You There – You Don’t Know Everything

I’m not telling you this to hurt your feelings. I’m telling you because knowing that you know nothing – to paraphrase Socrates – is the only true wisdom. 


When you recognize the unknown, you ask questions. And asking questions illuminates answers. 


For example, ever heard of the Five Whys? It’s a technique originated by Toyota in which you get to the root of a problem by asking "why" five times. Watch a good Five Whys primer from Harvard Business Review below.

But asking questions isn’t just good problem-solving policy. It’s essential to all leadership, creativity and innovation.

The key is to continuously break free from the biases and assumptions that hold back fresh ideas. After all, you know what happens when you assume, right? (It’s the mother of all mistakes.)

That’s why, in B2B marketing just like anywhere else, it always pays to start by challenging your assumptions and asking questions, whether you’re:

•  Launching a product
• Considering a brand extension
• Starting an ad campaign
• Entering a new market
• Going after new customers

What’s the main objective and why? What’s the primary audience? What do they care about? How does what you’re offering make life better for them? And how do those answers fit into a single, clear message for the marketplace?

Those are just some of the questions bouncing around our office as we challenge our inner-know-it-alls and uncover new perspectives.

And now a question for you: What questions do you find helpful in your process?

You Snooze, You Win?

I have a recurring daily appointment on my calendar labeled “nap.”

It’s a joke (sort of). But maybe it shouldn’t be.

In fact, in my post-lunch stupor, I think a little snooze might be just what the doctor ordered—Dr. Sara Mednick, that is (author of “Take a Nap! Change your life.”)

Mednick’s extensive research demonstrates that 30 minutes of shuteye can dramatically improve employee critical-thinking, problem-solving and creative skills.

So a nap can be a big boost to a marketing communications professional, who thrives at the intersection of strategic and creative thinking.

But find me a company that even tolerates napping on the job, let alone encourages the practice.

Seriously, find me one. OK, Google (of course).

Tony Schwartz of the Harvard Business Review believes it’s time for a few more forward-thinking companies to give employee naps a try. By fueling innovation and productivity, naps are “a powerful source of competitive advantage,” Schwartz says.

Is there a better way to keep people at the top of their game? I guess we could try energy drinks instead. We’ve all seen those ubiquitous ads for 5-Hour Energy.

But come on—have you tasted that stuff? Also, do we really need more performance-enhancing drugs?

I’ll keep that nap on my calendar, thank you. And if I do get serious about a regular snooze, I hope it turns out better than George Costanza's attempt.

Resolve to Join the Conversation Online

We’re all trying to grow business without spending too much money. Good thing we have the Internet. Because online, there are all kinds of low-cost opportunities to reach more prospective customers and engage them like never before.

In this unkind economy, you owe it to the future of your company to explore how social networks, blogs, wikis and the like might fit in with your business objectives.

But for most businesses, especially in the B2B realm, Web 2.0 is uncharted territory. So, to get started, the Wall Street Journal has a helpful primer, The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. The piece contains insights and advice from experienced web marketing types.

One key takeaway happens to be one of the most difficult aspects to grasp about the online environment: that the online community directs the conversation. You can’t force the flow, but you can interact with more people and in more ways than ever.

That’s why the WSJ article’s final pointer is also probably the most important: Embrace experimentation. Don’t be afraid to try things out. But along the way, keep analyzing whether the results you’re achieving support your overall strategy.

Li Ning Marketing Coup: Classic Brains over Brawn

Via the Olympics, here’s a great case study into how a company with a much smaller marketing budget can upstage a rival.

Li Ning, a former Olympic medalist who owns the sportswear company that bears his name, did so to Adidas in the opening ceremonies last week in Beijing. Maybe you saw it: Li was the guy who “ran” around the top edge of the stadium and lit the torch.

Some are calling it the ultimate ambush marketing. Adidas paid the big money to be the sole sportswear sponsor, and then Li snuck in and grabbed the spotlight basically for free.

The prospect of taking on competitors the world over can seem pretty overwhelming for smaller to midsize companies. You have to work hard to be more creative. More consistent. More cost-effective. More with less.

But the Li story just goes to show that, even if you don’t have the marketing muscle of the competition, brains can beat brawn on the world stage.

Multitasking: The Enemy of Ideas

Why are you reading this? Couldn’t or shouldn’t you be doing something else?

