2010 June

Spacing Out

June 29, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Allen Mercier, Senior Editor, Palio

My high school typing class is never far from my thoughts. It all began in that concrete room of hum and thrum. No, the power of the written word wasn’t on my mind. What I return to daily is far simpler. However, those simpler times now complicate my life. I see the fallout in e-mails, Word docs, InDesign files, and PDFs. Double spaces may be invisible, but I see them everywhere.

Our typing teachers taught us to insert two spaces at the end of a sentence. It’s not our fault, right? We were young and impressionable. I’ve heard the excuses ad nauseam (pharma folks will recognize this common side effect). Double spaces were perfectly acceptable in the days of the IBM Selectric, but we now live in the digital age; the rules have changed. The Chicago Manual of Style states, “A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences (both in manuscript and in final, published form) and after colons.”

I know what you’re thinking: Rules were meant to be broken. To that I respond with a quote from an article written by a typographic pro, Ilene Strizver: “Forget about tolerating differences of opinion: typographically speaking, typing two spaces before the start of a new sentence is absolutely, unequivocally wrong.” So please do me a favor and stop spacing out.

Palio is a full-spectrum global pharmaceutical and consumer advertising, marketing, and communications agency that excels in brand creation and specializes in brand strategy, product launches, global marketing, and digital and integrated media.

Filed Under: Editorial Tagged With: Editorial, Manual of Style, Spacing

Is Our Environment Really Killing Us?

June 28, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Tim Phalen, Medical Writer, Palio

If you have not already read the newly released report entitled Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now from the President’s Cancer Panel (PCP) yet, don’t do it. OK, I shouldn’t say that. You helped pay for it, after all. If you do choose to read it, don’t be surprised if you are afraid to eat, drink, breathe, talk on your cell phone, fly, drive, mow your lawn, clean your house, get too much sun, get too little sun, swim in a pool or get an X-ray. This is far from a complete list, but the report suggests that these activities could expose us to a “bombardment” of environmental insults that increases our risk of cancer. According to the report, the threat posed by environmental factors is “grossly underestimated” and much more must be done by the President to protect Americans from these threats. The “more” refers primarily to “rigorous regulations” of environmental pollutants with the goal of removing carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water and air.

The PCP report stirred up controversy when the American Cancer Society criticized it for implying that pollution is the major cause of cancer and for concluding that the rate of environmentally induced cancer is highly underestimated. The ACS points out that the debate over the contribution of man-made chemicals and environmental pollutants to overall cancer incidence is ongoing, while the report dismisses that debate, declares that the risk is underestimated without conclusive evidence to support that assertion. While the ACS has identified many of the same environmental factors as potential risks, it is rightfully concerned that this report and the alarm it could induce will draw necessary attention away from studying and combating the established major causes of cancer (smoking, obesity, alcohol, infections, hormones, and sunlight). These are certainly larger threats than non-organic broccoli, tap water, or cosmic radiation during air travel.

Environmental cancer risk is an important subject that deserves further study because, like much of our understanding of cancer in general, there are still more questions than concrete answers regarding causes and treatments. Throughout much of the PCP report there is a severe lack of conclusive epidemiological evidence establishing a level of risk, if any, for many of the identified factors, including cell phone use, electrical power lines, the chemical BPA, and trace pharmaceuticals in drinking water, to name a few. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a chance that these and other factors are associated with risk, but we just don’t currently have any solid evidence that many of them pose a significant risk to humans. This fact is stated several times in the report.

Yet, the Panel urges the President to establish a regulatory framework that will purge suspected carcinogens and pollutants from our environment, and impose new burdens on manufactures of chemicals and new technologies to prove safety prior to approval for use and to conduct post-marketing studies. This sounds an awful lot like the drug approval process, which requires years and billions of dollars to bring something to market. This may sound like a good idea at first, but is it warranted given the uncertainty and lack of evidence surrounding environmental cancer risk? Without knowing what the current risk is, how do we know that the untold economic costs of this type of regulation will be worth it? How will we know what technological opportunities won’t be pursued because the regulatory burdens are too high? It’s concerning that the alarmism of this report could prevent these questions from being sufficiently addressed before it is acted on.

