Interactive Creative

There was a time I was all about TV spots. I loved making them. I loved watching them. I loved the fact that it was the easiest way to describe my job, especially to my parents. Print and radio were great too, but nothing gave me career satisfaction like cranking out the big spot. My copy writer Eric and I made our share, too. We shot all over the US, we worked with the occasional celebrity, and we always tried to make our client’s brands stronger.

So came 2007! Woo Hoo. Youtube was on the rise, the iPhone was about to make it’s debut and I was still convinced that MySpace was designed as a NSA hookup spot. Well, the writing was on the wall on that new thing called Facebook.

See, I grew up in traditional advertising (Arnold) and had gone to a traditional print, TV and radio ad school. It’s hard to make that switch but a wise old man named Matt Smith said it’s important to learn or at least hire someone younger that knows what’s going on in the interactive world. So I made the leap for myself and hired an incredibly talented designer named Elizabeth.

Going digital meant totally changing my media consumption habits. I spent hours and hours on line – reading blogs, interacting with banners, fuc%in’ around on Facebook and pouring through web sites for hours upon hours watching gross negligence of what I call “flashterbation”.  It’s what watching hours and hours of MTV meant if you were a creative looking for a certain video style.

Making the digital jump doesn’t mean I’m forever living in the weird wide world of web either. For my first heavy experiment in digital I didn’t leave all my roots behind. We created a viral video. It was for Bursters Real Ice Cream. It was sort of a sweepstakes. Order a waffle cone, get a scratch ticket, go online, enter your email address and see if you’re a winner. Then within 30 seconds after you had registered you got a funny email in your in-box with a viral video about treating yourself to something real. So after the client pulled the plug on it after 1,000 emails were added to their database and numerous complaints about the “homosexual nature” of the video, it somehow “bred” on the weird wide world of web and people posted it everywhere. Within 2 months of the plug being pulled, it became #2 in world wide views for nearly a month with over 1 million views on Google video before YouTube bought them up. Now, the whole point of this white paper is going to be wrapped up in the next few sentences.

Interactive needs to be engaging. If it’s not engaging who is going to pass it around, “friend it” or “Tweet” about it or just simply hang out with it. I wonder if anyone reading this has ever “twittered’ themselves”?

Interactive creative needs to follow traditional design principles: creating a hierarchy with type and visuals. Just because you have the controls to do whatever you can imagine. Don’t! The guy at the carnival gets everyone back to the ground safely with 3 controls. This is something you should keep in mind. Concept rules “cool” effects don’t rule.

Interactive creative needs to connect. And gees don’t forget we need to talk to the target audience in a way that engages them. For Christ’s sake, I’ve had to learn a new language to not talk at Mellinials but engage them on their pillar they stand upon. This has also created a better dialogue between me and my 16 year old daughter.

Interactive creative is like a TV spot. Except it is viewed from your computer monitor. And let’s not forget about the principals that go into creating a TV spot. TV spots need to connect the target audience and make them recall the brand or purchase a product. Interactive is no different. Interactive needs to engage the target to create brand recall, make a purchase or pass it along to a friend. It’s all about connection. See, interactive actually has the upperhand by being able to instantly pass it to someone if the target likes it. Kind of like a free media buy from one person to the next. In TV spot world, do you remember standing around the water cooler saying I saw a great spot on TV last night it was killer let me think, it was for awe..errrr...but when you see it you’ll know the one I’m talking about.

I know it’s getting bare-boned everywhere nowadays, but in the digital world, it’s done faster and leaner. TV still commands the larger budgets, however, digital is knocking at its door, with its hand out. I’m not saying digital advertising is less satisfying than a great 30-second spot. I’m saying if it is done right it can be even more satisfying than a TV spot. Heck, with digital hits, people friend it and the pass along value of Interactive creative you can instantly tell how well your target likes your creative product. Digital advertising at its best is a participatory experience. The ultimate goal of TV advertising is to make a spot everyone talks about. The digital/interactive goal is to get people to play with it, “Friend” it or pass it around.  Join its world. Have fun and think about it like it’s a TV spot that’s as long as you want it to be. Welcome to the weird wide world of interactive creative. Make it clear and concise with a concept that speaks to the target and brand managers will be forever grateful.

Joe Easton

Creative Director

What's a customer worth to you?

Seth Godin had a great blog post today about "Embracing Lifetime Value".

(If you don't already follow this marketing guru, you should. Go do it now.
Really, I'll wait... Done? Good.)

