by Miriam Hara | Jul 6, 2015 | Advertising, Agency, Business Success, Latest
At least in the creative world and in the advertising business, multitasking is key, especially for small businesses. Multitasking breeds an inclusive culture and by extension, it builds a team. Multitasking demands sharing information, a crucial aspect in any business. The silo mentality — departments holding back, not wanting to share knowledge or information with other departments — kills success. It’s a problem in big companies, but it exists in small businesses too. Multitasking prevents that mentality taking hold. It also stamps out the ‘blame’ culture. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#TeamBuilding”]When a team multitasks, it works together, everyone shares knowledge, info and responsibility[/inlinetweet]. The business, the team and your clients can only benefit from this kind of culture. As team leader, you have to take the lead in encouraging multitasking. But first …
Are YOU a multitasking maestro?
I think of marketing, particularly those of us in marketing handling brands, as orchestrators or maestros. For those who run agencies, like me, the same moniker applies. In marketing, brand people are bombarded with priorities and deadlines. (You can thank technology for that!). To NOT be a multitasker, to not be able to juggle all the balls, is dangerous.
I’ll define multitasking as I mean it. I’m not talking about wearing too many hats and spread thin to the point of burnout. I’m talking about being able to move fast and easily from one thing to another, throughout the day. Nothing piles up, okay, almost nothing, nobody’s perfect.
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#TeamBuilding”]As the main lead in a business, multitasking is a skill you have to have.[/inlinetweet] If not, you’ll drop a few balls, miss a few deadlines. Issues around projects arise regularly, you need to deal with them as they arise, rather than waiting until they get overblown. You need to think big, but still get the small things nailed down. Sure, you have your own particular projects on a given day, but you need to be right there for your people too. They need you. So do your clients. You’re there for everybody. Remember! You’re the maestro.
Client expectations about what agencies need to deliver has evolved. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#TeamBuilding”]Clients demand their agency people walk the line and maintain the pace. They demand multitasking. [/inlinetweet]Technology demands it too. If you aren’t a multitasker, you’re hurting your team: Forcing them to work longer hours, i.e. numerous redos, and work under undue pressure. Sometimes pressure is good for creativity, undue pressure is not. Demands come from clients fast and furious and if you plod, you frustrate the team, your clients and eventually you lose business. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”#TeamBuilding”]The success of an agency depends on being nimble, being a partner, working the way the client works.[/inlinetweet]
To be in marketing and NOT a multitasker is dangerous. For someone like me, who thrives on the business and excitement of the industry, I admit, it’s also more fun.
There’s lots to say about multitasking, so I’ll follow this blog with another that deals with encouraging everyone on the team to be a multitasker. How it builds a team. Why clients benefit? And, why Social Media is a perfect tool for encouraging multi-tasking?
“Mastering the Fine Art of Multi-Tasking” is a great short read from Psychology Today. If you can stop multitasking for a minute, you might enjoy it: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201110/mastering-the-fine-art-multi-tasking.
Recent scientific thought about multitasking? This one was interesting: “Forget Multitasking, Real Productivity Comes from Singletasking”: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247833
by Miriam Hara | Jul 2, 2015 | Advertising, Branding, Latest
I was reading the Vanity Fair Article: “Call Me Caitlyn.” This isn’t a blog about how I feel about the issue of transgender, or a personal critique on Caitlyn. I read the article because I was interested in reading about such an incredible personal transformation. However, since after all, I am in advertising, a comment in the article by Buzz Bissinger popped for me:
“It was early May, and Caitlyn had just gotten three letters from transgender women thanking her for the interview and the dignified way in which ABC and Sawyer had handled it. One of them was addressed “Bruce Jenner, Malibu, California,” as if she had become her own country.”