Let’s also not forget that cancer incidence and mortality has been declining in recent years, despite our supposedly toxic environment. We must be doing something right.

Filed Under: Medical Strategy Tagged With: American Cancer Society, cancer, environment, Pollution, toxins

Pitch/Meeting Etiquette

June 25, 2010 By jfisher 1 Comment

From Paula Purtell, Business Presentation Manager, Palio

Have you ever been the presenter in a meeting, going through your material, believing everything is going smoothly … only to look out into your audience and realize you’ve lost the attention of some of the attendees? You panic. Sweat beads on your forehead. You start to lose confidence in your content. You wonder if your interesting presentation has somehow morphed into a recitation that has bored your audience to death.

The next time this happens to you, take a step back and try to assess what’s really happening. I have seen many presentations ruined not by the presenter, but by the attendee(s) — those super busy, very important people in the audience who just can’t stand to be disconnected from their Blackberries or laptops. I’ve been in pitch meetings where an attendee answered a call, returned emails and texts, and read over non-pitch-related documents! Are these people forgetting that the team in front of them took great pains to prepare a compelling presentation and are excited to introduce themselves and share their story?!

Now, I happen to be talking about a pitch meeting, which is large in its importance and scope, but we’ve all seen the same inconsiderate behaviors in day-to-day meetings as well. In business, we need to start treating every meeting as a reflection of ourselves and the company we work for.

From searching the internet, I found a few people’s advice and thought I’d share the 10 commandments of meeting etiquette.

10. Arrive Early (or at least on time)

9. Clear your schedule. Come into the meeting ready to give 100% attention.

8. Be Considerate. Leave your electronics out of the room. Do not put your Blackberry, Treo, or other email organizer on the table. It’s too tempting to check your email, voicemail, social media, etc.

7. Do Not Interrupt. Unless the speaker has invited you to interact with him or her during the meeting, hold your comments until the meeting has finished or until the speaker asks for comments.

6. Pay Attention. Listen to the speaker. You do not want to waste meeting time asking a question that has already been answered or asked. Do not fidget, drum your fingers, tap your pen.

5. Never Carry On Separate Conversations. This is incredibly distracting to the speaker.

4. Come Prepared. Always bring something to write on as well as to write with. If you are the presenter, be prepared to provide these items for the attendees.

3. Be succinct and clear when asking questions of the presenter or team. If your question is detailed, break it into parts or several questions. But be sure to ask only one question at a time; others may have questions as well.

2. Attend the Entire Meeting. Leave only when the meeting is finished. Leaving before the end of the meeting can be disruptive to other attendees and inconsiderate of the speaker.

1. Feedback. If you’ve found the presentation interesting, let the team know. And if you found the presentation sorely lacking, let them know that too, in the most diplomatic way possible.

Remember that meetings have a purpose – to inform and to gather insights from those in attendance. Showing the speaker some courtesy by listening and asking pertinent questions can help everyone seated in the room walk away feeling as though their time was well-spent.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: meeting etiquette

Do you really know your target audience? Probably not.

June 24, 2010 By jfisher 5 Comments

Photo: Jono Rotman; Grooming by Bryan Lynde

From Langdon Jenkins, Group Copy Supervisor, Palio

I’m still a big fan of magazines. Sure, the iPad is great, but it’s not a magazine. Just like the Kindle is not a book. Anyways, I subscribe to many magazines –– Fortune, Consumer Reports, Entertainment Weekly, This Old House, Martha Stewart Everyday Living (for the wife, mind you), the Christian Science Monitor, and New York Magazine.

