Stop Commoditizing Communication – Capture the Strategic Creative Advantage

This column by creative director Tim Meyers has developed a virtual life of its own, so if you have not already seen it, enjoy!

Stop Commoditizing Communication – Capture the Strategic Creative Advantage

By Tim Meyers, Creative Director, The MEK Group

Is automation driving your marketing? Is your advertising and creative work dependent on templates and populated by clip art? Does your social media messaging automatically appear on Facebook, then on Twitter, then on your Web site – popping up over and over again until it’s digital tapioca?

What ever happened to the all-compelling “big idea” that drove brand messaging home, regardless of the channel or the platform?

This type of high-octane creative – which still exists today – represents a Big Idea that re-positions an entire company for success. It represents what companies used to go to advertising agencies for: a hot, creative idea that drove the business. An idea that transformed. These transformational ideas create strong, believable brands that literally became part of our culture.

Today, with all of the advances in communication, one might think that this principal is even more true. Ironically, the opposite has manifested itself in many instances, blurred strong communication elements down to meaningless blobs of redundant obviousness. Differentiation in an automated world is the next best thing to an oxymoron.

Advances in communication technology, in desktop publishing, in video production and in portable mobile devices should have created communication excellence. Instead, it’s created a new level of communication clutter that is nearly incomprehensible. Much of what passes for communication today is simply awful.

Because production capacity has become cheap, communication has lurched toward commoditization. A great idea, a great brand, a great campaign – these all take time to nurture, develop, produce and execute. Instead, it is far easier to cut budgets, slam together template ads, spots or PowerPoint presentations and then call it “communication,” even though few are certain to what it’s communicating or even whether it’s communicating. It’s incredibly – and unfortunately – easy to think that one is communication, when in reality all that is happening is the creation of more and more confusing and brand-busting clutter.

With clutter comes anxiety, so bad communication bruises brands – some fatally – even though people may not be aware of it.

At MEK we’ve found three things that will help change the world and get us back to real communication.

1) Automation is not a bad thing, as long as it adds real value to all points of a transaction. Quantity is not necessarily quality, and in an era where plenty of alternatives exist, you want to ensure that you are tantalizing and delighting your customers with real authentic messages.

2) A strong creative idea, fueled by relevant and strong content, can change the world. Or it can at least change the world that you and your customers are used to. Communication platforms like Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist a few years ago. Their replacements – or the platforms that will enhance them – are probably already in development.

3) Accordingly, it’s not about the platform or the technology. It’s about the idea, the content and the message.

Industry labels like advertising, PR and media buying are changing right in front us. What many PR people do today – compared to a decade ago – is in most cases dramatically different. And there’s a reason for that change.

Want to be successful in the second decade of the 21st century? Resist the ease and the siren call of commoditization. There used to be a popular saying in advertising that went something like this: cheap, fast, effective – pick two. In today’s incredibly cluttered communication environment, the saying should perhaps go like this: savvy, simple, relevant – pick three.

Strategic marketing is not a commodity. It doesn’t come in a ready-to-use box. So, fight back and champion the big idea, the big brand, and cheerfully reject those efforts to commoditize real excellence in communication.

Has Your Marketing Become Digital Tapioca? Try the Big Idea!

The following great column by MEK's creative director appeared recently in Inside Indiana Business. If you work in any aspect of communications today, it's definitely worth a read!

Stop Commoditizing Communication – Capture the Strategic Creative Advantage

By Tim Meyers, Creative Director, The MEK Group

Is automation driving your marketing? Is your advertising and creative work dependent on templates and populated by clip art? Does your social media messaging automatically appear on Facebook, then on Twitter, then on your Web site – popping up over and over again until it’s digital tapioca?

What ever happened to the all-compelling “big idea” that drove brand messaging home, regardless of the channel or the platform?

This type of high-octane creative – which still exists today – represents a Big Idea that re-positions an entire company for success. It represents what companies used to go to advertising agencies for: a hot, creative idea that drove the business, an idea that transformed. These transformational ideas create strong, believable brands that literally became part of our culture.

Today, with all of the advances in communication, one might think that this principle is even more true. Ironically, the opposite has manifested itself in many instances, blurring strong communication elements down to meaningless blobs of redundant obviousness. Differentiation in an automated world is the next best thing to an oxymoron.

Advances in communication technology, in desktop publishing, in video production and in portable mobile devices should have created communication excellence. Instead, it’s created a new level of communication clutter that is nearly incomprehensible. Much of what passes for communication today is simply awful.

Because production capacity has become cheap, communication has lurched toward commoditization. A great idea, a great brand, a great campaign – these all take time to nurture, develop, produce and execute. Instead, it is far easier to cut budgets, slam together template ads, spots or PowerPoint presentations and then call it “communication,” even though few are certain to what it’s communicating or even whether it’s communicating. It’s incredibly – and unfortunately – easy to think that one is communicating, when in reality all that is happening is the creation of more and more confusing and brand-busting clutter.

With clutter comes anxiety, so bad communication bruises brands – some fatally – even though people may not be aware of it.

