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Archives for November 2011

Thinking About Creativity

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Credit: MindysBookWorms.org

I’m on a quest to define creativity. Is it innovation, or are there differences between the two? I wrote recently about the need for PR and marketing to be more creative when it comes to putting a social media marketing plan together. Then I gave a list of nine tools available from which to select.

That’s really not creativity; that’s merely being smart about researching the space to see which tools fit the required strategy.

Then I read Inc. magazine about Stan Richards, founder of The Richards Group, an ad agency behind some of the most creative and controversial campaigns in advertising. (P.S. If you want to see one of THE MOST creative websites I’ve seen in awhile, hit his agency link, and here’s a link to his book, The Peaceable Kingdom.)

“Creativity doesn’t need a muse; it needs a drill sergeant,” he said.  Richards’ firm adheres to strict rules:

>>8:30 a.m. prompt start to the day

>>Accounting for each quarter hour or be docked $8.63 from pay

>>On time to meetings or risk being shut out

>>Close of business is 6 p.m.; go home

The man posts billings of $1.28 billion; he owns the most successful independent shop ever. Hats off, Stan!

Is creativity innate? It’s my humble thinking that the mind hinders creative embellishment. When your mind blocks your actions, you become inhibited. There is no comfort in your own skin; you fear making the wrong move, saying the wrong thing, looking like a fool (to yourself) among company.

Now put these thoughts into a company brainstorm where the team is attempting to define the big idea. (PR is all about the big idea.) Instead of being the first to say, “what about…” you tag team off someone else and slowly open your mind to new ideas.

Perhaps creativity is confidence. Stan Richards says creativity is discipline and regimented rules.

As a blogger it’s more imperative to be creative than ever before. This is my 252nd post; not so sure it’s a milestone of any sort, but looking back on a bloggers’ life, each post came from somewhere. The inspiration people take so lightly is actually extremely serious.

So, creativity also requires the ability to be inspired.

I’ll share about me a bit because it’s relevant. My mind has always been creative; I visualize the look of interiors in color and how a brochure should be designed with the raw copy in front of me. I hammer a nail on the wall eyes only and plop art perfectly in place (heh, perfectly to me because slightly askew fits my out-of-the-box persona). A steady stream of ideas leads to the ability for strategic brainstorming and also the ability to drill into segments and enhance each with detail.

With all that said, can we assume creativity is innate? Born in some and not others? Given as a gift to right brain thinkers while left brains lead with logic? Here are some of the conclusions from above, and I’m hoping you’ll add your thoughts to help with this discussion:

>>Creativity requires an open and unhindered mind.

>>Creativity requires inspiration and the ability to be inspired.

>>Creativity is confidence.

>>Creativity is innate.

>>Creativity is not innovation.

Please share your thinking, because more thinking also leads to a higher level of creativity.

We’re Defining PR Again

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I know you saw the news that PRSA determined the timing is right to modernize its definition of PR. I was ecstatic about this (and life got in the way of my ability to blog quickly), and I’ll tell you why.

For those of you in the community who’ve been faithful followers, you’ll recall our endeavor to define PR in spring 2011. Not sure why I embarked on this journey, but it was amazingly frustrating and rewarding at the same time.

The culmination of the experience of some 15 blog posts by global input (including many, many insightful comments from PRSA, mind you) is this post right here, “We’ve Defined PR, By Jove!” Upon reading it fresh this morning, I am happy to say that I like/love the definition we toiled to create:

PUBLIC RELATIONS HELPS PEOPLE

SAY THE RIGHT THINGS TO THE RIGHT AUDIENCES

AT THE RIGHT TIME AND IN THE RIGHT WAY.

What do you think? Does this still resonate with you?

Throughout the entire intense series we tackled, one of the posts was about the very un-modern and archaic definition by PRSA of public relations. I directly admonished them, and others whole-heartedly agreed. May we take some credit for nudging PRSA to the edge on redefining our profession? I’m saying YES! (Makes me a proud practitioner to have had a hand in helping push this.)

Now, how can you help?