By far, my favorite among them is New York Magazine. Their writers have a good mix of quick-hitting one-page articles and in-depth feature stories. And, although it’s based in New York City, it’s relevant wherever you live.

This week’s issue features their annual “Best Doctors” list. They have over 1,000 doctors in the NYC area rate each other and then list the results. Within this year’s list is, to me, a hidden gem – a series of 8 profiles entitled “My Toughest Case.”

Ranging from “Treating a contract killer” to “Saving a lightning-strike victim,” these profiles explore what we in the pharmaceutical advertising industry often forget: what it’s really like to be a doctor.

To us, doctors are “confident achievers” or “collaborative idealists” who we hope a rep will get 30 seconds with to detail why our treatment is right for the doctor’s patients. To us, doctors are physicians who treat patients with COPD, or whose practice includes a population of patients currently on Medicare Part D. But after you read the profiles in New York Magazine, you may change that perception to “someone who called her mom and cried after a 6-hour surgery” or “someone who keeps photographs of his patients in his office.”

Before you kick off your next creative project directed at physicians and are crafting a Creative Brief, I encourage you to read some or all of the “My Toughest Case” profiles. Let them sink in, and then ask yourself again, “Who are we talking to?” You may be surprised at how your perception has changed with the new context that this article provides. And in our world of cookie-cutter creative, changing perception is most always a change in the right direction.

So where are the profiles? You can either buy the issue that’s out now (New York Magazine, Best Doctors 2010 issue, June 14-21) or view the profiles online – here’s a good one.

If you click on the above link, you can access the other profiles from the article as well. I don’t know how long they’ll be active, so visit them soon if it interests you… and if you’re interested in taking a fresh look at the target audience of physicians.

Filed Under: Creative Tagged With: New York Magazine, physician profiles

The Sign on My Door

June 22, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Bob Mason, EVP, Managang Director of Brand Strategy, Palio

Soon after arriving at Palio over five years ago, I posted a couple things on my office door. One was a full-page ad that I’d recently seen in the Wall Street Journal that, in big brazen letters, admonished “NO MORE MEETINGS ABOUT MEETINGS.” Having come from BBDO, one of the “big boys” of advertising, I wanted to set the tone right from the start: even though I was coming from a big agency, I detested bureaucracy and the “let’s have a meeting!” culture that plagues a lot of companies.

The other thing I put up on my door was a simple list created by Vanella Jackson, a women who is the CEO of a great global communication research firm called Hall & Partners (and whose name, I’m embarrassed to admit, makes me think of the Olympic gold medal winner and one-time Philadelphia 76er Luscious Jackson – plus the alternative band from the 90s that named themselves after him). I found this list from Ms. Jackson on the Account Planning Group website, which is a hub for agency strategy/research and planning types. Titled “My Top Tips For Being A Great Planner,” I put this list on my door to serve as a constant reminder of how I wanted my team and me to provide value to our organization and clients.

And there it’s still posted, over five years later. I probably pass by the list a good 30 times a day, bustling in and out of my office. It’s easy, of course, to not look at it most of the times I pass it. But, every once in a while, I’ll stop and read it over. I’ve found it to be very focusing on those “what the hell am I doing in this industry?” kinds of days. It’s not only sound advice for strategy/research/planning type folks, though. Taken in a broader context, it’s just as good advice to anybody who is employed in the field of marketing communications – even clients. So, in the spirit of sharing, here is Vanella Jackson’s list. Regardless of what role you play in the industry or where you’re at in your career, I think these could apply to all of us, in one way or another.

My top tips for being a great planner (by Vanella Jackson)

1) LISTEN: Listen to your clients, listen to your account team, listen to your creative team. No one listens enough and yet all the answers and opportunities are there if you listen. Advertising people are notoriously bad at listening to clients and really hearing what they have to say. Creative people are not always just being defensive when telling you why they don’t accept the clients view.

