Book Summary Preview : Creative Marketing Communications

The Big Idea

Creative Marketing Communications brings together the wealth and experience of creative hot-shots from some of the world’s leading marketing, advertising, and public relations firm. In this book you will find the secrets of powerful marketing communications campaign as revealed by the top creative minds of industry today that are not available elsewhere. Each chapter presents a future-oriented look at the core contemporary issues for success in the changing landscape of marketing communications today and reveals the secrets that lend creative power and impact to it. Moreover, every contributor has been chosen for their proven business expertise so that readers may get real world lessons and advice that are suited to today’s communication challenges and opportunities: lessons and advice that you can readily apply and profit from. Above all, the thoughts, perspectives, and strategies these accomplished professionals share in this book will prove valuable not only to marketing communications professionals, but to marketing, advertising, and public relations professionals and entrepreneurs, too. 

The Changing Landscape of Marketing Communications

Mainstream television is not as happening as it was once, and in a few years time it will get worse. For instance, a TiVo or personal video recorder allows television viewers to “time-shift” their favorite TV shows and fast-forward commercials. As a result, companies who buy a spot on a popular TV show, say Friends, will be getting about half of what they paid for. In that world, TV commercials would not serve their purpose at all.

In addition, traditional advertising is not as effective as it used to be. Many consumers today do not embrace a product or brand just because they are told about it. Rather, they would embrace a product or brand when they experience it. This has led many traditional advertising agencies scampering to reinvent themselves and push for “integrated advertising.”   

Another interesting development in this field is the increasing fragmentation of media. Cable and satellite TV, multiple radio formats, newspapers and magazines, direct marketing, custom publications, and the Internet have made advertising more complex and more targeted. What’s more, fragmentation also brings on the creation of various kinds of messages as creatives produce more material for more different audience segments.

One other significant change in the industry today is with respect to advances in technology, particularly in the use of the computer as a design tool. Not only have computers made advertising and design more cost efficient, they have also made it easier for clients to see how their ad is going to look like. The downside to this, however, is that clients are now expecting work to be done instantaneously, which sometimes results in the suppression of creativity.

Inside the Creative Realm

A creative team must above all be creative. They must be able to see things in a certain way. This vision of theirs is crucial, for if they don’t have it they would experience difficulty figuring out what to create and how to go about making that vision a reality.

Nonetheless, creatives are only as creative as their life experiences. Without these, they would find it hard to think of new ideas or innovative ways of recycling old ideas. Thus, it is very important for creatives to be in touch with life, to observe, to enjoy, and to imagine. All these life experiences will only stoke the creative fires in their minds further.

The Creative Team
Success in the creative realm requires a combination of the skills of an artist and the brain of a strategist. This combination of craft – the ability to put words, images, and sounds together in an attractive, cohesive, persuasive fashion – and a strategic mindset is what is needed to succeed in commercial communications and advertising.

Creatives must be able to generate genuinely new thoughts and ideas, or be able to combine existing thoughts, ideas, and images in a new and provoking way. Also, creatives need to understand the marketplace, the category in which they are competing against, what their brands stand for. Moreover, they need to come up with the best and most effective way of bringing their message to the consumers.

Aside from being artistic and having a strategic mindset, it is essential that creatives possess these other skills and characteristics:
           

• Curiosity
  The best creative people are the most curious. They must be able to dig for information and search for newer and better ways to present what they have found. They must also have a sense of naïveté that allows them to look at the world with a child’s eyes, so to speak.

• Great Presentation Skills
  Creatives definitely need to develop top notch presentation skills. This is important internally as well as with the client. A great idea is worthless if other people do not get to know about it. Creatives must be able to make people understand why an idea is good, and how it will get better once it is executed.
  
  Additionally, creatives who are great at presentation get to meet with clients. This enables them to gradually build up a relationship of trust with the clients. Accordingly, creatives will find it easier to present more daring or pioneering work to clients in the future. Eventually, their track record will ensure that they get to do more business with the client or with other potential clients.    

• Self-confidence and Tenacity
  Creative people need to have a great deal of confidence in their abilities, for they are the ones who have to present their work to the client. They must also be patient and resilient in the face of criticism and rejection of their work.

• Perceptiveness
  Creatives need to know how to read between the lines. They need to have insight into people and know how far they can go with their ideas. More importantly, they should learn to deal directly with the client and listen to their inputs. More often than not, clients will say something other than what the account people say.

• Passion
  The last thing a creative team needs is pure passion. They must be people who truly love advertising.

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