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Xuebing Du
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seen from Bangladesh
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@uncorkingcreativity
Ideas for unleashing your marketing creativity - flavored with the occasional wine tip!
Uncorking Creativity has moved. Please check out my new posts at http://uncorkingcreativity.wordpress.com/. Thanks,
- Keith Wymetalek (March 2013)
Why Windows Phone should use DRTV?
So I’ve been working on with the Windows Phone Global Advertising team for just a little over a month, and I’m thoroughly convinced that Windows Phone needs a long-form DRTV spot. The advertising creative we’re working on is certainly better than anything I’ve seen from Microsoft (I won’t say anything else due to my NDA), but I DRTV is a great opportunity to differentiate an excellent product in Windows Phone 8.
Without violating my NDA, I really do believe that Windows Phone 8 is an outstanding phone that will give Apple and Android a run for their money if more people experience how different Windows Phone. DRTV can help solve this problem (see my previous post Five reason why I love the ShamWow! and other DRTV commercials).
Here is my thinking on why DRTV is perfect for Windows Phone:
1. The Power of Demonstration – I keep reading articles and analyst reports that say the same thing – “Windows Phone is the best mobile operating system that no one knows about.” Windows Phone needs to not only build awareness, but it also needs to show consumers why they should care. Seeing is believing with Windows Phone. Using DRTV, there could be 4 or 5 really great demos to get consumers excited about this product.
2. Highly Targeted, yet Cost Effective Creative – If Windows Phone can keep creative costs down, then they can create a couple of spots for a wide variety of audiences. Thanks to the fragmentation of cable TV, it’s really easy to find different audiences (i.e. Moms, sports fans, college students, etc.).
3. Drive Sales and Build Awareness– I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Windows Phone doesn’t get a lot of attention from retailers (iPhone and Android are too deeply entrenched). DRTV is designed to drive sales, but a $200 smartphone will challenge the DRTV model. Windows Phone will have to really push the limits when it comes to price promotions to break through to people used to buying ShamWows or Snuggies for $19.99.
Parting Thought: I’ve provided my case for DRTV, but if Windows Phone wants to jumpstart its sales, I think that they should go on the QVC Shopping Channel and pitch their fantastic product and at a fantastic price. I’ve seen Dell, HP, and even Samsung on QVC selling their products – maybe QVC will help drive sales and build a base of enthusiasts/advocates sharing the virtues of Windows Phone.
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing:
Stark Raving Malbec is a non-vintage wine imported from Argentina by Rosenblum Cellars. I bought the wine strictly because of the label – not to mention it’s only $10 – but was pleasantly surprised by how full of fruit this wine packs. Honestly, I didn’t think that I was actually drinking a Malbec, but I think that is what makes this wine so Stark Raving good! Click here to learn more about Stark Raving Malbec.
Five reason why I love the ShamWow! and other DRTV commercials
I defy you to watch the ShamWow! DRTV commercial and not get sucked in by Vince and his incredible towel. It’s practically impossible to resist picking up the phone or going online to order a ShamWow!
People typically laugh at the most iconic of DRTV spots – the Snuggie, the Pocket Fisherman, and even the Ginsu Knives. What people forget is that these spots are all awesomely effective. DRTV is a money making machine. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have been tempted to pick up the phone and by that product being sold in a DRTV spot.
Here’s why I love the ShamWow! and other DRTV commercials…
1. Using demonstration to sell the story – Right now the advertising industry is abuzz with the emergence of storytelling. Seriously? Too many advertising campaigns are focused on capturing your attention rather than tell you story – a compelling reason why need to buy the product. Not in DRTV. A good DRTV spot grabs your attention and sells you through demonstration.
2. DRTV Provides enough time to cover every angle – Long-form DRTV give the advertiser 60, 90, or even 120 seconds to tell a complete story – demonstrate the product, praise from happy customers, more demos (usually more ludicrous than the earlier demo), and an incredible offer guaranteed to entice you to buy.
