Recently, we spent several months creating a comprehensive advertising and public relations campaign for one of our clients. First we created a number of spec campaigns which we presented to the client. Of these, several were chosen for further refinement and presentation to focus groups (focus groups: a topic for a future blog article!). The focus groups in turn gravitated to one campaign, and the client gave us the OK to run with it.

Done deal. Or so we thought. However, in the middle of developing the campaign, a decision was made to shelve it in favor of another one that had actually been rejected by the focus groups. This meant starting over from scratch under a real time crunch—just the thing that normally causes ad creatives to do what we’re alleged to do best: scream and whine.

But no, we didn’t scream or whine. Instead, we got to work. And so, I’m sharing this story with you to:

A. Pat ourselves on the back for executing this switch with grace, good will and professionalism.

B. Present this as a small lesson in humility (as opposed to the other h-word in advertising, hubris).

Stuff happens

Scenarios such as the one I’ve described happen in our business. Changes, reversals, zig zags and all sorts of unexpected things can happen to a campaign as it goes from drawing board to final production. How an ad agency handles these twists and turns determines many things, not the least of which is how the final campaign turns out.

I’m proud to say in this case that we at Patterson/Bach handled things beautifully. There was no grumping or griping about the sudden turn of events. No whining or temper tantrums. None of the arrogance that’s often associated with creative people and their childish ways. Instead, there was an immediate and total commitment to making the new campaign work even better than the original. We regrouped, retrenched, rethought—and lo and behold, we created a campaign that exceeded the original in its creativity and effectiveness.

By handling the situation professionally, with zero arrogance and 100% commitment to the job, we moved from a rough spot to a very smooth and satisfactory finish.

The moral of the story

Conventional wisdom says many ad people—especially creatives—are temperamental and arrogant, disdainful of criticism and unwilling to compromise their grand creative visions. There’s some truth to this, although it’s not always a bad thing to stick to your guns and fight for what you believe is right.

The takeaway from my little story is … well, a little flexibility and humility never hurt anyone. Sometimes all the pieces fall into place and sometimes they don’t. But regardless, the important thing, the thing that really matters, is doing the job to the best of your ability under any and all circumstances. That’s really what you get paid for, and if you’ve done this, you’ve earned every penny you’re entitled to—and you’re worth it.

When is the last time you wrote a letter to a friend, a service provider or a prospective customer? Chances are it’s been a while. And of course, in today’s world of instant communications, why bother with the time, expense (and icky stamp-glue-on-the -tongue) of snail mail?

Here at the agency, though, we’re seeing the value of a good, old-fashioned letter in a new business initiative we recently launched. That’s right, we’re sending out personalized letters along with other materials to prospective clients—and so far, the results are encouraging. We’ve actually lined up a few meetings along with some “keep in touch” invitations, and in most cases the prospects have called us, a sign that our message is getting through. We’re also dusting off another old-school sales tool a.k.a. the White Paper. We’re starting to send these out via e-blasts, as part of an industry-specific new business initiative. I’m eager to see the results, and I’m betting we’ll get some.

I’m sharing this as a reminder that, as we embrace all the new media out there, we shouldn’t entirely junk the old. Sure, it generally costs more to  send a letter, direct mail, etc. However, used judiciously, these mediums can garner attention and pull results. It may be—irony of ironies—that Dinosaur Age communications appear all the more novel and attention-getting in today’s jungle of electronic media. I don’t know. But I do believe that old-school communications has a place in our new media world—and used properly, the old can be worth gold to smart marketers.

Sanford-based Federal Trust Bank has good news to share with the public, and it’s getting the word out through a bold, straight-talking ad campaign created by Patterson/Bach.

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As part of our commitment to maximizing the value of the P/B Twitter Experience, Creative Director Dan McDonald is introducing Tweets of the Weird, featuring news and updates you simply won’t get on the networks or cable TV (or any credible news source for that matter).

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In advertising, we bat around the word creative like Forrest Gump swatted ping pong balls. We use the word to describe our profession, our work and ourselves, but rarely do we pause to consider just what creativity is and what it means to be creative. So let’s take a moment to reflect on the nature of creativity as it is and has been perceived by some of history’s most—well, creative—minds:

BUCKMINSTER FULLER:

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

PABLO PICASSO:

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

ALBERT CAMUS:

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.

JOHN CAGE:

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.

NIELS BOHR:

Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.

MICHELANGELO:

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.

DR. SEUSS:

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

MARK TWAIN:

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

G.K. CHESTERTON:

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

LEWIS CARROLL:

Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

MILES DAVIS:

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

VINCENT VAN GOUGH:

If you hear a voice within you say “You cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER:

The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.