At MEK we’ve found three things that will help change the world and get us back to real communication.

1) Automation is not a bad thing, as long as it adds real value to all points of a transaction. Quantity is not necessarily quality, and in an era where plenty of alternatives exist, you want to ensure that you are tantalizing and delighting your customers with real authentic messages.

2) A strong creative idea, fueled by relevant and strong content, can change the world. Or it can at least change the world that you and your customers are used to.

3) Communication platforms like Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist a few years ago. Their replacements – or the platforms that will enhance them – are probably already in development. Accordingly, it’s not about the platform or the technology. It’s about the idea, the content, and the message.

Industry labels like advertising, PR and media buying are changing right in front us. What many PR, marketing and creative people do today – compared to a decade ago – is in most cases dramatically different. And there’s a reason for that change, due to the changing playing field. However, the Big Idea and how to make it strategically happen has always been a major key.

Want to be successful in the second decade of the 21st century? Resist the ease and the siren call of commoditization. There used to be a popular saying in advertising that went something like this: cheap, fast, effective – pick two. In today’s incredibly cluttered communication environment, the saying should perhaps go like this: savvy, simple, relevant – pick three.

Strategic marketing is not a commodity. It doesn’t come in a ready-to-use box. So, fight back and champion the big idea, the big brand, and cheerfully reject those efforts to commoditize real excellence in communication.

Crisis Communications and Employees

Of the making of information about managing and enduring crises there is apparently no end, particularly over the last 20-some months. Michael McKinney recently posted 12 tips -- interestedly focused on employees -- that pack a considerable amount of wisdom. They appear below and a worth the 45 seconds required to review. If you want to see the blog column in its entirety, click here.

Understand that we will never get back to normal: While it is comfortable to want to seek the status quo, “normal” in times of a crisis is constantly changing. Leaders need to move on to seek better ways of doing things, letting these new ways become the new normal.
Take care of one another: Listening reduces anxiety. Provide regular updates on what is happening across the organization and expand inclusivity.
React…pause…respond: The right response will be made once information gathering, integrity, an open heart, and seeking to understand have been considered.
Talk—even when you don’t believe there is much to say: Overcommunication is essential during turbulent times. Consistent and continuous messaging prevents rumors from spreading and demonstrates the leaders’ approachability and transparency.
Be visible—now is not the time to play hide-and-seek: People become fearful when the leader goes into hiding. As a leader, be present, inform comfort, and provide strength for others.
Maintain integrity and high value morals: Current circumstances should not influence or distort your definition of integrity and other core values.
Optimize costs, with retention in mind: Make cost optimization decisions keeping employee retention in mind. This allows leaders to assess risk and make more informed decisions.
Be a brand ambassador: The organization needs people who are brand ambassadors. As brand ambassadors, you are responsible for representing the organization both internally and externally in a positive manner. This means you must refrain from making statements that might cause further turbulence.
Assess and rebuild trust: Rebuilding an injured organization requires making difficult decisions that not everyone will understand. For this reason, you and other leaders must continuously asses and rebuild trust.
Remember, leaders are human, too: Though there will be difficult times during a crisis, as leader, it is important to remain composed.
Think like a child: Try to live “in the moment,” not allowing business to consume every moment. Work/life balance can exist, even in a crisis.
Take care of your emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being: Don’t put any aspect of your well-being on hold. While change and uncertainty at work are draining, you cannot allow them to take over your life.

Brand Development of Epic Proportions

Big bucks, mind-blowing brand development? When you're a multi-national company with a major global stake in PCs, video, movies, music and all media in general, how do you capture and communicate a multi-level, hideously complicated, all-encompassing brand element in 90 seconds? Perhaps mirroring the epic scope of the infamous one-time Apple Macintosh "1984" Super Bowl spot, Sony has released a senses-numbing 90-second spot called "Make Believe" that, well, totally immerses the viewer into all things Sony. Cataclysmic car chase, collapsing buildings, tumbling airborne sand buggies, pulsating rock concert - all at the touch of a digitized button. The underlying message delivered by the bewildered and awe-struck urban youth stumbling through the fantasy vision served up by technological special-effects wizardry is simply this: Sony owns the digital universe.

What's real and what's fantasy? In the Sony tag: "Believe that anything you can imagine, you can make real."

Whew.

Top U.S. "Clunkers"

In the recent federal "cash for clunkers" Stimulus program, multiple thousands of low-MPG vehicles were traded in, ostensibly both improving our air quality potential as well as stuffing some much-needed cash into America's automotive industry.
However, seven out of the top 10 "clunkers" traded in where FORDs, the rest being Chrysler products and no GM clunkers.
If GM products were so bad, why were consumers apparently hanging on to their GM potential low-MPG "clunkers"? Or, given that the vehicles traded in were all basically 10 years old or older, does that mean equivalent GM vehicles had rusted out and are no longer even road-worthy enough to be traded in?
This is especially interesting, given that Ford is the only major U.S. auto maker that didn't declare bankruptcy.
If I were in Ford's PR department (or more to the point, Ford's engineering design department), I'd be wondering about this one.