3. DRTV is he ‘rocket science’ of advertising – There’s a proven formula for DRTV – cost-effective creative, remnant TV inventory, compelling (but profitable) price point. Pretty straightforward. Talk to any good DRTV person about a potential project and almost instantaneously they’re building a model and calculating the numbers in their head. Bonus – an experience DRTV advertiser generally is a walking database of best practices and proven models built around things like cost of goods, price points, CPM, etc.
4. “Operators are standing by…” – Many advertisers on TV are goaled with softer metrics like increasing awareness, shifting purchase consideration, or generating likes on Facebook. Not DRTV… it’s all about sales. “Show Me The Money!” If the advertising is not generating actual sales (near real-time feedback with phones ringing and ecommerce sites), the DRTV makes a change in the formula (creative, media, etc.).
5. DRTV is campaign optimization on steroids (or HGH) - Early in my career, I was fortunate enough to cover a two-day shoot with the master of DRTV, Ron Popiel. In two days, he completed shooting nearly 10 commercials spanning several different product lines. For each product line he had at least 4 different spots with different demos, different offers, and different spot lengths. Forget pre-testing or focus groups – the Popiel DRTV machine would have those spots on air, slugging it out for sales, within days. If it didn’t drive sales (see point 4), the experimented by optimizing the creative, media, or price point.
One Parting Thought: I would love to see an underdog brand use DRTV to break through the branding noise on TV and actually start selling products… but I don’t think it will ever happen. If done properly by true a DRTV agency – the risk would be low and the upside could be tremendous.
I would love to carry on about the many virtues of DRTV… but frankly I’ve got better things to do. I’m going to slip into my brand new Forever Lazy jumpsuit and water my Chia Pets (Cha-Cha-Chia).
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing:
2011 Kirkland Signature Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc:
I hope my friends at Costco take this wine pairing as a complement… they’re sort of the DRTV of retail. Anyway, for much of the summer and fall, I’ve been enjoying 2011 Kirkland Signature Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is cool, crisp and refreshing goodness at a DRTV worthy price of $8. I always taste the tangy grapefruit and green apple notes and enjoyed the high acidity, but I never seem to taste the “grassy” notes that other reviewers claim.
Order now... 2011 Kirkland Signature Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc won't last long at this incredible price… pick up a bottle or six!
A Simple Approach to Evaluating and Providing Feedback on Creative
There is a right way and a wrong way to evaluate creative. Maybe you know that and have been struggling with it? Quite possibly you’ve never been asked to evaluate creative or share your feedback. Now is your chance to learn how to properly evaluate creative.
The right way to evaluate creative can lead to a strong, productive partnership with your agency. You need to keep the agency – more specifically – the creative team motivated to do their best creative work. When evaluating the creative, treat the agency team as an equal partner and give them honest feedback. Empower them to produce great creative that solves your marketing challenge. Ultimately, both you and the agency want the same thing - great work that drives business results as well as creative that you can proudly add to your portfolio.
Keep in mind that evaluating creative is not easy. Occasionally, a creative concept is so fantastic that a bright light shines down from the heavens and angels sing the praises of the advertising miracle before you. It could happen…you’ve worked hard to arm the creative team with a brilliant creative strategy. However, the reality is that ‘advertising miracles’ rarely happen.
First, be aware of your “voice of corporate reality” which can influence your evaluation of the creative concepts. You become overly pragmatic and calculating, trying to anticipate what your manager or manager’s boss will think about the creative. Worse yet, you even try to guess what your company’s lawyers will think about the creative. The “voice of corporate reality” is important, but it shouldn’t overshadow the fundamental strategic questions (more on this in a second).
Second, be mindful of the number of people that you have reviewing the creative. The more people that participate in reviewing the creative, the more difficult it is to get great creative. Creative by committee generally leads to ineffective, homogenized advertising.
