ON ADVERTISING
June 2008 issue
HOW TO GENERATE IDEAS.
Advertising campaigns are only as good as the ideas driving them. Unfortunately, coming up with good ideas is no simple task. While there are no guaranteed results, here’s a proven approach:
1. Absorb information.
Learn as much as possible about the product, the people who use it, and the people who make and sell it.
2. Collect raw information.
The source for this raw information is the world. The creative person is constantly absorbing new information and experiences from a broad range of sources: movies, books, clubs, Web sites, friends, music, food...the list goes on.
3. Trust your subconscious mind.
Our minds are always at work trying to create patterns and make connections. We unwittingly begin to match information we’ve collected about our product with our experiences. And then one morning we wake up with an idea.
The problem here is that all too often this happens after the fact. That’s because the harder we try to come up with an idea, the less likely we will succeed. Once we relax our mind and let our subconscious do the work, we produce an idea.
With ideas, timing can be everything. The most expected and unoriginal ideas are on the surface of our minds – they occur to most everyone. It’s crucial that we spend the time to dig deep into our subconscious where we will find more original thinking. Return to top
WIN MORE MARKETING AWARDS.
While Wesley Day Advertising is not a big advocate of entering awards contests, there are some valid reasons why a client might want to:
• Morale
You can give your in-house team recognition.
• Career
You can add “nominated for” or “awarded” to your resume.
• Politics
“See? Outside experts say our advertising is great.”
Actually, it’s very possible for a client to win even despite the hordes of competition and even if you are not the best marketer on the planet. Here’s why:
1. Most entries are riddled with mistakes and slapdash efforts.
They are completed in a crazy last-minute dash – often by an intern or whoever else is low enough on the totem pole to be roped into doing it. The resulting nominations are missing data, riddled with typos, badly described, and poorly executed – and quickly discarded by the judges.
2. Eighty percent of entries are from agencies.
Client-side marketers often stand a higher chance of winning than agency-side nominations. Why? Because the client-side marketer is more likely to have access to the results data that so impress judges.
3. Older campaigns are forgotten.
Most marketers are so excited about their newest campaign that they forget the great thing they did earlier in the year. Also, older campaigns usually have better, more complete results to present. Return to top
HOW TO GENERATE CASE HISTORIES.
At your next sales meeting, ask those people who have been with the company for three or more years to stand up. These are the people who have gathered an extensive set of informal success stories in their interactions with their customers. They are walking, talking databases of success stories.
Next, capture and combine those individual “databases” into a centralized source for informal success stories that can be accessed and drawn upon by all in sales, marketing, and advertising.
A simple, yet effective, process is to invest 20 minutes at your next sales meeting and ask everyone to write down an informal success story and pass them to one person to collect. Don’t be surprised if the salespeople go to that collection person during a break to ask for copies of everyone else’s success stories! Return to top
WIDENING THE SEARCH.
When you have rejected all the obvious solutions, try widening the search for ideas by taking a step backwards.
For example, let’s say your problem is how to keep from getting eaten by alligators. You’ve discarded all the obvious solutions – killing, feeding, duct tape, etc. – for various reasons.
OK, step back and ask yourself, “Where do you encounter alligators?” This leads to a new topic for brainstorming: how to drain the swamp.
If that doesn’t generate enough new ideas, take another step back: how to prevent (or at least, avoid) swamps.
It helps to draw the original problem in a circle with the discarded solutions fanning out to the right. Then add the step-back problem in a new circle to the left with a connecting line to the first problem. Show your brainstorming ideas fanning out from this new circle. Repeat as necessary. Return to top
TO BLOG, OR NOT.
To its true believers, blogging is a low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company’s profile, and build the brand. But while it may prove useful to some, even blogging experts do not recommend it for the majority.
Blogging requires a large time commitment and writing skills, which not every small business has on hand. Providing better products and service may be better uses of limited time and resources.
Some companies – such as consultants – are better suited to blogging. After all, giving advice is their business.
For other companies, it can be a challenge to find a legitimate reason for blogging. Possible opportunities are a market sector with a steep learning curve (such as wine), an associated lifestyle (such as camping gear), or a social mission (such as improving health).
Give us a call to see if blogging makes sense for you, and find out how to get started. Return to top.
Table of Contents
How to generate case histories.
Brainstorming 103: Widening the search.
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