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How to avoid being the next Groupon/Tibet disaster

Published February 12, 2011 Brand , Business , Copywriting , Freelance Writing , Marketing Leave a Comment
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We all know Groupon blew it with their Superbowl ad. (If you missed it, here’s a good recap of the brouhaha by University of Colorado journalism instructor Sandra Fish.) Now the CEO has finally admitted it too–better late than never.

Rather than cover the blow-by-blow error of Groupon’s–and their ad agency’s–ways, let’s talk about how you can make sure your next campaign doesn’t suffer a similar fate:

1. Choose your reviewers wisely. Whether you’re working with in-house or agency creative teams, it can be easy to get swept away with a concept or idea and forget about what really matters: what your audience thinks.

In any size company, it’s important to have checks and balances built into the review process. That means hand-picking a few select reviewers with different perspectives–the yin and yang of your best people. Choose trusted people who know and understand your audience, and aren’t afraid to tell you what they really think.

While it’s good to choose stakeholders who understand marketing and good creative, it’s also ideal to include at least one conservative person as a litmus test. If that person recoils at your campaign, you don’t have to start over, but you should consider the ramifications if a majority of your audience responds the same way.

Bottom line, if you’re taking a risk–working in a new medium, testing a new strategy, dabbling in humor when you normally don’t–the more eyes, the better.

2. Use humor sparingly but wisely. Humor in marketing is like prescription-strength Retin-A for your face–more is not necessarily better. Groupon’s email copy relies on cheeky, sassy verbiage, which is a balancing act on the best day. But throw in a cause or charity or, as Fish put it, “a beleaguered people,” and you are crossing into dangerous territory. It’s like this Oatmeal cartoon about a brain tumor; Matthew Inman wisely thinks ahead to what some in the audience may think, so he starts with an explanation/disclaimer.

But he’s not selling something. You can’t add a disclaimer to a TV commercial about the humor. Great creative executions are like toilets–they should just work. No instructions. No explanations. No disclaimers.

3. Don’t assume. Remember the “Don’t assume or it makes an Ass out of You and Me” phrase? Fish’s article reports that one of the agency creatives responsible for the ad tweeted, ”Pretend to be upset by our #groupon ad, but we got people talking about Tibet & are donating money. More than what you’re doing.”

Wow. This tweet was retweeted a few times before it was deleted, but this defensive attitude says, “We don’t care if we upset or shocked you; we raised money and who cares if you don’t like how we did it.” This is arrogant, callous and unethical–hardly qualities you want associated with your brand, let alone your people.

This is what PR people are for–and why the best response from everyone else is no response. But at the end of the day, don’t assume that your attitude, approach or humor is shared by all. And never, ever assume that people will forgive you for a misstep just because you are a big brand or popular today. It could a blip on the radar–or it could signal the beginning of the end.

4. Sleep on it. Research shows that your brain often works on solving problems while you’re sleeping or engaged in a different activity–even when you’re not actively thinking about the problem.

If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat about a decision you’ve made, or if the problem keeps you up at night, that’s your brain’s way of saying–hold on, cowboy. Let’s think about this some more. Respect your brain’s time to process ideas and consider all the possible outcomes. Before you say, “Approved!”, sleep on it.

5. Be true to your brand AND your audience. When your brand tries to be something it’s not, or if you even think the creative is trying too hard, it’s a warning sign that you’re treading into dangerous territory.

Above all else, remember your marketing objective and your audience. If you even remotely think people could be offended or turned off by your creative, you should take a step back and think carefully about the potential fall-out.

6. Be prepared. If after all this you still decide to move forward with your creative execution, make sure you are ready to respond to both negative and positive reactions. By thinking through the potential outcomes ahead of time, you can respond quicker and more appropriately to the good or the bad.

Now that I’ve told you all of this, I’m going to say something that sounds contrary: don’t be afraid to take risks. A well-executed creative campaign could be just what the doctor ordered for your brand. By following these simple steps, you can help avoid being a case study of what NOT to do and avoid having to apologize to the Tibetan people and the world at large.

Marketing Campaign Creative: Are you guilty of these 5 subjective sins?

Published January 20, 2011 Brand , Copywriting , Creative Life , Design , Marketing 2 Comments
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Everyone’s got an opinion, but when it comes to creative work, those subjective opinions, biases and perceptions can get in the way of great creative work and hamper the whole process.