The following is a simple approach to evaluating creative and providing the agency with feedback in an organized and consistent manner:
Step 1 - The Creative Concept Presentation: Always start a creative presentation by reviewing the creative strategy (i.e. creative brief). The creative strategy not only provides inspiration to the creative team, it also provides the objective criteria for the people who are evaluating the creative.
Make sure one of the creative team is presenting the concepts (avoid account people presenting someone else’s work). Set this up in advance of the meeting and insist that the agency honor this request. It’s also important that you let the agency present all of their concepts before providing any feedback. Finally, make sure that the creative team presents a recommendation and the rationale supporting their recommendation.
Step 2 – Understanding the Creative Concepts: Once the agency has presented all of their creative concepts and provided you with their recommendation, be sure to spend 30 seconds to ask yourself these two questions and ensure that you understand the advertising creative before starting your evaluation:
· Do you understand the agency’s recommendation? The agency should provide a single recommendation with clear rationale. Don’t let them hedge their bets and recommend multiple concepts. If you don’t feel like there is a single recommendation or solid rationale, ask clarifying questions.
· Does the creative concept make sense to you? Can you follow the story and do you understand the role of the product? If the creative is not abundantly clear and the takeaway obvious, imagine how the target audience will struggle understanding.
Step 3 – Evaluating the Creative: Let me start by encouraging you to take your time to thoughtfully evaluate the creative. Avoid immediately going into rapid fire feedback mode. Re-review the creative strategy and then ask yourself these questions:
· How do you feel about the advertising? Before evaluating the advertising, what is your “gut” reaction? How would you react as a customer?
· Is the advertising “on strategy”? If the strategy is clear and decisive, this question can be easily answered.
· What is your reaction to the key executional elements in the advertising? The three elements that deserve your primary attention are the headline (or selling line), end-result benefit visualization (visual), and dramatic effect (overall impact).
· Beyond the fundamental issues raised above, are there any more detailed comments which need to be made at this time? Be especially selective with any comments in this area.
TIP: Build 5-10 minutes for ‘evaluation’ into the meeting agenda. Remind people that evaluating is not providing feedback
Step 4 – Communicating Creative Feedback: The objective is to communicate your evaluation of the creative concepts to the agency in a clear and constructive fashion. Always start with the positive and be appreciative. You want to encourage the creative team to do their best work – so be respectful when evaluating their craftwork. Put yourself in their place and consider how you’d feel if someone thoughtlessly criticizes something you’ve created. Would you be motivated to do your best work for that person? Not likely…
Make sure to organize your comments. As a rule of thumb, the first person to provide their comments should take at least 5 minutes to think through their feedback. Test each comment in your mind to make certain it is necessary and constructive.
· Start by providing the agency your overall evaluation of the advertisingand tell them whether you agree or disagree with their recommendation.
· Deliver your specific comments for each creative concept, making sure the agency understands how strongly you feel about each comment. Tell them specifically what you like (and why); as well as what you don’t like (and why). Focus on any strategic issues, issues with the headline or story being communicated, issues with the visual, and/or any issues that affect the overall clarity and impact of the creative.
TIP: Avoid saving comments for later or implying that you have many additional comments which you will communicate at a later date – this just results in anxiety and longer turnaround times. Don’t hide behind email when providing negative feedback – provide it in person. This will keep you honest and constructive in your feedback and allow the agency to discuss as they may have some input to your comments you didn’t consider. Limit the habit of providing post-presentation comments and nominate one person to send these comments to the agency.
Bonus - Best Practice for Providing Feedback: This is a best practice that I learned over the last year. It really does result in a stronger creative dialogue and the selection of the best creative. Give it a try… it really works!
· The HIPPO Challenge: In the majority of creative presentation I’ve attended, everyone automatically defers to the most senior person or HIPPO (aka - the Highest Paid Person in the room) to provide their feedback first. Once the HIPPO shares their opinion, participants typically transform into a bunch of ‘yes men’ –effectively eliminating any dialogue on the creative concepts.
