Crafting a Creative for an Ad

While looking at any creative, we never realize how much would have gone into coming up with such an effective creative. Sometimes, it takes days to even months, to come up with something that might sound extremely basic in terms of copy and creative. However, the real truth is that, while it is important to keep the message and the creative extremely simple, it is also important to make it effective and in lines with the objectives the brand is trying to achieve. Because, without having an objective, the creative writers have tendency to spread their wings in different directions. And, no brand wants that!

Some of the basic steps to craft an effective creative are as follows:

Step 1: Clarify your primary objective

The objective should be unidirectional, which means there shouldn't be a laundry list of objectives. Hence, it is very important to first answer, "What is the primary problem you are trying to solve with this creative?"

Being as specific, clear, realistic, measurable and target oriented as possible is the key.

Step 2: Define the Target Audience

Along with defining a clear objective, it is very important to define the target as well because without clarifying who the target is, creative people are more likely to design for their favorite audience: themselves!

Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, and income among several other things need to narrowed down while crafting a creative.

Step 3: Your call to Action (or Key Takeaway)

Perhaps one of the most important steps of the entire process, which deals with learning the single thing that you want your audience to do or remember. Unless and until you are not spelling out to your audience what they need to do, your campaign is a failure. Your campaign should lead to some form of action from the audiences' end.

Step 4: Break down your offer

At this point you explain why the audience should do what you want them to do. You need to define what is in it for them and why should they care bout them the same?

The best of the ads celebrate benefits and not features. You could use the feature route, but it has to be tied up with the benefits associated with those features.

Step 5: List Media Channels 

All the media vehicles that you plan on using should be listed. It is very important to know the dimensions of the ad in case of print ads or billboards etc. It can help you built list of deliverables into a timeline, specifying dates for when you would like to see concepts and when finally delivery is expected for each item.

Step 6: Provide your budget

Often clients are not specific about their budget when they start off. And, it is not a good sign because creative depends on the budget and it cannot be the other way around. When the budget is not set, and a creative agency is asked to create a creative, it is often deemed as a waste of time because creative people have tendency to show their best which might not necessarily fit the clients' budget.

Step 7: Important

Advertising and Marketing materials are federally regulated when it comes to financial industry. So, all the mandatories (FDIC etc) need to be taken care off and mentioned clearly in the creative brief.

Step 8: Reference Material

It is very important for a client to provide the agency with data and research to back up their brief. But, it is important to make sure that only the information that is required is provided and there is nothing extra or less. Attaching, reference ads run by the competitors etc is also a good idea to make clear as to what the client wants.

So, these are some of the steps into coming up with a successful creative. These creative steps can provide strategic guidance and focus to all who are willing to craft an ad. 

Advertising Arts: The Contrasting Sides

From a place that is starry, flashy, colorful, bustling & extremely flamboyant to a place that is HUGE, silent, modest, low-profiled & evidently non-commercialized, the transition as we moved from Radio City Music Hall to Lincoln Center was significant. I, along with my classmates went to visit both of these venues as part of a course requirement. And, hence I thought it was apt for me to write a blog on my virtual experience (web) as well as on-site experience. 

Even without knowing much about either of these brands, it is not so difficult to make out which one is funded by the donors and which one is commercialized. Be it their respective websites or different media tools each of them use, the difference in the way each one markets itself is hugely obvious.

Website:

Just like the venue, the website of Radio City Music Hall is bright and flashy. The fact that it is a for-profit organization is evident on the first glance itself when the very first tab you see on the website reads “Get Tickets”, instead of “About Us”. And, it is not just once that you spot “Get Tickets” tab, but at least thrice at three different places on the upper half part of the website, and in total 12 different places on the Homepage itself. The presence of the logos of its sponsors/partners is quite noticeable on its website. It also infers to the fact that the place is highly commercialized. Chase being the main partner occupies the spot right on the top right part of the website, and other co-partners occupy the bottom part of the website, stretching from left to right. Its social media tabs are placed right on the upper right side of website, thus making it easy for people to hit like, follow, join and subscribe, and easy for Radio City Music Hall to gain more fan following. The website of ‘Christmas Spectacular’ has nice red and green Christmas theme. And, it too highlights its ‘Get Tickets’ section and its list of sponsors more than anything else. Again, the page is as vibrant in terms of colors as it could be.

