Posters - Putting ourselves to the test

Last Friday, May 22, we discussed posters.

Actually, we designed posters to spread awareness about Global Warming. Most of us came up with reasonably good work. Then while each of us were presenting, more ideas fired up. It was a good learning overall as we learned that:

- two heads are better than one, more the merrier and more productive
- discarding ideas even before they are full blown is bad strategy, you just might see your own discarded idea come to life in someone else's hands
- research pays
- earnest research pays handsomely
- getting the brief clear is half the job done
- posters by their very nature demand cursory but arresting attention and should therefore be designed keeping this in mind
- any copy on the poster must be well crafted

Yes! We learned quite a bit that at the end of the meeting we decided to take another look at our posters and clean them up. Chip away at the flab and litter and make them more attention-worthy.

We've even decided to print them and have them placed around office which means we better be scrupulous with our cleaning up and review at the next meeting.

Sparking Breakthrough Creativity in Advertising

"It works!" say most people who have read it and applied its principles. And many of these people have been from outside advertising - poets, painters, engineers, scientists.

James Webb Young describes the workings of the creative process in 5 simple steps.

1. Gather the raw materials - do your research.
2. Go through them meticulously and get your mind to absorb them.
3. Then just let go! Let your unconscious mind work on them.
4. Soon, you'll have your "Eureka!" moment - your idea will reveal itself.
5. Now sit down and give shape and form to your idea.

If you've known or suspected this all along, you must get your hands on his book right away. Here's what one reader says: "Highly recommended for anyone whose profession requires novelty, new ideas, and creativity. Buy - don't borrow - read, re-read, and dog ear this little gem!"

Mo's Wakow!

Here's what Rosser Reeves says:

"Let's say you have $1,000,000 tied up in your little company and suddenly your advertising isn't working and sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family's future depends on it, other people's families depend on it. Now, what do you want from me? Fine writing? Or do you want to see the sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?"

What's your take on this?

Zoozoo Branding: Being an egg head helps break brand clutter, what?

Today’s meeting centered around one of the cutest characters ever made for television commercials - Zoozoos. Someone mentioned that these egg-heads were supposed to be birds. Birds! Imagine! Could birds have been just as endearing?

At the meeting, each of us was supposed to discuss the commercial we liked the best in the series so far. And then trade in related interesting information. This time round the learning was of a different kind.

Most of us came up with bits of information that the others did not know about the Zoozoos. We learned:
- to do our homework!
- that homework helps us contribute meaningfully to a meeting
- that this kind of contribution will win respect
- that we must follow with the homework bit for every meeting, no matter which meeting

We also learned that:
- brand promotions in the age of advertisement clutter must be stand-out-different and not the me-too aping that we see all around
- to be different, the brand promotion must discard limp status quo and explore various means of interesting communication
- exploring uninhibited comes when there are no sacred boundaries or sentinels
- that boundaries are meant to be broken when it comes to effective brand promotion

Actually, being an egg-head, oblivious of branding dogmas helps in thinking outside the box, doesn't it? Is that why a famous agency exhorts its staff to 'walk in stupid' each morning?

Here are examples of out-of-the-box branding; shot live by brand guru Martin Lindstrom.

Comic Perspective - Continued

Perspective. Depth. Mood. Detail. It's all in here. Remember we talked about it before?

Two to Ponder

There are these two pieces that exhort us to come out of whatever that's keeping us from our best. One says 'Think Big'. This one's a poster on our pin up board that's remained there, ignored, for most of the time its been there - which is over a year.

The other one is a wallpaper on our lap top, the one we use for our meetings. It says the obvious - 'Time is precious'. Isn't it sad that we need to be reminded of the same?

Comic Love: Do comics give you an eye for perspective?

The I-didn't-get-a-chance-to-present presenter.

The confident presenter. (No choking up this time). Bravo!

So, do comics give you an eye for perspective? Yes. We think so.

Take any of the great comics and the first thing you'd notice as a designer is the depth of mood and the perspective feel to the whole layout that tells a story of its own even before you read the text. All in a little square space.

That's what we were discussing over our meeting last Friday. We were asked to choose strips and then make a presentation answering the following:

1. Why you like the comic strip.

2. What you learned from it.

3. How you will be using your learning in your work.

This, again, was a learning. We learned:

1. that we must creat the right mood with whatever design we come up with.

2. that we can creat the right mood only if we know what is being conveyed by the design and to whom.

