Client Showcase—Law Firm Direct Mail Piece

When the growing southern California law firm of Gresham Savage brought on a successful new attorney, they wanted an announcement that would be memorable and impressive. We designed this five-panel piece to introduce him to their clients, using confident colors and sophisticated imagery to make a winning first impression.

This direct mail piece won a 2010 Silver Award in the 7th Annual Service Industry Advertising Awards.

Test Your Tagline

Is your tagline a winner?

Maybe. Is it simple? Succinct? Believable? Clear? Original?

The Tagline Guru offers 20 attributes on which you can rate your tagline. To find out if your tagline is genius, or a snoozer, take this quick test.

http://www.taglineguru.com/tagline_iq.html

Execution Trumps Brilliant Idea

Being brilliant can be an asset, but knowing how to execute a strategy—that's what will make you a rising star in an organization. Many strategies fail in the execution stage—even though the original idea was a winner. That's because big ideas are much easier to come by than the long, hard haul of building a service or product.

If that weren't the case, there'd be myriad knock-offs for every business success. Who can't walk into a McDonalds and observe their big ideas in action? Yet few are able to replicate this operationally.

Pay attention to the people in your organization who know how to execute an idea successfully, and see what they have to teach you.

Color Psychology—What does yellow say?

"Follow the yellow brick road..." —Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz"

As the color of the sun, yellow owns the attributes of heat, vitality, energy and light. This extroverted color is confident, friendly, warm and inspires the imagination. Yellow is an important color in human development, as one of the most attractive colors to an infant's eye. It is also the color that is most visible, heightens awareness and creates clarity. Because of its ability to attract attention, yellow is often used in signage, point of purchase displays and packaging.



Consider the meaning of various shades of yellow as you select colors to support your messages:

• Light yellow: cheering, happy, soft, sunny, warming, sweet, easy, pleasing,
• Bright yellow: illuminating, joyful, hot, lively, friendly, energetic, innovative, surprise, caution (cowardice, betrayal, hazard)
• Golden yellow: nourishing, buttery, tasty, sun-baked, hospitable, comfort
• Amber: jewelry, multi-cultural, mellow, abundant, original, autumn
• Metallic gold: rich, glowing, intuitive, luxurious, opulent, expensive, radiant, valuable

Source

Photo Techniques—Adjusting Levels for Impact

Before

After

An image that looks like a murky, unusable mess can sometimes hide a true gem. Digital photographs can hold information that can be used by a skilled designer to improve color and contrast.

In the sample above, we took a digital image and used adjustment levels in Photoshop to bring out the image's true colors and depth. By controlling different areas of the image, we were able to add contrast to the sky, lighten the countryside and leave the dramatic, dark color of the highway untouched. Better, don't you think?

Selling Benefits, Not Features

We ask too much from consumers if they must connect the dots between the features of our product or service and the way these features will benefit them. If you're selling mattresses, your brand promise is a good night's sleep—not the attributes of the mattress itself.

This is sometimes hard to do because it is easier to see the world from the company's perspective, where we reside, rather than from the customer's perspective.

Pay attention to ads you see today and see how well they convey a benefit to the customer—rather than the product's or service's features. We'd love to hear what you learn.

Name That Font

How well do you know your fonts? Take this quiz and try to beat the average score of 58%.

The Word Doctor—Use Short, Fresh Words

As Theodore Rees Cheney says in Getting the Words Right, "a writer in our business needs a store of expressive words"—not a storehouse of long, complex Latin-derived words.

The right words breathe life into your message and help the reader envision more vivid visual images. As Cheney says, consider words like break, scatter or glimmer. These short words "are concrete and create immediate sense impressions." Here's an example:

Before: If I take the time to look outside of my window during the day, I can see a street covered with snow and ice. People are carrying their briefcases, packages and handbags and trying to balance themselves with care so as not to slip on the ice and fall.

After: The streets outside my window are covered with snow. Fearful people, clinging to their wares, shuffle cautiously to avoid a fall.

(Cheney, p. 157-158)

Most Customers Impacted by Their On-Line Experience with a Brand

According to the 2009 Razorfish study, 65% of consumers report that a digital brand experience has changed their opinion—either positively or negatively—about a brand. Even more significant is the fact that 97% report that a digital brand experience has influenced their decision to buy, or not to buy.