MARCEL PROUST:

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

JOHN UPDIKE:

Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.

And finally …

VICTOR HUGO:

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

Ahh, so that’s why I can’t get “oo-la-oo-ga-ga” out of my head.

Here at the agency, we’ve filled out a slew of RFPs and RFQs recently in connection with some business presentations. In many cases, these documents are a client’s first impression of a particular advertising agency—and you know what they say about first impressions. So we put lots of care and thought into answering them.

One thing you’ll find in most RFPs and RFQs is a section asking the responding agency about its previous experience in the client’s business category. Agencies with relevant experience pounce on this to demonstrate their expertise, and understanding of the client’s business. Meanwhile, agencies lacking experience brew a fresh pot of coffee and ponder, How are we gonna dance around this?

Common sense tells you an agency with previous experience in a business category has a leg up on one lacking such experience. But common sense also told us the sun revolves around the earth, and humans would never fly. Let’s look at both sides of the experience coin.

The case for experience

Obviously, there’s some comfort level knowing an ad agency has previous  experience in a client’s business category. If the agency has had notable success in a particular field, such as a spectacular and well-received ad campaign, so much the better. Of course, there are no guarantees that the people who created the great work of the past are the ones who will work on the present piece of business: that’s one thing an advertiser should verify.

There’s something else an advertiser should consider. Namely, for all its experience in a business category, will an agency bring fresh thinking and ideas to your business? It’s not uncommon for an ad person (or an entire agency) to get burned out working years and years on the same piece of business. Eventually the idea well runs dry, and it’s time for a change.

As they say in the investment world, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Nevertheless, previous business experience does provide a measure of comfort, along with a track record a client can use to evaluate a potential ad agency.

The case for a fresh slate

Can an ad agency that has never worked on a widget account jump in there and make them fly off the shelves (or wherever widgets fly from)? Absolutely. Success in the ad business demands that you be a fast learner, capable of getting up to speed quickly in a wide variety of business categories. This skill is simply part of a good ad person’s DNA. A little research into an agency’s account roster, along with a probing question or two, should give an idea of how quickly and effectively an agency can learn the ropes of a client’s business.

Also, don’t discount the benefits of bringing a new perspective to your advertising needs—a perspective unaffected by accumulated experience. Sometimes, it’s the agency that’s never had a widget account that finds fresh and interesting ways to advertise them.

Of course, inexperience can be a challenge in the case of a particularly esoteric business category—like for instance psychoneurobiochemical photospectroscopy machines (I’ve got one at home!). You may not feel comfortable having a Gen Y, Kings of Leon-worshipping creative team working on that one. Under normal circumstances however, lack of experience shouldn’t be an automatic disqualifier for a client seeking an agency.

So, how do you choose?

My two cents: choose the agency you feel most comfortable with, regardless of their experience in your business category. If they have tons of experience in your category, that’s great. And if not, don’t sweat it. The real question you should be asking throughout the selection process isn’t how much or little category experience the agency possesses, but:

How good is the agency at the business of advertising?

After all, that’s what you’re really hiring them for, isn’t it?

For examples of this, visit—you guessed it—pat-bach.com. Some of the work you’ll see stems from our considerable experience in various business categories, while other campaigns demonstrate our ability to bring fresh perspectives to new fields of business.

The common denominator in both cases? Quality. That says all you need to know about the “experience vs. novice” debate. And about Patterson/Bach, too.

Try this experiment. One night, before going to sleep, turn to your significant other and say, “I love you.” Then the next night, try something like, “Of the three billion (men/women) on this planet, not a single one has your seductive charm, sublime grace and ravishing beauty.”

Okay—which of these Goodnights guarantees you’ll be doing something besides sleeping when the lights are out?

Finding new ways to say the same old thing can make a dramatic difference—in the boudoir, and in advertising too. Heck, especially in advertising, where clichés, stock phrases and stock situations (ah, the good old Slice Of Life!) have been reused, repeated and recycled until consumers react with indifference. That first “I love you” that swept them off their feet has been uttered so many times by so many advertisers that it’s now stale, blasé, yawn-inducing. You’ve gotta find new ways to court them.

Fortunately, as our experiment confirms, it’s entirely possible to find new ways of expressing oft-repeated messages, keeping them fresh, engaging and persuasive. In advertising it takes verbal and visual skill along with imagination—but most of all, it takes the simple determination not to say the same old thing the same old way.

