There’s no power without connection

February 19, 2017 by Hamish Wyatt

If no one cares, nothing else matters.

There’s no power without connection.

Not your products or services.
Not your values or mission statement.
Not even your donations to charity.

The best way to make people care?

Make a connection.
Talk in their words and images – not yours.
Make it believable – and entertaining.
Show that you understand the bigger picture – and your place in it.
Don’t overreach – remember what you are actually selling.
Make sure they can remember that and know what to do next.

David Trott has a wonderful piece on this over at his blog: http://davetrott.co.uk/2017/02/learn-the-law-of-diminishing-marginal-returns/

Just because someone looks “creative”, it doesn’t mean they are

August 29, 2017 by admin

The internet has made it easier than ever for anyone to synthesise a hundred great thoughts, put up a website or blog post and sound like an expert – especially in marketing and creative services. That increases the risk for you and your business if you confuse someone who can explain with someone who can execute.

There are two simple ways you can de-risk your marketing engagements: ask for references and ask for proof of success (or at least operation) in the field. It’s your money, so don’t be shy about asking hard questions.

Also, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a chance on someone who says they haven’t solved your business problem before – that’s how people get their start, after all – so long as you both know the lay of the land and go into it eyes wide open (and the project costs reflect this). In that case, being able to read and trust their character is critical, so listen to your gut.

The value of going all in

February 21, 2017 by Hamish Wyatt

The case for campaigns over one-offs

The big ideas that built the big brands we know (and in some cases love) didn’t come from a brochure design.

They may have started there, but those ideas were simplified, amplified, packaged and transmitted through a much broader, all in marketing strategy.

A campaign.

Now, when we say “campaign”, many of us think of big brands and say “I don’t need to spend that much time or money – we aren’t that big. Let’s just do a brochure.”

But a campaign doesn’t necessarily mean you’re looking at a bigger spend or time investment.

It really just allows us to be really specific about a specific communication/sales opportunity and broadly consider “what will make this person change how they act in relation to this brand’s products/services, and how and where should we engage them?”

And that’s a really important question to ask, because persuasive business communication is all about reaching the largest number of your target audience (reach) enough times (frequency) that they can notice, recall and act on the offering (impact).

If you pick the wrong medium, you’re wasting your money because you’re either talking to the wrong people or you’re talking to the right people at the wrong time.

You stand a much better chance of getting a good business outcome if you can correctly match the media choice to your audience’s habits and interests, and then reach those people (and increasingly, engage with them) with the right, consistently communicated message over a period of time.

Campaigns also gives both of us a clear understanding of what success looks like by putting timeframes around expected results.

For example: by doing A within B we want to achieve C.

(A campaign focus also takes into account what success looks like for you, so we don’t recommend a $100,000 media spend that will only pull in $20,000 worth of sales over a given period of time.)

So while any marketing shop worth its salt can and will do one off work, it never hurts to ask yourself and your agency “how could we spend this time and money more effectively to get a better outcome?”

You might find that you don’t need that brochure after all.