If you’re like many of us, you may already be doing something else right now, in addition to reading this post. Responding to emails, perusing networking sites, firing off a text message, twittering, talking fast on your mobile.

A good column in the current BtoB Online calls attention to this issue. We euphemistically call it multitasking, but it’s often more like “going through the motions.” All this connectivity is putting us into a weird trance.

It’s not only unproductive; it’s uncreative. For anyone in the business of ideas—and aren’t we all?—this is something to be concerned about. Think of the old saying, “a jack of all trades and a master of none.” Try to do too much at once, and you end up doing nothing of value.

Communications technologies tempt and distract at every turn. But they aren’t going away. Although it’s odd for a blogger to tell readers to tune out the Internet for a while, it’s still good advice. (Next week, we’ll explore how that might even raise your IQ and reading comprehension skills.)

When was the last time at the office that you shut your door—if you have one—and, more importantly, shut down your computer and various handheld tech gadgets for any length of time? These days, to get creative, to really get into it, we probably have to put it on the calendar and set a reminder. Commit to an hour or two per week, maybe, to start.

Go ahead. Just for a few minutes. Put down the mouse, back away slowly, and let the ideas flow.

A New Study Shows Many Are Beginning to Embrace Emerging Media Opportunities. Are You?

“Never before in history has innovation offered the promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” - Bill Gates

Although Mr. Microsoft’s words referred to today’s pace of technological innovation in general, they’re especially relevant in the specific context of new media opportunities. No other period in history has seen the emergence of as many distinctly new media options as the one we find ourselves in today.

But most major advertisers have been reluctant to leave the comfortable embrace of traditional media (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc.). Sure… they’ve talked about and dabbled in new media, but their budgets have remained firmly entrenched in the old stand-bys. However, recent survey data shows that the major players may finally be ready to “put their money where their mouths are.”

According to the 2007 Media Investment Survey conducted by the American Advertising Federation (AAF)—on whose national board I serve—nearly three-quarters of respondents are reserving up to 20% of their media investment budgets for experimentation in the new media ecosystem. In fact, 52% say… “I am more likely to anticipate, prepare for, and get out in front of changes in the media landscape.”

Many recent developments in new media were long-anticipated (TV programs on the internet, text messaging, social media). However, the pace of innovation is such that there several also caught the industry by surprise, including:

• The rush to Second Life-type virtual community space
• The rise of YouTube
• The popularity of mash-ups or Web applications that have more than one source

"Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement."
- William Pollard

All these new options are a boon for the creative output of the advertising industry. In fact, a full 87.4% of respondents believe that media innovations inspire creativity, and they’re willing to invest their budgets to harness that creativity.

When asked about approaches to media planning in the coming year, respondents ranked “I am always open to new ways to use traditional media” highest (at 78 percent), followed by “the right media mix almost always includes a balance of traditional and nontraditional media” (at 75.5 percent), and “the search for new media properties to grow my brand never stops” (at 57.7 percent).

The AAF survey makes it abundantly clear that there will never again be “business as usual” regarding media options available to the advertising and marketing industry. The pace of change is such that those that are not in a constant state of experimentation and will fast find themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage.

The AAF Media Investment Survey 2007 included nearly 1,000 advertising industry leaders, spread across agency (38 percent), media (26.9 percent), advertiser/client (13.6 percent) and other (21.4 percent, composed mostly of suppliers and academics) sectors, with the majority being at the director (19 percent), owner (18 percent) or manager (17.6 percent) level. Nearly 31 percent of participants are part of a team that makes the final media investment decision for their company. A full summary of the survey results can be found here (PowerPoint document, 891k).

***

The Small Business Times' BizBlog posted this entry on their daily blog. Check it out!

Let’s not fall b-to-behind on UGC

Remember when web video used to be a real drag—like a year and a half ago?

We’ve come a long way, baby, thanks to rapidly expanding bandwidth, vastly improved video compression, easy-to-use editing software (see Apple’s iMovie, for example), video search capability on Google and Yahoo, the proliferation of video sharing sites like YouTube … and whatever else you want to blame for the changing times. Today, just about anybody has the wherewithal to record, edit, upload and explore the wonderful world of web video content

The emergence of all these technological developments at once has quickly ushered in a new era of user-generated content, or UGC. It’s what the folks at Time were talking about when they named “You” their Person of the Year for 2006.

And if Time knows about it, well, it’s surely entered the mainstream. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that the Super Bowl broadcast featured some high-profile UGC endeavors, but I will anyway: Doritos, Alka-Seltzer and Chevrolet.