Here are 5 subjective “sins” that come up most often:

1. Anti-Feet. One client I worked with hated feet. As a b2b company in the analytics business, there was very little reason for us to SHOW feet in the first place, but his preference was so strong that it became an unwritten rule in the brand standards. If we wanted to show people, we had to show them from the waist up.

This reduces the number of images designers have to choose from and slows down the creative process.

Designer:  “LOOK! This image of a couple walking down the path conveys everything we want perfectly: warmth, joy, energy. It’s perfect!”

Marketing Manager: “No, wait. That guy’s foot is showing.”

Designer: “I’ll photoshop it out!”

Marketing Manager: “No, then he’ll look like he has no feet and then You Know Who will start thinking about his feet and it’s all over. Search again.”

Designer: &*%#$%^

2. The Purple Bias. There are some people who absolutely hate one color or another, sometimes for no good reason. Just because. In my experience, it’s most often purple. Oftentimes this hated color is in the brand’s color palette, but no one realizes it because someone has decided that they hate it and it can never be used.

What’s the point of having a palette if you’re only going to use 2 of the 8 colors? That’s like wearing only black and white every day of your life. It works for some people, but for others, it just gets boring. Sometimes a good shot of purple is just what your brand needs.

3. Real People. When there’s no money or true need for a photo shoot, stock photos from places like iStock and Getty fit the bill nicely–except when someone gets hung up on the people in the photos. Other times, people don’t realize that stock photos are just that–stock, off the shelf–and you end up throwing design concerns to the wind and focusing more on personal reactions like:

“But these people don’t look like us!” (Exactly.)
“I don’t like that guy’s beard. It’s creepy.” (Beard bias)
“I thought you were going to find an image of 7 guys in our company jerseys playing softball with the company mascot in the corner!!” (Repeat after me: stock photos)

4. The Parakeet Syndrome. Another common problem is when people like a certain subject to show up in all images–say, kids or parakeets–and insist on using those types of images, and only those types of images, for their brand.

For example, if you own a pet store, then sure, images of parakeets or dogs are fine. If you’re going for a concept that conveys, say, working like a dog or feeling caged in, OK, there’s a connection there between the concept and the visual. Note: This is not like choosing a brand mascot, such as the Geico Gecko (nice alliteration there, by the way).

But be wary of anyone who wants to feature parakeets on every ad  just because they like parakeets, especially if it has nothing to do with their business or the big idea driving your campaign. There should be a reason, or method, behind the madness.

5. We Want to See Real People! There are times when using “real” people works–say, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty or casual YouTube videos. And then there are times when using “real” people screams cheesy and low budget. If you’ve ever seen a TV commercial where a car dealership owner speaks in a monotone at the screen or an athlete is clearly fixated on the teleprompter, you know what I’m talking about.

If you want to use real people in your photos or videos, ask yourself why. If it’s because that’s all you can afford, that’s OK. But you must choose employees or customers who have good presence–they speak clearly and articulately, have energy, and look natural there in front of the camera. It’s important to find someone who fits the part. That’s why there are talent agencies–it’s all about finding the right fit.

Just remember, all art and creative is subjective. But when it comes to marketing, staying true to your concept and your brand is what’s most important–leave the Purple and Beard Bias at home.

Could you be the next Steve Jobs?

Published January 19, 2011 Business , Creative Life , Social Commentary , Work Life 2 Comments
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Now that Apple’s Steve Jobs has announced he is taking another medical leave of absence, there’s been a frenzy of chatter in the media about what will happen to Apple without him. My favorite analysis of a “Job-less” Apple is this well-thought out FastCompany article, How Apple Could Fall Without Steve.

It balances Job’s strengths (vision, energy) and weaknesses (odd resistances, such as the Adobe/flash debate, firewire vs. USB) and how Apple would fare without him at the helm. The author also rightly acknowledges that “Jobs isn’t the only genius in the world.”

And that got me thinking: how does one individual become so intertwined with a company that the two become almost one? It’s hard to tell what came first, the Apple or the Jobs. But Jobs’ vision, energy and passion is inspiring and drives the business. You either love or hate Apple (and Jobs for that matter), but there’s no denying that Apple is the darling of the technology world at this moment. But now everyone is wondering if, and how, his absence might change everything.