Radio City Music Hall Website Home Page

Again, in lines with the look and the feel of the Lincoln Center venue, the website too uses white theme with FONTS in black. What really catches attention of the home page are the big picture tabs, a click on each of which leads you to the respective show/event page. They have Facebook, Twitter & Instagram tabs right on the top. No where on the page, do we get to find tabs that read, ‘Get Tickets’, which indicates its non-commercial (not-for-profit) nature. At the bottom of the home page, we can read, ‘Operating expenses for this website have been generously underwritten by Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Braddock’. This shows how everything about Lincoln, right from their website to their performances run on funds. The White Light Festival ran from October 7 - November 11, 2014.  The White Light Festival was celebrating its 5th year at the Lincoln Center.  

Lincoln Center Website Home Page

There is no media that Radio City Music Hall has left untouched for advertising and marketing.

On-venue Advertising:

A mere wait outside the Radio City Music Hall bombards us with uncountable ads of its on-going shows and events. Owing to the fact that Christmas is approaching, the venue has started hosting its traditional ‘Christmas Spectacular’ which will run through the Christmas (Nov. 7 - Dec 31). There isn’t a single place where Chase is left behind in terms of being advertised. It is its biggest corporate sponsor and hence each Radio City Music Hall ad carries the Chase logo along. Just when we enter the venue, we are given the playbills, which include the logo of Chase, right below the logo of Christmas Spectacular.  Even as we enter the venue, we see lots of ads all over the place. They haven’t left even little space unused, or unadvertised. There are over 20 Concession stalls, selling coffee, soda, bottled water, liquor and popcorn tubs, which carry the picture of ‘Christmas Spectacular’. There are no physical posters anymore at the venue. All the posters are only LED now. The images of the Rockettes from back in the day till now are placed on all the walls, where tourists are expected to pass by. Even the restrooms and the areas outside restrooms are not spared. Little green wreaths, made from artificial leaves and flowers, shaped in the form of Chase logo occupy every possible place at the venue.

Apart from Chase, its list of sponsors include:

•   Madison Square Garden

•   Coca Cola

•   Delta

•   Hallmark

•   McDonald’s  

•   Norwegian

•   Toyota

•   New York Life

•   GoGo Squeez

•   Starwood Preferred Guest

•   Infor

•   UPS

•   It’s Sugar

There is a Chase ATM inside the venue. A Toyota car has also been strategically placed inside the venue just next to the Chase ATM and concession stalls.

One of the almost 20 concession stalls

Chase Branding all over the Hall

Lincoln Center, being a not-for-profit organization came across as little conservative in terms of promoting itself even at the venue. There were some posters and ads here and there, but not as prominent as in the case of Radio City Music Hall. The digital billboards of White Light Festival, The Metropolitan Opera and others were around the radius of the venue. But, I couldn't find anything away from the venue in terms of advertising. 


(We weren't allowed to click pictures inside the venue)

Outdoor Advertising:

Again, in lines with its indoor advertising, this entertainment value has left no stone unturned in marketing itself. Right from digital billboards outside Lincoln tunnel (when you go from NJ to NY) and on NYC streets to little posters inside the light rails, subways stations, inside the subways, inside the NJ transit buses, Christmas Spectacular ads are everywhere. The Christmas Spectacular ad was also seen on the Tourist buses, and near the Times Square.

Bus Carrying Christmas Spectacular Ad

Christmas Spectacular at Lincoln Tunnel

Near Times Square

NJ Transit

Lincoln Center, as a venue is really huge in terms of real estate. With the digital steps that display "welcome" in different लैंग्वेजेज (Languages) to the huge screen that exhibits information about ongoing and upcoming events, followed by a beautiful fountain, Lincoln Center seemed like a perfect place to sit under the moon, on one of those donated chairs/benches. There are several OOH around the whole venue. Unlike Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center isn't too flashy.

Billboards around Lincoln Center

Web Presence:

Chase being their main sponsor, carries its ad on its website. It even carries the ad when it sends out e-mails to its customers. The ads carry 30% discount offers. They have highly active social media presence. Radio City Music Hall even pays for ads on Google for search optimization. Now no matter what website I open, thanks to the data breaking sites (the sites that track my search, clicks and usage on web and mobile), Radio City Music Hall ad just pops up everywhere. It also has a wide social media presence. You can see for yourself the number of likes and followers on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

Instagram Page

Twitter Page

Personally, I couldn't come across extensive presence of Lincoln Center anywhere except some tourist sites and mailers that they send out to the members. They do have some quite active social media presence, which you can make out by looking at the likes and followers in the following screen shots of their pages. Importantly, The White Light Festival too has quite an active media presence. It, however doesn't show any social media icons on the website. Time Warner is their main sponsor. Lincoln Center too advertises on Google but The White Light Festival does not promote itself via paid search on Google.