· Solving for the HIPPO: When providing creative feedback to the agency, always start with the most junior person in the room and work up through to the most senior person. This provides junior team members with the opportunity to learn how to evaluate and communicate their thoughts and feedback to the agency. Additionally, it allows them to participate in a discussion even if there is supporting or dissenting opinions from other team members. This best practice should be reinforced by the Leadership at the beginning of the meeting.
Finally, remember that the best advertising creative is a blend of art and science (with a dash of voodoo). Effectively evaluating creative requires that you to trust in your knowledge of the customer (i.e. great creative strategy), listen to your gut instinct, and be open to taking some risks. It’s also a learned practice – you will get better at evaluating creative and providing feedback each time you do it.
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing: It’s been a few weeks since my last post… vacation, soccer tournaments, and a job search have all interfered with my writing. As September nights turn slightly chilly, a bold red blend like Scarborough The Rebel Red 2009 definitely warms your soul. Scarborough Rebel Red is described by Northwest-Wine.com as “a big, burly red with earthy black cherry, blackberry and black currant scent and flavor.” Personally, I know it as an in your face red that goes well with a burgers, bonfires, and Friday nights. Enjoy it for $15 a bottle. Learn more at http://scarboroughwines.com/wines.htm
Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.
Quote by Ray Bradbury
I'm going on vacation for a few weeks in August. A vacation is very much needed and it’s great to get away from Seattle and recharge my batteries.
I plan on doing some beach reading – I have a great book by Steven Pressfield – but I'm not sure how my Kindle Fire will perform in the sand. The book I’m going to read is…
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
What does this book have to do with the Ray Bradbury quote? The War of Art is a guide to overcoming obstacles that block creativity and ambition. Essentially, the book is an instruction manual for living the Nike mantra of “Just Do It” – within the realm of one’s own creativity. I’m hoping that it proves to be an inspirational, motivating, and gets my creative juices flowing. Looks like I need to add writing a book review to my September ‘to do’ list!
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing: Just because I’m going on vacation, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to pass up the opportunity to talk up a great, undiscovered wine. The Ghost of 413 Red (2009) is a complex blend of Cab, Merlot, and Cab-Franc grapes that is bold and maybe a little rough around the edges. It’s got great tannins and finishes a little tart (not something I’ve tasted in a lot of Cabs). I’ve enjoyed the Ghost with pepperoni pizza and with a steak. Honestly, I’ve enjoyed it while working on my laptop late at night. Look for the ghostly white label of The Ghost of 413 – it runs about $15 at QFC – and learn more about the wine at www.giantwine.com.
The Creative Brief Conundrum – Part 1: Admitting that you have a problem
Over the past few years, a large part of my job was managing our advertising agency partners. Without fail, I received at least one complaint a week about the quality of the strategy and creative work from our agencies. I think I should have negotiated the title of ‘Chief Complaint Officer.’
In reality it was exactly why my job sucked at times. Half my career has been spent in advertising agencies so I’m a huge fan of advertising creative and the agencies that produce the work. Hearing all of these complaints about the advertising was depressing.
Long story short – a few weeks ago I found a tattered, slightly faded post-it note with the words “Creative Brief Conundrum” in big, bold print. That was what it was coming down to – why the agencies weren’t nailing the creative and we weren’t happy with the work.
Defining the Creative Brief Conundrum
Plain and simple, the Creative Brief Conundrum is this unrealistic expectation that regardless of the crap we provide our agencies, we expect that they will miraculously produce awe-inspiring, award-winning creative.
It’s probably not the best definition when I use “the crap we provide our agencies,” so here is an actual example that fits that description. Almost a year ago, I sat in an agency briefing where the marketer literally handed over a 60+ page PowerPoint outline detailing the product’s features, 40 pages of data on potential customers, and a 4-page Client Input Brief with an ambiguous goal of “drive sales while building awareness.” Huh?