Are you the next Steve Jobs?
Whether you work in technology, retail, marketing, construction or any other industry, do you have what it takes to be a Steve Jobs? You don’t need to be Jobs to be considered integral to your company or business–but you do need to be considered valuable. Resourceful. Visionary. Passionate. You need to bring that je ne sais quoi to your work that makes people care whether you stay or go.

Coming out of one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, we’ve all learned that we are replaceable. Heck, even Jobs is replaceable, although the results are debatable. So we’re all looking for ways to make ourselves as irreplaceable as possible, to make people worry about what would happen next if we were gone.

“A hundred years from now? All new people.”
Anne Lamott

So knowing that there will be all new people 100 years from now, how do you make your mark today? (Surely Jobs thinks of this as he battles pancreatic cancer.) And when I say that, I don’t mean, how do you drive a company to billions of dollars in profit. I mean, what drives you? What do you care about? How can you become a visionary leader in your own life or job?

Off the top of my head, I think it requires these six things:

Have a vision. Take time to think about your vision for the future. What is your ideal job? What are you doing daily? What does that look like? What’s the big picture for you? For your job? For your industry as a whole? Anticipate a trend; visualize how you see things going. Then stay true to your vision until it happens or until it doesn’t feel right anymore or you have reason to believe otherwise. You can always tweak your vision. But if you’re working without one, you might as well be walking around blind-folded.

Innovate. What problem, big or small, drives you crazy? How can you solve it? What’s missing in the world and why? What can you do about it? What is something you’d like to change? Companies that don’t take a risk or change or continue to produce new ideas grow stagnate or become followers more than leaders. (Microsoft, anyone?)

The same is true for people. When was the last time you took a chance, whether it’s speaking up at the staff meeting or exploring that new product idea you’ve been toying with for years? Be bold. Be daring. Be creative.

Listen. What are people talking about? What do they want? Based on what you hear and know, what do you think people want that they haven’t even articulated yet? For Jobs, it was good design, innovation and products that “just work.” This will also help you know when it’s time to change course or reshape your vision. After all, just because it’s your vision doesn’t mean it’s right or the that the world is ready for it.

Find your passion. I can’t imagine anything worse than waking up every day feeling dead inside because you don’t love what you do. If you don’t feel inspired or challenged, if you’re just going through the motions, think about what you wanted to be when you were 10 years old. Remember what you liked to do with your time and energy before “real life” kicked in.

Find some way to incorporate that passion into your day right now, this very minute. Watch the color come back into your face and into the world around you.

Believe. In yourself, in your idea, in the fact that you can make it work. Because trust me, there are going to be days when no one believes in you, including yourself. You’re going to lose faith. You’ll question yourself, doubt your decisions, especially when the going gets tough. But if you can reach into your heart and say with all honesty, “This is what I believe in,” and hear it answered back to yourself, you’ll get through it.

This is also about believing in people around you. If you surround yourself with good people–the right people–you will have others to lean on when you lose faith. Ideally, these people will call you out on your bullshit. They won’t just tell you what you want to hear. You should believe in them too, because belief goes both ways.

Fail. Taking a chance, risking something, putting yourself “out there”–it’s scary. It doesn’t feel good to fail, so most of us avoid it at all costs. But you can survive it. You can’t get to the next level or the next big idea or where you’re supposed to be if you don’t fail once in a while. No one is perfect, not even Steve Jobs. Apple TV isn’t quite where it needs to be yet, for example.

But if you are willing to take a chance on something you believe in–if you give yourself permission to try, and you fail–whatever “failure” means to you–you’re a winner because you had the guts to try. You can always change your dream or change your course, but if you never try because you were too afraid, that’s the saddest failure of all.

Money, blue collar roots and butt steak: lessons my father taught me

Published January 12, 2011 Essays , Social Commentary 4 Comments
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I took my father out for dinner this weekend for his birthday. He is 79 and I can write about him here because he would think I said “frog” not “blog” and then I would spend 20 minutes trying to explain to him what a blog was. My dad is a steel mill guy. He has never used a computer. His hands are now so arthritic and knobby that it’s hard for him to use his cell phone. I can’t leave him voice mails because he doesn’t know how to check his voice mail and I’ve given up trying to explain it. Needless to say, he won’t be checking my blog anytime soon.

