One of my favorite people to follow on Twitter is Lee Clow, Chairman and Global Director of TBWA\Worldwide. I always find inspiration in what he has to say, and his January 6 tweet was no different:

Certainly the epicenter of creativity within any agency is the creative department. The stories that come out of creative are what ultimately get seen by consumers, and it is those stories that help build our client’s brands.

However, where does a creative team get its inspiration? Some would say that it comes from their inner creative soul. Others would say it comes from an afternoon or two brainstorming at the local pub. I’d argue that neither is correct. I believe inspiration is born out of the creative brief.

Some would say that I am captain of the obvious. That may be true, but when is the last time you wrote a creative brief that truly inspired the creative department to do great work? When is the last time you looked at the brief you or your account planner wrote and asked yourself, “Does this strategy have legs?”

We all certainly have no problem looking at the work and asking the creative team to “show us how this big idea can work as a 360 degree integrated campaign that will surround our consumers in meaningful and relevant ways.” I do it all the time. So why not ask the same question of the person who wrote the creative brief?

Writing a creative brief should be hard. It should take time. It should be written, and then re-written. It should be reviewed by account team, the creative director, and the client before the briefing takes place. It should be a document everyone believes, and believes in.

At Luckie & Company we believe in the power of stories. Stories that help build brands. The next time you sit down to write a creative brief try to think differently about the information that goes into the brief:

Instead of:
What is the situation?

Consider:
What is the main problem your character has to solve and why is it so deeply important to your character?

Instead of:
What is the objective?

Consider:
What terrible difficulties are there between your character and the solution to his/her problems?

Instead of:
Idea support

Consider:
What are the main events that will move your character toward (or away from) solving the novel’s central problem or achieving its goal?

Instead of:
Brand personality and tonality

Consider:
Age, relationship status, current family, friends, hobbies, sense of humor, temper, how others see him/her and philosophy of life

Instead of:
Communication ideas

Consider:
A one- or two-sentence summary of your story’s main idea (aka, “The blurb for the book jacket”)

If you take extra time and effort to treat the creative brief as a story outline to inspire your creative department, not only will they genuinely appreciate it but in the end they will be able to deliver a more powerful storyline that consumers will want to hear over and over again.

Mike Knowles is VP/Group Account Director at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.

Photo credit: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library via Flickr

New Business

John Heenan, Chief Marketing Officer

“In 2012, full-service agencies will be the solution. Marketers continue to face extreme scrutiny of their ROI. They will continue to shorten timelines for their many different specialist agencies to develop initiatives. In doing so, they must take greater responsibility to manage diverse marketing activities across all channels in hopes of generating consumer interest faster. With reduced staff, reduced budgets and increased C-level accountability, marketers will consolidate resources and revive full-service offerings.

“In 2012, telling a brand’s story with multiple resources in separate channels is key. Digital, traditional, PR or social will be so 2011. Telling that story faster and with clear accountability will be the differentiator for agencies in 2012.”

Public Relations

Brian Pia, SVP/Director of Public Relations

“We’ll see more and more newspapers continue to fail in 2012. But that’s not a bad thing. More than 50% of the cost associated with creating a daily printed newspaper is tied to the printing press and circulation. By cutting those expenses and allowing reporters to report for digital media — the online version of the newspaper — consumers will get more timely information on their laptops and phones. By adding video and compelling digital images to their copy, you end up with a consumer product that people actually want — instead of a collection of dated information in a wet roll of paper that we pick up at the end of the driveway.”

Creative

Brad White, Chief Creative Officer/Managing Director

“Marketers are going to have to learn how to use big data to tell more relevant brand stories. It’s not enough to just come up with something clever anymore. More data means more relevance. Smart brands will use this data to create much stronger personal relationships with their customers.

“Online video and pre-roll on sites like Hulu will give creatives a chance to shine by extending the life of TV commercials and developing ways to create contextual and semi-personalized ads based on consumer preferences. As production costs go down, a brand’s arsenal of messages will be able to grow.

“Boundaries will be pushed as far as what is deemed acceptable in advertising. Brands fighting for attention will be challenging censors and arbiters of decency to be seen as cool by an increasingly desensitized audience. So watch the #@%* out people, it’s about to get !@#&*#%.”

Join us tomorrow for Part 2, when we’ll explore the future of strategy, social media and digital.

Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by e-mail or follow @etbowser on Twitter.

When I started my career as a young art director, I was always trying to get ahead. To come up with the next great idea. To impress my boss and the clients. So, I would dutifully get up at around 4:30 a.m., make a giant cup of bad instant coffee and sit in what I affectionately called my concept chair. There, I could work totally uninterrupted for up to an hour and a half before my house exploded into activity, with small children demanding my attention. And while the coffee may have been the catalyst, I believe it was the ability to concentrate on a single problem for an extended period of time that led me to some of my best work.

Today, we are constantly bombarded by distractions in the form of email, IM, Facebook, Twitter and the occasional coworker who just wants to catch up on the latest agency gossip. In meetings, even the really important ones, people often cannot seem to untether themselves from their digital devices. I’m sure somewhere Pavlov is smiling and saying “see, I told you.” Now people are not only used to being distracted, but welcome it.