2) BE BRAVE: Tell people what you really think — what your heart tells you is true. Don’t be swayed by the intellectual arguments because they sound good, when you know deep down they are flawed.

3) ALWAYS BE GREAT: Never hear yourself say ‘that will do.’ Average work always starts somewhere. Make everything you do be the best it can be.

4) RELAX: Be comfortable with uncertainty and imprecision. Half formed ideas are the bread and butter of creativity. Don’t try to understand or grasp the whole too early. When working with creative people make sure there is space around ideas.

5) BE DIFFERENT: Always try things you haven’t done before. New ideas and insight are more likely to come when you are experimenting. Look for insights in unexpected places.

6) BE A TEAM PLAYER: Recognize that developing creative ideas is a team process. It is not just down to the planner and the creative team. Involve people. Seek lots of opinions as this will help feed your imagination and increase the chances of success.

7) HONESTY: Tell your creative team the truth. Tell it to them straight and make sure they hear it from you and not anyone else. Tell them as soon as you walk back to the agency. If they are not there leave a note and go back later.
FAMILIAR FACE: Get to know your creative team. Don’t only turn up for meetings. Pop in and see how they are doing. Take them something you have thoughts about that could be useful.

9) BE VISUAL: We live in a world that is over loaded with information. Make your mantra to be a picture can say 1000 words. Use images, videos and pictures to express feelings and emotions. After all, as planners, you work in the creative industry.

10) MAKE IT FUN: We all learn through experience and being involved. Find ways to involve your account team, your client and your creative team. Work should be fun. The best work comes more easily when it is.

So, there you have it. What, if any, tips would you add on how to be a great marketing communication practitioner? I’d love to hear them.

Filed Under: Brand Planning Tagged With: BBDO, Brand Planning, meetings, Vanella Jackson

It’s not what you sell, it’s what you stand for

June 21, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Alan Steele, VP, Director of Studio Services, Palio

In his book, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For – Why Every Extraordinary Business is Driven by Purpose, Roy M. Spence, Jr. says purpose is the definitive statement about the difference your organization is trying to make in the world. Purpose is understood by every employee, it is felt when you walk in the door, it is reinforced confidently and clearly by top management, and it is known by your clients, potential clients and your competitors.

Purpose taps into a person’s desire to do something relevant with his life – it’s about an idealistic motivation, a desired objective to strive passionately towards. The benefits of a purpose-driven company are: lower employee turnover, higher productivity, attracting highly energetic and motivated people, fostering innovation, and creating a common bond among employees. Purpose, Spence argues, motivates just as importantly as money. How can you motivate with money when the stock price is down, and when raises and promotions are not feasible due to unfavorable business conditions?

Hegel, the philosopher, wrote, “Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.” Purpose and passion are linked. Feeling passionately about something greater than yourself, a cause worthy of your time and effort, is a common human desire. There is a need in the marketplace that you, and your organization, are best suited to fill with heart and soul. Discover your company’s purpose by asking questions like, “What would the marketplace be missing if we did not exist?” and, “What do we have that people want that the competition can’t deliver?”

Southwest Airlines deregulated the airline industry and created a low-cost, efficient airline so everyone – not just the elite - could afford to fly. The statement, “You are now free to fly across the country” is a clever spin on “You are now free to move about the cabin,” but it also says we have democratized the skies, we have given you the freedom to fly.

Pampers dropped the dryness selling point (a functional deliverable), to a mom’s desire to love her baby and have the baby develop to its fullest potential (purpose-driven). One study gleaned, from discussions with mothers, that better sleep for babies resulted in better brain development.

How do you stop Texans littering? By tapping into their state pride, the tagline “Don’t mess with Texas” was developed. Charles Schwab de-mystified stock trading, once the purview of the rich and powerful. He made his brokerage services available to everyone with low transaction fees, understandable language, and an easy-to-use web site. His purpose is his passion for helping average Americans realize their financial dreams. BMW, The American Red Cross, Walmart, and other organizations are also discussed in Spence’s book.