“… as if she had become her own country”
My advertising antenna went up. Wow, a brand can spend millions trying to create that feeling in consumers. Coke is its own country, so is Apple, as are all iconic brands, but it took years and millions of dollars to become entrenched. One interview and the person of Caitlyn Brenner is already her own country. She’s a brand. Someone sends her a letter with no address, just assuming it will reach her (the name Caitlyn wasn’t announced until the Vanity Fair cover broke). But is it just one interview? David Ogilvy said brand is: “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes: It’s name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it’s advertised.” Since 1974, Bruce Jenner has been building his “country”, in other words, his brand, stoking its attributes, starting with setting that world record in the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics, follow-up sponsorship opportunities, television series and movies, Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality TV show, even the transformation to Caitlyn and the Vanity Fair cover — 9 million hits viewing the cover pics in one day — and her upcoming reality TV show.
Businesses don’t determine what is a brand, consumers do
Despite the incredible power of advertising, businesses don’t determine what is a brand, consumers do. Am I brand? If consumers believe you’re a brand, then you’re a brand. The business of advertising and marketing just helps a brand along. Branding works to solidify the brand in consumers’ minds. Today, consumers expect branding to be equally about relationship building, authenticity and doing good works. If a brand doesn’t ring true, it won’t survive. Strictly from a marketing perspective, it will be interesting to see how this brand plays out.
What’s your feeling? Lots of people in the advertising will argue that a person cannot be a brand. Do you see Caitlyn as a brand?
Vanity Fair. Caitlyn Jenner: The Full Story
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/caitlyn-jenner-bruce-cover-annie-leibovitz
by Joyce Turner-Gionet | Jun 30, 2015 | Advertising, Branding, Creative, Latest
It depends.
If the celebrity fits the brand and the spot acts as a springboard to elevate and personify the brand, then it’s good creative. Last year, Matthew McConaughey was in the driver’s seat for the new Lincoln Motor’s (luxury division of Ford Motor Company) MKC. According to ET Canada, sales for Lincoln shot up 25%, to their highest level in seven years. In this case, the campaign ads inadvertently also inspired a celebrity bonanza with Ellen Degeneres, Conan O’Brien and Canada’s Jim Carrey revvin’ their comedy engines to parody the commercials. A link to one of the MKC commercials is below and for those who haven’t seen it, just for giggles, I’ve included a link to Ellen’s parody. The parodies ended up driving the outcome, so the MKC ad spots got even more attention than they otherwise might have, thanks to … celebrity coverage.
There’s considerable financial investment attached to celebrity endorsement. The cost of the celebrity as a brand ambassador has to be weighed against ultimate traction for the brand, particularly for small companies with shallow pockets. So much about building brand and brand awareness is about breaking through the clutter. Yes, the right celebrity can cut through clutter like a warm knife through butter, but that warm knife also slices off a major part of your advertising budget. Don’t forget frequency of the message. In any company, large or small, there are only so many advertising dollars to go around. For the strongest traction, dollars need to be used on a message that’s seen frequently and for best results, spread across more than one medium.
Celebrity Endorsements: There is risk involved.
There’s the danger of the celebrity overriding the brand. What’s actually being sold? The celebrity or the brand? It pays to be careful.
There’s also credibility. Today’s consumers demand truth, which goes back to my first point: a celebrity must fit the brand. If something smells fishy, someone will Tweet the stink and quickly. Consumers are savvy enough to know that any celebrity is in it partly for the money. But it’s a fine line; if the celebrity is perceived as just in it for the money then brand suffers. There’s got to be authenticity; like Cher modeling Marc Jacobs’ stuff this month. Can you think of anyone who could better carry off this Marc Jacob’s dress? Talk about brand revitalizing for Cher too! Makes me want to go back and revisit her ‘Dark Lady’ lyrics, “The fortune queen from New Orleans …” (Yes, Cher really is almost 70!) In this case, endorsement is mutually beneficial, working for Jacobs and for Cher.
[inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#CelebrityEndorsements”]Celebrities can energize a brand or re-energize one.[/inlinetweet] They can change consumer perception of a brand, even old and dusty ones. Remember Proctor and Gamble’s ‘new’ Old Spice Man, ex-football player Issaiah Mustafa. ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. It spoke to men and to women, the ones that typically buy after-shave or cologne for “their men.” The spot helped reenergize a brand that was, at that point, as old as Cher on her next birthday. Done by Wieden and Kennedy out of Portland Oregon, with more than 65 million views on YouTube, it’s still one of the most successful ad campaigns, ever.