Did I mention that the budget was $14,000 and the campaign needed to be in market in two weeks? Good luck with that…
Honestly, why do some people think the old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” doesn’t hold true for advertising? Maybe it’s the fact that it’s not good business for our agencies to tell us when we’re being stupid.
The Cost of the Creative Brief Conundrum
The Creative Brief Conundrum costs businesses a ton of money. How so? Most agencies bill by the hour. If you have not invested the time upfront to understand and define the needs of your customer, establish a clear, measurable business objective, or distill product features into a compelling benefit – it’s going to cost you! Hours of extra meetings, constant reworking of creative concepts to hit a moving target, and ineffective homogenized creative are often the results of not crafting a strong creative brief for your agency.
Still not expensive enough to motivate a change in behavior? Not spending the time to give your advertising agency a high quality brief – agency brief, creative brief, client input brief, call it whatever you want – will almost always result in higher costs, longer turnaround times, lower performing creative, and demotivated creative teams forced to work your business.
Personally, I think the root cause of the Creative Brief Conundrum consists of three issues:
· Education/Experience – The marketer lacks the knowledge and/or experience on the purpose of the brief and how to properly write a brief.
· Information – The marketer lacks the right inputs required to properly write a brief.
· Time – The marketer lacks the time (or the inclination) to carefully craft a brief.
Obviously there are other factors (i.e. the marketer just doesn’t give a *@#! about the agency or creative), but let’s give people the benefit of doubt and focus on the above three issues.
A Creative Brief Conundrum Confession
Wrapping up the first part of my two part mini-series on the Creative Brief Conundrum, I feel compelled to make an admission. I’ve written my fair share of vague, uninspiring, confusing, and just plain boring creative briefs. I actually had a Creative Director throw one of his awards at me for “peddling tripe.” I think it was a One Show pencil… it could have inflicted a lot of damage to my skull. Anyway, I probably deserved to get hit (‘tripe’ was a kind description of that particular brief).
However, I was able to admit that I had a problem and got help. In my next posting, I’m going to share several tips to solving the problem now that you know it exists.
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing: Do I really have the option to choose another wine besides Conundrum (2009 or 2010)? Heck no… it’s a fantastic wine for finding your creative inspiration. This sassy California blend of white grapes is crisp, refreshing, and just the right balance between oak and fruit tastes. I picked up the 2010 vintage for $20, but saw the 2009 for $28 a few weeks ago. Still it’s a great bottle of wine. Learn more about Conundrum 2010 at www.conundrumwines.com
The Creative Brief Conundrum – Part 2: Curing the Conundrum
So in Part 1 of the Creative Brief Conundrum, I define the issue as irrational belief that no matter how little effort or poor quality the creative briefing (“garbage in”), the marketer/client expects it to result in high-performing, award-winning advertising creative (not the usual result – “garbage out”). The Creative Brief Conundrum is so prevalent that clients fire their agencies all the time and can’t figure out why creative shop after creative shop can’t solve their problem.
It makes me crave a nice glass of Irony Merlot (http://ironywine.com). I’ll save that bottle for later…
For simplicity sake, I’m going to focus on solving the three root cause identified in my earlier blog:
· Education/Experience – The marketer lacks the knowledge and/or experience on the purpose of the brief and how to properly write a brief.
· Information – The marketer lacks the right inputs required to properly write a brief.
· Time – The marketer lacks the time (or the inclination) to carefully craft a brief.
Cure 1 – Become a Creative Brief Craftsman
Realizing that you lack the education/experience in developing a great creative brief is a great first step. But to keep progressing, you have to understand and believe in the purpose of the Creative Brief:
The Creative Brief is designed to inform and inspire your agency’s creativity in order to solve your business objective. It should be a single page document that provides the agency creative team with clarity in the purpose of the advertising. This clarity comes from simplification… one page, one business objective, one target customer.
Pretty simple mission for the creative brief… and hopefully that you’re beginning to recognize that this is not an easy document to produce.
