by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 19, 2014 | Advertising, Latest
So we put all this effort into creating the most informative and watchable online ads in the market, but is anyone paying attention? According to the Goo Online Advertising Survey conducted in January 2014 the answer is… not really. Unless they are especially entertaining.
The survey focused on 2000 U.S. households of users over 18 years of age. While there was a certain amount of inattention to ads across the board, with an average of 36 percent uninterested in either TV, radio or newspaper commercials, online advertising fared the worst by far, with 82 percent of users ignoring them.
One of the biggest problems with online ads is the sheer volume.
Viewers are so inundated that they feel compelled to just scan quickly past. Gone are the days of novelty and glitzy flash animations, intrusive sounds and pop up online ads that garnered healthy click-through results. Online ads came on the advertising scene as an accountable and measurable media. Now, it has gone the way of selling its channel like all traditional media, speaking to impressions and not real traffic building results.
So what can we do to attract more attention to online ads that would ensure to some degree, the same results as seen in the past? Be more entertaining? Works for all other medias, so why not this digital media that has grown exponentially? Using more interesting graphics to draw viewers in is also a must. Telling a story in short succinct visuals that are quick to load isn’t easy, but it is definitely doable. The research cited showed that 42 percent of respondents suggested that interactive online ads were the most engaging. The reasons provided for this preference was that these online ads didn’t really look like ads, were more interesting, and more high-tech looking.
With all the excitement over the Olympics on now, I couldn’t resist clicking on a few online ads that featured our amazing Canadian athletes. Here are a couple of my favourites:
by Miriam Hara | Feb 16, 2014 | Branding, Creative, Latest
Developing creative for a brand ad, regardless of the medium, is often fraught with many obstacles. The main one being that there are so many people involved in developing brand creative…other than the creative team, at times it becomes impossible to please everyone. That very statement should give all marketing and creative professionals pause. How is it that the creative process and more importantly, creative decisions all boil down to personal preference?
As a marketing brand professional how do you really add value to the creative process?
This really should be a no-brainer as the creative brief should outline all the objectives, character, reasons to believe and tonality. However with the speed of business being what it is today, we often find the creative brief is ditched in an all out effort towards “getting the creative out”. When that happens, much of the creative decisions become based on interpretation and personal preference. While some may argue that being the brand ambassador or manager (herein brand professional) of the said brand allows them the freedom to dictate preference, I would challenge that thought.
Brand and branding is not about individual likes or dislikes. A brand’s life cycle may span over many brand professionals. That being the case, it is important that the brand’s tone, style and voice be maintained. Evolved, for sure, but consistent. More importantly, I believe that the brand professional’s main job is to make sure that the brand attributes and its physical demeanor should be maintained. While I wholeheartedly agree that success is in the details, the creative details should best be left to the creative team. The big picture, the overall impression, the quality, the benefit statements and the appearance of the brand is the responsibility of the brand professional… without question! Thus, total consideration must be given when comments directly touch on these attributes. However not all requests for changes are equal… or relevant. A good way to judge the importance of these considerations is by allocating a mark for each comment directed at “making the creative stronger”. Judgement on if the change will effect the overall delivery should constantly be a forefront of every request to change.
It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of all that is creative. Enthusiasm is always necessary for any creative project to get off the ground… and the creative process initiated. All brand professionals are creative in their own right. However, developing creative and not hindering the creative process is also a skill set that is required to make brand creative to outstanding emotive brand creative.
by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 14, 2014 | Advertising, Latest
Over the last several years, we seem to be focusing more and more on reality for our entertainment. From Survivor to The Real Housewives to Big Brother… apparently voyeurism sells very well. The same trend has also been cropping up over the years in advertising.
The Dove campaign for real beauty was highly successful and original when it first launched in 2004. Since then, we’ve seen many more advertisers following suit using people who appear to be appreciating products in real-life (even if in actuality they may be paid actors). Febreze has filmed people smell testing their products in a variety of disgusting situations since 2011. And in 2013, a Pepsi commercial that received a great deal of attention was one created from a test driving prank at a dealership with Jeff Gordon.
Perhaps this new fascination with reality is in part because we are so interconnected
…through the media, Internet, cell phones – whenever anything of significance happens, we hear about it almost instantaneously. And with the rise of social media, people photographing and posting “selfies” with their favourite things is now very commonplace and popular. It’s also putting a shelf-life on our celebrities who may or may not be able to maintain the images they would like too – which may make using “real” people as spokespersons a safer bet in the long-run.
When one of our athletes wins a medal at the Olympics, there’s an app to give us the download. When Justin Bieber is behaving badly, the Internet erupts with the play-by-play. And whenever Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is set to make his next ethical or political blunder, you can be sure we will all have front-row seats to that action. Once an unfortunate incident has reached Twitter or YouTube proportions, “handling” public perception afterward becomes quite difficult – even with a crisis preparedness plan.
