by Miriam Hara | May 28, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Latest
What makes branded creative concepts magical? In a recent LinkedIn discussion, someone commented that the reason why creative agencies were no longer relevant was because computer software (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) had replaced what was once reserved for creative directors, illustrators and designers. As a result, it removed the magic that was once part of the creative agency positioning for their clients.
I do agree that computer software has provided access for everyone to exercise his or her creative ability – and that’s just awesome. However, to equate creative exploration with on point, branded creative concepts may be a little bit over the top. I don’t think it’s fair to say that the creative of branded creative concepts no longer provides that magical moment.
It’s a little simplistic to believe that creative concepts are all about design and only design.
To say that creative is all about software is quite naive. Consider the implications of what makes for a good solid creative concept. Branded creative concepts take time to develop in order to deliver that ‘ahh’ reaction. And trust me, it has nothing to do with software. Many clients know their business better than any agency will – as they should. Likewise, creative professionals and designers know how to develop good creative concepts – actually outstanding creative concepts.
I have run a boutique agency for over 25 years. I’ve seen the transition from the drafting table to the computer screen. From that experience, I can say that the creative magic is still there. Many of the mandates our teams have worked on through the years have involved various pieces of a puzzle. We’ve had to take those pieces and make them fit into one coherent, succinct creative concept that told a story. Other mandates involved taking dry, complex material and communicating it in a lighter, friendlier tonality. There’s nothing better than a beautiful piece of creative that is branded and on point. It’s simply a thing of beauty and joy!
Those of us who live and breathe creative think differently. Thinking differently is what makes for awesome creative. If software has taken away the magic of creative, then the same would be true of TV ads, music, promotional contests, PR campaigns, music which still stand apart from the norm of mediocre. Time and time again we see “creative” that when properly conceptualize, executed, timed, and delivered get a reaction – a good reaction.
Creative concepts when properly developed, designed and executed for a brand piece are magical. I could go as far as saying that the reason some feel that creative has lost its magic may be that too many are not approaching branded creative the right way. Many are only producing mediocre creative concepts that don’t deliver the desired results. All of this, in the business of marketing and branding, is not magical.
What are your thoughts on the subject? I’d like to hear them here.
by Miriam Hara | May 25, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Business Success, Creative, Latest
In my last post I stated why I feel that there is a big disconnect between creative agencies and clients. You can read that article here. Below is a short recap.
It is my belief that the single-focused creative agencies continuing to work in the same way they did over the past decade, can no longer provide clients with the relevancy and efficiency that is demanded in today’s marketplace.
So what do creative agencies need to be in order to deliver to clients and become a valued partner?
1) Technology channel savvy: The increasing number of communications channels that are available to reach consumers requires an understanding of these channels in order to produce creative that will not only resonate but garner the expected ROI. The difference in creating “creative” for a traditional channel versus a digital channel is the same as creating creative for a print ad versus a billboard ad. It’s just not the same.
2) Marketing knowledge for immediacy: Advertising is becoming more targeted and niche. Generating creative that will be relevant, branded and incite a reaction is a must. This can only be attained through understanding the market in which the brand lives.
3) Creatively smart: A counter part to point 1, this is the ability to foresee possible issues that are related to the creative presented. It is not only a nice to have but a need to have. Delivering on smart creative also means being production savvy. Knowing where and how the creative will live is a must.
4) Embrace change: Change is essential to any creative house. It’s as essential as breathing. Reluctance to move forward, explore and understand new technologies and channels will only meet with failure. It will result in the failure to offer clients what is required for them to succeed. There’s no win-win. Creative agencies need to be experts in communications channels. How else can they meet the required ROI? Without embracing change, creative agencies will become stagnate.
5) The “we” mentality: This really pertains to any business. In the creative world, nothing is more important than having a good connection with clients. It’s not the client and the agency. It’s us. Understanding that distinction is paramount in order to develop a strong relationship that will lead to awesome creative!
There are many more attributes creative agencies need in order to effect change and promote solid, relevant relationships with clients. Can you think of any you would like to add to this list?
by Miriam Hara | May 20, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Change is due for the creative agency. In the year 2015 and beyond creative agencies must learn relevancy. A recent article I came across stated that clients are increasingly going directly to production houses for their creative – bypassing the creative agency altogether. That is no surprise. The client/agency relationship has been fraught with exponential frustration.
I was prompted to write this post out of my frustration in hearing and seeing many clients suffer at the hands of inefficient creative agencies. In short, I generally find myself having to convince clients that there are creative agencies that are not rigid in their stance or positioning – they just ‘get it’.