Take a look at this book, and then ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my company?” It might be very revealing… and highly motivating.

Filed Under: Industry Trends Tagged With: business, motivation, productivity

Sunscreen, Tax and Tanning

June 18, 2010 By jfisher 1 Comment

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

We are nearing the official start of summer, and with that people of all ages are hitting up their local drugstores for their annual supply of sunscreen. I picked up ours a few weeks back and was surprised at the lack of sunscreen with an SPF of less than 30 on the shelf. With the rising increase of skin cancer, one of the most preventable types of cancer, it probably shouldn’t have been that surprising.

It’s fairly intuitive now that sunscreen is part of our daily life. With 90% of skin cancer caused by excessive exposure to the sun, it’s a no-brainer. But is it?

90% of skin cancer caused by exposure to the sun – this would seem to be a red flag to those who frequent tanning beds year round. Driven by the desire to always have that “sunkissed” look, tanning parlors are big business. And the government wants a cut.

Citing the ability to raise $2.7 billion over ten years, a 10% tax applied to tanning sessions would generate much revenue needed to help pay for healthcare reform. Will it stop people from tanning? The jury is still out, but even a minor reduction in the frequency of visits to the tanning booth could have implications on longer-term healthcare costs associated with treating suspected and diagnosed melanoma.

I’m certain that slathering on tanning lotion and soaking in the UV rays three times a week is considered excessive exposure. But for the rest of us, what defines excessive exposure? A bad sunburn? Repeated daily exposure? Not wearing sunscreen? How much is too much?

I recently ran across a photo of my kids taken last September. I was religious about their sunscreen use, slathering them up every day with SPF 50 – even on a mildly sunny day. In the photo they looked ghostly white. Like their skin had never even seen the sun.

Enter the studies on vitamin D deficiencies to complicate matters. Essential for bone strength, we need 1,000 units a day. A glass of milk gives us 100 and an average multivitamin gives us 400. So how much sun is required to manufacture the other 500?

It’s a constant struggle of moderation – trying to achieve a “healthy and moderate” exposure to the sun. With the rising rates of melanoma prevalence, it’s clear that not everyone is working to achieve this middle ground. Perhaps the tanning bed tax is just what the doctor ordered…

Filed Under: Medical Strategy, Oncology Tagged With: cancer, healthcare costs, melanoma, skin cancer, sunscreen

Photographers becoming videographers

June 17, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Kim Werther, Art Buyer, Palio

Years ago, it was always print photo shoots that would piggyback onto the larger TV/Video production shoots. Now, however, those days are fewer and farther between.

Because production budgets are getting tighter and HD-DSLR cameras have made producing video more accessable, agencies and clients have been hiring talent that can produce both.

The switch from print to video seems to have been gradually happening for many photographers in the industry. It makes sense to have one creative talent handle both print and video for a number of reasons. One is obviously the lower cost of paying one person instead of breaking up the shot into two different entities. The other is about having continuity between the two media.

I have had the experience of hiring a photographer for print and a director to shoot the associated video segments. We shot the print work first and then had a two-day video shoot set up. In the end, we paid the photographer a day rate to be at the video shoot to make sure it was consistent with the print lighting, etc., as well as a director and his crew.

On the other hand, we recently had a project come up where we knew up front that the client wanted both video and print. I had the challenge of finding a photographer that could shoot print and video.

Many photographers are crossing over into this realm, but it was a real challenge to find someone that could get the look we wanted in all of those elements.

We did finally find the needed photographer/videographer and the end product turned out beautifully. The client is extremely happy with the work on both and it was an easy process. We dealt with one person for both video and print, which kept costs down as well ensure a more consistent outcome across both projects.

This is quickly becoming the norm when it comes to finding talent for print and TV/video. Why pay for two when you can pay for one person to do both?

Filed Under: Creative, Industry Trends Tagged With: art buying, Palio, photo shoot, photographer, videographer

What’s the Big Idea?

