Hasta La Creative!

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It’s that time of year again – Cannes is coming. Does the lure of hardware, sunshine, and glamour call you like a siren song? Are you dying to add a trophy to your office or brag to clients that you were nominated the umpteenth time for an award? If so, perhaps you’re in the wrong business.

Don’t get me wrong – I love awards. I have a box in my basement, full of old trophies and ribbons from high school standing as a monument to a time in my life when I lived for my work (at the time, my work was drill team, but you get the idea). There is nothing I like more than being singled out for being the best. Now that I’m a lot older and, hopefully, a little wiser, I’ve finally gained some perspective and would like to bring you back to reality, even if for just a moment:

1. Is the client happy? We must never forget that this business is always about “them” and never about “us.” What good does it do your client if the critics like your creative, but the client is not seeing much of a return on his/her investment? Clever is good. Profitable is better.
2. Are you doing good work on all of your campaigns, or on just one spot? It’s so easy to focus on only one commercial or campaign and pull out all the stops. Are all of the clients in your portfolio receiving the same consideration? If not, then it’s time to stop playing favorites and get back to work.
3. When pitching clients, how often do awards come up? Be honest. Do you spend more time talking about yourself than about what you can do for the client?
4. Define good work. I’ll bet if you ask 20 different ad professionals what good work is, you’ll get 20 different answers. Yet, we let a panel of, say, 10, determine what the best work is? No thanks.
5. Awards don’t always equal good work. I believe that for every award-winning agency, there are at least 10 non-winning ones that are doing as good, if not better, work. I had the great fortune to work for a small shop that routinely churned out great work. We never won awards for it, though. Why? We never entered. We knew that we turned out kick-ass work that got results for our clients, and that was all we needed to know.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.

Après le très réussi spot Zurich Chamber Orchestra publié en avril 2008, voici cette nouvelle campagne print réalisée par Euro RSCG, sur une direction artistique de Rob Hartmann. Une belle idée afin de montrer l’émotion produit par la musique.

Beyond Madison Avenue: The site’s title could double as our mission statement, as it’s not just the headlines we look for, but that which lies beyond. Or, better yet, it’s the news that the others missed.

Talent Zoo is the only site of its kind on the Internet. It’s unique and yet friendly. It carries an air of superiority, but is humble. Why? Talent Zoo plays a part in an important decision: where will you find a great job? Or, where will you learn the most and contribute to the team? (Realize though, that when applying, it’s all about them, but secretly, in your deepest heart, you know it’s about you. And they do too.)

If you’re familiar with Talent Zoo, then you know they have some fantastic writers that present factual, timely, and helpful articles to aid you during your career. Talent Zoo also owns Offset Media, a site consisting of four blogs from industry professionals (Beyond Madison Avenue, Digital Pivot, Beneath the Brand, and 12pt Type).

My main gig with Talent Zoo is writing for Beyond Madison Avenue (BMA). After looking at what I was writing in comparison with every other marketing blogger, I decided that I needed to take a new direction with my part of BMA. That, or sink into mediocrity, which is never the best positioning these days. After mulling it over for a week or so, I decided on “the new endeavor.”

My own mission statement is: separate the wheat from the chaff, the hot shops from the not shops, and the blusterers from the listeners. This will take me some time – to find and verify everything –  but in the end, I think it will be worth it.

Here’s The Deal

So, has your agency, your company, or shop stepped beyond the advertising-creative field to become an inspiration?Do you do it differently? How?

If you, your company, your shop, etc, has a unique business concept, outstanding campaign, or an innovative idea to share with the readers at Talent Zoo and Beyond Madison Avenue, send it my way. The only thing I ask is that you are prudent with your selection. If your idea is ho-hum, one day it may get written. It it’s good, probably next week. Earthshattering will be written tomorrow if everything works out. It’s all going to depend on volume.

First, PLEASE review the idea so that you can provide three or four salient points that you’d be proud to show other industry professionals. What was the challenge? Why did you/your agency go down this road? Why was it successful? What made it unique?

For instance, Right Brain Design was built on an innovative business model: instead of a brick and mortar agency, they were actually a network of at-home professionals that combined, as needed, to meet a client’s needs.