Instagram Page

Facebook Page

Radio City Music Hall is all over the place through its extensive advertising. It doesn't seem like they need to update themselves with respect to promoting themselves. However, it is still unsure what media tool is giving them the maximum attention. Evaluation of their marketing and advertising strategies could help them save on some money by getting rid of advertising that only results in waste coverage. With Lincoln Center, on the other hand, the first thing for them to do would be to use some of the funds and allocate them to advertising and promoting themselves. And once, they start using different media tools, they could probably evaluate their ads and promotions to know their performance and what works best for them.

So, this is my experience of visiting both the organizations and what impact each one has on us. I hope you enjoyed reading my descriptive blog as much as I did while writing it. Happy reading!

Fairlife: Are You For Real?

Have you ever come across an ad and wondered/questioned why? Sometimes, I feel certain ads are shown the way they are shown just to capture consumer attention. But, do the advertisers never look to the left, right, front, back and center while coming up with such ads? I mean being focussed on a marketing objective is one thing, but coming up with just anything and calling it creative in order to capture eye balls doesn't seem so correct!

While surfing through the Yahoo! News page, I came across an article on the new milk (Fairlife) campaign by Coke. The headline of the article reads, "Pin-up Girls are selling milk now in sexist new ad campaign". While the article does talk about the sexism in ads, it does make use of offensive word (pin-up girls). On one hand, while the author is trying to sound sensible enough in the article, her use of such sexist words give the readers a mixed impression of the author's intent.

As per the article, the extremely "sexist" advertising campaign for Coca Cola's high end milk, which got released yesterday (December 1, 2014) has already received some flaky response for featuring 'naked pin-up girls' dripping in milk. The part of the campaign that is worse are the extremely demeaning slogans, which read, "Drink what she's wearing", "More good, looks good" and "Better milk looks good on you". But, instead of focusing on this aspect of advertising, author describes how these models rocking the liquid dressed were shot and so on, when the important thing for her would have been to create awareness, make a point, and reach out to the world via this article and tell people why this form of role portrayal is so wrong!

Coming back to the ad, my point is images of women dressing like this or posing like this isn't new. But, is there really a need to "sexify" something as basic as MILK? With USP of this brand being a "premium high protein, low sugar, lactose-free milk", does it really need to objectify women especially with slogans like these? The brand could have played with its high protein, low sugar USP and created something really creative yet not sexist. Also, do men not need to drink milk?  If that is not the case, is the brand not giving out a wrong message? Is it not cutting down on one of its important targets completely? Is the ad created with women models just to entice/appeal to males without having them to drink it?

Advertisers really need to leave this hyper-sexualized approach to their ads and come up with something more substantial, something more heavy on content. By no chance do I feel that anybody would be really inclined on buying this brand of milk just by looking at these "sexist" ads and billboards. The creative surely creates noise and shall be shared extensively on social media but I do not see people being able to relate to such a campaign at all. Consumers are no longer fools and Coke cannot make them (especially men) believe in these sexualized creative copies.

Coke, being such a huge brand could have surely come up with something more meaningful and relevant than women dripping in milk posing like Marilyn Monroe. Consumers are no fools, Coke!

Google @ Times Square

Google has been a late riser when it came to advertising itself extensively. Couple of weeks back I discussed Google Android - Be Together Not the Same ad. The ad showed people of different colors, practicing different religions, children, teens, adults, olds, gays, lesbians, almost all possible races in the ad. Few months back Google, along with other Silicon Valley companies was under fire for under-representation of females and people of colors in the company. The company was highly criticized, following which the company started hiring Asian, Hispanic & Black men and especially women in high managerial positions. To counter the negative promotion caused by the under-representation, it also came out the ad, which I mentioned above.

One of the most strategic and smart moves was taken by the company when it chose to advertise itself at Times Square. On an average, over 300,000 pedestrians walk by the Times Square, and nearly 115,000 drivers/passengers pass through by car and bus each day. In total, Times Square signage advertising receives around 1.5 million impressions each day. By paying $2.5 million for a period of four-weeks, the company chose to promote a positive self image. In lines with the Google Android ad, this interactive billboard shows little android robots of different skin colors imitating the people in front of the screen. Owing to the fact that there are people from different countries, some locals and some visitors from foreign countries, this billboard surely sends out a positive message that Google Android is for one and all. The billboard is as tall as an eight storied building.

