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 Miriam Hara | Jul 5, 2013 | Advertising, Creative, Latest
What does a career in advertising really mean?
Advertising has always held some mystic for many creative and marketing types wannabes. Many people on the outside looking in think of the world of advertising as being the ultimate career in creativity. I’ll let you in on secret… in many cases, depending on what your creative type happens to be, it’s true! Advertising is the most creative aspect in marketing communications… even more so than public relations (PR) and brand marketing. Add to that, the very popular TV series of Mad Men to this caché… well, then you may very well have a rose coloured view of this career choice.
Those of us in the the field have a different and more realistic definition of advertising and what it means to be “working in” this crazy, hectic, exciting field. Through my 25 years of running a marketing creative agency, I have been fortunate to meet many interesting people and I have come to the realization that we all have certain traits and characteristics in common.
See if you too belong to the wonderful industry of advertising… can you can identify with any one of these character traits?
1) You love being around creative and the creative process: You don’t have to draw or write…You can easily be an advertising account executive.Just as long as you are part of “creating” something.
2) Passion rules the day: You love your job. In fact you can’t wait to get out of bed and to greet the day! You love the challenge of newness that every marketing mandate brings…and working out the issues. You love that what you do can potentially reach millions of people.
3) You’re an adrenaline junkie: Not death defying tricks here… only true and pure rush. Rush to meet impossible deadlines put out by most if not all advertisers…. and to ultimately excel in your creativity and performance while meeting those said impossible deadlines.
4) You think ‘What if”…constantly! Never mind about inside or outside the box. You’re a natural problem solver that always looks at the marketing brief differently. Innovation is your mind’s middle name whether it’s comes to coining a phrase or conceptualizing a storyboard or ad… you simply strive on creating breakthrough creative.
5) Work…. what’s that?: Not exactly like Character Trait #3, more like an extension. You actually have fun at what you do? In fact it’s like a calling. You think about projects, ideas and products all the time. Grocery shopping isn’t just about filling up the pantry. Rather it becomes a store-check to see what’s new and innovative in products or POP or contest promotions. If you do a lot of TV advertising, you can’t see a movie without acknowledging the camera angles,the lighting, the propping. It’s about you driving your car, noticing billboards and trying to ascertain what the brief was and if if the creative was well executed.
If you see yourself in any one of the above character traits, then advertising is in your future! I’d love to hear from any and all of you who share in the passion of creativity and advertising.
Live creatively and prosper!
