change  October 5, 2010

The Creative Director's Perspective

Jon Anderson, Creative Director

In the early days of my career, I stuck to my silo. Creative was my only domain, and the Sales team was a distant afterthought – as distant as the far side of Pluto. After all, I was an Art Director fresh out of design school, and I was completely focused on conjuring up brilliant concepts, winning awards, and getting a job.

As the years wore on, I heard from Strategists and CMOs about their business strategy and realized there was a huge gap between Sales and Marketing. Creative would often present to a room full of executives, and Sales would consistently struggle with creative direction.

It felt as if Sales and Marketing were on different planets.

This is a struggle as old as advertising itself – one that challenges even the best of companies. It trickles all the way down to the creative process. By the time the Creative team presents their work, the Sales team typically has little connection to it. On the other extreme, when Sales has too much influence in the creative process, the result is typically an over-the-top, hard-sell message featuring concepts that would be best served on a toilet paper roll.

The good news is that there's a fairly straightforward way to include the Sales team in the creative process while ensuring the creative product will be sophisticated and savvy. Just follow these steps.

#1 Identify Sales’ pain points
Hold a meeting to find out what Sales’ biggest challenges are and how Marketing might be able to help address them. Now, there won’t necessarily be a Marketing solution to every Sales challenge, but just listening and brainstorming can be amazingly helpful. For example, if Sales is receiving too many unqualified leads, perhaps Marketing can build a better pre-qualification tool into the company’s landing pages.

#2 Get the Creative team involved
The Creative team should spend some time brainstorming and present some ideas on how to address Sales' issues. The results can be surprising: a microsite that has a fun ROI calculator, a Facebook campaign that promotes a new Sales initiative, or a mailer to hot C-level prospects.

#3 Include Sales’ solvable issues in the Creative Brief
This is huge. Assuming there’s a good creative brief for all projects (there should be!), be sure to include Sales’ pain points. Make sure the Sales team signs off on the brief. This will not only give the Creative team insight into Sales’ issues, but will also influence the final creative product.

#4 Refer to Sales’ pain points during the creative presentation
When the Creative team presents their work, be sure to explain how it addresses Sales’ specific issues outlined in the brief, and how it might provide more qualified leads. Now, instead of Sales feeling like a third wheel, they’ll realize they have a stake in the game.

No matter what you do, Marketing and Creative won't solve all of Sales’ problems. But you can make an enormous difference by listening and being inclusive. And once you have a couple of successful campaigns under your belt, you may find that your whole relationship with Sales has changed – for the better.

Sean Shoffstall, Director of Product Marketing

I believe the answer to this question is obvious – and yet you’ll hear a wide range of opinions depending on who you ask. This is a hot topic within the Marketing Communications Group on LinkedIn, with people all over the world chiming in. Of course, the answer ultimately depends on your marketing needs.

I think a more useful question to ask is, “How can you integrate print into your marketing mix?” Print has reinvented itself to remain a viable marketing tactic in the digital age. It’s just too bad more marketers don’t realize this.

Today, as part of an overall marketing strategy, you can deliver personalized direct mail messages to your customers and give them an experience similar to a personalized email message. If you marry the digital piece with Personal URLs (PURLs), driving recipients to personalized landing pages, they can receive relevant offers and information, from multiple channels, in a real-time manner.

Like email, digital direct mail relies on knowing your customer segments. In either medium, if you send out the same generalized message to a 20-something college student and a 70-year-old retiree, both will probably judge your message as irrelevant and ignore it. So, you must know your segments and send them targeted messages. Print also gives you an opportunity to provide someone with a true tactile experience. This can be anything from a complex, pop-up-book style message (see, even print has pop-ups) to a C-level mailer printed on fine linen paper.

Our other print friends, the magazine ads and bus stops, needn’t worry about becoming irrelevant. They can be part of the mix too. With QR Codes (2d bar codes) and digital printing, we can now drive and track responses from specific display placements. Working with the right publishers, you can also conduct A/B/n testing with your offline ads and start seeing results in your online analytics program the day a campaign drops. The same testing rigor applies online and offline: always test your creative, placement, and copy to drive higher response rates.

Lastly, remember that in today’s online/offline world, it’s all about integrated marketing. We incorporate social media with our email campaigns, use telemarketing to follow up on trade show leads, and send an up-sell email after someone purchases from a store. Print can be a part of the introductory messaging, the follow-up response, or anything in-between.

MINI (maker of the Cooper, not the mouse) does a great job of integrating the follow-up experience with email and direct mail. After you purchase your new sport go-kart, MINI continues the experience by sending you a personalized print media kit that keeps you involved with their brand. Shortly after, they start email campaigns that mirror the dynamics and quirkiness of the printed kit and keep that brand experience going.

So is print viable? Most definitely – and with a digital marketer’s touch, it can be more effective than ever and give you greater insight through detailed tracking. So, roll the presses!

Vanessa Bianco, Account Coordinator

Pete celebrates his 100th birthday.

Happy Birthday Pete!

Pete is the old timer around the office and he's has a thing or two to show these youngsters... and he'll show 'em once he's finished licking clean any and all garbage receptacles.

Pete is also hearing impaired and has been his entire adult life. Pete communicates with ASL.

Likes: 
Ice cubes, carrots, nutro natural choice lamb & rice, sniffin', love from anyone, fayes video, Dolores Park, Marc.

Dislikes:
 Anyone touching his paws, having to share with other dogs, anytime Marc moves from sight.

Favorite Toy:
 Toys? Come on, just let me at that bone.

Tricks:
 Using his tail to knock over drinks at parties.

Click here to see all the Ozone Pooches.