It was an old-school steak restaurant in Northwest Indiana, close to his house, that still has a coat room and serves $30 steaks and iceberg lettuce salads. It used to be one his favorite restaurants to bring my mom. There were still Christmas lights on the plants. My husband and I, at 41, were the youngest couple in the place.

My son sat across the table looking pissy as I tried to get him to pick something off the menu, my daughter is babbling about her science fair project, my husband is ordering a kiddie cocktail (for himself) and appetizers, while all I know is that the restaurant has salmon, because my dad keeps asking me every 30 seconds what I’m going to order, which means I can never get past the first entrée on the menu.

So I tell my dad to order anything he wants. New York Strip, filet mignon, appetizers. I know his budget is tight, so he doesn’t come to this restaurant much anymore.

“It’s your birthday!” I say. “It’s my treat! Splurge!”

“Okay,” he says, rubbing his hands together eagerly. He looks very handsome in a spiffy sweater with a shirt and tie underneath. He picks up the menu and he peers at it through his bifocals. His hands shake a little.

The waitress appears.

“What will you have?” she says.

He orders the butt steak, one of the toughest and cheapest cuts of meat on the menu. Some things never change.

“Dad!” I plead. “Come on, don’t you want a nicer cut of meat? What about a filet?”

“That’s $30, Chris,” he says and waves me away. “I like butt streak.”

“Right,” I say.

“I do!” he insists. “It’s the cow’s butt!”

Then he lets loose a big whooping laugh and punches me in the shoulder.

After dinner, my dad thanked me profusely, saying the butt steak was delicious. As we waited for the kids to put their coats on and stop bickering, he pointed at a photo on the wall of a 1950′s red Cadillac convertible. He whistled and said, “Look at that.” I asked him when was the last time he went ballroom dancing. He said, oh, not for a long time. Many of the bands and halls he used to frequent are no longer around. Now he spends most of his time at the nursing home, visiting his wife who has Alzheimer’s.

On the way home, I watched the cities and lights roll past in the dark. The day my father told me that I was making a higher salary than he ever had in 37 years working at the mill, I didn’t know what to say. We’d never talked much about money before, but as he gets older and his social security budget gets tighter, he’s asking more questions about how much things cost, what I spend on the nice salsa I bought for him, etc. My salary isn’t excessive by any means, and in this economy, I’m happy to be working.

Yet–being the first person in my working-class family to go to college, I am keenly aware of how different my life could have been. Seeing my dad now is a reminder of how quickly life can change, how quickly a job, money, friends, your whole way of life, can disappear. The only constant in life is change. It’s a reminder to live carefully and sometimes, order the butt instead of the filet.

Life has passed my father by. I have passed my father by. I know things, have experienced things, that he never will because he doesn’t have a college degree, he missed the technology boat completely, and is closer to the end of his life while I am more in the middle. That’s why I want my dad to enjoy a good steak, to splurge a little. He deserves it.

My husband said that’s the way it goes. Parents always want better for their kids than they had. I know he’s right. I am grateful to my parents for helping me get to this point in my life, for all the sacrifices they’ve made, which I am only now, at 41 and a parent of two, slowly coming to understand deeply and more clearly than ever before. I like to think that if my mother were here, she’d be happy to see what I’ve accomplished.

Now if I can just convince my dad that he doesn’t have to order butt steak next time around, then I’ll feel like I’ve really made it.

Beyond resolutions: 3 questions for a more fulfilling, creative new year

Published December 31, 2010 Uncategorized 2 Comments

My mom loved to say, every day is a new day. In other words, you don’t have to wait for a new year or month or Monday to start over. But a new year feels like the right time to start fresh, especially if you’ve had a rough year. You have 12 whole months ahead of you to create the life you REALLY want. Only problem is, how are you going to get there?

Many people make resolutions. You might be great at resolutions. Not me. It sets me up for failure. I’ve tried some very elaborate new year “plans” that included complicated Excel spreadsheets, heavy reading, and lots of time I didn’t have. But inevitably, I fell off the resolution wagon and ended up right back where I started.

