GarthBox

The hardest part of a creative brief isn’t the demographics. It’s not the competitive analysis. It’s not even the creative idea and all that’s going to be done to instill brand devotion in the audience. The hardest part is how we’re going to measure success.

I saw a funny card at the American Players Theater last night in the gift shop. It showed a CEO discussing a chart to a roundtable of people. The chart in place showed negative growth/a decline of success.

Barging in the door was a man with another chart showing positive growth/an increase of success. The statement underneath the image: Wait! Use this chart from the PR team.

The reason that scenario works is because no explanation of what success means was established from the start. What happens is the team and the client agree to do something interesting and then the PR team chooses to measure whatever worked in whatever way it worked. It’s a client-pleasing tactic.

PR Executives get away with it because they often delete the “How are we measuring success?” prompt from the brief. Answering it is risky. It’s far easier to see what works and ignore what doesn’t; easier to praise gaining 50 followers on Twitter, but ignore the unstated goal of engaging with 50 current followers on Twitter.

If we want to produce real value in our marketing strategies then we have to answer the question of how we will measure success in all we set out to do. Brands are driven by focusing on what works and dropping what doesn’t, but if we don’t know if something is working (we need measurement to know!) then we’ve succumbed to the blind leading the blind – not a profitable or connective marketing method.

 

Stay Positive & Well? What’s Success Look Like?

You can’t satisfy everyone. You can’t perfectly appeal to all the masses. But you can choose your customers, and for them, every rule is made to be bent or broken for the sake of creating a loyalist.

That is, every rule can be bent for those customers who matter most.

You can’t break every rule for everyone, but those who you do break it for strengthen your core tribe.

 

Stay Positive & Customers Choose The Best Companies, Why Not The Other Way Around Too?

I just finished up reading a few dozen essays from 13-year-olds for a contest a client is running. It opened my eyes up to the realization they write like many adults do. Here are some tips for impressing and delighting your readers, no matter your age.

1) Write less and say more. People are human and everyone only has 24 hours in a day. They don’t want to spend more than they need to reading what you wrote.

2) If there’s a prompt: follow it. After you write a sentence, go back and ask if it answers the prompt. If not, cut it. See tip 1.

3) Write to one person, but don’t be too specific. You might know things about the reader, but you don’t know the reader.

4) Be personal. That means answering “why” until you write something inspiring to anyone who reads it. Otherwise known as real, truthful, and authentic.

 

Stay Positive & We Could All Write A Bit Better

People get scared and think they can’t possibly treat large groups of people in a remarkable way, a way that leaves them in complete delight. It’s much easier one-on-one, but that’s not sustainable for a business, so many try reaching for the mass.

Instead of treating differently people differently, they sacrifice value, connection, surprise, and trust to appeal to the mass. It’s easier to do that, isn’t it?

“Yes” is the lie we tell ourselves to get out of doing work that’s risky, but ultimately matters, ultimately has an impact, ultimately delights more people.

Value, trust, surprise, connection, and delight are like any muscle in that the more you exercise them, the stronger they get and the easier it is to please more people at your door in a meaningful way.

Like any exercise (if you’re focused on growth), it never gets easier, but it continues to be more worth it.

Anyway, the mass isn’t as appealing as they sound.

 

Stay Positive & Start By Delighting A Few And Then A Few More

I see it over and over again, people giving up, changing course before any concrete conclusion.

They work months at building their business and selling their idea, but give up because they’re let down from the lack of interest.

People pitching stop calling and emailing when those they pitch to don’t respond.

In other words, we give up too early.

I’ve tried to land a story with one journalist for the last month and a half. I sent 5+ emails and tried calling him every few days on the phone. I wanted to give up. There was no way he was interested. He would have responded if he was. But hey, he didn’t say no yet, so I sent another email. And wah-lah.

There’s two rules of thumb I try to follow when facing the decision to change course or keep going.

1) If I haven’t gotten a clear “no,” then the ball is still live. I wouldn’t have landed the pitch if I thought silence meant the ball was dead.

2) When it comes to competition, we get in the mentality that we have to stick with something forever, when, in reality, we only need to hold out longer than the other person. I have won many-a-arm-wrestle with this.

 

Stay Positive & It’s A Lot Less Overkill Than You Think It Will Be

You lose loyalty when A and B happen at the same time.

A) unsatisfying/disappointing service from you

B) satisfying/remarkable service from your competitor

It’s easy to know where to put your energy because you only have control over A, not B. And it happens that by default when you provide inadequate service, your competitors appear all the more appealing. You don’t want that, do you?

 

Stay Positive & Focus On Delight