creative
Lose the battle, win the war.
13/07/10 13:39 Filed in: Gareth Lloyd
I’ll confess something. I’ve done some work in my time that has really bombed. Packs that have flopped fantastically, emails that have had virtually no response. It happens. And, more importantly, it should happen. Because if you’re not trying new things, testing new customer propositions and alternative communications channels, you’re not learning.
You really do have to fail sometimes to succeed.
This is why when we present work we always try to show some ‘out there’ ideas along with our more sensible, practical ones. We want to make our clients think even harder about what they are doing, what they could be doing and what they could test doing.
Of course not all these ideas will work, but some will, and often spectacularly so. And it is worth the investment in such successes, because they can fundamentally shift the way a client takes it marketing forward. By means of example, we once helped a client with a terribly apathetic audience succeed in getting 60% of this audience to respond to an email. And not because we were offering any kind of incentive, but because the way we told their story was so much more appropriate.
So if you want a creative agency fighting on your side, please give Daisy a call.
Every office needs its dogsbodies
22/06/10 11:51 Filed in: David
Edwards
Life in a small agency can be hectic. Briefs come in, you have your head down, busy, busy busy. Existing projects need your attention, clients need to be met, new business needs to be thought about, blogs written. So how do you ensure you keep the ideas fresh, especially when your product is fresh ideas? In Daisy’s case, that’s where Harry and Rhubarb come in. They sit quietly under our desks most of the day (Rhubarb – on the right - is getting on a bit now so he likes his naps), but come midday they need out. And that’s when most of our best thinking happens.
Hot housing is ok, but the really great ideas tend to grab you when you’re in a relaxed frame
Want to meet Harry and Rhubarb?
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Emarketing and the rebirth of client creative
20/05/10 14:04 Filed in: Gareth Lloyd
As Bill Bernach (founder of DDB and one of the true greats of advertising) once said, “It is one thing to have a selling proposition and quite another to sell it.”
I wonder then what Mr Bernbach would have made of today’s emarketing solutions providers that have given clients the tools to do their own online campaigns? For while the software these companies provide is good, they seem to be missing the point that they are facilitating ‘client creative’. And this simply won’t sell as well as ‘creative creative’.
Effective communication requires far more than adapting an email template to your corporate guidleines, pasting in some copy and uploading the result to a server for digital dissemination. If you need to convey a marketing message in a way that will engage your recipient, you need to have the skills to tell your story well. Key thoughts have to be communicated clearly, key needs identified and answered. Visuals have to be chosen well and used in the right way.
These are the skills clients choose agencies to provide. Which is why you don’t see many clients picking up a digital camera to make their own TV ads. Or a microphone to make their own radio ads. Clients know their product and their markets, but it is creative people who bring the two together. So while Emarketing software is a great new tool for companies, you don’t have to be a Bill Bernach-like genius to understand that client creative will undermine its effectiveness.
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Tech the power back
07/04/10 16:50 Filed in: David
Edwards
Have you noticed how similar email marketing is becoming? Why does it appear that everyone is working off the same template of image box, copy box, image box, copy box. My personal suspicion is that we are letting the techies rule the roost, scared of encountering a wrinkled furrow should one dare to suggest a design that might be heresy to their HTML bible.
Be warned though. If we continue to abandon the principle of thinking of ideas not formats then it will be the brands we promote that ultimately suffer. Programming is one thing, effective creative work quite another. After all, when was the last time an ad agency asked a printer to come up with a big idea?
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