OK, those are all high-profile consumer brands. So what about UGC in B2B? Based on some recent—and, I believe, unique and effective—video work we did for a client’s website, I’ve been thinking a lot more about that. A fellow b-to-b blogger, Rick Short, recently posted a video ad for the company he works for, and it’s quite funny. On another recent post, Rick also comments on whether UGC makes any sense in the b-to-b realm.

There’s still the typical “our clients aren’t ready for this” attitude in many b-to-b circles. It seems we’re always lagging on these fronts, and I understand the reluctance to spend a lot of resources on *unproven* tactics. (Caveat emptor: Always evaluate your video tactics against the overall company brand, goals and objectives.)

But as fast as the UGC phenomenon is moving, we had better do the “Is this right for us?” soul-searching concurrently with some experimentation. All marketing professionals, consumer and b-to-b alike, should be exploring the possibilities. Easily and affordably created and integrated into existing communications, UGC (as well as related web video content such as vlogs and video press releases, etc.) represents an unprecedented, nearly boundless opportunity for company brands to interact with customers, prospects, employees and recruits.

This isn’t a “now UGC it, now you don’t” situation (ouch!). UGC is here to stay, and it’s time to join the fray.

Find Your WOW!

For the last several years, I’ve been visiting the sites of web design firms and creative associations to keep an eye on where web design is going.

I watch for a couple of things: the WOW factor and if it’s actually advancing the brand.

My challenge to you is to visit Favorite Web Awards (click below) and check out a few of the sites. Does the creative drive the brand? Does the tone match the product or service ? It’ll be interesting and help you separate WOW for WOW sake and WOW that drives a brand. Enjoy.

http://www.thefwa.com/

Too many Cooks?

Recently I came across this article featuring comments on the 2006 world cup logo by renowned designer Erik Spiekermann. In the article, Spiekermann faults the design team responsible for the logo with trying to communicate too many messages.

It reminded me of the challenges that often arise via design by committee. Design by committee is a wry term referring to a situation that can happen when a group of entities comes together to produce something. The end results are typically less-than-stellar. You wind up with an end product that everybody can live with, rather than communications that command attention and drive home the desired point(s).

Similar to Howard Halaska’s previous post touting the benefit of a singular message in forming your strategy, design by committee can lead to less-than-stellar creative characterized by:

• Needless complexity
• Internal inconsistency
• Banality (remember the TV show "Friends?")
• Lack of a unifying vision

It is true that we seldom have the luxury of being the one and only person with input into what is being created. Bosses, co-workers, neighbors, clients, family members, etc. want to put in their 2 cents worth. And when some of them are footing the bill, we have to listen.

So how can we avoid producing work that appears to have been designed by committee?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Select a "voice" for the committee—a person who is acutely aware of the group’s goals and has a good sense of design.


2. Try to create an environment that is open to feedback and input, but ultimately let the experts make the decisions and control the design—design is about function as much as form, and suggestions to change one aesthetic thing or another can have a huge impact on the cohesion of the design.


3. Limit the size of the committee—fewer participants means clearer communication, less room for interpretation from one person to another, and better attention to the task at hand. Note that keeping the committee small doesn’t mean forgoing input from others in the organization; it just means not everyone who provides input will have equal weight in terms of their vote. The committee’s job is then to consider and incorporate the input that comes from inside and outside the committee.


4. Let the design team operate outside of the traditional organizational framework—recognize that the design process is far different from the other things happening in the organization and give it the space and opportunity to succeed. Treating design like just another corporate function will stifle its success.

If you need proof of the success achieved when avoiding design by committee, look to the origin of one the world’s most recognized symbols.

Lessons Learned from a Lifetime of Competitive Sailing

...And how they apply to business.

I’d like to share some observations that help sailboats win races and may, on some level, help you with your business or department or important initiative.

GET YOUR NOSE OUT OF THE BOAT. The skipper and navigator should spend very little time policing the crew. Instead they should look up the lake for wind shifts, keep track of the competitors and plan strategy. “Hire” the right crew and let them keep the boat responsive. Often works the same in successful businesses.

TACKING FOR CLEAR AIR. When a boat is in a pack of several others, many times tacking away from them to get clear can make a big difference. Often works in successfully positioning your company or product.

