Thinking Creative

Marcia Stone, Creative Advisor, brings an experienced brain plus a ton of energy and creativity to Element Three's process. She also helps Element Three clients think strategically about their brands' creative solutions. Along with Nila Nealy, she helped to create Element Three's unique Brand Chemistry process. Marcia's very good at translating marketing speak to creative speak and vice versa.

After working at the well-known Minneapolis agency Carmichael Lynch and on the Jeep brand in Detroit, Marcia served Bates Midwest as Exec Creative Director and Bates North America as Deputy CD. She also led Bates' international creative training and interactive initiatives. Most recently, Marcia consulted for mid-sized regional brands through her own Indianapolis firm, Free Range Consultancy. Marcia's work has collected over 300 creative awards from One Show, Clio, The International TV & Film Festival, the Emmys and many others. She's judged many branding creative shows, teaches brand creativity to Visual Communications students at Herron School of Art and Design and is author of The Creative Director Survival Guide. Her 30-year resume includes work for clients like General Motors, McDonald's, 3M, NCAA Final Four, IKEA, Mayo Clinic, RCA, Chrysler, Sony, Borders Books and Music and Harley Davidson.

Lately I've been noticing a number of organizations sending out special brand communications that shout, "It's our 21th Anniversary" or "We Announce Our 8th Year in Business." And these aren't even major anniversaries like the ones that end in a zero or a five. Yet some marketers think they warrant a special communication to potential clients. Would you read that e-mail or newsletter? Do you have time?

Join the W.I.F.M. It's the most important radio station that I know of for smart marketers. And it stands for "What's In It For Me?" That's what you must always consider as you think about the reasons for sending out brand communications. Waste your possible customers' time and you may not get another chance to have their attention when you really do have something relevant to say. The most welcome communications offer valuable information that help people do their jobs better, more efficiently or more happily. Offer one of those things as part of your message and you will be welcomed back with open arms next time you reach out with a brand communication.

Disney just opened their new movie, "Alice in Wonderland", in 3D, right on the heels of James Cameron's 3D phenomenon, Avatar. With the advent of high definition hyper-real computer animation, these created, dimensional environments all but have us walking through forests of neon blue floating sea anemones as we fall down a rabbithole in hyperspeed. And these entertainments aren't just intended for the bubblegum set: expect to see adults, teens, seniors, preteens and grade schoolers flocking to these cinematic wonders.

It's early days in 3D yet the trend is clear. We've come to expect not just viewing but experiencing. The use of color, sound, motion and now, dimension, bring us right into the story.

As you move through strategic marketing planning leading to brand communication tactics, consider ways to insert your brand's constituents into the experience rather than just communicating at them. Interactive technology allows a two-way engagement. Holographic images allow us to walk right into a scene. Multi-sensory theaters like those at Disney World allow audiences to feel their seats move in a thunderstorm and feel the moisture of rain on their faces. Many small brands cannot afford these high test luxuries. But are there less expensive ways (scratch and sniff, moving pieces, textural components like cut-outs, pop-ups or imbedded sound chips, to name a few). Well placed, these types of tactics can breathe new life into an otherwise tired piece of brand communication and are well worth considering.

This past week, I was honored with an award for mentoring at a ceremony that included business and community leaders, students, other honorees and even the Lieutenant Governor. I walked in expecting to have fun and enjoy the honor of being a Finalist. Having my name called as one of the award Winners was quite unexpected. Because I had no expectation of winning, I was relaxed and I think I took in the appreciative congratulations completely and in the moment. Believe me, this has not always been my mode of operating in the past: I used to stress out over being competitive, comparing my winnings to others.

In brand communications, I'd compare this to thinking only about making the sale instead of enjoying the actual interaction or the followup. Building customer relationships, enjoying the experience with clients, getting to know what matters most to those you serve and taking the time to find out...these are all actually smart marketing integration tactics. One of the simplest ones is just saying "Thanks" to clients who have been loyal to you or who have just bought from you for the first time. If a customer has been a pleasure to work with, tell them. In the end, goodwill comes back in many forms.

If the answer to these two questions is yes, then this is your lucky day. Element Three is looking for a Creative Lead. What that means to us is someone who is both a talented designer and a strategic thinker. Someone who can mentor younger designers, present work to clients, integrate feedback into work and delegate when needed. If you think you have what it takes to inspire and implement great work and you are ready to join a close-knit team of people who do great work together, send your resume and recent work samples as a PDF to tiffany@discoverelementthree.com

Pepsi decided NOT to run a Super Bowl ad this year. What a great idea! By not running an ad after doing so for more than two decades, they actually got more press than if they had run an ad.

