The Sound of Music ... and Advertising.

Whether you're Mozart, B.B. King, John Lennon, Hank Williams or Ne-Yo, sitting down to a blank page of music opens up a limitless world of possibilities. Boundless, untapped creativity. The dots you splash on those lines can be the next great ballad or the next great ballet. They can make people laugh, cry, love and dance ... it's totally up to the musician.

That's what I love about what we do. To me, creative is like music.  Eddie Wilson in the movie Eddie and the Cruisers said, "words and music, man - they need each other." I couldn't agree more. But so do words and images.

I share this rant because I just heard about an interesting client conversation. They didn't want to provide too much creative input because they didn't want to stifle the creative process. In essence, they were providing blank sheet music and asking us to write the next great song.

Which is GREAT!!! No creative wants everything dictated to them. BUT...we didn't know if we are writing a love song, pop song, western or jazz.

For advertising, the strategy is like providing the stye to a musician. It provides the ground rules that allow creative to flourish. Yes...creative DOES need rules. Are we writing an eight-bar blues riff? A concerto? Will it be acapella? We at least need to know what instruments to include.

And within each musical style, the creativity is varied by tone. How do we want people to feel. Is it reminiscent? Inspirational? Foreboding? Your advertising creative needs a defined tone too.

You can give 100 musicians the same 8 notes and you'll hear 100 totally different tunes. They just need to select a style and define a tone.

Give 100 writers and designers the exact same well-defined strategy, and you'll get 100 different well-positioned ads. If you truly want to set your creatives free to keep their feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars, give them the freedom of a tight strategy.

For the cheat sheet to a tight strategy, click here: 

A Cheat Sheet to Perfect Creative

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

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6 Examples to Get You Noticed

The goal of any creative initiative is to get noticed.  Of course, you also want a clean message with an easy to understand call to action … But unless you differentiate and stand out, your message will never be heard.

A catchy headline, crisp copy and bold design are a good start …  but think beyond that.

Here are some examples that may fire up your creative neurons.

Why Use Normal Paper?

We had 2 different jobs that pushed us creatively to think outside of traditional paper.

In the first example, our client offers the first personalized debit card in the market, where the member can put their own photo image on their card.  So, we “demonstrated” what the card “could” look like by turning part of the postcard into an actual mirror.

Another client was targeting physicians for a Commercial opportunity.  So we delivered the message to them in an x-ray envelope and printed the “message” on actual x-ray paper.  The best part?  We include an "appointment card" like you would receive from your family doctor or dentist.  The card lists the date and time that our team will follow-up.  

Again, the goal is to get your message noticed, so you can have your message understood.  In both of these cases, a world-class printer can make you look like a rock star!

Get Them Involved.

You don’t need to have a lottery to use scratch-offs.  Here are 2 examples of mailers that use scratch-offs to get the reader engaged with the piece.

We have a client who positions themselves as the mortgage authority and expert in “specialty” mortgages … RD, VA, etc.  This card asks the questions that the target is likely to be thinking with the answers under the scratch-off keys. 

In another example, we used a scratch-off to reveal what customers can do when they “Need extra cash,” with the answer, “Use the equity in your home!”

Much like the stickers in a Publisher’s Clearing House promotion, we simply use a tool where the reader expects to “win” something and get them more engaged with the mailer.

Why Use an Envelope?

The “Shoe Mailer” may be one that we are most commonly known for.  We ask Commercial prospects to “Take the next step with us,” and mail the message in an actual shoe.  The postage and address are applied to the sole of the shoe and it ALWAYS gets noticed.  During follow-up calls, it’s common to be recognized as, “the shoe people.”

Our local post office loves us!  The vessel that you mail in may be more important than the actual message.  Think creatively through the entire project.

Show NOTHING on TV.

Creating a television message, on a local production budget, that gets noticed isn’t easy.  It’s a common rule in presenting that if you want the room's attention, say nothing until people look up.  We used a similar strategy in this 30-second ad – where the first 5 seconds are black.

If you read this blog regularly, you know we believe that great creative starts with a sound strategy and focused segmentation and is supported by detailed front-line processes and success measurement.  But, there comes a time when you simply have to don the Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops and get your creative groove on.  When that time comes – I hope these ideas help take you further.

Want more creative ideas?  Click here for a sample of our creative library.

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