THE NAVIGATOR IS REALLY THE “NAVA-GUESSER”. Each competitor on the racecourse has a nava-guesser -- the one person who makes the strategic call. We all make mistakes, most of them go unnoticed….not so with the nava-guesser. This person needs, among other things, thick skin and the ability to recognize a mistake and act immediately to correct it. Often works that way for those in leadership positions.


I wish I had time to share more of these with you, but we have a practice race tonight. We race an “A” boat on Pewaukee Lake, home of the largest “A” fleet in the world. We have some video footage of us during a regatta last year on Green Lake. Click here for a look.

Howard Halaska
President , Creative Director

The NAME GAME

We do a fair amount of company and product naming assignments for our clients. The next time you’re involved in a naming project, you may find the following observations useful:

Build your “naming committee” carefully. Only the key decision-makers should be involved. These people have the vision and are directly responsible for the company or product name. This will be one of the most important moves you make in the process.

No false starts. The naming committee should agree on the key message the name
needs to communicate. No creative work should begin until this is agreed upon.

Mum’s the word. Keep the name in the committee. This is critical. You can unwittingly kill potentially great names by running a “word” by someone in the hallway—either at the office or at home.

Take the phone test. Listen to someone speak the name over the phone. Is it clear? Easily understood? Do the words run together and form some other unintended word? Yup…this is low tech…but very important and effective.

Don’t skimp on legal help. Is the name you like clean? Or would your use infringe on someone else’s claim? Don’t leave it to chance. Do a preliminary trademark search using the United States Patent and Trademark Office search site. Check Google and/or another general use search engine for usage. If there’s a well-traveled portal or two in your key vertical markets, search there as well. While these are good first steps, your final choices (don’t fall in love with just one) should be vetted by an attorney to make sure they’re clean.

SET MY CREATIVE FREE! — Or, how integrated marketing liberates creative

Effective marketing communications (note the “s” in communications) takes many forms. Integrating your story into the appropriate mix of media helps break down the messaging into meaningful and digestible pieces. When you avoid an “info-dump” in any one medium, you increase your chance of pulling the prospect through to the close.

Case in point? I was paging through the April 17th issue of Fortune magazine and noticed an ad for KeyBank. It appears the “info-dump” strategy won and their pricey ad has all the stopping power, persuasiveness and focus of a sell sheet. Lots of copy—I mean, LOTS OF COPY. But next to nothing that compels you as a reader to stop and read the copy or remember the ad, let alone take any action with the advertiser.

Note here that the quality of the creative you’ll be investing in is largely shaped before it gets to the creative people.

Focusing in on clear and concise messaging and using the appropriate mix of media increases your odds of producing creative that’ll leave you stunned, amazed and left gasping for breath.

In the same issue of Fortune, you’ll also see a great example of someone doing it right. Acura obviously focused on a single message and charged the creative people to bring it to life in a big way. They did. To the point where I was compelled to visit their website where I got much more detail. Nice strategy…use compelling creative to drive traffic to another medium. Then use that medium to begin selling and building a relationship.

Keep It Simple and Great Creative Will Follow

Sound strategy + singular message = great creative.

Simple, right? You’d be surprised. When an agency lets a flabby strategy go to the creative department, the outcome will most certainly be flabby creative.

You know you’re there when the conversation after the creative presentation goes something like this:

Client: Nothing really WOWS me.
Agency: Really? What do you mean?
Client: Nothing here captures what I want to say.
Agency: Are we trying to say too much?
Client: Maybe….but bring back more creative...I’ll know it when I see it.

More creative? Don’t even begin to think about it until you’ve outlined—in writing—a sound strategy and a single-minded message. And secured buy-in on both from the client. That way, client and agency alike are sure where they’re headed and what to expect from resulting creating.

Absent a sound strategy and single message, creative directors can’t direct. Writers and art directors can’t create. Account people can’t evaluate. And clients can’t decide whether or not the agency has nailed a creative idea.

Clients often resist narrowing the message because “everything is important.” Any agency worth its salt will help zero in on a single, compelling selling premise with supporting copy points—and do whatever it takes to help clients see that they’re best served by keeping the premise behind the big idea as compact as possible.

Beyond causing frustration for all involved, “backing into" a creative solution can be very costly for client and agency.

Start from a well-grounded strategy and a narrow, clearly articulated message, and the creative process can’t help but produce ideas that are on-strategy. Because once strategically sound ideas have been delivered, the only challenge becomes which concept do we all think will resonate with the target audience?

And that’s a great place to be.