Rewind to a little over a decade ago and creative agencies were just that: Creative. However, many were not generally concerned with production implications and the costs of their creative. Creative awards were all the rage and were ultimately most creative agencies’ end goal. It is my belief that the pursuit of awards, qualifies as a conflict of interest. Perhaps we’ve reach the point where those days are gone?
Advertising agencies used to silo their team of creative people and their team of production artists so that the two never mixed. This was a recipe that usually lead to added costs and time delays. And it was the client who was always on the paying end.
Unfortunate but true: The creative agency has taken many hits in the last decade. This is due in part to a niche mentality and an inability to embrace change.
The introduction of the computer (or more specifically Apple), in effect monumentally changed the creative advertising industry. The computer enabled creative output at speeds that were unheard of back in the early 1990s. Add the speed of creative output to the facility to create in software that ensures production outcome values and you have a major shift in creative dynamics. Unfortunately, the typical advertising and creative agency hasn’t moved forward on that front. Many still keep their teams siloed – thereby maintaining the frustration within the client/agency relationship.
Today a creative agency should be holistic, nimble, well-rounded and product savvy on multi-platforms and channels. That means all team members should be creative and should have a solid understanding of the production implications for their creative. That way, whether a client mandate is for a logo design, TV ad or multimedia and multichannel campaign, the creative team fully understands the potential pitfalls or issues that could arise. The team also works towards resolving those problems before they become an issue.
A creative agency must be relevant and provide value in marketing, creative and execution. One might have the best creative in the world or the most beautiful logo on a presentation screen, but if can’t be reproduced in the real world and with an acceptable budget, what value is that to the client? Ultimately success lies not only in the creative, but in its execution. If the execution and creative work is understood, the end result will be a creative solution of beauty and joy.
Do you agree?
by Miriam Hara | May 15, 2015 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Latest, Miriamisms
A mere decade ago, brand building was essentially created on the pillars of packaging and advertising. It involved one-way dialogues and communications. Many feel that those were simpler and easier days. However, some brands were launched only to be left winking in the dark. The company, marketing department and employees who launched the brand were the only ones who knew about it. Having a business, product or brand means having to build brand awareness. If not, it’s like you’re winking in the dark. You know you’re doing it, but no one else does!
It used to be that ”working it” meant advertising and gaining “share of voice”. But times have changed and now share of voice is only one aspect of the fragmented yet cohesive puzzle of brand building. It’s never been more important for brands to excel in the new and exciting environments we have today. Although, it doesn’t mean that there is no longer a need for traditional media advertising, quite the contrary. Traditional media is still a staple for brand building. However, integrating traditional advertising and making those “channels” work seamlessly together with the new channels calls for specific marketing intent and brand effort. In other words, step out of the cave!
Brand building today requires integration and volume of exposure.
Needless to say, brand building in today’s marketplace is as important as ever, but it’s a tad more complex. It takes time and effort of a different sort. The introduction of the digital environment and the variety of channels now available has created an explosion of brand building possibilities – desktop and mobile platforms for Google adwords and YouTube campaigns, app advertising to social media properties (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.). Amidst all that is new (which changes almost weekly), basic marketing protocols still remain. The message must still be clear but also emotive enough to resonate with the target; the audience must be identified with greater dimension and now defined by the rigidness of demographics; the strategies must be focused but multiple, to cover a wider range of niches and technologies; and the objectives have to be defined and measured for each and every variable.
Brand building has evolved dimensionally to allow for the ability to dialogue in order to build a community. The brand not only calls this community home, but also allows consumers, viewers and connections to come over and stay for a visit. They will possibly share a story or two. This provides the opportunity to convert potential consumers to the elusive brand ambassador status – that really should be the goal. An evolving relationship based on the understanding of expectation and yes – love and possibly trust! To not engage, converse, or reach out to consumers all leads to one result: Not being found. This means your brand or business is in the dark somewhere, winking madly where no one can see!
Websites, social media, content marketing and search optimization, mobile accessibility and proliferation have opened up a dynamic that brand building must live and excel in. Brand building involves creating the stage to spotlight brand in a forum for discussion, for sharing and for consumers to participate. Only then can brand building in today’s marketplace lead to brand trust and yes, brand love.
How are your brand building efforts going? Any challenges you need assistance with?
by Miriam Hara | May 4, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Management
We’ve all heard it before: The sign of a good manager is someone who surrounds themselves with stronger people. This business strategy can be employed in all aspects of business. Ultimately, by hiring people that are stronger, it implies that the manager understands what they don’t know. In other words, they know what they’re not good at and hire people to fit the missing requirements. It seems simple, even logical and it has proven to be effective in many managers’ careers. So why don’t more businesses employ this same business strategy for marketing their business and brands?
