I’ve been exposed to the advertising and media world ever since we started Netccentric some 9 years ago now. I started with a blank slate. I didn’t know anybody let alone anything about the industry. I didn’t even know what the difference was between a creative or media agency is.
Over the years though I’ve learned more and more about the global multi-billion dollar advertising industry that giants like Google or Facebook build their fortunes on. The one thing I’ve found myself to really enjoy is pitching campaign ideas to clients. Something most if not all advertising folks do at one point or another of their lives.
With guidance from the more senior people in the industry, I’ve learned quite a number of things. Some mistakes I used to make myself.
- Pitching the use of a new medium is NOT a campaign idea.
We live in a world where technology constantly gives advertisers new ways to reach an audience. For the longest time we’ve only had TV, radio, print and outdoor. This went on for decades.
In the past decade alone we’ve seen MySpace, Friendster, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and now Snapchat, Periscope, Dayre… the list goes on.
The mistake we sometimes make in this industry is when pitching a new campaign idea to a client we go
“Lets use Periscope for this. No brand has used Periscope yet in Malaysia”.
It’s great to be at the forefront of new technology but make no mistake about it. Using Periscope or any new app isn’t a campaign idea. It’s a medium. (And no… augmented reality is not a campaign idea or a big idea).
So what is a campaign idea? This brings me to my second point.
2) Campaign ideas come from delivering a simple message.
My inspiration of this is the TV series Mad Men. It’s a series about a fictional advertising agency in the 1960s, a time where there was no internet, no mobile phones. Just TV, Print and Radio. That’s all they had to reach the customers of their clients.
With all those distractions of other mediums out of the way the advertising people there sold their ideas on one thing and one thing alone. A simple message that people can associate with a brand.
Think about it. What are the most successful brand campaigns you remember today? In Malaysia it’s the DiGi Yellow Man that had one simple message “I will follow you”.
Globally my favorite is “The man your man could smell like” (Old Spice) or Dove (the Campaign for Real Beauty).
Simple messages work because people can remember them, especially so if that simple message resonates with them somehow. Years ago T-Mobile did a really successful flash mob as an ad campaign. Their team and message “Life is for sharing”. About people at that flash mob taking videos with their phones and sharing it with their friends.
Right after that brands all over the world did their own flash mobs but few of them if any tied the flash mobs to any brand message.
Ask any consumer if they remember the flashmob. Chances are you might get a yes. Ask them if they remember which brand did it and what that brand was trying to say. I’m sure you’ll get a NO.
On the other hand, if you’re in Malaysia, say the words “I will follow you” to 10 people and a good number of them will on their own accord associate it with “DiGi”.
3. Noisy slides in Presentations
Another inspiration I got from Mad Men was how simple their slides was. To make a point it was just one picture and then storytelling. And then another picture and then storytelling.
In a world where we often send powerpoint slides as proposals, we forget that they both have really different purposes. Slides for presentations need to be simple so that the audience is focused on listening to the presenter. Slides for proposals though need to pack in all the details.
The trouble of course is that most advertising folks are constrained when it comes to time so we often combine the presentation slide and the proposal slide. In an ideal world though, the presentation slide really doesn’t need to be that complicated.
Look at how Don Draper presents here in Mad Men. Simple slides. Powerful storytelling.
4. Over-fluffing it
Now that we’re a listed company a lot of my work now involves dealing with lawyers, bankers and people from various different industries. I gotta say advertising folks tell a story best and tend to have the nicest slides too.
The one thing advertising people do a little too much sometimes though is fluffing things up. Yes some fluff is accepted to make a story or an idea more exciting but I’ve seen presentations with so much fluff you’d think this pet here was bald.
Clients and brand managers are more educated in recent years too when it comes to technology so fluffing digital ideas backfire. Heck there are some clients you can’t bullshit whether it’s digital or not.
One such person I’ve known during my time is a lady named Su Lin. Everybody knows not to fluff her and not to bullshit her because she will see right through it and shoot you down faster than a Japanese Zero in the Battle of the Philippines Sea.
5. Getting lost in all the other success metrics when really the main purpose of a brand advertising is….
SALES. Not likes. Not followers. Not views. Not comments. None of that. Just sales.
Sure it’s hard to track these things when you’re doing one tactical campaign and you’re one cog in the entire machinery that influences sales in a company but in any idea we do… don’t forget that the end long term goal (maybe not the immediate) is often sales or revenue.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space