Client Showcase—High Impact Brochure Markets Region to Businesses

In this project for the Port of Walla Walla, we made the pictures tell the story on this first-impression piece designed to promote our beautiful region to prospective businesses looking to relocate. Using a high-impact paper and printing technique, the piece went from handsome to stunning—and captured the spirit of this community that pairs history with a strong vision for the future.

If readers pay attention only to the images, headlines, subheads and bullet points, they'll walk away with an accurate and positive view of this area. This is a good example of making key messages apparent in the images and easy-to-browse copy. And for those who desire more, the body text presents a persuasive case for moving one's business here.

We've been so very lucky to be able to work on projects that we care deeply about—and this one holds a special place in our heart because it's for our very own community.

Stop by and see us if you're ever in the area!

Make Your Ad More Readable

We writers love words. But oh, how hard it is to sometimes pare them down.

There is, after all, often much to say about a good product or service. But to make your ad readable:

1. Limit your message to one or two strong points.
 2. Be  accurate and truthful. Readers will disdain your company if they discover you've misled them.
 3. Make the headline do the heavy lifting. Only about five percent of viewers will read your copy—but 30% will read your headline. You can even try grouping the two together.
 4. Make your typeface readable.  Use serif typefaces and avoid reversed type that can be hard to read.

In the ad below, the body copy is too long and too hard to read. Not only is the small copy hard to read in sans serif, but the contrast between the background and text is too low.

Conversely, this ad by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam uses readable body copy. The serif copy is black on a cream background for optimum contrast—and the pairing of the graphic image with the typeface strengthens the message.

Client Work Wins Three Service Industry Awards

The Service Industry Advertising Awards competition results were released this week, and I would like to take a moment to recognize two of our clients and my outstanding team for garnering one Gold Award and two Bronze Awards.

Our friends at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital received a Bronze Award for a two-part print ad series promoting NorthStar Lodge, their cancer treatment center.

 

California-based Gresham Savage Law firm earned Gold and Bronze Awards for their litigation direct mail piece and their 100-Year direct mail piece.

National judges evaluated nearly 2,000 entries for execution, creativity, quality and consumer appeal. The full list of winners can be found here.

For the Want of Clean Water

Today is World Water Day. Did you know:

• More than one billion people—around one-sixth of the world's population—do not have access to safe drinking water.
• The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is over three-and-a-half miles.
• The average weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads can be as much as to 40 pounds—the equivalent of your airport luggage allowance.

Clean water was one of the causes we supported last year because of the impact it has on lives around the globe.

Whatever charity you feel compelled to support, check it out using an independent charity evaluator like Charity Navigator to ensure that your dollars have maximum impact.

(Source: Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council)

Image Source

Wait! Don’t Use That Typeface!

We love typography. A beautifully shaped letter infuses style and emotion into a simple word in the same way that a beautiful fabric brings life to a garment. It serves as both art and utility.

When a spoken word floats into the air it enters the world bare, without the dress of a correlating visual font. The type selected conveys a mood—anything from dignity or silliness to boldness, strength or power. 

We often know the effects of well-chosen type but can’t explain its power over us to make us feel a certain way.  For example, what kind of connotations do the following fonts have for you?

The selection of typography is no less important than how you dress for an important meeting or presentation. It can make the difference between being perceived as savvy and professional—or as amateur and lacking in credibility. So next time you’re tempted to dash out a memo in Comic Sans, think again. Maybe it’s time to call in an expert who can help you be sure that your font is saying exactly what you want it to say about you.

Color Psychology—Know When to Use Neutrals

"The inner equilibrium of Cezanne's paintings, which are never insistent or obtrusive, produces this calm almost velvety air." —Rainer Maria Rilke, referring to the color gray

Grey is the truly perfect neutral—the middle ground between black and white. This is why color matching is best done against a gray background. It is a difficult color to find in nature, as things that often appear gray from a distance are usually complex mixtures of other hues.

Because of its perceived neutrality, gray has connotations of responsibility, fairness, loyalty, accountability and wisdom. This translates well in the corporate world where those are desirable attributes.

Silver is the more exciting, metallic version of gray. In addition to evoking a feeling of fluidity and motion, it suggests stylishness and class.

Taupe and beige share many of the attributes of gray, but are warmer and sometimes lighter. They are thought of as authentic, organic, modest and unobtrusive. Hues of taupe and beige have a timelessness and basic lack of "trendiness" that fosters a confidence in the longevity of the shades.

