
need to embrace creativity as
the solution. A great creative
idea — be it an ad, an app, an
experience, a digital platform, or
a social initiative — has the power
to be noticed, watched,
remembered, used and shared,
leaving a positive impression and
overcoming the single greatest
obstacle confronting all
advertisers today — indifference.
96. You have to be like this guy.
You have get people to care, and
compel them to watch.
Interrupting, which worked for
years, is dead in an age when
everyone can mute, skip, DVR or
otherwise avoid advertising.
That’s the role of creativity.
97. My friend Tim Cawley, CCO and
founder at Sleek Machine and the
creator of many award winning
campaigns, including ideas that
earned attention and inspired
sharing, says this is the only filter
that matters.
“Would you watch it in your
feed and would you pass it on
to a friend.”
Tim did this for Century 21
119. • They’re conceptual, not literal.
• They’re original/unexpected in that they don’t rely on the same tried
and true formulas.
• They invite you into the experience.
• They entertain first, sell second.
• They’re visually arresting.
• They allow you to participate.
• They’re either fun, useful, beautiful or a combination of the three.
124. Because the ad-like object, which
could be print, poster, online ad,
landing page,social media post,
Instagram w Over, etc.remains the
fastest, simplest way to show
that you can think creatively and
reduce a message to a single,
concise, clever concept.
136. • They’re conceptual, not literal.
• They’re original/unexpected in that they don’t rely on the same tried
and true formulas.
• They invite you into the experience.
• They entertain first, sell second.
• They’re visually arresting.
• They allow you to participate.
• They’re either fun, useful, beautiful or a combination of the three.