Consumers can move from awareness to purchase to recommendation—in a very short time. Engagement creates customers not just through social media but across the entire digital channel. Instead of focusing on clicks and impressions, conversations and brand engagement should be the focus of your digital media strategies.

Even if you're in an industry that's still in its infancy when it comes to using digital media, consumers are apt to judge their experience based on their experiences with other industries. Which leads me to my question of the day: What kind of on-line experiences are your customers having with your brand?

Source: The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009, page 38

If Walls Could Talk

How many customers set foot in your facility each day? And yet many companies fail to use this free medium for conveying their messages.

Conduct a 10-minute walk-through of your facility and ask yourself whether you can better tell your story through the use of waiting areas, walls and areas that visitors frequent. You’ll pay no media buy fees—and reach people who already have some connection to and interest in your products or services.

Here are just a few ways you can reinforce key strategic messages on-site:

• Exterior banners
• Interior banner stands
• Screensaver messages
• Posters and displays in heavily travelled corridors
• Table-top messaging in cafeterias
• Electronic board messages

Image Source

Leadership

Six Tagline Mistakes to Avoid

A tagline works because of how it sounds, how it looks, how memorable it is and how easily it conveys a brand promise. Creating taglines is some of the most difficult writing, because so much is demanded from so few words.

We can all name taglines that worked, like:

• Just do it (Nike)
• Got milk? (California Milk Processor Board)
• Where's the beef? (Wendy's)
• Think different. (Apple Computer)
• Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (M&Ms)
• It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (Timex)

But here are some that we're not so sure of:

• We're Exxon. (Exxon)
• We're chicken. (Tyson)
• Is that Playtex under there? (Platex)

Here are pitfalls a good tagline should avoid--from the Tagline Guru (a site worth visiting, by the way):

1. Being cliche.
2. Being bland or boring.
3. Attempting to imitate another good tagline.
4. Not being true to your brand.
5. Being self-serving.
6. Using complex, long words.

Read more about these tagline mistakes at taglineguru.com

Color Psychology—What does red say?

"When I gain these ruby slippers, my power will be the greatest in Oz!" —The Wicked Witch of the West

Since early times, red has been a signal to the human mind to act. It is the color of blood, and therefore life-sustaining or life-threatening. Considered the most physical color in the spectrum, it commands strong emotions and stimulates the adrenal glands to energize the body and senses.

• Light Pink: romantic, soft, sweet, delicate, innocent, fragile, youthful (too sweet)
• Dusty Pink: soft, subtle, cozy, gentle, nostalgic
• Bright Pink: exciting, playful, energetic, sensual, wild, festive, vibrant, flirtatious (gaudy)
• Bright Red: exciting, sexy, dynamic, dramatic, powerful, courageous, assertive, impulsive, demanding, motivating (aggressive, violent, dangerous)
• Brick Red: earthy, warm, strong, established
• Deep Reds: rich, elegant, refined, expensive, mature, robust

Source

Advertising Savvy—Know Your Target Audience

Defining your target audience is key to delivering your message effectively.

If you hope to reach children, you will use messages and graphics that makes sense to children. However, if you are trying to reach high income earners, your tactics must be more refined.

Both of the following ads are attempting to market their leather handbags to high-end consumers. The first one uses a bizarre image of a youthful group and the cheeky headline, "Show Off". The second ad, by Ogilvy & Mather, uses a sophisticated, classic image of the highly recognizable Sally Ride, Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell. Which do you think is more likely to hit it's target?

Client Showcase—Centennial apparel helps build momentum

We designed this shirt as as part of a campaign to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Inland California's Gresham Savage law firm. Apparel is a great way to build momentum for a message internally, and works well as a supporting element in a Centennial communication package.

Swagger Wagon Commercial

To market their new minivan, the Sienna, Toyota features a young family rapping about their new ride. The well-executed direction is both unique and sure to raise interest in a type of vehicle typically reserved for soccer-mom types.

How would you rate it?

Mayo Clinic: One to Watch on Social Media

Is the social media revolution the most far-reaching communications development since the printing press?

Last month Mayo Clinic announced the launch of their Center for Social Media designed to facilitate communication among patients and between patients and knowledgeable medical professionals.