Make it your responsibility to be accountable to your profession. The original blog post at PRSA (although, strangely, comments require moderation) is here where you can see the campaign launch announcement.

Go directly to PRSA here and submit your definition of PR by Dec. 2, 2011. (Interestingly, and I fully agree, a commenter suggested this was a failure by PRSA to announce the campaign so close to and during a holiday week; indeed, timing is a bit odd.)

A word cloud is forming now on the PRSA website and tweets are being captured at #PRDefined with all the key words we’re coming up with.  While I didn’t use a word cloud to help us come to somewhat of a consensus, I know how hard we toiled to make our definition as general and as  specific as we could with respect to the purists and the integrated marketers in our midst.

Will be fascinating to watch what comes of this project. Anything is an improvement over what we’ve had for decades. Stay tuned!

Entrepreneurship

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I have always wanted to have a one-word title; here it is. I spoke yesterday on entrepreneurship to DeVry University in Dayton. The class was small, and I think I nearly gave one woman a conniption when I began to throw my energy into the classroom, but I had fun. No slides, just extemporaneous yak.

I helped one woman better brand her cake business; when she gave me its name, it sounded like kaka…so, I suggested something else, and she agreed. Another woman had a dream to be in the shoe business; I cringed and plowed ahead with these thoughts:

>>Research and understand your potential customer

>>Look at what’s trending in shoes today and how your product can be different (she wanted to be unique with shoes)

>>Conduct market analysis about the type of attire worn in the market (Dayton is a casual city)

>>Look at what people are buying that is different — textiles, artisan, African art and fair trade products

>>With all that on-the-spot thinking, I suggested she go into the flip flop business with all the matching accessories.

 

Here’s a bit of a debrief about my thoughts on being in business for yourself.

Marketer Alert: The Un-Coupon Campaign

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What’s in your mail every day? If you’re like me at this time of year, you’re (not your) being inundated with coupons — lots and lots of coupons. Every retailer is gearing up for Black Friday and the big box brick and mortars are even fighting about it with employees up in arms about having to report to work at 3 a.m. or stay until midnight.

The offers are amazing — free panties from Victoria Secret; 40% off at The Gap and its sisters; 20% off all weekend at Kohls and $5 off at Target if I buy its toys; LL Bean; JC Penney, Sears, Eddie Bauer, Fannie May, and the list goes on and on.

Exasperated

I am overwhelmed. Are you? As a consumer, I’m saturated with coupons, discounts and BOGO offers. I can’t even look at a catalog without wondering about which deal is best; heck, at the checkout, it’s the battle for the best deal, and you better hope the sales clerk knows how to navigate splitting your order so you can get the lowest price. The coupons I do bring in often don’t work because there’s a cheaper deal in the store. It’s astonishing, and I’m wondering how these companies will make revenue numbers?

I’m sick of discounts! And now consumers won’t shop without them, but I’m ready for a change — something like deleting all your Twitter followers, and it goes like this…

Marketer Alert

Here’s what I propose — the un-coupon campaign. Tell me, marketers and advertisers, that your retail and consumer products company:

>>Has no coupons

>>Has no deals

>>Has products of only the highest quality

>>Your customer service is off the chain

>>You value my business and appreciate me

    I cannot spend enough money to take advantage of all the deals walking through my door. In fact, because I’m drowning in coupons, I keep them and never use them. They  get lost on my cluttered table; I forget them on the counter, and then they expire. My over stimulation for deals means I don’t care any more.

    I’m ready to pay full price if you just guarantee the quality of your product and the customer service that goes along with it. Anyone else feeling a bit of coupon malaise?

    Nine Social Marketing Tools From Inc. Magazine

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    Two of my favorite magazines for blog fodder (and learning, of course) are Fast Company (hands down) and Inc. I read the latter less, but it offers more small-business tips and case studies about entrepreneurs.

    I’m  using the November 2011 issue of Inc. to provide you with this expansive list of social marketing tactics by six companies. After reading the six case studies (Inc. always has amazing business case studies), it became apparent that marketers need to be thinking creatively to reach goals. This material comes from the article called Social Smarts with several links from it provided below.