Off-whites are another important sector of the neutrals. They have a subtle, stylishly elegant and classic connotation attached to them, and have come to suggest environmental responsibility. They have often symbolize sustainable resources such as natural fibers and recycled paper products.

The hard-working neutrals are an often used tool for those who work with color. Their flexibility and staying power make them an important part of your color mix.

• Neutral Grey: Classic, sober, corporate, practical, timeless, quality, quiet, neutrality, logical, deliberate, reserved, fundamental, basic, modest, efficient, dutiful, methodical.
• Charcoal Grey: Steadfast, responsible, staunch, resolute, restrained, conservative, professional, classic, sophisticated, solid, enduring, mature; Depending on context, they can also read dull, conformist or detached.
• Taupe: Classic, neutral, practical, timeless, quality, basic, authentic, organic, versatile, inconspicuous, understated, discreet, compromising, modest; be careful to pair it with colors that keep it from appearing bland.
• Ivory/Cream: Classic, neutral, soft, warm, comforting, good taste, smooth, subtle, natural.
• Silver: Sleek, classy, stylish, modern, cool.

Source

Client’s Annual Report Makes Top 50 List and Garners Platinum Award

Key Technology’s 2010 annual report has been listed in the top 50 winners gallery in the 2009-2010 international LACP Visions Awards Annual Report Competition.

Other winners included companies like Cisco Systems, Munich Airport, Monsanto India, Office Depot Foundation, Direct TV, Xerox and Whirlpool.

The report also garnered the Platinum Award—the highest of four awards offered in each category—for annual reports in its industry. A panel of professional judges scored the project on eight aspects ranging from first impressions to message clarity.

The photo of the executive team, above, appears inside the report and mirrors the cover theme that evokes freshness, purity and quality—all outcomes that Key's product line helps achieve.

We have worked with Key Technology on their annual reports for more than a decade, and must say that they know how to inspire good work. We love helping to tell the story of this innovative, forward-thinking international company.

More than 4,400 entries representing 25 countries were received. LACP is the League of American Communications Professionals that helps promote best-in-class practices in communications.

Need inspiration? Step into your right brain

Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, suffered a stroke in the left side of her brain and learned what it really means to be a right-brained thinker. She's spent the last eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk, and has now become a major advocate for stroke recovery.

From her experiences she hopes she can inspire others to think differently about thinking. "Right here, right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere... [where] I am the the life-force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form, at one with all that is. Or, I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere where I become a single individual, a solid. Separate from the flow, separate from you."

Innovation comes from right-brain thinking. So when lacking inspiration, try stepping out of the structured left-hemisphere of your brain and into the creativity of the right. Selfgrowth.com lists several ways you can tap into the power of right-brain thinking:

• Use your non-dominant hand.  If you are right-handed, trying using your left hand for common activities such as brushing your teeth or combing your hair. 
• Try some brain boosting body moves. Certain body moves are known to balance the brain, such as juggling, walking while swinging opposite arms and legs, and marching on the spot all help to get the left and right side of the brain working together.
• Do some creative planning.  Doodle rather than writing word lists or linear notes. You can daydream, scribble and sketch your way through a problem-solving session and find yourself stress-free and resourceful when you emerge from the other side.

Regardless of what your natural brain lead is, you can develop both sides.

Client Showcase—ER Radio Spot: Five Tips to Better Radio Creative

We developed this radio spot for this Colorado hospital that wanted to communicate a message about their emergency center’s Level 2 trauma designation. Because most consumers don’t know what this designation means, we used fictional dialogue to help them understand what it would mean to them in an emergency.

Radio can be a valuable part of your media mix, but make sure your creative works. Use this simple test to determine if yours does:

1. Get the audience's attention with the opening line. This makes them decide whether they want to tune to your message—or tune out.
2. Keep it simple. Resist the urge to try to convey too much, and stick to one key message for your ad.
3. Know your audience. Speak to things they care about.
4. Translate. Don’t expect consumers to know your lingo. Use language they understand.
5. Repeat. Repetition is essential if you want to saturate your market with your message.

The Brand Nazi: Your Secret to Building a Better Web Site

Is your web site suffering from a bad case of the 90s look? Outdated information? A look that never did work? Confusing navigation? Or content that doesn’t speak to what readers care about?

You might find instructive this “best/worst” list of university web sites—admittedly one person’s opinion but insightful, nonetheless. You surely could give us some of your own good and bad examples (and please do!).