That’s why I prefer to look at the new year as time to “get my house in order.” I simply ask myself three simple questions that help me find alignment personally and professionally. No spreadsheets required. All you need is a little quiet time to sit and think, without interruption. Maybe a journal or sketch pad, too.

Here goes:

1. What do I long for? Beyond things, this question is meant to get at the heart of what’s missing in your life. Think about this past year, and remember the times when you were depleted, sad or angry. What prevented you from going to your creative work? What made you overeat or shop compulsively? Many times, below the surface of those actions, are feelings looking for a voice, needs that are not being met. What is it that you long for this year?

2. How can I fulfill that need? Will it require schooling? Will you need to make travel arrangements? Start saving money? Make a list of actions you can take. This is brainstorming, not a “To Do” list. This is your chance to list everything that you could possibly do or need to fulfill a dream, achieve a goal, right a wrong, or just feel better. Pick one action that you can realistically do this month to get started. Decide how often you will come back to this list to choose another action. Put it on your calendar. Then show up.

3. How will I know I’ve succeeded? This is the most important part. How will you know you’ve succeeded if you haven’t defined what that looks like? It could be as simple as “When I take that trip to France.” It could be a feeling: “When I can be alone and not feel lonely.” Or, “When I commit time to my creative work every day.” And be sure to celebrate that success.

How about you? What do you do to prepare for the new year? Do resolutions work for you? Inquiring, creative minds would like to know. Wishing you all a new year filled with possibilities, hope and creativity. :)

When good gingerbread men go bad: how to bake the best of an awkward situation

Published December 22, 2010 Creative Families , Creative Life , Fun , Holidays Leave a Comment
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I ordered all my gifts online this year, which meant I had more time on my hands for attempting holiday-oriented crafts than in years past. My family was tentatively excited. I am not a “crafty” person, which surprises those who think creative professionals flit around in their spare time constantly dreaming up creative ways to engage our kids in “extreme” crafts that require gallons of tape, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, egg cartons, paper towel rolls and stick-on eyes.

Nope. As a marketing copywriter, my job is to write copy that sells stuff somebody else made. That means my brain is already chock full of video white papers, engaging social media stories and visions of high email open rates and click-throughs dancing in my head. It’s a wonderful life indeed.

I decided to try making gingerbread cookies. I can hear pastry chefs everywhere now: Christy Miles, put down the decorating tips and cookie cutters and nobody gets hurt! The baking part is easy–buy a box mix, stir together the ingredients, roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, snap! So easy. So deceiving. Then comes the decorating part. I distributed my homemade cookies to my neighbors for the first time this year and worried that my Gingerbread Men might scare the small children. Then I thought, nah, they’re cookies, kids will eat anything with frosting. And on the upside, at least everyone would know without a doubt that the cookies weren’t store-bought.

As my holiday gift to you, here are two of my gingerbread cookies with my quick marketing analysis.

 

The Mr. Bill Gingerbread Man

When I uploaded this photo, wordpress.com asked if I wanted to add an alternate text for the image, “i.e., the Mona Lisa.” Ha ha, WordPress, very funny!

He looks scared, this Gingerbread Man. Sadly, this is how many of my Gingerbread men turned out, looking vaguely like that old Saturday Night Live puppet/play-doh man Mr. Bill. My clumsy fingers could barely place the M&Ms gently into the small dollop of icing for the buttons. One even flipped over, showing the M, which I know would never cut it in the design or pastry world, but I was too lazy to fix it. Oh, who am I kidding, this wouldn’t even make a preschool’s line-up. Next up we have…

 

Bugsy the Bug-Eyed Gingerbread Man

When I started this cookie stuff, I was seriously intent on making cute gingerbread men. I got to this guy and thought, hmm, I wonder how he would look with M&Ms for eyes? No one ever shows Gingerbread Men with M&M eyes. Now we know why.

He looks freaked out or like he’s had a bad eye lift. Or perhaps it’s a goiter? We’ll never know. My family had a wonderful holiday moment as we tried to brainstorm what ailed Bugsy. Never mind the fact that Bugsy’s buttons are touching his mouth, the poor guy has no neck. But hey, he’s smiling.

My kids also decorated Gingerbread Men and they turned out to be much more fearless in their use of color, style and approach.