June 15, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Bob Rath, Associate Creative Director, Palio

To creative people, the “That’s it!” moment that gives birth to ideas is part of the problem-solving experience. They first discover it, and then craft it into shape with talent and passion. As creatives, it’s simply what they do. The Creative Brief is their bolt of inspiration. It sums up the communication needs and frames them as simple problems in search of a solution. It connects facts to a benefit, and provides a motivating insight as a logical guide for ideas. The creative’s search for an answer becomes the springboard for ideas.

Ideas are at the heart of every agency. They are the solution to a client’s problem when delivered simply, in a focused and direct fashion. The good ones are so engaging that anyone who “experiences” its logic falls under its spell.

A great idea can be a little scary. It shows up on the wall in every review. It’s the one that worries someone in the first meeting and then often ends up on the floor by the second. It’s on the A-list for weeks, then becomes old news and is replaced by a last-minute entry. Maybe it gets re-drawn, re-designed, re-written… but by then, it’s unrecognizable, a shadow of its former original self.

When the great idea sparks, it’s the creative instinct that sees the glimmer of something special. To survive, the creatives must protect it. That’s their toughest job. Sure, it’s on brief, but that doesn’t make it comfortable – that makes it the most fragile thing on the wall. It takes guts for others to embrace it and for the creative to defend it. If it’s attacked or dismissed too soon, it will fizzle out. Left unsupported, a nitpick or nay-say will be its death. It’s scary.

That scariness is what makes an idea original – the real thing, made up of truth, skill, and cleverness, something that’s never been seen before. It’s too red, it’s the wrong size, and it’s colored with a child’s crayon. It bothers. It zags, and then zigs, always spinning right on the edge of what’s expected, but never quite dipping down into it. The great idea doesn’t look like other ads in the category and it certainly isn’t what the client asked for. It’s quite impolite. It’s the one that makes noise and creates verbal brawls at every presentation. It’s polarizing. Half the reviewers break out in hives while considering it, while the other half wish they had thought of it. Here are some scary idea examples:

Volkswagen, “Think Small“, 1959

All of America loved their big American cars. Until this campaign, all car ads showed the car as part of the consumer’s desired world, one of affluence or power. Ads were always based on positive messages about bells, whistles, frills and fins. Absolutely no car ads would think of mentioning a negative fact about its product. The ad campaign did not start out as a slam-dunk. It was, to some, an amusement to an industry that took itself very seriously. It was radical. Ads before it were either information-based and lacking in persuasion – more fantasy than reality – or reliant on the medium’s ability to deliver repeated exposure. VW ads, though, connected with consumers on an emotional level, conveying a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to in a new, novel way. Plus, the ads were simple. One ad featured only a small picture of the car with the headline “Think small.” Copy highlighted advantages of driving the small Beetle vs. a big car. The small car presented itself as the anti-consumption vehicle and became a badge for those who wanted to feel they were immune to being led by typical advertising. The youth rebellion of driving age boomers embraced it as their car. VW sold 120,000 cars in the U.S. in 1959, four times the number sold in 1955. “Think small” was quite a big idea.

Avis, “We try harder“, 1963

At the time, a 50’s-minded America believed we were the ”Top Dog,” #1. We were still high on coming out on the winning side of WWII. American’s believed in winners and that winning was the American way. Second place was still losing. Saying “We’re No. 2, We Try Harder” was very “un-American” at the time. The Avis campaign dared to boast about being #2 and seemed at first look to exalt the position of being an underdog. They used the negative to grab attention and then focused on good old-fashioned service. One ad even showed the contents of a filthy ashtray as the main visual. Unsurprisingly, it failed pre-campaign testing as people thought the ads meant that Avis was second best. It was an inspired decision to run it. The result: customers admired its refreshing honesty and it was a runaway success. Prior to the campaign, Avis had only $34 million in revenue and losses of $3.2 million. One year later, revenues had jumped to $38 million and for the first time in thirteen years, Avis turned a profit of $1.2 million. In 4 years Avis market shares grew from 11% to 35%. Zigging when the competition is zagging is a scary idea.