3. that perspective is very important in conveying a mood, especially when you have to bring in even the tiniest bit of detail into your design.

4. that detail is what creates the mood in the first place.

"How to sell more Coke and popcorn"

Does subliminal advertising work?

The first purported case of subliminal advertising was in 1957.

During a screening of the film Picnic, an American market researcher, James Vicary, projected the words ‘Drink Coca Cola’ and ‘Eat Popcorn’ on to the screen for a fraction of a second. The duration of the image was so infinitesimal it could only be picked up subconsciously. During the intermission, the sale of Coke and popcorn rocketed. It appeared that by appealing directly to the subconscious, marketers could change people’s behaviour.

Later, genuine studies have supported James' finding that subliminal messages do have an impact on our subconscious.

A Harvard University experiment, conducted in 1999, showed that simply flashing the words ‘wise, astute and accomplished’ on a computer screen (while playing a computer game) to one group of senior citizens, and the words senile, dependent and diseased to a second group, affected the way the volunteers subsequently walked.

Now, how can we put this to work on the web? For aren't we all, in one way or the other, trying to sell more Coke and popcorn?

Innovation in the time of Recession

Now is the time for innovation!

It's what will see each one of us through in the coming days and pay us handsomely later, once we've sailed through this recession. Now is the time to say "Yes I can!" Now is the time to say no to all barriers. Now is the time to duck the committee, even if it is only a committee in your head, and get the ball rolling.

And why must you duck the committee? Because it's the biggest barrier of all. Because committees and innovation don't go hand in hand.

Committees
- do not have gut feel and no gut either
- want to play it very-very safe
- are afraid to think outside the box
- always procrastinate
- always pass the buck
- are mortally afraid to be wrong

And where there's fear, where there's passing the buck and procrastination, there's mediocrity and deathly inertia, which you can ill afford in trying times like these. That is no playing field for innovation. You know it. We all know it. So what do we do about it? The answer is simple.

Duck the committee! And get your show on the road!

If an idea is worth the while, no matter how radical, run with it. Run the whole mile with it! And then if you have to take the brunt, accept it willingly. If nothing else, you showed courage. Even if you've failed, you've paved the way for others and learned a valuable lesson yourself to make way for improvement and final victory.

If nothing else, you've shown that it's through people like you that an organisation breaks new ground, finds its unique voice, garners respect, wins admiration and thereby grows out of its set confines to blossom into a whole new vibrant entity full of energy and enthusiasm.

[This post is a topical improvement over the original.]

Truth and lies about why we buy

In his fascinating new book - buy.ology - that is creating waves the world over, Martin Lindstrom, takes a deep look at how consumers perceive logos, advertisements, commercials, brands and products. Lindstrom conducted a three-year, $7 million neuromarketing study that measured the brain activity of 2,000 volunteers from around the world. Some of the results confirmed marketing-industry hunches; others flew in the face of conventional wisdom.

Martin found the following:

-- Product placement only works when fully integrated. It works when Coke-bottle-shaped furniture is part of the set design on American Idol, for example. However, when a product is not integrated, such as FedEx packages appearing in the background of Casino Royale, there is no measurable effect with regard to viewer recollection of brand.

-- Cigarette warning labels do not deter smoking but actually encourage smokers to light up. The reason? The 'craving spot' in the brain, is stimulated by the sight of the warning.

-- Contrary to popular belief, sex usually doesn't sell products. But controversies about sex in advertising do Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch are some examples.

-- Traditional advertisements no longer create lasting impressions. By age 66, most people with a TV will have seen nearly 2 million commercials. That makes it hard for an advertisement to increase a viewer's memory of a brand, despite the millions spent.

-- Successful branding functions like religion and attracts zealous followers. Scans using fMRI technology showed that some viewers had the same neurological response to strong brands that they did to religious iconography. Simple rituals, such as putting a lime wedge in a Corona or slowly pouring a Guinness, give the brand added cachet.

-- Subliminal advertising can be highly effective. When watching an advertisement, viewers automatically raise their guard against its message. With subliminal advertisements, viewers' guards are down, so their responses are more direct.

-- Marketing isn't restricted to the visual. Many companies use smells to sell products. Fast-food restaurants and supermarket bakeries use artificial fresh-cooked food smells. Sounds also effect buying. A study showed shoppers purchased French or German wine depending on which nationality's music was playing on store speakers.

It's likely that the information in this book will be used in future marketing campaigns, so even if you aren't in the marketing business, read it.