One classic example is the Where’s the Beef? commercial Wendy’s ran (more than 20 years ago!) to tout its beefier burgers. The message—“our burgers are better”—was hardly a new one in the burger marketing wars. But the fresh, unique twist on this message, the “Where’s the beef?” line delivered in the froggy voice of the immortal Clara Pell, single handedly catapulted Wendy’s from a relatively obscure burger chain to one of the big three in the business. Twenty-five years after the commercial launched, it’s still remembered and loved, and “Where’s the beef?” is still a punch line heard in offices, TV shows and even presidential campaigns.

Think for a moment of the awesome return Wendy’s got for simply finding a fresh way to say Our burgers are better. And think too about finding fresh ways to tout your own products and services in your advertising. The fact is, unless you have a completely new and unheard of gizmo (A Revolutionary Device!), your messages are likely to fall into one of several categories:

• Your product saves time

• Your product saves money

• Your product makes life easier for users

• Your product is superior to your competitor’s

There’s nothing wrong with this: these messages are entirely legitimate ones, and they’re meaningful to your customers. But you’ve got to come up with fresh, compelling ways to express these messages or your customers will eventually tune them out—because they’ve heard them before, over and over.

At Patterson/Bach, we preach the gospel of fresh messaging, and we practice it too. Go to pat-bach.com for examples. Maybe there’s not much new under the sun, but there are always new and exciting ways of describing what is—and that’s what we do best.

If you’re not in the commercial art business, the words “white space” may conjure images of the Siberian tundra in January. Not so. White space is actually a graphic design concept that, while little known outside art circles, can have a big impact on the appearance and effectiveness of an advertisement.

Essentially, white space is any portion of an ad that contains no text or graphic. Take a sheet of copier paper and color a small square in the middle. What lies outside of the square: that’s white space.

So what’s the importance or value of white space? Loosely explained, the theory is that clean layouts and graphic designs attract attention because of what’s not there—the visual clutter of dense text, charts, graphs, etc. The human eye, so the thinking goes, is attracted to simplicity—hence the incorporation of white space (or negative space as it’s sometimes called) in a layout.

Of course, this doesn’t mean an ad should be nothing more than a blank page with a logo. In fact, there are times when all available space in an ad should be filled up—say, for instance, an ad announcing a sale on 99 different auto parts at an auto parts store. Used sensibly and judiciously however, white space can create a visually arresting, attention-getting ad.

So, how do you determine the appropriate use of white space in your ads? As with most artistic techniques, there are no fast and firm rules, but here are a few suggestions:

• Commit from the beginning to creating an ad that delivers a focused message. Ads that cram in too many messages—“Here are 73 things you should know about our products!”—often communicate none.

• Create several layout options and eyeball them. Which one stands out from a visual viewpoint? Which one does the best job attracting your attention?

• Ask yourself: does the layout you’ve selected do the best job of communicating the message you want to convey? This may seem like a no-brainer, but the extra scrutiny you give to text and visuals is worth the effort.

For examples of how to use white space in advertising, go to www.pat-bach.com. As you’ll see, sometimes “less can be more” in creating an ad that looks great—and works beautifully.

We used Howard’s strong historical connections with customers as a springboard to introduce their new line of nutritional products.

This artistically designed advertisement helped make the connection.

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Times change, but people don’t. This is an old saying, but embracing it today can be a smart idea for smart marketers. During the Great Depression, advertisers who acted on this principle were often richly rewarded. How about you?

The concept is simple: during good times or bad, people have needs that must be met (food, shelter), and wants (new car, vacation) they’d like to satisfy. Realizing this, many marketers continued to do during the Depression what they’d always done: make products—and advertise them:

• Kellogg Cereals overtook C.W. Post during the Depression. Kellogg maintained its ad budget while Post cut back.
• Chevrolet overtook Ford during the Depression. Chevrolet expanded its ad budget during those years, including a move into radio advertising, a new medium at that time.
• Proctor & Gamble began sponsoring radio programs during the Depression to promote its extensive line of soaps (yep, the original soap operas). P&G eventually sponsored more than 20 soap operas, building a brand line that continues to dominate today.

These historic success stories are supported by more recent data, such as:

• In a study of 600 business-to-business companies during the 1981-82 recession, McGraw-Hill Research found that businesses that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures, averaged higher sales growth during the recession and the following three years¹

No one is claiming that advertising is a panacea for an economic downturn, but abandoning it could be a prescription for disaster. It’s always good business to stay in touch with your customers, and keep them informed about how your products and services can make their lives better, more fulfilling, more successful. That’s what advertising helps do—whether the economy is humming or slumping.

^{Innovation Through Recession, Andrew Razeghi, Kellogg School of Management}

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