Apple Computer, “1984“, 1984

The entire Board of Directors at Apple hated it. Steve Jobs loved it but was warned by his Board not to run it. He didn’t listen. This TV ad ran only once in the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl; it was strange and very different for a celebratory Super Bowl advertisement. It opens on a strange gray “Blade Runner” world. Chased by storm troopers, a beautiful woman athlete breaks into a room pushing aside lines of mindless drone-like workers and then throwing a sledge hammer into a huge screen face of Big Brother, destroying it. The voice-over ends with saying “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.’” Apple associated the Macintosh with an ideology of “empowerment” – a vision of the PC as a tool for combating conformity and asserting individuality. This dramatic act of aggression and rebellion explained the Apple philosophy that people, not just governments and business, should run technology. “Don’t be controlled by computers, take them over by making them accessible,” was the message based on the insight. A.C. Nielson estimated the commercial reached 46.4 percent of the households in America, a full 50 percent of the nation’s men, and 36 percent of women. The commercial recorded astronomical recall scores and went on to win most every advertising industry award out there. This one spot changed the way we looked at a commodity and changed both buying patterns and even career paths. This was a very scary way to sell technology.

Within every client pitch should be one scary idea. Keep it alive. If it needs adjustments, let the authors do it. Don’t over think it. Don’t try to tame it or fix it too much, and be careful what you add to it. Don’t make it look or fit with others on the wall. Keep it original and let the target be taken by its originality.

It just might be the Big Idea.

Filed Under: Creative Tagged With: Creative, ideas, volkswagon

Friend or Foe?

June 14, 2010 By jfisher Leave a Comment

From Joe Baumann, Account Supervisor, Palio

The start of summer generally brings a new energy into the workplace – the sun is out past work hours, colleagues are taking vacations, and weekends are spent relaxing outdoors. The start of summer also brings business planning for the next year. And, of course, along with business planning comes the dreaded tactical plan.

As we all know, the way we reach our target market is changing. Tactical plans are shaped differently than they were 5 years ago. More focus is being put on non personal efforts – most importantly on emerging digital technology. Time is certainly being spent educating Agency brand managers on these new tactical and strategic initiatives. But who is taking the time to educate clients’ Medical, Regulatory, and Legal teams?

Just as the way we reach customers is changing, the regulatory environment is evolving as well. The general feeling is that DDMAC is becoming stricter, so added pressure is being put on client Medical, Regulatory, and Legal teams. This is contributing to an environment in which risk is increased with the idea of trying something new.

Something that can help with these challenges is to involve the entire Client team from start to finish with your important communications planning efforts. Traditionally, these teams are only brought in after the Agency develops materials. They are somewhat blindsided by a new tactic or channel to reach the target audience. Why not educate them along with your Agency brand managers? Not only will you gain a better understanding of regulations, but you’ll be creating a stronger working partnership between the Agency and the extended Client team.

At the very least, hold a concept review to get an idea of how a new space or technology can be utilized, instead of putting a developed piece in front of your team for comments. For a concept review, I’ve found it best to include the following in one document for review:

Marketing Objective
Description of the channel and tactic
Target audience
Examples of where it has been executed in the past (if possible)

In my experience, these steps create a collaborative effort where the Med/Reg/Legal team will begin to champion the idea instead of figuring out ways to shoot it down. This won’t always guarantee you’ll be able to execute on your plan, but it should eliminate an atmosphere of “Us vs Them” and hopefully turn potential foes into friends.

This business planning season, I encourage you to challenge your brand managers to reach out to the extended team prior to Agency development.

Filed Under: Account Services Tagged With: DDMAC, med/reg, tactical plannin