Here's his post so you can read it first hand:

If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?

Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.

If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?

Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a delighted customer spreading the word--it can easily double or triple the lifetime value.

So, a chiropractor might see a new patient being worth $2,500, easily. And yet... how much is she spending on courting, catering to and seducing that new customer? My guess is that $50 feels like a lot to the doc. Instead of comparing what you invest to the benefit you receive from the first bill, the first visit, the first transaction, it's important to not only recognize but embrace the true lifetime value of one more customer.

Write it down. Post it on the wall. What would happen if you spent 100% of that amount on each of your next ten new customers? That's more money than you have to spend right now, I know that, but what would happen? Imagine how fast you would grow, how quickly the word would spread.

Here's how you'll know when you've really embraced this--a good customer at your podiatry practice (or supermarket or tax firm) walks out the door in a huff and you turn to your partner and say, "There goes $74,000."

The truth is every customer matters more than we realize sometimes. That one that just called complaining about your service technician being late, or the other one who thought your bank was ok, but doesn't really have a reason to stay, or the potential new customer that you didn't reach out to because you didn't want to risk any hard earned money on advertising - they represent your future.

Do you know the lifetime value of your current customers? Do you know what your cost per acquisition is? Do you know why customers leave or choose one of your competitors? Do you have a retention strategy?

These are big questions that are sometimes hard to answer. We get it. But they're important nonetheless and can open up windows of opportunity.

Let us help you answer them and get your business on the right track to embrace your lifetime value investments - your customers. Give us a call or drop us a line today.
717-764-8288 or dpridgen@diousa.com

Good Brand, Bad Brand: Are You Experienced?

Brand experience is so important to the success of a brand.

I was thinking about brand experience in the small town of Lost River, WV this past weekend -and how important brand interactions are.

The Mathias, WV Hardware store is not branded, but has a strong local word of mouth brand – it is positioned by the locals as “The place you go to get exactly what you need”.

I learned this early on, as a DIY city-type trying to fix up a little log cabin on my own. Sure, the trip a half-hour away to Wal-Mart would yield a cheap shop-vac. However if you were trying to do something like convert a claw foot bathtub to modern plumbing, or any other similar DIY challenge, you learned the hard way to spend your money wisely by visiting Charles at Mathias Hardware.

Charles will stop to listen, give you advice, and send you home with exactly what you need. This is a far different experience than wandering around Wal-Mart trying to find hardware on your own, with no guide – only to buy the wrong thing and have to make another trip to return items and start all over. Granted, I realistically don’t expect top service and expertise from Wal-Mart – because I shop there for price.

A Lost River neighbor (from DC) was having issues with his water pump recently. I looked in the crawlspace and watched the attempts to tighten a valve, but not too long to suggest that better tools were needed. The instant thought was – Wal-mart; get something cheap to take care of it. Instead, I suggested a visit to Charles – who favors Cardboard & magic marker signs vs. Happy faces with price points. Truth be told, on the way to Charles, we did stop by a local grocery store know as the local Wal-mart of second-hand tools. The wrenches were not the quality or type needed to open the valve. So we continued on to Mathias for the hardware store, and had a beautiful experience: Charles greeted us, asked about the problem, asked about the valve specifics and then provided the consultation – He didn’t sell the kind of wrench we needed; although he had plenty of others in stock.

My neighbor looked frustrated, as Charles gave us a “hold on” and disappeared into the back room. When he re-appeared, he had a very expensive-looking red wrench that looked like it was perfect for the job. Charles gave the wrench to my neighbor and said “Try this one, and bring it back when you are done.” Long story short, the wrench worked like a dream, my neighbor got water again, and Charles has another loyal customer for life.

I was conveying this story to my friend Beth as an example of true brand loyalty connected with service. The reason? She commented on my red plaid shirt from Faconnable - dredging up my tale of woe for a brand relationship lost.

A frugal friend on Beacon Hill in Boston turned me on to Faconnable. Faconnable is a French brand made popular in the US when Nordstrom’s started carrying this high-quality menswear line. They produced very unique dress shirts that actually fit me - and even though they were really expensive for a college student, they lasted forever. In fact, the red plaid Faconnable shirt Beth had admired was one of my first, purchased in 1991. And for an eighteen year-old shirt, the colors are still bright and the fabric is still in great shape. Even the buttons are still original, a daring feat for one of my favorite shirts.