In reading his post, it reminded me that even an organization with exceptional talent will be led astray with web strategies if too many people get involved. A well-conceived, well-executed Web site requires the presence of a Brand Nazi who is vigilant about monitoring the brand message on the Web site, who has the authority to say no, who has the vision for a coherent message and who has the focus and resources to execute the vision.

Web sites inherently are organic. Even a great one eventually declines for lack of overall attention. Let’s face it: Many organizations don’t give the maintenance of their Web site the same attention they do for its launch.

Of course all of this requires us to make our own confession. When we moved to a blog format, our own Web site languished. This year, however, we have declared the Year of the New CMBell Web Site. So stay tuned. The Brand Nazi at CMBell has spoken.

The Power of a Simple Idea

 The challenge for those of us who create advertisements is rarely finding a good promise to make. More often, it’s deciding which one message will be the strongest—and having the discipline to trim out all the other good, but nevertheless diluting, messages.

This ad shows how much more powerful a single, well-executed idea is than an ad that tries to say too much. By focusing on the “forty cents” concept, the message is unmistakably clear and memorable.

Of course, more could be said. But they wisely resisted the urge to give added facts or details that compete with the main message.

Sometimes it’s what you edit out that makes what is left work so well.

Client Showcase—Real People Count on Memorial in TV Ad

The second television ad in a series for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, this ad continues to deploy a warm, personal mood like the first one, but features people in the community who have counted on Memorial in some of their most challenging moments.  Still images of local people are paired with voice-overs of them saying why they’ve counted on Memorial.

When it comes to conveying a message about your organization, no one can do it with as much believability and pathos as a real customer.

Quote of the Day—The Art of Conversation

Reputation or character?

Legendary UCLA Coach Wooden understood how to inspire success in others. His focus on character was foundational to his leadership. As he put it, character is what you are, and reputation is what you are perceived to be. This is true not only of people, but of companies. Although our work as communicators is about building reputation, it is always in adjunct to the organization’s work to be a company of character.

Wooden also believed that how we make the journey is more important than our final destination, and redefines winning by how we conduct ourselves along the way. “You can outscore another team and lose, and you can be outscored by another team and win,” he says in this inspirational interview.

The Power of a Story: Mayo Clinic Documents a Patient’s Journey Through Cancer to Hope

 
In the spirit of an on-going TV reality show, Mayo Clinic chronicles MaryEllen’s journey through cancer in a series of episodes posted on-line. With commentary by MaryEllen, the patient, as well as by her physician, the series gives perspectives from various vantage points. 

As the healthcare industry looks for ways to peel back the curtain on the patient experience, the power of personal stories—told in their own words—resonates with patients and their families.

While this application shows what can be done in healthcare, don’t dismiss its potential for other industries, as well.

Client Showcase—Key Technology Annual Report

 

For a decade we've had the privilege of working with this innovative manufacturing company on their annual report. This year's starring photos were staged at a historic landmark overlooking the beautiful valley in eastern Washington where their international headquarters are located. This beautiful setting, paired with an abundance of fresh produce, helped convey their brand promise to deliver fresher, safer and purer products through new technologies that sort, process and remove defects.

The piece was printed on a suede-like paper that provides a richly tactile experience with the piece, and lends an organic air to it—reinforcing the message of quality and freshness.

Should you be using 2D barcodes in your ads?

In the past year or so, you may have started to notice some odd-looking box-shaped barcodes on advertisements. They come in a variety of formats and are usually accompanied by a line of text that asks the viewer to scan the image with their smartphone.

Welcome to the world of Matrix/2D Barcodes. When scanned, this code will open content on your phone's internet browser—and often this content comes in the form of video, editorial, coupons and such.

Matrix codes are relatively new to the scene here in the US. In a recent survey, nearly 57% of smartphone users have scanned at least one mobile barcode. They are rapidly becoming popular as a means of quick information access. Rather than waiting to get on a computer, consumers who have smartphones and the appropriate apps can have near-instant access to more information while their interest is still piqued.

In addition to providing an added service to consumers, they offer benefits to the marketer. In many cases, advertisers can track detailed demographic information about those who scanned the code and use this to better measure the success of a particular campaign.

Depending on what kind offer or content you have and who your target market is, these might be worth considering in your next campaign.