Mayo is using social media to:

• Involve employees in business strategies
• Manage change
• Share news
• Share resources with other organizations
• Explore use of social networking tools for collaboration among employees in an effort to improve care
• Connect patients
• Share stories from patients, families, and staff
• Convey health information

Mayo Clinic is already the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube.

We'll be interested in following their progress as they blaze the trail for social media use in health care.

Want a solid social media strategy? Start here.

Social media is revolutionizing business to consumer communication by making the consumer, rather than the business, the most credible voice about a product or service--and providing the consumer with an expanded sphere of influence.

While word-of-mouth advertising has always been effective, social media now makes it possible for consumers to talk to a much wider audience about their experience with a product or service. Where once businesses could control their messaging--at least to some degree--today the consumers not only have more control over the message, they have more credibility with other consumers.

Mark Hurst, customer experience advocate and producer of the Good Experience newsletter and blog, is right on when he says that the first step in building a good social media strategy is building a good customer experience.

Pssst! They're talking about you again.

The digital media has provided a platform for anyone who has an opinion to speak. While marketers like to think of the opportunities this affords to reach prospective customers, it also provides a platform for others to talk about your brand. Take a minute to do a Google search on your company—and see what they're saying about you.

Client Showcase—University T-shirt

We designed this vintage pillar shirt in four colors for Walla Walla University, using their logo as inspiration for the artwork which was imprinted using metallic gold.

The trendy shirt won an Award of Merit for Imprinted Materials in the 6th Annual Service Industry Advertising. The judges reviewed the entries for execution, creativity, quality, consumer appeal and overall breakthrough advertising content.

It Pays to Shop

This month we saved a client more than $2400 on a printing job by bidding it among several of our preferred printers—and this was on a quantity of only 6,000 printed pieces. Every printer has their niche, and print jobs must be matched to printers who are a good match for the project. While we're the first to say that we don't buy printing on price alone, once you have identified trusted printers who are well suited to the project, obtaining estimates from more than one printer can save you money and help you find the right vendor for the job.

The Word Doctor: Use Punchy Verbs

A simple verb does its job—but not necessarily enthusiastically.

“The can ran across the floor and ran into the pillow.”

Sometimes writers, in search of excitement, will spread modifiers throughout their sentence, like this:

“The can ran swiftly across the wood floor and ran head-first into the pillow.”

Snooze worthy. But punchier verbs work even better.

“The cat sprinted across the floor and collided with the pillow.”

See the difference? A strong verb has a way of including modifier-like qualities without adding more words.

The Tribes We Lead

Blogger and entrepreneur Seth Godin presents a new perspective on mass marketing, arguing that the internet has launched a new era of leading and connecting people and ideas, thereby creating ideological tribes. While tribes have been around for a long time, today's tribes go beyond geography or shared culture. He asserts that people long for connections, and that today's marketing leader must move away fron the model of trying to persuade people they want something they don't have. Instead, they must connect people with similar yearnings who can become loyal fans of your idea, product or service--creating a sense of belonging or virtual tribe.

A Look Inside the Social Media Revolution

Social media is the biggest revolution in communication since the printing press, fundamentally changing how people and businesses communicate. Yet most companies are still struggling to imagine how to use it in meaningful ways. If the following facts interest you, take a minute to watch this fascinating production about socialnomics:

• If Facebook were a country it would be the world's third largest
• 96% of millenials have joined a social network
• Social media is the number one activity on the web
• There are over 200 million blogs, and 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands

Everybody's talking--and some of them will be talking about your business. What will they be saying--and how will you engage them in meaningful conversations that impact your business? We'll talk more about this in the days ahead.

Internal Communicators: Invest in Setting Customer Expectations

This week one of our clients, a hospital marketing professional, talked with us about developing a message for imaging patients. The proposed piece would achieve several things:

• It thanked the patient for choosing her hospital.
• It explained why the patient would get different bills (from the hospital, and the radiologist)
• It explained why the patient would need to get results from his or her physician, rather than the imaging technician
• It listed the names of the people with whom the patient interacted that day
• It listed all of the phone numbers the patient might need to follow up on the visit

This simple two-page flyer will effectively deliver messages that help the consumer better navigate their hospital—while setting expectations and thereby minimizing frustration.
As you think about ways to advertise your business, don't forget to focus on those critical consumer touchpoints, and ask yourself this: What message can I convey in this touchpoint that will improve their experience with our organization?