After graduating from college, I learned the value of saving up for five or six of these shirts per year vs. buying shirts “on-sale” that would end up as dryer lint. I also learned that due to the limited run of these shirts in my size and color preferences, it was helpful to keep in contact with sales reps at Nordstrom’s – to let me know when to stop in. The ultimate was my experience at the King of Prussia Nordstrom’s – where the Faconnable sales rep actually kept detailed notes of my size and style preferences and would e-mail each season if something came in that I might like.

But alas, something happened. I had not heard from my sales rep in a year, so I had not thought there was anything I'd like in the collections. After an inventory of my shirts it was clear that I did need to boost my wardrobe with a few new shirts. Some shirts were getting worn, and needed to be taken out of rotation. It was also apparent that some of the shirts from last season looked more worn than some of the older shirts. After closer inspection, I noticed why… the cuffs and collars were not made the same – the hem tape was made out of an abrasive material; not the same fabric as the shirt, making the wear-and-tear on these parts start from inside the shirt. Yikes! I grabbed a few to bring to Nordstrom’s to show my sales rep.

Driving to KOP, I had great expectations of the helpful consulting waiting for me at the Faconnable counter with my sales rep – although I did not call ahead for an appointment, I figured he would be in on his regular Saturday schedule. When I arrived, I experienced a horrible realization – not only was the quality erroding the brand, but also the one thing that might save my loyalty: the experience. The Faconnable counter was gone, as were the Faconnable sales people. There had been a shift to a new cut and design, and while there were still some classic cut shirts on the floor, after searching for my size for a half hour - with no offer of assistance -I only found one throughout the floor that I liked. I stopped and thought about the Lucky jeans in my hands and the dress shoes I had on my list, and then the disappointment with the lack of service and lack of choice... and did something I have NEVER done at a Nordstrom’s: I left empty handed. I knew I could do better on the jeans and shoes with a simple call to a small shop in Delaware who carry the lines & are very service oriented. But my longstanding loyalty with Faconnable was bruised, and left me at a loss.

Back home, I did some internet research to see who I could contact regarding the demise of my favorite brand. I knew that Nordstrom had purchased the brand in Y2K, but did not realize that Nordstrom’s sold the brand in 2007 to a Lebanese private equity firm – the M1 Group. Despite the wonderful design, the erosion in quality and customer service have left me looking for another quality brand of shirts that have a similar style and that fit me. If only Charles could sew…

I stated that brand experience is so important to the success of a brand. It is the way that a small mom and pop shop can compete with the low prices of Wal-Mart. It is the way that a regional bank can retain clients in an atmosphere of mergers. It is the difference between “customers” and “ loyal customers”. And "lost customers".

It is through each customer experience – with quality and service that a brand continues to flourish or die in the consumer’s mind.

The 65 mph ad game.

Billboard creative is a smart concept and a simple clear message. As long as you remember concept and simple, you will always deliver billboard creative that is memorable and effective.

WARNING: If you believe in putting as much information on a billboard as possible so you feel like you are getting your moneys worth, stop reading and keep doing what you’ve been doing because I bet my paycheck you are one of those self-taught Adobe Creative Suite gurus and have some sort of a degree in marketing so you feel that empowers you to do creative work. Sorry, but since they made CS3 available to the public, everyone thinks they know how to do creative, and billboards were the first to suffer.

Keep It Simple 

You should not put more than 12 words on a billboard. Now, some will disagree with me on this but if your billboard is in a high traffic area you can get away with 12 word

s. For example, I was in Boston sitting in a car on the way to a client meeting, sitting in stop and go traffic and I saw this billboard. I had plenty of time to read it and the concept was simple.

So, let’s say your billboard is along a highway that’s 65 mph and everyone does 85 mph - you really need to keep it simple. To make this happen, you have to distill the message down to its simplest form. This is one of your key goals in creating great billboard creative - what is the key message, and how can you express it in the fewest possible words?

Legible Type Styles 

There are a lot of type styles out there - and most of them should never be used on a billboard. Most of the highly stylized type styles that are popular in magazine spreads and MySpace layouts are completely inappropriate in billboards, although many graphic people refuse to acknowledge this. If you look at a typeface and go wow that’s a killer font, think about ONLY using it to lay out a haunted house flyer. The type styles you use must be easy to read. Those include simple styles such as a sans serif. Always use styles that have very bold, thick strokes - they are easier to read at far distances. If the viewer can’t read your copy, what it the point of the billboard?