The creative currently running on the display highlights Google's products including Google Maps and Android. So far, this has been the biggest amount of investment Google made on advertising. With this campaign, Google is sure to regain its positive image - an image of a brand that is for one and all.

Black Friday Deals: A Hoax

Last week was a long holiday week, starting from wednesday till sunday. November 27th was the Thanksgiving day & November 28th was the Black Friday, in US. India doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, however it is catching up with the American culture in terms of offering deals on Black Fridays. Weeks before Black Friday, advertisers started promoting themselves with Pre-Black Friday sales ad, Black Friday sales ads, and now that the Black Friday is over, Post Black Friday deal ads. The same holds true for Cyber Monday deals too!

The ads do not pertain only to the in-store purchase, but online purchase too. However, being a shopaholic that I am, I end up visiting mall almost every few days. Needless to say, the discounts/deals the brands offered were actually their existing deals. There was no added discount to any of the products. 

Macy's October 2014 Ad

Macy's Thanksgiving Ad

It keeps offering the same deals around the year. And, honestly those deals are not even the real deals because the products are intentionally priced at unaffordable high price and then to promote themselves as a brand offering maximum discounts, they use high numbers. 

So, coming back to Black Friday, I went to Macy's, despite knowing that there wouldn't be much difference in the pricing of the products. Sometimes, you just have little hope in your heart of getting extraordinary deals on the products you intend to purchase. So, I went to Macy's, all decked up with ads on Black Friday deals. The entire store looked decked up like an Indian bride in red attire. However, the bitter reality was that all the online and the physical promotion in the form of fliers, mailers, and leaflets among others was just a way to pull a big crowd during these holidays without actually offering a single "real" deal. 

My point is that whether "real" or "hoax", Macy's, like other store brands earned almost ten times the footfalls, than it would on a regular day. Such promotional ads work brilliantly in fooling people!

Being Cheate-ad

Back in the monsoon of 2011, as I was headed to my work, little did I know that it was going to change my life forever. Before I get into the details, let me tell you all that I used to work in a different city, which would make me travel back to home (Baroda) during weekends, and head back to this city where I worked (Ahmedabad) on early Monday mornings. Unlike others, I would never crib about my work. In fact I would always look forward to Monday mornings as much as I would look forward to Friday evenings, when I would go back to home.

So coming back to the story, it was a wet Monday morning, and I took a 'Rickshaw' and headed to work straight from the bus station. The first thing I would do as soon as I would reach my job, would be to go to the reading area, where that particular day's newspapers would all be laid out for us to read them and find our ads, if any. As I flipped through the pages of the newspaper, I saw one of our ads, with the wrong copy and wrong layout!

Of course this was a mistake on the part of the Client Servicing Executive, who was handling this client, I thought. I was the Copy Writer, who wrote a dozen copies, one of which the client approved, but client servicing personnel sends out the wrong one to the newspaper for printing. So, since it not being me or my team mates' mistake, the least I was expecting was to get a call from my boss. Instead he calls this huge meeting, with all the staff members to the conference room, located right in the center of the office, with glass walls. Everybody, well aware of what was about to follow, looked pretty tense with damn serious facial expressions.

He takes his seat, pours some water in his glass, takes a sip, gives himself a moment before he gets started on addressing the staff. The next thing that we hear is unimaginable. "Did you all find our ad in today's newspaper?", "How did you like it?" And, before anybody could gather the courage to look up and answer him, he says, "The client created that ad..!!!!!!!"

A wave of shock spreads across the room. I stomped off my seat and in a raised voice said, "No, its mine. I made it few months back when we pitched our ideas to them the first time. This ad wasn't created for this newspaper for this week! It was just an idea, to gain them as our client." I repeated to him. My first question being, how did they get hold of this ad and most importantly how could they release it without consulting us?

My boss raises his eyebrows, looks at me in utter confusion and finally questions, "What do you mean?". "I mean what I just said". I reiterate. He calls off the meeting and asks me to see in his cabin. Apparently, he thought the client had to himself create an ad because, we, the creative team couldn't come up with an ad that fulfilled the client's need in an ad. I do not really know if he had a word with the client before he called me.