Consider this, with the business world rapidly evolving and with the introduction of new channels in marketing, how ‘on top’ of all the new technologies can an internal marketing department be? After all, it still has the business of brand to be responsible for. The brand strategy, the brand plan, the brand market share: All of this is the marketing team’s responsibility – and rightly so.
Too often in business, corporate marketing departments put their internal design and creative team at the helm of packaging design. Sometimes they are even sanctioned to develop their own ‘branding’ ads and even book their own media. Many think of design and media as an extension of marketing, and it is. What it shouldn’t be though, is part of the internal marketing department. If a successful business strategy is to populate the team with stronger talent, shouldn’t that same model apply when developing and working on brand initiatives?
Outsourcing is a solid business strategy. Here’s why:
An internal creative team is limited to what they can work on. They are limited to the company that employs them. Some of them have little exposure to other creative talents and rely on themselves for inspiration. Regardless of this fact, it’s true that creative departments in agencies have taken a huge hit from the expanded roles of in-house creative departments in corporations. For the most part, in-house creative staff are not skilled to be specialists like those from an agency – through no fault of their own.
An agency’s business is creative. It’s not a vertical offshoot or an ‘additional’ support service to the core marketing team. When you consider that an outside agency works on many different businesses in many different industries, they inevitably foster a creative environment for their creative department to learn and grown in a way that in-house creative departments can’t.
With so many lines being blurred, many media representatives will go directly to the client who is advertising – selling marketing brand managers on their specific type of media. Of course they will, however they’re selling only one media property. There’s nothing objective about that. An agency’s business revolves around the media and its applications. It is the agency’s responsibility to stay on top of the latest trends and to objectively assess how those trends can be integrated with brand strategies. Let a seasoned media strategist do the work. It’s their job is to know what’s out there, what’s new and how to properly assess the media and develop a plan that garners results.
An effective business strategy is one that delivers not only on projects but on results. Outsourcing brand initiatives to develop stronger strategies in innovative ways makes all the sense in the business world. Don’t you agree?
by Miriam Hara | Apr 24, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Business Success, Latest, Management, Marketing
For those of us in the service industry, we know too well the ins and outs of a request for proposal (RFP) – and what it really means for an agency. I have come to view an RFP as comparable to entering a beauty contest. The potential client asks multiple agencies to show them what they can produce – then they’ll think about it.
From experience, when first invited to be part of an RFP, the immediate feeling is exhilaration – this is quickly followed by dread. The amount of work required to develop a quality RFP is phenomenal. The time and energy that is devoted to this non-profitable account adds an unnatural amount of stress to the agency business. Gone are the days when companies would compensate businesses to be included in an RFP – long gone!
What is the real purpose of an RFP?
Having worked in agencies for over a quarter of a century, I have often seen RFPs go out in an effort to simply validate the client’s current agency. In my opinion, this is quite disrespectful. It takes away valuable hours from the agencies invited to participate. Hours are what service agencies base their profitably on. Asking outside agencies to be part of an RFP, when there is actually no intent to change the current agency, is unethical.
If the RFP is genuinely for the purpose of garnering a new agency, why is this approach taken? Is it to determine “the fit” of the team within the group? If that’s the case, why not simply meet up over a series of dinners or lunches? Law firms hire interns this way. The potential intern is taken to dinner and interviewed in a group setting. It works and it’s fun. More importantly it allows the team players on both sides to get to know one another. The client/agency partnership needs to be based on positive relationships in order to achieve a successful collaboration.
What if the request for proposal is to determine how creative an agency can be? For those of us in the world of branding and advertising, clients can determine this from viewing our previous work and hearing about what was given as the brief. If that isn’t sufficient, perhaps it would be more advantageous to provide the agency with an actual project, complete with delivery requirements and timelines? This would allow the business team to assess how the agency actually works – if the agency is able to deliver on time and provide the necessary added value required by the team and the brand. This approach can be implemented by asking two or three chosen agencies to each complete a different project.
In recent years, procurement has often spearheaded the RFP process – assessing services similar to securing a print provider. The amount of input they have in the final selection is not always clear or consistent. However, the services provided by an agency cannot be compared to printing. Therefore, nothing is equal. It’s not about the hourly rate, it’s about the idea, the strategy, the commitment, and the partnership the agency can provide. No two agencies are alike. Service businesses often build their model on value. The value agencies deliver is quite different, making it difficult to assess them in equal terms.
What are you thoughts on the RFP process? Any idea how businesses can move away from this model of assessing agencies? I’d like to hear about them.