It requires that you learn to become an advertising or marketing craftsman. Prior to becoming a true craftsman, the apprentice watches, listens, and practices – repeatedly – and over time learns to master their trade. The same principles apply to writing a creative brief.
Aspire to be a Creative Brief Craftsman and truly invest time and effort into thinking through the business problem that the advertising must solve at the beginning of the project. An never stop learning or working to improve the quality of the creative briefs your writing.
Cure 2 – Saying ‘No’ to Ambiguity
All too often marketers misinterpret the second issue - lacking the right inputs to develop a brief – as a problem with the quantity of information in the brief. Not even remotely, so stay away from adding supplemental information unless it’s absolutely necessary.
The real problem is a lack of quality inputs/information. This information needs to be actionable and it needs to be inspirational to the creative team.
Here are the four areas I spend 80% of my time on when writing a creative brief:
· Business Objective: What is the key task the advertising must accomplish? This Business Objective needs to be crafted the into one, clear, measurable, actionable business outcome. Be specific. If you need to drive sales, tell the agency how many in terms of units or revenue.
If your goal is to drive awareness, give the agency the specific measures that will define success. If you can’t clearly define and articulate your business objective – your campaign is likely going to fail. Unfortunately, you won’t know whether or not it failed.
· Target Customer: Provide a concise, but comprehensive description of the customer advertising is targeting. If possible, provide the customer’s motivation to act or the key business challenge the customer faces.
This customer profile can include demographic, psychographic, firmographic details if it helps the agency creative team to better understand the customer. You need to distill the critical information into something actionable, not throw hundreds of pages of research over the agency to interpret.
Optional – Customer Insight: Is there a trend behind a customer’s behavior or an untapped opportunity/need in the marketplace? Use this section to call attention to anything that potentially influences how the customer will react to your product/service and the advertising.
The next two elements – the Benefit and the Reason Why – are the heart of the creative strategy. This is where the craftsmanship is readily apparent. This is where the Creative Brief comes to life for the agency.
· The Benefit: This is often called the Unique Selling Proposition, the Positioning Statement, or the Single-Minded Proposition. Regardless of what it is called, the Benefit is the single most important sentence in your creative brief. The Benefit represents the promise to the customer - how your product or service will improve the customer’s life or solve their problems. Ideally the Benefit forges an emotional connection with the customer.
Keep in mind that the Benefit is not a list of product features, but rather the potential solution to a real business problem faced by customer. It’s one carefully crafted sentence that drives the creative process. It’s also critical to the evaluation of the creative concepts (more on that later).
· The Reason Why: The Reason Why supports the Benefit statement – hopefully in plain, simple language. This is the functional reasons why this benefit will be believable, relevant and desirable to our target customer.
I’ve seen many strong Benefit statements completely undermined by a weak, poorly thought-through Reason Why. Prevent this issue by scrutinizing your Benefit and Reason Why statements together to see if they’re truly aligned and if they work together to make your claim believable and relevant to your target customer.
Cure 3 – Investing Your Time Wisely
Time is always a constraint in business. Is it an issue of not having enough time to do things properly or are we not using the time we have correctly? Time is money (remember agencies bill against their hours), so invest your time upfront in crafting a strong creative brief. A strong Creative Brief will prevent endless churn during the creative concepting and execution/production phases because the agency team will know exactly what is expected of them and have all the ingredients to construct a campaign that delivers against your business objectives.
I’ve been long winded today, but it’s an important topic. Let me wrap up this post – Curing the Conundrum with a couple of tips:
· Strive for simplicity – Limit the creative brief to one page, one business objective, and one target customer. It’s challenging at first, but pays dividends in the long run.
· Require Signed Approval – There’s no better way to guarantee upfront buy-in from key stakeholders, managers, etc. than to have them sign off on the creative brief prior to kicking off the project with the agency.
· Collaborate – Tackle solving a challenging business problem collaboratively with your stakeholder and agency account person/creative. It’s easy to whiteboard and have a robust discussion in person and it will save cycles during the approval process.