There is a downside, of course: If a celebrity puts a foot wrong, or the ad campaign hits a nerve. Think Tiger’s troubles (even shareholders of his sponsor companies lost billions!). Think Rob Lowe’s recent spots for DirecTV which ticked off a rival cable company enough to lodge a formal complaint and one particular spot that incensed the International Paruresis Association (also called shy bladder disease, a surprisingly common social phobia in which people who have trouble doing their business with other people around). The ads were cancelled.
[inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#CelebrityEndorsements”]Done well, celebrity endorsements can be a big boost for brand.[/inlinetweet] Gone wrong, they’re a PR nightmare. But at the end of the day, a celebrity is still an actor and no celebrity endorsement goes far without good creative backing it. Just make sure your ad budget can support the star light.
View the Celebrity Endorsements:
[dt_sc_one_third_inner first][youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoGGDKV88Fg][/dt_sc_one_third_inner]
[dt_sc_one_third_inner ][youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K69chHMtrs4][/dt_sc_one_third_inner]
[dt_sc_one_third_inner ][youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE][/dt_sc_one_third_inner]
by Joyce Turner-Gionet | Jun 24, 2015 | Advertising, Communications, Creative, Latest
25+ years ago, copywriting jobs were few and far between. Most people had no clue what a copywriter did. Things have changed. With SEO, Social Media, tweeting and blogging, the opportunities for a career in copywriting have exploded. Mad Men made it sexy. Today, it’s often referred to as content creation. A company out to hire is looking for a ‘Content Creator’. One aspect of content creation that, in my eyes, is not given its due is catalog copywriting.
In Canada, think IKEA, Lee Valley or the Regal catalog. In the U.S., there’s L.L. Bean, J.C. Penney, Hammacher Schlemmer and Orvis (an icon of catalog shopping for almost 160 years). If you think about it, Mail Order (Direct Mail) catalogs were actually a precursor to Internet shopping? You couldn’t buy something locally, so you ordered it from a catalog and had it shipped. It could be argued that every online shopping experience, including Kijiji and ebay, is fundamentally catalog shopping.
Even in this age of technology, people love catalogues. They’re also brand loyal. I browse the IKEA catalog in print and from my phone. My 20-something daughters browse American Apparel’s catalogue online. At one company I worked for, which shall remain unnamed, we often got letters from prison inmates: “We love your catalogs, when’s your new one coming out? Can you send it so we can pass it around.” Granted, maybe we weren’t making any money off those folks at the time, but it makes the point.
When I started in the business, you either worked for an ad agency or you wrote catalog copy for a large retailer. Fresh out of university with an English degree (are you sure you can make money with that degree? my pragmatic father asked), I saw exactly one copywriting job advertised. It was writing catalog copy for Consumers Distributing. I was all over it! I must have rewritten my resumé ten times, even though my experience was slim pickins. Somehow, I got an interview. A scary, no-nonsense woman in an expensive navy blue power suit with a hair bun and imposing tortoise shell glasses interviewed me. Don Draper, she wasn’t. (But what a marvelous mentor she turned out to be!) “We’re looking for a workhorse. Tight deadlines. Lots of overtime. [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#CatalogCopywriting”]You need to make the products sound sexy in 30 words or less[/inlinetweet]. Can you make a coffee pot sound sexy?” she peered at me over the glasses.” I’d missed my bus, walked two miles in my cheap new ‘interview’ pumps and my feet were killing me. Desperate for a job and to prove to my dad that I could make money with my degree, I said something like: “Oh, absolutely. I can write anything!” (Wondering if I actually could make a coffee pot sound sexy and what my dad would think of me making it sound sexy?) I got the job — enthusiasm, not experience, won the day
As Thomas Jefferson, put it, “the most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”[inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#CatalogCopywriting”] If catalog copywriting teaches you anything, it teaches you to be stingy with words[/inlinetweet]. It’s the boot camp of copywriting. Short, powerful, precise prose. It gets thoughts in shape, tones down wordiness, keeps the message lean. Forget ego, there’s no room. Snappy headlines and a photo generate interest, bold lead-ins draw the reader in and feature/benefit copy closes the sale. Personally, I think every fledgling copywriter should be required to put in an obligatory six months writing nothing but catalog copy. It forces one to be disciplined.