Consumers these days are also far more savvy than once upon a time and not as willing to accept things at face value – they want the dirt and are willing to dig for it. Whether that means getting the latest star gossip, uncovering a government scandal, or wanting to know whether everyday products are organic or eco friendly, truth in life and advertising is what everyone is looking for. What this means for marketers is that branding claims – and spokespeople – better hold up to scrutiny, or the likelihood of uncomfortable revelations is good.
by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 10, 2014 | Creative, Latest
Whether you are tasked to come up with ideas for a corporate creative campaign using a team of people, or you are just trying to generate ideas for yourself, the process of “brainstorming” is virtually the same. It doesn’t have to be an intimidating process and hopefully the idea of facilitating a session doesn’t strike in you with the same kind of blinding fear it did in me the first time I had to lead one – which happened when I was barely an account executive, with half the agency present, including the Big Boss, and The Client! But not only did I survive, I gained tremendous confidence through the challenge and (I think) managed to impress a few people.
1. Preparation: When it comes to involving other people in a brainstorming session, how well you prepare everyone for it BEFORE they get there is important. Provide a one or two page outline including background on the situation, the issues, and the competition, as well as some direction as to the kinds of ideas you are looking for. Send this out a few days in advance of your session to give people time to ruminate about it. I find that when I’m coming up with ideas it sometimes takes a few hours of just sitting with the concept in my mind before ideas really start to flow. Suggest that your participants take note of any thoughts and bring those with them into the session to share – this will also help to get things started.
2. Relaxed atmosphere: Where you get creative is equally important. A room that is comfortable, quiet, and without distraction will help people focus on what you are trying to accomplish. Also, keeping the atmosphere friendly and inviting so people will feel free to contribute is key. No stuffed shirts allowed. Otherwise, you’ll just get the same old boring ideas, from the same old people and that may result in a less effective campaign. In fact, working with a more diverse group should be your objective.
We all come from different places and you want to take advantage of unique perspectives.
3. Scheduling: According to Mind Power News http://www.mindpowernews.com/BestTimeOfDay.htm the most productive time of the day to generate ideas is between 9am and 11am. This is when your brain has activated enough of the stress hormone, cortisol, to allow your mind to focus and be creative. Having light snacks, such as fruit and nuts, and keeping everyone hydrated is also a good idea.
4. No negativity: It’s all good… or not. But don’t start judging anything until the session is done. Certainly not all ideas are going to be stellar, but that luke-warm, never-gonna-fly, embarrassed-you-said-it idea could lead to the next latest and greatest one. You owe it to the team (or yourself) to just put it out there – plant the seed and see what develops, for you or someone else in the group. That crazy idea could lead to something truly original and creative.
5. Post it: Write all the ideas on a board (or several boards) around the room so everyone can see them. Having all your ideas front and center will help maintain focus and flow.
6. Visual Aids: Using images can also be helpful to stimulate creative thinking. Ask people to bring tear-sheets from magazines, or print-outs from inspiring web content. Put those up on the wall too. There also some amazing online programs and apps available to help you organize your ideas: Pinterest, Wordstorm, Springpad, and Popplet are just a few.
7. Organize & Evaluate: As you are writing down ideas, try to keep them in some kind of cohesive order. When you have what you consider to be enough to work with, filter through them all categorically and see if you can expand on anything that you particularly like. Once everything has been explored to the fullest, you should be ready to put together a strong and comprehensive creative campaign strategy.
by Felicitas Ritter | Feb 4, 2014 | Latest, Marketing
For any business, having an integrated marketing plan really is the best way to optimize communications efforts. Without this, you could be missing out on great opportunities to reach your target audiences. Relying only upon traditional advertising outlets like radio, TV or newspaper to generate all the buzz you need, just isn’t as effective a strategy as it once was. In particular, if you have a smaller business, you might even want to skip these costly budget-busting vehicles for a while, depending on your market. Even when it comes to marketing for larger corporations, throwing everything into a splashy ad campaign is not generally the best practice. A more strategic approach is to examine all the marketing tools at hand, and take into account all the ways they might help you reach consumers.
If you are not yet working with social media, this is something that really does need to be incorporated into the mix.
As of December 2013, according to the Pew Research Center, 73% of online adults engage in social networking. Additionally, 42% are utilizing multiple platforms. If you aren’t leveraging Facebook and Twitter, at the very least, you are likely missing out on reaching a significant portion of your target audience. For niche markets, YouTube is another fantastic platform to reach very specific types of consumers.
Other considerations have to include direct marketing campaigns or promotions for consumer contests or giveaways, sponsorship opportunities, such as with local sports teams, and special events to launch new products. All are great ways to effectively get your brand out there.
Something many companies seem to take for granted are the impressions received through public relations. Having the opportunity to showcase products for free on local television programs or in specialty publications, or for the company spokesperson to be positioned as an opinion leader can be invaluable to future business successes.
The ingenuity of your campaign is only limited by the imaginations of your marketing and creative teams. And its effectiveness is not always a matter of budget, but rather of good planning and the ability to utilize a wide range of integrated marketing services that work synergistically together.