Hopefully these three 'cures' will help you to solve your personal Creative Brief Conundrum. You'll find that if you raise the bar on the quality of your briefs (and enjoy the benefit of vastly improved creative), it will eventually affect other people as they seek out the secret of your succes.
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing: El Corazon With Love Syrah 2010 is a bold, spicy Syrah from vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA in Washington. I just enjoyed this wine with BBQ ribs and it was a perfect match, but I could imagine it with a nice meaty Spanish Stew, too. Admittedly it’s still a little rough around the edges and could benefit from a yearlong nap in a cool, dark place – but it never lasts longer than a few days in my wine collection. It’s simply too good. At $22 a bottle – it’s a bit expensive, but definitely worth it. Learn more about El Corazon and their awesome With Love Syrah 2010 at www.elcorazonwinery.com/
What is ‘Uncorking Creativity’
My name is Keith Wymetalek and I’m a long-time advertising and marketing professional living in the greater Seattle area. This summer I’ve found myself with more than a little free time due to ‘organizational restructuring’ at the world’s largest software company. I’m taking this opportunity to share some of my observations and ideas about creativity based on emerging trends, missed opportunities, and a thing or two learned from nearly 20 years of experience.
Ideas for unleashing your marketing creativity…
I’m not an art director, copywriter, or a designer. I don’t dress in all black or wear those cool, retro black rimmed glasses. I don’t write the pithy headline or clever copy. I don’t dream up the killer visual that pulls an ad together.
But, I am creative…
For most of my career, I’ve been an ‘account guy’ at a variety of agencies or worked as a marketing manager in both large and small companies. Hopefully, admitting this doesn’t undermine my credibility.
How am I creative? I’m creative because I believe that experimentation and innovation belong in every campaign. I’m creative because I believe that media is more artful than buying spots and space. I’m creative because I aspire to build customer-centric campaigns designed to solve a problem for a customer instead of creating a one-size fits all program.
Enough soapbox preaching. I’m creative because I know that there are opportunities to inject creativity into whatever you do in marketing – developing a strategy, building a media plan, managing an advertising agency, and even how the work is measured. It’s not always easy.
The benefits are tangible. Creativity is invigorating. It is contagious. It is fun. It’s why we work in advertising and marketing.
Creativity can also drive improvements in the quality of our work. It can help you figure out how to make your work more efficient or produce better results. It can help you forge a stronger connection to your customer.
My hope is that I’ll share some of my ideas and observations that will make it easier to unlock your personal creativity and add it to your everyday work.
So how does wine fit into the creativity equation?
The definition of uncork is “to release or unveil; unleash” (thanks Dictionary.com). Not only do I enjoy a great bottle of wine, but enjoying a good glass of wine while tackling a challenging project makes it go more smoothly. Whether it’s opening a bottle of Malbec while writing a creative brief or drinking a Pinot Gris while building a PowerPoint presentation - a glass of wine often fuels my creativity.
I also appreciate the creativity that goes into making wine. Obviously making the wine is the careful balance of science (measuring alcohol by volume, sugars, etc.) and art (taste, color, smell, etc.). Plus, how many of you buy a wine simply because the label is cool? I’m guilty as charged. For me, it makes wine that much more interesting.
In the end, I’m not advocating excessive consumption of wine or keeping a fully stocked bar at your desk. Instead, live vicariously by watching episodes of Mad Men and try a glass of your favorite wine when you run up against writers block or are trying to come up with alternative ideas.
Keith’s Recommended Wine Pairing: It’s a scorcher here in Seattle (about 83-degrees and sunny J), so I’m enjoying a glass of 446 Chardonnay while writing this post. Nicely chilled, this is an incredibly refreshing Chardonnay with hints of citrus and a touch of coconut. Best of all – it’s delicious and an incredible value at $10. Learn more about 446 Chardonnay - 2010 Single Vineyard at www.446wine.com.