The good news is that Pepsi instead is giving $20 million away in a social media project called Pepsi Refresh. Some of my design students have already entered their project work for not local for profit agencies hoping to receive funding. It's a smart move on Pepsi's part. My students and their generation are among the most involved generation of socially conscious and engaged people in recent memory and they're more likely to align with a brand that actively supports their causes than one that throws big money at television conglomerates.

What have you done through your brand communications lately to make the world a better place AND align with your brand's constituents?

If you, like me, have been glued to the tube watching the Olympics these past few days, you've also had the pleasure of watching Evan Lysacek beat Russia's Yevgeny Plushenko by 1.31 points in the Men's Figure Skating event.

Plushenko was the defending Gold Medalist, the media darling and by far the one expected to win, even after a two year hiatus from skating. In Olympic exposes, Plushenko all but declared himself the winner ahead of time; his attitude was arrogant and his on-ice body language gushed, "No one can touch me." His competitors admitted being intimidated just being on the same ice with him.

Lysacek skated his long program as if his life depended on it. He tried to do the unreachable "quad" jump and fell but the rest of his program was hearfelt and highly energizing...and the crowd responded accordingly. Plushenko's long program, in contrast, was somewhat lackadaisical though technically excellent. There were several unexpected wobbles and clumsy landings. In the end, Plushenko's silver medal told the story: don't take anything for granted!

There are 173 entries in Wikipedia when you look up the list of Google products. The few that I have experienced are truly amazing. Check out the whole list. You won't believe the breadth of innovative ideas that this one organization has developed and is developing.

How innovative is your organization? How might you nurture more new ideas and become a leader in your industry as Google has done in the world of online tools?

Element Three has developed Brand Chemistry, it's own deep dive tool to help brand managers and marketers to understand the true emotional connections between their brand and its constituents. This is just one of the innovative tools you will experience when you work with the Element Three team of marketing strategy, brand development and creative execution experts.

Many talented marketers wonder why the work they get from their design firms and ad agency partners doesn't stack up to their expectations, both creatively and strategically. One place to start if you want to build powerful, focused brand communications, is with your creative brief. At Element Three, we have developed a thorough creative brief format that assures that the fundamental questions of WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW get answered. It's true that most Indianapolis ad agencies have a creative job starter form of some kind. And the form alone won't assure that you get great work. The focus and finesse of the people who work with the form, however, will.

Some tips:

Demand focus in the objective for the communications.

Demand that a specific audience be outlined in the brief. You cannot speak effectively to everyone.

Expect to see specific, salient insights into that audience's lifestyle, values and demographics outlined in the brief.

Insist on a single-minded, unique main message. You cannot make great brand communications without it.

We like to agree on where and how the communications will show up. We also like to assure that there will be a specific call to action for the audience to make sure your brand communications get a real response. Contact Tiffany Sauder at tiffany@discoverelementthree if you'd like us to craft a powerful creative brief for your brand communications! It will make all the difference in the creative you hold in your hand in the end.

A logo is a logo is a logo, right? Yet some logos seem to be created more equal than others!

I was recently asked, "What's the most recognizable logo?" After some research, I haven't yet found a definitive list but a variety of lists based on various peoples' opinions. Here, however, are the names that show up again and again.

CocaCola / Coke
Pepsi
Nike
Ford
Chevrolet
Mercedes Benz
Virgin
Target
McDonalds
Google
CBS
Apple

If you'd like to challenge this list or add others to it, please feel free to do so here!

I just attended a seminar in which I sat in on a talk by an ex-CIA agent. The agent discussed the espionage stories she recalled in which creativity was at the core of each example's success. Core to the talk was the premise, repeated many times, that, "Of course, creativity cannot be learned. Either your mind works in quirky ways or it doesn't." The presenter went on to put down anyone who made money giving seminars on "how to be more creative, because as we all know, that's a bunch of bullcrap." (Her words, not mine.)

Listening to this discussion of creativity made me squirm in my chair. For over 20 years, I've essentially been teaching professionals and students to be more creative....successfully. In fact, Jonathan Plucker, Educational Psychology professor at IU in Bloomington, teaches and studies creativity. He says that there are many myths about creativity and that there are a number of things we can all do to boost our creativity. In fact, his students DO learn to be more creative. Plucker says, "If you believe that creativity techniques will work for you, they probably will."