I have the greatest respect for catalog copywriters. [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”#CatalogCopywriting”]A good one can take the writing to an art form.[/inlinetweet]
Seen a great piece of catalog copywriting? Send me a link.
by Miriam Hara | Jun 18, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
As a skill, business writing isn’t new. Written expression has always been valued as a means of communication between departments within organizations. Few businesses can do without a key business writer.
Many feel a new dawn has arrived for business writing, making it more highly valued and sought after. With the advent of content marketing, businesses and corporations see strategic business writing as a skill they require from their marketing department. The hair-trigger reaction is to find someone to fulfill this important new “role”. But is this the most logical way to venture forward? In the brave new world of content marketing, what kind of writer does your business need?
Does the skill of business writing equal the skill of content creation?
The writing skill of a business writer may equal the writing skill of a content creator, but the skill sets are different. At the risk of sounding patronizing, not all writing “types” are the same. A journalist doesn’t write the same way as a novelist, or an editorial writer, or an investigative reporter, or a copywriter. Hence a business writer may not have the writing style or skill set needed for content marketing. Content marketing requires content creation, which requires not only basic business writing skills, but strategic and creative thinking. Those are the skills needed to propel content creation to the next level – getting the consumer interested and then engaged. A solid understanding and healthy respect for content development and creation is key to achieving content that resonates, eliciting the desired action from the consumer
Perhaps then, a content creator must be three parts writer and one part marketer: The writer must be investigative, inventive and devoted to engagement and the marketer ensures things relate back to brand, but not in an obvious way. It irks me when content is created under the guise of information, when in fact, it’s purely promotional. Shame on brand! Shame on business. Consumers today are savvy and they expect more from brands and businesses. Fortunately, in this new era, a good content creator understands and respects the difference. Businesses should too!
What are your thoughts on writing and on the new dynamic in the marketing landscape: Content marketing?
by Miriam Hara | Jun 15, 2015 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Social Media
“The advertising world is a young person’s game.” We have all heard this statement before – but is it accurate? Social media, although not in itself ‘advertising‘ has carved out its place within branding in an effort to establish brand relevancy. Similar to any other industry, advertising has evolved to include a ‘holistic‘ communication approach. Am I being naive by saying that there is indeed room for the 50+ marketer within social media – that we are not over the hill? Didn’t we also hear, “Today’s 50 is the new 40”?
It may come as a complete surprise to many that some people consider the 50+ executive to be over the hill. This kind of thinking ultimately leads to the conclusion that those over 50 should not be trying to navigate social media! Think about this: Did you know that the over the hill demographic is the fastest growing of Facebook users. More than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This represents 31% of all seniors. It would seem then that being over the hill, is about getting social! Forgive me, I digress.
My point is to speak about social media in the context of building a social media team. Has the business of social media taken on the same youthful persona as advertising? Is the perception of business and their corporate human resource management that the 50-something professional is over the hill and therefore not capable of embracing the new, fast-paced and ever-changing world of social media?
Here are a few reasons why any human resource manager should consider a 50-something applicant to be part of their social media team, (providing that they want to be part of a social media team):
They have people experience. They have business experience. They have process experience. They have team culture experience. They have life experience.
Couple this wealth of ‘experiences’ with these three core attributes that any candidate, regardless of age, needs to have:
Here’s another statement that we’ve all heard before that still rings true: “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – even if that cover is on your eReader screen. Tap open the book, swipe through the pages and you might be pleasantly surprised by what you learn.