Graphic Must Convey 

If you are going to put a picture in the billboard make sure that it compliments the concept and helps tell the story. For example, a restaurant might want to show they have fresh salads. You could just show a real high quality photo of a salad and call it a day, or they could visually show how fresh the salads are.

Test and Re-test 

Once you have a design that meets these criteria, you have to test it on some sample consumers to see if it works. These may be, in the simplest form, some of your co-workers. Now, I can tell you that if you and your media director are in harmony and know where the billboard is going to be running that might help your idea. If you are not in harmony, their idea of what is readable and your idea of what is readable might turn into a screaming match.

So tape the finished billboard concept to a distant wall, and then have the guinea pig (Media Director) walk toward the wall and tell you when they can see it clearly and what it means (try as best as you can to replicate the distance and size that the billboard will be seen). Be sure to use a color printout, so you don’t cheat with the simple, high-contrast black and white version. An award winning billboard will have good visibility at a distance as long as most of the copy is legible - yet just the headline grabs the viewer’s attention and makes them want to read the balance of the billboard.

Conclusion 

There is no magic to producing great billboard ad copy. In fact, when you get away from the simple, time-proven roots of great copy and a great simple concept is when you fail in your mission. You may be tempted to stray from these logical benchmarks to create “edgy” advertising (I just threw up in my mouth) - but instead all you will create is an embarrassment. Due to the difficulty in reading a

billboard ad at 65+ mph from 1,000’, a lot of the creative things that work in print ads just don’t apply here.

So if you want to be known for having billboards that really sell a product or service and create brand awareness, you need to stick to the points outlined above. Remember, ideas rule the world. If you can articulate clearly, and visually demonstrate your product or service so your billboard is memorable, y ou don’t need us. The good news is for the 99% of you reading this we’re here to help you.

Joe Easton

Creative Director

The Birthing of a Name

Creating a Brand Name

The task of developing that “killer” name has become quite complex. For years, business owners and management named their businesses after their spawn, and then the general public added their wisdom in naming contests. I’m sure they all have produced their share of brilliant names as well as some very scary ones. Now this field of art, science, skill, and luck has transitioned into a professional approach with dio’s strategic marketing’s naming process.

So what is a great name worth?

Plain and simple, a lot. Just remember it will be plastered on lots of things including your market’s mind. A great name is just as valuable as a great employee or piece of manufacturing equipment, or even the product that you deliver. 

Ask yourself the following

Who will ultimately decide the name? One person or a committee? Whomever that is should be involved in the brand-building process. Defining the attributes, benefits, values, persona, intrinsic spirit and ultimately the UBD - Unique Benefit Delivered. What kind of brand are you naming? Company, consumer product, business service, or even endangered gorillas in a African refuge? What is the expected life of the brand name? Does the name fit into a larger family of names? Will it be used only in the U.S. or will it go global? Remember that today, “global” can mean the Internet too. Who is your primary audience for the brand names? Do they shop at Walmart® or Target®? Are you creating a new category or joining an existing one? If joining a category, what are your competitors’ names? 

Should a name be descriptive

 or suggestive or abstract? 

I live in the suggestive to abstract categories. However, I also believe each case is unique and sometimes brand names get passed down, and changing them would take an act of Congress.

 

An abstract name can cut through the competition

Think of  Nike®, or Yahoo®. They have visibility and a ton of marketing behind them including media frequency, brand-story telling communication, and brand  performance. They are hugely successful brands, started as small start-up companies, and there is no doubt you know who they are and what they do. Descriptive words can work in some brand naming situations. But think about it carefully and proceed with caution because they can be more easily copied or imitated, leading to confusion in the same marketplace with competitors and creates consumer confusion. Confusion defeats the purpose of a sound brand name,  and causes you to have to spend more against the competitors and generally both brands start a spending spinout.

 

However, if you have a big branding budget, you can salvage or sustain a boring, generic, or literal brand name with some other compelling messaging. Take, for example, Southwest Airlines. They are consistently creative, and “on brand” advertising has transformed a somewhat
unexciting name into a great brand name.  Not to mention they clearly deliver messaging that is all about low cost, on time travel and their founder is one heck of a prankster. So think about the overall experience when you are deciding on a name.

Generic names

Generic names like Home Entertainment Solutions, Hi-Performance Automotive ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...ZZZZZZZ...ZZZZZ. Wow!... where’s my Concerta®? (BTW - a killer name for a great product that lives in the suggestive category.) Listen, they don’t have legs, and will likely drown in the sea of sameness. Avoiding generic names is also critical in consumer-packaged products, especially when private label copycats by mass retailers are showing up. Many times the name can be the strong point of difference.