The Right Typeface: A Writer’s Secret Weapon

The choice of a typeface is more than utilitarian. Yes, it must be easy to read. But it also must convey the precise mood that you wish to convey. Compare the typefaces in these two ads:

It’s the job of the professional communicator to compel you to read his or her work. Your words, and their presentation in font, must lure, entice, perhaps even beg.

As Matthew Butterick says on his very insightful web site on typography for lawyers, “… typography matters because it helps conserve the most valuable resource you have as a writer—reader attention.” Most people have more reasons to leave your writing unread than they do to read it, so dress it up. Find the font that tells the story you want to tell.

Color Psychology—Make a Statement With Orange

When oranges were introduced to Europe, they were known as the fruit of the gods, emperors and kings. They quickly became popular in fine art and represented exotic lands. By the mid 20th century, however, the color orange lost popularity with the elite and came to represent fast food restaurants. It is currently enjoying a new popularity in web, industrial design and consumer products.

Orange adds zest and is suggestive of tangy, spicy foods. Because of its close ties to red, orange is a physical, high-visibility color that demands attention. However, its connection to yellow tames it, making it a more friendly and warmer color than red. It is gregarious, fun-loving, optimistic and a favorite of children.

Wondering if orange is the right color for your business? Consider the many faces of orange:

• Peach: nurturing, soft, delicious, fruity, sweet, inviting, warm, intimate, modest
• Coral: life force, energizing, flexible, desire
• Tangerine: vital, juicy, fruitful, energizing, tangy
• Vibrant orange: fun, whimsical, childlike, happy, glowing, hot, energizing, active, friendly, jovial, persuasive, animated, loud, raucous, frivolous
• Ginger: spicy, flavorful, tangy, pungent, exotic
• Terra Cotta: earthy, warm, country, wholesome, welcoming, abundance

Source

Advertising Savvy—Craft Catchy Headlines

For headlines to be effective, they must be engaging and connect with the reader. The best headlines resonate emotionally with viewers, either amusing them, unsettling them, or making them curious or thoughtful.

Compare the headline in this first ad with that in the second. 

The second ad, by STIR, features a short but arresting headline. Only four words long, it speaks to a legitimate fear, luring the reader into the copy in search of the promise.


Which one most compelled you to read on?

Printing Tip #3—Fit

Had we not been in this business, we would not have believed the remarkable range of printing estimates one can receive on the same job. The variances are so wide that at times we have to wonder if they are talking about the same job.

Several factors impact pricing, but today we'll talk about fit.

Printers all have their niches. They each have different types of equipment that are suited to various jobs. Putting a small job on a large six-color press simply won’t be competitive, no matter how they sharpen their pencil. You have to know your printer, and know which jobs they are best suited for. This will impact not only your price, but the quality of your printed piece.

Stay tuned for more printing tips.

The Rhythm of Rest Fuels Your Creativity

World-famous designer Stefan Sagmeister discusses the year-long sabbatical that his New York studio takes every seven years. He thoughtfully distinguishes between a job, a career and a calling, and shows how his time off brings him back to design as a calling. While in Bali for a year, Sagmeister and his team collect enough inspiration and creative to last for the next seven years of work.

Though a year off isn't feasible for most of us, it serves as inspiration, doesn't it? Consider providing a regular rhythm of rest and renewal between periods of work, and see how this impacts your work product—as well as your life.

Quote of the Day—Reason to Live

Client Showcase—Hospitalist Brochure

The concept of hospitalists—hospital-based physicians whose exclusive role is to manage the care of patients who are hospitalized—is still new to many consumers, and many don't understand how a hospitalist might benefit them. To explain this, we developed this piece for the hospitalist program at Avista Adventist Hospital. We paired text that addresses likely consumer concerns with images from both our private stock collection and the hospital to create a custom piece that helps set a patient's expectations about working with a hospitalist—and allay their fears about this new way of delivering inpatient care.

What Every Headline Knows

Words all have their jobs. The headline’s job is to get you to read the subhead, and the subhead’s job is to get you to read the copy. Sometimes a caption or bullet list stand in for these.

These are the gatekeepers to the message—so pick them with care, test them on innocent bystanders, and then rewrite them until you’re sure they work. Here's how it works.

Start with a killer headline.

{Like that. See, you want more.}

Make them a promise they can’t refuse.

{Want more?}

OK, I’m going to stop there—I don’t want to spoil the fun by writing the whole story, but I think you get the point. Make those headlines do their job, or send them to headline heaven and spare the reader the yawn—and your client a wasted encounter.