Apparently, the need to be connected is, in fact, very basic in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the psychological theory that explains the largest and most fundamental human desires: “Our need for a sense of belonging comes right after physical safety. We thrive on friendship, family, and the constant affirmation of our existence and relevance. Our self-esteem is largely a product of our interactions with others.” In other words (with a nod to Stuart Smalley), I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And gosh darn it, people text me.

But how does this constant stream of distraction affect the solutions we bring to our clients? According to Ad Age, one of the main reasons CMOs move to new agencies is when they feel the agency is not bringing them proactive, business-building ideas. To me, the best way to engineer these big ideas is to unplug for a little while, do some deep thinking and focus on the problem at hand. You’d be amazed at what you can accomplish in a mere 25 minutes of uninterrupted thought.

As a matter of fact, this was the genesis for the Pomodoro Technique. It was created in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo to help people keep distraction at bay and increase their productivity. It’s pretty simple, really. Set a timer for 25 minutes and during that time, work solely on the task at hand. Take a 5-minute break at the end to stretch, check email, Facebook, whatever, then start on another 25 minutes. After four rounds, you get a longer break. This method has been particularly effective in the development world. In fact, people have turned it into a bit of a cult with social groups, merchandise and pomodoro gurus.

So, what does this mean for the rest of us? Well, for those of you who have already been distracted several times while reading this blog, I suggest you re-examine your daily communication levels. Is there any time when you unplug? Do you set aside chunks of time to concentrate on a single issue? Maybe it’s time to insert a daily dose of deep thinking into your routine. Granted, it doesn’t have to be at 4:30 a.m., but if you can find a comfy chair and a quiet space, you might just have that big idea that either gets a client, keeps a client or has people calling you the next Steve Jobs. Really, it could happen. Think about it.

Brad White is Chief Creative Officer/Managing Director at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow @BrightWhite1 on Twitter.

Photo credit: Loozrboy via Flickr

Heinz Soups is running a “Get Well” Soup campaign on Facebook throughout the month of October. The UK Facebook app allows fans to choose a variety of soup, add a friend’s name, and then pay £1.99 to have it shipped off to an ailing buddy.

The app is an outstanding way to personalize a brand and to literally spread word about your product. Putting a personalized can in the hand of a family member, friend or neighbor will really make the well-wish come to life – and give a brand a whole new audience to comfort.

Shirl Braswell is Accounting Supervisor at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email.

Then his son Allan had a wild idea. If a series of roadside signs could get people to pull into a gas station, maybe the same strategy could be used to sell a product. His first signs netted the company its first repeat orders, and by January the Odells found themselves generating content for their new sign shop.

The content they created became one of the greatest stories ever told in advertising, and to this day it still holds a place in the hearts of millions for the conversations it started. Which makes it worth a look for today’s content marketers.

Burma-Shave Math

It was an amazing time in our nation’s history. The very idea of traveling in a car was brand new and suddenly possible for many, thanks to Henry Ford and his affordable Model T. Even the roads themselves were new, and Americans had never before experienced such mobility.

Each Burma-Shave installment consisted of a verse spread across six signs spaced at equidistant intervals alongside strategically chosen travel routes. At 35 miles per hour, it took a carload of people three seconds to read each sign. Multiplied by six signs, the message took 18 seconds to read. That was more time and attention than any casual reader was estimated to be spending on content in a newspaper or magazine advertisement of the day.

Great Content Goes the Distance

Talk of the verses spread like wildfire, and soon folks found themselves addicted, searching the road ahead for a glimpse of those entertaining red-and-white signs. As the signs spread across the country, travelers invented games to go with them. They sang songs, shouted them out, read them backward and memorized their favorites. Burma-Shave became a household name.

Writing content for all these signs started to become a challenge for Allan and his brother Clinton, who were writing all the verses. Their next big idea was an annual contest with a prize of $100 for any they used. This early “crowdsourcing” was so successful the Odells couldn’t keep up with them all – some of the contests drew as many as 50,000 entries – and they had to bring in help.

As the years passed, the buzz continued. Burma-Shave enjoyed radio and television airtime, newspaper coverage, and more. The content lived on through 1963, when the company was sold and the signs were taken down. Farmers who’d hosted the signs for decades said they felt like they were losing an old friend.

What Burma-Shave Taught Us

Times change, of course. But what does an ancient ad campaign have to do with the present? Well, everything. See, we may be over our love affair with the automobile, but we are in love with mobility more than ever. Our virtual “roads” are still freshly paved. And the devices we’re using to travel them are – thanks to Steve Jobs – possibly the equivalent of Ford’s Model T.

We are at the edge of a digital frontier that’s just waiting to be explored. As content marketers our “road signs” are being redefined at a pace worthy of the Indianapolis 500.

Could a story like this be repeated? All we really know is that it will take some mighty fine content. The kind you can’t force, or orchestrate to “go viral.” It’ll be the kind of content that develops a heart and soul on its own.

And then the audience will give it life.

A big thank you to Frank Rowsome Jr. and his book, The Verse By the Side of the Road: The Story of the Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles, for inspiration and information.

Shelley DeLuca is Senior Content Strategist at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.