Kid-Friendly Gingerbread Men

OK, so the middle one has frosting bug eyes; getting the eyes right is definitely one of the trickiest parts. But all in all, these Gingerbread Men are fun, festive, colorful and look like they were made by kids for kids. Definitely more charming than my gingerbread freaks of nature. These would get eaten for sure.

Except not at my house. No one wants to eat them now because we are having too much fun making fun of them. So we’ve decided to make up a story about each Gingerbread Man and read them out loud on Christmas.

Writing. Now that I know how to do. This is why I’m a copywriter, not a pastry chef. :)

Happy holidays, everyone. Wishing you a wildly creative Christmas and New Year!

Drinking and decorating: The anti-Martha-Stewart-Pottery-Barn Christmas tree

Published December 17, 2010 Creative Families , Creative Life , Creative Parenting , Essays , Fun , Kids , Social Commentary 8 Comments
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Two years ago, I turned over the job of decorating my Christmas tree to my kids, then ages 7 and 9. We had just moved into our “new” 54-year-old house that needed a lot of TLC and was sucking the life out of us. After months of looking for new places for our furniture, artwork, books, games, dishes, and walking into walls in unfamiliar rooms in the middle of the night and grasping for unfamiliar light switches, the thought of having to find a good place for the Christmas tree was the last straw. I sat on the floor of the house that still felt like someone else’s and cried.

This was not Christmas as I’d known it growing up. Holidays were BIG at my house and consisted of cleaning, cooking, shopping, baking, more cleaning, coordinating outfits, practicing Christmas songs on the organ (I know, right???), wrapping, more cleaning, making cookies, making pierogis, and more cleaning. My mother spent days arranging decorations in the house; she was Martha Stewart before anyone had heard of Martha Stewart.

I was never permitted to touch the “good” tree upstairs, but I was allowed to decorate the “other” tree in the basement. I call it the consolation tree. (Usually my mother would come down later and rearrange all the ornaments again anyway.) Secretly I fear I’ll never be good enough to put together the good tree.

See, that’s why the holidays are tricky. There’s all this pressure to be merry and buy stuff but it’s also fraught with memories, good and bad. Sometime after Halloween, I remember all the old family holiday parties and every year, there are a few less faces around the table. Some years are harder than others. That year in our new old house was a hard one.

So I let my kids decorate the good–the only–tree all by themselves that year, and it was so much fun we decided to make it a new Miles family tradition. We play holiday music. I make hot chocolate.  The kids dance around all hopped up on sugar cookies. They make me wear the Santa hat with the reindeer antlers. But they take their job very seriously. Each ornament is placed with great care and consideration, although I have the most random, crazy mix of ornaments you could possibly imagine. It’s enough to make Martha’s toes curl.

The reactions to their decorating efforts are usually…not good. People walk in, look at the tree and say things like, “Oh my!” or “Were you drinking and decorating again?” It makes me wonder sometimes how my mom felt when she stood back, alone, to survey her tree and the trimmings and the perfection. I would ask, but her last Christmas was 16 years ago. If she could see my tree now, she would immediately shoo me out of the room so she could fix it. I would let her do it, but only if she wore the Santa hat with the reindeer antlers, which she’d hate because it would mess up her hair.

So yeah, my tree looks disheveled and a little tipsy, kind of like me after the neighborhood holiday party–OK, all of the neighborhood parties–and the complete opposite of any tree ever featured in Pottery Barn.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

B2B marketing: Send in the clowns?

Published December 14, 2010 Brand , Business , Copywriting , Marketing 4 Comments
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There is a tendency these days to think you need all kinds of bells and whistles, four-alarm chilli, clowns and unicorns to get people’s attention in business-to-business (B2B) marketing. We need to go viral! We need a video! We need a crazy, wacky, out-there idea!

Here’s one: have something to say and say it well.

A lot has changed in the marketing business, but some things will never change. People still want to be spoken to as if they matter. People want to have a good conversation. People want to feel heard. They want a solution for their biggest problems. And B2B marketers should never underestimate the power of a good, simple idea.

Business people don’t always want to have to create a video or fan your page or have to upload a photo to win something. They don’t always want to be “kooky” because, frankly, this is their business. Time is money. And while this doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, we do need to be on the same professional page with our audience, now more than ever in a world where social media and texting are relaxing the “rules” of what we say and how and where we say it.