Quirky creativity? That's one way of looking at it. But for those of us who make our living being creative on budget, on time and on strategy, it's anything but quirky. The creative problem solving process can be tracked (and has been: see Min Basadur's Simplex creative problem solving process chart).

Our brains, in this age of information, must be kept flexible, just like our bodies. Tom Monahan, founder of Before and After, is a brain trainer. He regularly teaches methods for stretching your brain to be more flexible and creative. I teach some of his techniques to my students at Herron School of Art and Design and I see many wonderful results from students – who often amaze even themselves.

So no matter what you do, whether it involves creating brand communications or doing tax consulting, you CAN learn to be more creative!

I recently developed a talk about advertising great Bill Bernbach, one of the founders of DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach). According to Branding Strategy Insider, Bernbach said, "You say something better if you have something to say (about your product)." And we always look for something to say. Now, whereas at the time we started (DDB) most agencies felt that once they'd found something to say they'd done their job, our point of difference was the belief that at this stage your work was only beginning."

Bernbach went on to develop advertising that started what became known as the Creative Revolution of the 60's and 70's by using insights into human nature, emotions that created the desire to purchase. His was not a scientific method but rather one based in artistry, creativity and brutal honesty. Brand communications that were developed as a result included the famous Volkswagen campaign in which the car was shown alone on a white background with headlines like, "Lemon" and "Think small." For 40 years, DDB built the brand with myriad simple, compelling messages. Other groundbreaking campaigns include those for Avis ("We try harder."), Alka Seltzer ("Thatsa spicy meatball.") and Levy's ("You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's.").

When I was a kid, I know that seeing these TV spots inspired me to later choose to work in advertising. My career started in Minneapolis during its creative heyday in the 80's (see Fallon McElligott, Carmichael Lynch) and I can attest to the legacy of Bernbach's creative approach there. It lives on still in work done in New York, London, LA, Minneapolis, Chicago and Indianapolis.

Element Three's Brand Chemistry Process, our unique deep dive discovery of the emotional core of your brand, is firmly based in the belief that, before we can create powerful brand communications, we must not only fully understand your brand's unique offering, we must also know your customer's intrinsic reasons to buy. Once we have this knowledge, we can develop advertising that I hope even Bill Bernbach would approve.

This week, President Obama gave his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress. No matter what your political leanings, it was easy to see that one side of the chamber reacted to his message with raucous clapping and cheers. The other, silence. [Unlike his last visit to Congress, when one member on the silent side chose to shout, "You lie!" in response.] This year, during one especially pointed comment toward the Supreme Court, one of the justices could be seen to mouth, "That's not true." Not the most effective exchange.

Just a few days later, the president took part in a gathering of Republican House members Friday in Baltimore that brought some conciliatory words from both sides, but also some pointed complaints and accusations. See more about this by clicking here.

According to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, this was the most meaningful exchange yet between the two parties and it was what could be the first real step in having Democrats and Republicans working together for the good of the nation.

What's the point in all of this? Communication is so much more meaningful when it's two way. Let's translate this discussion to your brand communications. Are you allowing your brand's constitutents to respond to your products and services? Social media allows dialogs to develop that can inform your product or service development, even your brand itself. Knowing where and when to have this two way conversation is key. As part of our and marketing and brand positioning strategy, we can recommend the most fruitful places for your brand's two way conversations to take place. So you get as much out of them as your customers.

Logo creation services are us. Yes, like many other creative service firms, Element Three offers identity design as part of its scope of services. Yet a logo does not equal a brand. The two words are so often interchanged that it's worth taking the time to stop and reflect on the differences.

A logo is like shorthand for the essence of your organization's offering. It's the flag at the top of the mountain that is your brand. Because of this, it's the most obvious thing that everyone (marketers and consumers) think of when they think of your brand. Your brand, on the other hand, lives and breathes in the minds of your customers, your strategic partners, your competition and your internal audiences. It is the promise your organization represents.

Your brand can be brought to life through a myriad of things including your logo, your communications, your employees' actions and attitudes, your physical structure, products, signage, vehicles, buildings, interiors, clothing, services and systems. Take this altogether and you have what Tom Peters calls "The Brand Experience". This is a more holistic way to think about your brand. Everything your brand does and says affects the brand in the mind of your constituents. So hire us to design your logo. We'll be happy to do it. We'll also ask you about what it actually stands for.