Lisa P Maxwell offered clients complete and total access to their employees, and understood that to promote social media to their clients, first they had to be social media consumers. Thus, all of their employees are connected to the outside world via personal web cam.

Boone Oakley went an entirely different route: their whole website is comprised of a series of YouTube videos. The videos are interactive: and viewers can navigate through the entire video site. Here is an example that ran in the original post:

A New York City purse designer, Rachel Nasvik, stashed hand-made bags throughout NYC at various locations and then sent clues to their followers (fans, mailing list, interested parties) about how to find the bags. Not only was this a great example of  gaining followers by giving away free merchandise (nice free merchandise), but it also showed that a campaign could consist of nothing more than a great idea, merchandise, and a clever advertising plan.

The bene: Not only will your company be mentioned on the site, but it will also go to my Facebook page (read by 6 adoring fans), my mother (not kidding), and  will be sent to my Twitter followers 2x/day. Additionally, the blog will be sent to LinkedIn groups for which it is appropriate (ie, a TV campaign would not go to Social Media 2.0). Plus, there is what ever you decide to do with it…send it to clients, block the site, etc.

Thus, this small effort on Beyond Madison Avenue will cross a lot of eyeballs.

Although there’s no official name for this effort, my working title’s been “SHOW me, don’t TELL me.”

Or, in playground terms, “I double-dog dare you…”

So, this is a chance to shine. A chance to promote your efforts above the rest. We’ll even use your quotes if you want.

And there ain’t nuttin’ better than free publicity on a scorching summer day, ‘cept maybe a Popsicle…

What, you may ask, do I get out of this? Hopefully a “good job” or a “thanks” or a “great job, but you misspelled dinosaur.” All of that, and the fact that it makes me feel good. Plus, if content is king, I don’t want the same content as all of the other bloggers….

And there you have it.

Please pass this on.

Jeff Louis Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

Nouvelle axe dans la communication de Renault avec cette baseline “Tout le reste semble plus vieux”. Une campagne de l’agence Publicis Conseil, sur des photographies de Marc Bardi et le studio Eye Dream. Plus de visuels dans la suite.

Après la très réussie campagne Perrier Melting, voici une série print dans le même esprit pour les produits et les vêtements de la marque Germe. Une idée de l’agence Complot en provenance d’Uruguay. Plus de visuels dans la suite.

I have been around the marketing and advertising block a time or two and I’ve seen some changes – some great and some not-so-great. However, with the advent of social media, I have seen a series of trends that I find truly disturbing: over- or underestimating social media’s importance. So, as a public service, here are three trends to avoid.

Scary Trend #1 – Not Giving Social Media Enough Credit.
While I think it’s great that many companies are jumping into the social media fray, there are some who think that social media is “for the kids,” so they underestimate its importance as a communication tool. They hand over the social media reigns to an intern in order to give him/her some “busy work,” rather than realizing the ramifications of a social media strategy that is not carefully planned. If you’re going to incorporate social media into your marketing campaign, do so deliberately. Don’t blow it off or do it halfway.

Scary Trend #2 – Giving Social Media Entirely Too Much Credit.
Some companies (and I’m not naming names!) have decided that since social media is so popular, it should take the place of an integrated communications strategy. They eliminate the rest of their marketing plan and hire a social media guru to do what an entire marketing department has not been able to do, thus setting up said guru for failure. Social media is merely one tool in your arsenal, but it does not take the place of an integrated strategy.

Scary Trend #3 – Too Much To Soon
If you’re at all active in social media, you know this scenario all too well: you start following a company on a social media site because you like the brand. Next thing you know, you’re bombarded with promotional messages, product information, and generic messages, much like getting stuck in the corner at a party, talking to some blowhard who only wants to talk about himself. If you don’t want to engage your customers in a dialog, then skip social media and buy some spots, already.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.

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Après la jolie campagne pour WWF, une nouvelle publicité basée sur des photographies du studio Carioca. Une réalisation cette fois de l’agence Saatchi & Saatchi Frankfurt/Bucharest pour la gamme de téléphones axée musique de Sony Ericsson. Plus d’images dans la suite.

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