We’re all cynical and jaded. We’ve seen it all, read it all, been there and done that. It’s hard to see anything with fresh eyes. Not to mention that we all have our own prejudices and subjective opinions (like this blog post, for example). :) But it’s a mistake to get so consumed with trying to be “clever” and go “viral” that we forget the point of our business: to generate sales leads. To convey a feeling about our solution and our brand that makes people want to work with us. To sell.

A copywriter is a salesman behind a typewriter.
Bob Bly, freelance copywriter/marketing consultant

I’m not against contests or promotions or “viral” tactics. Sometimes the right answer is a fun video. Sometimes it’s a letter. Sometimes it’s TV or social media or an ad campaign or all of the above. But above all, it’s about a conversation between you and your customer or you and your prospect. And if you don’t have a good story, you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell at making a connection.

I’ve been a business owner and a marketing consultant, so I’ve seen it from both sides of the equation. One thing I know for sure: when I choose to do business with someone, I choose someone I trust (translated: a knowledgeable expert who will make me look good and make my job easier) vs. someone who amuses me. This is my business we’re talking about.

That’s what makes B2B marketing so much fun: trying to balance  the need to tell a compelling business story and getting the prospect’s attention in a fun, creative way without crossing that invisible line that says “unprofessional.”

So the next time you find yourself trying to build a “clever” campaign or trying too hard to be “creative,” stop and ask yourself one question: what’s my compelling business story? If there isn’t one behind the flashy video and kooky idea, maybe it’s time to take a step back and remember who you’re talking to.

Take a break from holiday shopping: Get inspired at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio Tour

Published December 11, 2010 Creative Life , Creativity Coaching , Fun , Holidays , Social Commentary , Work Life Leave a Comment
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One of the best ways to stay creative and inspired is to keep your creative pond, an idea I first heard from The Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron, well stocked with creative eye candy and experiences: art, design, poetry, music, theater, anything that makes you feel alive and in awe. It can be somewhere as vast as the Grand Canyon or your own town’s farmer’s market. It’s even better when the inspiration is free and is good for the whole family–especially during the often hectic and frenetic holidays.

Case in point: the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio tour. We surprised our kids with it this morning–woke them up, said let’s go, wouldn’t tell them where, stopped for doughnuts and headed out to Oak Park for the free Family Fun Days Featuring Victorian Christmas Tours.

For kids, by kids. Free tours of Wright’s Oak Park home, decorated for the holidays. Led by Junior Interpreters, specially trained 5th through 10th grade students, the tours focus on Wright family celebrations of the Christmas holidays. Enjoy hot chocolate and holiday music in the Home and Studio courtyard and play with Froebel blocks in Wright’s drafting room.

Fortunately my kids, ages 9 and 11, get as excited about architecture and history as my husband and I, so they were in awe of the unique home that looked nothing like any of the houses in our neighborhood. There was so much to take in: the old-fashioned toys, the huge Christmas tree in the children’s playroom (which also included a special staircase that led to a balcony for the Wright children to perform plays), the old ice box, and at the end of the tour, the Froebel blocks that were made available for anyone to play with, which we all did. The free hot chocolate was the icing on the cake of a cold, rainy winter day.

While there were adult guides throughout the house, kids ranging in age from 11 to 15 or so delivered the tour of each room–complete with historical details and tales of how the Wrights spent their holidays. They were professional and knowledgeable, and it was refreshing to see pre-teens and teens in this positive role–and I was happy that my children saw this as well. It wasn’t crowded, either, which made it easier to walk around the rooms and feast on the details without feeling pressure to move over or move on.

I told the kids to bring their wallets, and they found some cool, unique toys in the museum gift shop. (I talked my daughter out of the colored pencils, which we could buy anywhere, and she found a unique window glass art kit that she liked better.) Normally we wouldn’t buy stuff so close to Christmas, but it helps support the preservation trust, so it seemed like the right thing to do, especially since the tour was free.

We all left the house inspired by the architect’s vision, his unique design philosophy, the way natural light infused every room from the beautiful windows, building our own mini-creations with simple wooden blocks, the fascinating woodwork, attention to detail right down to the paint colors–Wright preferred natural earthy colors, according to our guides.