This has been a desperately tough time for many designers, writers, creative directors, photographers, art directors, music composers, and on and on. The convergence of electronic, automatic solutions to creative needs combined with the downward spiral of the economy has created a perfect storm. Marketers are opting to spend less, hire less and re-use more. And I'm all for being smart about strategic marketing planning and getting the highest possible return on marketing investment.

If you read Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind, you already know his prediction that we are rapidly moving through the information age into the conceptual age. The best way to win in any kind of economy is to have bigger, better ideas in the face of sameness. That's something you won't be able to find for $150 on the internet because that's where millions of others are looking, too. So those of us creative folk who do have work, lucky as we are, have to work extra hard to get all the work done with fewer colleagues. And we have to keep proving the value of our original ideas, every day. The less we count on existing ideas, the more successful our clients will be, making more opportunities for more creative minds eventually. So it's a vicious or wonderful cycle, depending on which way we choose to go.

Originality rules.

I'm a Mac person. So let me be completely transparent about that right off the bat. But I know plenty of PCers. So I thought I'd just throw this question out into cyberspace. Are you a Mac? Or a PC? Why?

My answer: I've worked in advertising and brand communication since before computers existed. The Mac interface is frankly more fun, more visual and more intuitive and as a creative thinker, I'd rather be looking at it all day than at the other choice. Mac also seems to be the common platform for those like me who work in brand development and marketing creativity so using this platform lets me speak the same language as my colleagues.

What are you and why?

How often have you been making a list of potential ideas or solutions to a problem and been stuck? Why does this happen? Most likely, you are saying to yourself, "Wow, that last idea was great! I don't need to keep going," or "Gee, these ideas are lousy. I'm no good at this. I better stop."

Generating ideas is a key skill for developing brand communications. So here's a simple tip: don't stop and judge too fast. Come up with lots of ideas first. Work fast. Let yourself come up with as many ideas as possible. Think quantity, not quality. Later, go back over your ideas and judge them. Most of your ideas may not work but you'll have more good ones to choose from, too.

Our country has been in the throes of a hot financial mess for 18 months now. And the bankers and Wall Street mavens who caused it all are living under the same rule set they were when they made the risky decisions that led to our current troubles. So how do we expect a different outcome?

I see the same thing in organizations. A marketing director may come to the table expressing great enthusiasm for doing something really different in the marketplace to gain awareness and to drive the market and the brand forward. This is music to any brand consulting group's ears. Typically, creative teams thrive on this sort of directive and will deliver their very best work. Yet if the brand organization doesn't make any internal changes in how it approves or accepts creative work or marketing thinking, the same old comments get made and the work, in the end, can be more of what the market already has.

What's at risk if your brand communications are truly 'stand out' in your market? What's at risk if you create an internal process that allows for new ideas to be tried, even if only in some test markets? What's at risk if you don't?

After the rough and tumble year of 2009, I am still receiving holiday greetings from unemployed colleagues who used to be full up with national and international work in advertising. My friends range from advertising agency broadcast producers and creative directors in the car industry (yikes!) to international agency HR directors to agency account executives. Notice the common word "agency" as in "advertising agency". There will always be the need for persuasive brand communication...yet I wonder if the classic advertising agency is the model for the future. Most smart marketers we work with at Element Three are looking for integrated marketing across all their brand communications, whether that is advertising, social networking, events marketing, product or package design or service delivery. When you define yourself as being able to deliver only one-way messages rather than an entire brand experience, it's no doubt that things have dried up. On the other hand, folks who can deliver integrated marketing seem to be on the recovery side of the recession–and rightly so.

What's your experience?

I've been noticing all the press lately about how unique it is that Avatar, the recent electronically created film, was actually an original creation. It wasn't based on a book, an earlier movie or an existing story or legend. In a way, this is a sad comment on the film industry and on the state of the creative arts in our culture. The spread of interactive technology has made copycat creativity easy and inexpensive in our field and other creative fields. Conglomerating existing works does not make for a fresh concept.

Logo creation services for $1.50 abound on the Web. So do easy Web site creation sites. It's not automatic – but coming up with concepts that are especially relevant to your brand's unique point of difference, your changing market and to your audience's needs is a must in today's competitive marketplace. The new new thing: original ideas, created for the first time just for your brand.