Dec012009

How good are 9 year olds at creating ads?

Published by Robert under About Us

6a00d83451688869e2012875c8f9c2970c-500wiAlthough my 18 year old son would balk at being called a child, truth is, he still is in many ways—many of them good.  We were always taught in creative classes to look at life through “child-like” eyes—not “childish,” ‘child-like.”  BIG difference.  And so it is with Perry when we engage in conversations about advertising, reality television, branding, and other work related topics that we discuss often.  He has a real creative streak and of late, I have been “testing” him to see if he can turn his creativity “on and off” based on a particular subject or “product” that I throw out to him.  So I was fascinated when I found this article on the Planning Lab blog.  It’s about how good 9 year olds are at creating ads.  I’m sure they work cheaper, too!  PS– you don’t really need to try to read the ads– they are in Swedish.

The BriefDraw an ad for BMW or Mini. Write a slogan – why buy a BMW/Mini?

Tools and Deadline: A piece of paper, pens and 15 minutes.

Ideas


1. “Buy a BMW/Mini. So much power for real men.”

Account planner comment: power and masculinity becomes the proposition of this ad. A clear call to action. Buy the damn car!

6a00d83451688869e2012875c8f9c2970c-500wi

Ad #1


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Nov152009

The myth of the great ad

Top secret
Photo by daliborlev
You can do a great job constructing a badly designed house.  But when you are through, you’ve still got a badly designed house.  Right?  It doesn’t matter how good you are with a hammer if the blueprints themselves are faulty.  Ads are like houses.

It doesn’t matter how good you are with nouns or verbs when the core message is boring.  There is no good way to tell a bad story.  And ultimately, it’s the core message of your campaign that determines the success of your advertising.

Give a powerful core message to an average writer and the little business on the corner can leap from Main Street to Wall Street.  But give an average message to a powerful writer and ….yeah, you get it.

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Nov102009

Already have an agency relationship?

Published by Robert under About Us

sanaa, zollverein kubus, 2003-2006
Photo by seier+seier+seier
A lot of people are looking for change right now. If you currently work with an advertising agency, spend just a few moments thinking about the following questions and your responses to them.  We believe that any answer you may have that equals “less than exceeds most expectations” may be an opportunity for a new more productive relationship.  A prospect we’d welcome exploring.

1) Overall how do you rate your agency’s creative team on your business?

2) Does your agency appoint sufficiently qualified creative talent to meet your needs in?

  • strategic creative direction
  • copywriting
  • art direction/design
  • broadcast production
  • print production

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Nov052009

Get Me In! Get Me Out!

I love PR (public relations)
Photo by JerrySilfwer
These days, more and more clients are hiring us for one of two reasons—“Get me in the news!” or “Get me out of the news!”   Advertising is what you buy from the sales department of the media. Public Relations (PR) is what you get from the news department—some of it good, some of it not so good.

How many ads do you suppose a good news story is worth?
Q: Which of the following statements is false?
1. Thomas Edison invented electric light.
2. Guglielmo Marconi invented radio.
3. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Regardless of which statement you think to be untrue, you’re exactly one-third correct; because all three statements are false. Continue Reading »

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Nov012009

Onederful! Using social media to generate real prospects for your business

InsideOnederfulI was recently asked to make a presentation to a group of business owners regarding social media and its use in generating bona fide prospects.  I used our project- http://marketinggrader.net as the focal point of my presentation as it has been an extremely successful tool at generating leads for us.  Social media is not a fad, it’s here to stay and there are numerous ways to exploit it for your business gain.  The presentation lacks notes and of course the extra’s and examples I gave out in the seminar.  If you have any questions or would like for me to make this presentation in person or remotely, for you, your group or business, please let me know.

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