But, I realized there was some real suspicious activity going on. Having only heard stories of people doing such a thing, here I was in the situation to experience it. To cut the long story short, I soon figured that one of the team members had sold my ad, with my copy and my colleague's layout and made some good money out of it. Everything became crystal clear in my mind, as I walked into my boss's cabin. I told him what would have probably happened and to my surprise, he said he too thought the same. A long discussion, yet another staff meeting (this one being more serious because it included some bombarding and warnings!) and some serious actions followed. I do not wish to get into details of the actions since they were too serious and personal for that other person and the client too.

However, this was a lesson for me and even for the person who indulged in the unethical activity of selling our creative to the client and making some quick money out of it. Trust me, it happens all the time in advertising industry and unless you do not undergo such situations, you wouldn't know how it feels.

Right From Madison Ave!

Katelin Sheffiield, a Social Media Community Manager at Seiden Advertising agency, located on Madison Avenue is the daughter of Barry Sheffield (General Manager, WFDU 89.1 FM) and Judy DeAngelis Sheffield (a 1010 WINS legend). All of 26, Katie has already had so many feathers to her cap. Conversational in Spanish and having traveled to Spain to study Art History, this young lady now develops social media content for Health Quest, the Hudson Valley's largest integrated family of hospitals and health care providers.

It was a rainy Monday morning, and as arranged by Judy Sheffield, who happens to be my colleague at WFDU 89.1 FM, she brings her daughter at 10 past 11. Before I get into the interview details, I would like to mention that Ms. Judy had taken off as her daughter was visiting her after long. She, however, took out couple of hours and drove her daughter to WFDU just for the interview. I couldn't be any less thankful to her. After all who loves coming to work on a day that is supposed to be spent shopping around with daughter!

So, moving forward, as the door to the office opens, I see Judy along with a tall, white woman, with shoulder length golden brown hair, dressed in different shades of black. After the usual greetings, we sit down for the interview. The interview wasn't in a routine question-answer format, but it was more of a conversation.

Here are some of the excerpts from the advertising conversation, we had:

Madison Ave & People:

Katelin: I work in a company that is dominated mostly by females, most of whom are whites. And, sadly it is the same at almost all ad agencies on Madison Ave. You hardly get to see any Blacks or Latinos or even Asians! I hope that Madison Ave, would leave this bias behind and hire people of different colors, not just for low-ranking jobs, but for high-ranking jobs as well. 

Advertising: A reflection of American life:

Katelin: Surely, advertisers these days are trying to reflect the true America, that it is now. Advertisers are now opening up and people are slowly being more acceptable towards people who do not necessarily look like them. For instance, the Cheerios commercial, which reflects a multiracial family. And, then lot of new ads which show people of different ethnic backgrounds, coming on the same platform, enjoying the equal stature as the Caucasians do. 

Advertising Trends:

Katelin: Advertisers are being extremely creative and experimental these days. Look at the Absolut Vodka commercial featuring Spike Jonze, wherein without even once mentioning the brand during the whole ad, the brand successfully conveys a message that people remember for longer time. Advertisers know that people easily get offended when they are hammered continuously without any reason. Hence, they create a nice storyline/message and bring brand into the picture only in the end. 

Advertising Health Quest:

Katelin: Health Quest is the Hudson Valley's largest integrated family of hospitals and health care providers. So, it being a health care entity, we try to create a force of happy healthy movement. We cannot glorify and advertise Health Quest, like we do with other commercial products. We try to communicate healthcare tips through our Twitter & Pinterest accounts. Through our Facebook page, we tell people stories of real people, who have suffered some form of ailment. And, having pictures of them put on Facebook really makes them all excited and happy about their Social Media fame. We also have LinkedIn account, which we use as a platform to give out Hospital news, and talk about our achievements.

My Health Quest Page on Facebook, which Ms. Sheffield handles

Next Advertising Media:

Katelin: It could be Ello! However, looking at its slow start, it seems like it might fade out just like Google Plus. Facebook still seems to be in-thing. Look at the number of sponsored ads on Facebook these days. More than the feeds from the people, we get to see the advertisements (sponsored/paid types) these days. Ads are no longer restricted to the right bar, where they used to be till couple of years back. Facebook has turned completely commercial and advertisers are making the most out of it because, it no longer is a medium for the youngsters, it is used by oldies as well. In fact the fact that we put up patient stories on Facebook, make them want to have their accounts on it. 

Myself with Katelin Sheffield

And, thats how we ended our conversation! Just like her mother, Judy Sheffield, she came across as a really warm person, with a deep understanding about advertising and the ongoing trends. With her unconventional, creative writing style, she wishes to bring a difference to society someday.