Standing there in Wright’s home, built in 1889, surrounded by moss-green walls, warm yet worn honey wood floors and light all around, it was impossible not to feel the beauty of his vision at every turn: a home filled with light and nature, form and function, beauty and tranquility.

It sure beat hanging out at the mall this time of year. Get creative. Stay creative. Even during the holidays.

To learn more about events sponsored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, visit their website.

How to avoid creative burnout

Published December 8, 2010 Creative Life , Creative Writing , Creativity Coaching , Marketing 5 Comments
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Once as a freelance marketing writer, I agreed to a ridiculously insane deadline. (As opposed to a regularly insane deadline.) At 4:36PM on a Thursday, I was asked to solve a huge creative conundrum by 8:30am the next day. I was provided with three previously failed concepts and asked to “make them all work.” Somehow, someway. And if I had time, (ha!) maybe I could also come up with “a few” concepts of my own.

This to me was akin to working with both arms tied behind my back and a coyote chewing on my foot. With a paycheck at the end if I could get my hands untied and kick the coyote to kingdom come.

I worked all night. By 8:27am, I met the parameters and the deadline. I had successfully compressed the creative process, but the results could have been so much better if I had just had more time. And sleep. This is an excellent recipe for creative burnout.

While there will always be crunch times and projects, it’s never good if your entire working life is one ridiculously insane deadline after another. If you don’t take control of your creative life and deadlines, burnout is inevitable. So to help save your sanity, here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way…the hard way:

1. Don’t be afraid to abandon ideas. You might not be burnt out; maybe you’re simply tired of beating a dead horse. Sometimes you can find a way to make an idea work–some hidden angle or connection that comes with a fresh eye. But if it takes longer than say, 15 minutes, move on. You can always come back to it later–as in, for another project with a longer deadline and a completely different strategy.

2. Don’t taint the creative process. The worst thing you can do at the beginning of a new project is to focus on previous failed attempts. It’s like saying, “Ok, so here’s what didn’t work, what failed, what sucked. Now let’s find a way to make it work!”  Uh huh.

Start with the facts–the strategy, the objective, the primary goal or message. If the old ideas still have a shot, run with it. For 15 minutes. Then move on. Later you can ask what was tried before and what sucked, especially if you’re burnt out and need a giggle.

3. Ask for more time. It never hurts to ask what’s driving the deadline or if it’s a hard deadline. More often than not, you can get extra time–but not if you don’t ask up front. Sure, some of us ”need” deadlines to get things done. And you shouldn’t be a diva, constantly pushing back on deadline requests. But if you don’t give yourself enough time to think and simmer, the process will take longer, you’ll be miserable and…hello, burnout!

4. Say no. I still remember my grandmother, who grew up during the Great Depression, chiding me as a child for not eating my bread crusts, saying, “You never know when you might wish you had them.” This attitude permeates my work life, where I hate to say no to projects. But there are only so many things you can do at once before you lose your mind and your motivation.

It helps to “qualify your leads” ahead of time. Determine what your ideal sweet spot is for clients or projects–what’s most profitable for you? What’s your niche? Who is your ideal client? Define it all. Once you have these rules in place, it’s much easier to say no up front, before you overcommit or regret committing altogether.

5. Keep your creative warehouse full. All work and no play is the fastest way to drain your creativity. Read a little bit of everything you can get your hands on–blogs, magazines, newspapers, books, articles, white papers. Watch a little bit of everything you have time for–videos, vlogs, TV, movies. And most of all, be sure to get out from behind your desk and experience life. Live a little. It’s one of the best way to banish the creative burnout blues.

6. Identify your role in the insanity. I’ve already told you mine–I hate to turn down work, so I take on too much or too much of the wrong kinds of projects. It might be your fear of asking more questions or pushing back on direction that’s not clear. Analyze your last few crazy projects–what could you have done differently to make things less crazy?

7. Laugh. If you don’t, you’ll be crabby and crazy from your deadline. Boo hoo. So turn that frown upside down, call a funny friend, make fun of your worst concepts, crack a joke at your own expense. Creative relief, or at the very least, a little fun, is sure to follow.

How do you handle creative burnout when it happens? How do you prevent it? Enquiring minds want to know!

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