 

Names that are hard to spell or pronounce

Finally, a name should be something most people can spell and certainly pronounce.

 

More big naming questions

How will the market receive the name? With supporting context, will the market get it? Will it live with your strategic positioning of the brand? Are there negative connotations or associations with the name? Is it available to use? On the earth? On the Web? Whatever route you take (hopefully it will be working with us), rallying your troops and making it an internal company project, enlisting strangers in a naming contest (remember bad idea), or combining several of these methods, you have created an extensive list of possible contenders. Now what? 

Testing names

Sometimes too much analysis just delays decisions and defeats the naming of your brand before the next decade. I recommend that you test a little, go back and see if the name matches up to your companies attributes, benefits, values, persona, intrinsic spirit and ultimately the UBD - and listen to your gut feelings, and proceed with a choice. 

 

Great Brand Names

1) Are emotional

2) Stick in the brain

3) Have personalities

4) Have depth

 

While the brand name is very important, a brand cannot survive on name alone

The brand name, and how the brand is executed, are equally vital for a successful and sustained brand life. A great brand name can serve as the anchor to your cause, a symbol to your story, a point of difference in your marketplace, a memory trigger, or just one big huge important part of your branding arsenal.

Joe Easton

Creative Director

Facebook FAIL vs. Facebook WIN

There are a LOT of companies that have created Facebook pages. Most of them just haphazardly throw themselves up on a page with their brand splashed all over everything and then once the page is complete, they simply let it hang out in cyberspace all on its own with little to no interaction with other Facebookers. And then they wonder why they don't have any friends or fans.

Umm, isn't Facebook a SOCIAL platform? I don't know about you, but I don't really enjoy one-sided relationships in real-life, so why is it any different online? Bottom line, these companies are commiting a Facebook FAIL.*

It's all about engagement. The best social media brands know that and they focus their efforts on the tactics that will provide authentic, exciting, even remarkable engagement. Anne Brannon, over at Ignite Social Media, wrote a great blog post about four major brands that are using Facebook extremely well: Mountain Dew, RedBull, Southwest Airlines, and Dunkin Donuts.


If your company wants to build a loyal tribe of customers, there are ways to make it happen through social networking. The challenge is in choosing the right methods and executing them properly. And hey, we'd love to help you create that Facebook WIN for your brand.

Life on the Tube

I’ve been in the advertising industry for over 35 years (although I look like I’m only 48). For 34 of those years I’ve been dealing with the media as either a media buyer, seller or media director. And I have to tell you… during that time things have really changed.

I remember when most markets only had three TV stations (ABC, NBC CBS). Back then a good prime time TV show did a 24 household rating. Then “Laverne and Shirley” and “Happy Days” arrived on the scene. And all of us in the industry were WOWed by household ratings averaging 35. Back in those days no network TV show was kept on the air if it wasn’t doing at least a 20 rating.

Then someone had a great idea… why couldn’t there be “independent” stations. These stations stripped out old mostly black and white shows that they could get cheaply. Most of these stations got excited if one of their shows did a 1 or 2 rating in early fringe. Then they realized they needed to bump up to TV shows in color. Wow, “Sanford and Son”, “All in the Family” and “MASH” worked the ratings up to a whopping 3. This is where things stayed for years. Eventually these independent stations got together to form their own networks in order to be able to afford better shows.

Now let’s fast forward to the current numbers. Today, 76% of households can receive hundreds of channels if they are willing to shell out the cash. Although none of these channels pulls a great rating, added together they eat up a huge amount of ratings. Now a major network is happy if one of their shows can do a 7 or better rating. And often you see major networks keep a 4-rated show on the air. Because that’s all the show can pull, and the network has already paid for 13 episodes.

What's has happened to those old independent stations that formed their own networks? Well, many of their shows still do 2s or 3s. But some, like “House”, “American Idol”, and “24” have amazed the industry, outpacing the original networks with ratings of 12 or more.

So what does this all mean? Well, if you’re thinking of purchasing television time to run your ads, you really need to think about having an expert (let’s say…maybe someone with 35 years of experience… hint hint) help you. Someone who subscribes to Nielsen data, and has the software that can help maximize your reach and frequency while minimizing your expenditure.

Don’t be led on by media buyers that can’t back up their numbers with reasoning and strategy, or your media spend might just be a shot in the dark. Trust your advertising to more than just a lucky dartboard.