    >>Celebrity Tweets. We all know celebrities get paid to tweet, and there is a platform called Sponsored Tweets “that connects advertisers with celebrities and offers online analytic tools for gauging the success of campaigns,” according to Inc.

    CampusLive is a website that lets college students earn rewards by playing online games. It used Lindsay Lohan and rapper Jim Jones in two campaigns. The company checked Klout scores (boo) before deciding to hire Lohan.

    It paid her $3,530 to publish a tweet, and the rapper earned $1,950 for his tweet.

    >>Wildfire. This is a DIY app “that lets you create interactive campaigns, publish them on social networks and view real-time results and analytics. Savored, an online reservation service in New York offering restaurant discounts, chose the Wildfire program costing $3,500 per month. The internal team created a sweepstakes promotion tying in with Facebook. The campaign goal was to sign on new members and gather emails for direct marketing.

    >>Offerpop. Birchbox used this platform to help companies create and run promotions including quizzes and photo contests on Twitter and Facebook. There is an unlimited monthly plan which costs $750 for companies with 10K to 25K Facebook fans. Important to mention, Birchbox uses its customer service reps to comb social media for discontent among customers (i.e. product shipping delays) and respond to them immediately.

    >>Foursquare. Many of us already sign in to location-based services with friends, but Luke’s Lobster wanted to launch its new location with Foursquare users. It created a Loyalty Special with Foursquare to give repeat customers a change to attend an exclusive launch party the day before the restaurant opening, according to Inc.

    >>Twitter Followers. Recently, my friend Robert Dempsey ran an article on Tweet Adder. He provided a tutorial on how to automatically increase Twitter followers. In comments, I shared my disagreement with this tool, yet many bloggers are all about it.

    >>eBay. The Inc. editorial team wanted to know how easy it was to buy Twitter followers, so it headed over to eBay and searched for a package. They got into a bidding war with someone else for 11,000 followers for $80. Instead, the research team “settled on a  Buy It Now option promising 1,000 followers for $20.”

    (Goes without saying, I’m against this practice; hands down. This, however, is what some businesses are relegated to if they’re late to the party. Probably some similar tactics happening over at Facebook, too.)

    >>YouTube. I’m not going to share the merits of this channel. We all know the advantages of a video going viral. Probably about 90 percent of the time, though, the viral video campaigns with more than 1 million views are often produced by creative shops and more than just a flip cam.

    >> Traditional PR. EZ Grill launched a media relations blitz using public relations agency services; however, the results (appearances on national media) didn’t garner the ROI in sales the company wanted. (And, nor should it have…my $.02 coming from a PR perspective.) Instead, the company engaged in a video (using some smart creative) coupled with press release that went viral. Alas, sales did not impress.

    I have to wonder…how many people need a disposable charcoal grill? Especially when the small metal ones are very portable? Maybe it’s a niche audience of campers these guys should market to?

    >>Blue Calypso. To secure paid referrals, The Sweet Spot in Dallas wanted new customers in its hair removal salon specializing in sugaring (what’s that?). It used the mobile marketing platform that rewards people for sharing ads via Twitter, Facebook or texting.

    The Sweet Spot owner paid $2,500 per month to get 230,000 impressions. Blue Calypso helped her design an ad offering a discount on treatment. When a member posted the ads on social media channels or texted it, Blue Calypso paid them up to $.30 onto a Visa debit card. The campaign included coupons (a LivingSocial deal went sour),  complimentary services, and rewards to first-time customers.

    Conclusion

    PR and marketing teams need to be highly creative with clients’ and companies budgets. There are so many tactics and tools to meet objectives in social marketing, but  sometimes it takes trial and error to find the best strategy.

    You can be sure, no campaign will succeed without a solid creative foundation. When this kind of money is involved (note the costs detailed by these companies in the case studies) to work with these social apps and platforms, there should be money in the budget for experimentation. Or, have a thick skin when the first attempt fails to reach goals and money goes down the drain.