Lecture on Ideas that Do and the creative criteria that help define these approaches vs message based ads. Used in teaching at BU, College of Communication.

1. 4/28
Fundamentals of
Creative Development

2. Ideas that don’t tell.

3. Quick Recap
Why we advertise
Role of creativity
What makes an ad creativity when it’s a message

4. Ads that earn your attention, but rely on
paid media.

5. ‘
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a time when the word “faggot”
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in an insulting, offensive way
and things changed. so when
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“dyke” and “that’s so gay” try-
ing to be funny, remember,
you may actually be hurting
someone. 2. so please, knock
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at ThinkB4YouSpeak.com

6. Original
Unexpected
Invite you in
Entertain first
Provoke
Avoid cliche
Visually arresting
Fun

7. Who creates these ads?

8. Writer and art directors.

9. What are the shortcomings of ads and
campaigns like these?

10. They work. But...they are expensive, they
are temporary, they are mostly passive.

11. They are not going away. But they derive
from an era when we (brands and
marketers) owned the media and could
“broadcast” our sales pitches.

12. Today we live in an age of social media
and participation.

13. Consumers no longer want to play a passive role. Nor do they have to.
At a minimum, they want to choose what they engage with and when
they engage.
More likely they want a chance to comment and share. Ideally, if an
idea is good enough, they’ll actually participate -- sometimes before the
fact, sometimes after -- in the process creating more content that
spreads across the web, attracting attention to the original idea, liking
the brand or the product for allowing them to be part of the experience.
What does a brand have to do or create to achieve such a level of
participation?

14. Participatory
Interactive
User generated
Shareable
Useful
Enduring
Platforms

15. Think about your own use of technology, media, content.
Consider how you find out about brands and products. Identify the
problems, frustrations, needs you have that brands could solve with
marketing as utility?
Factor in context. Where are you? What are you doing? What
makes sense at that moment?
Ask what a brand has to do to get you to pay attention, engage,
and more importantly, stay involved.

22. How can you demo Ford’s new
Park-Assist feature?

24. Pinball Park Assist
Who: Ford
What: To promote the Active Park Assist feature on the new Ford Focus, Ogilvy of Paris “turned the
quest to find a parking spot in Paris into a giant life-size game of pinball.”
Drivers come across one tiny parallel parking space. “Above the cars stands a giant pinball billboard
that displays each driver’s score as they play the full-size parking game. Sensors in the surrounding
cars’ bumpers register a ‘hit’ anytime they are touched at all. The driver’s score is tallied on the giant
board for everyone to see.”
The “winner” – or worse parker – received a free Ford Focus with the Active Park Assist feature to park
in the space without a single ding.
Why: Leveraged the notoriously difficult parking situations in Paris to highlight the Active Park Assist
feature’s relevance to anyone who drives in the city.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DAM_HLj1QOo#!

25. How can you encourage trial in a way
that involves users to create content?

27. National Honesty Index
Who: Honest Tea
What: Honest Tea set up its own social experiment this summer with unmanned pop-up stores around
30 cities that asked people to pay $1 when they took a bottle of tea. Unknown to all passersby, Honest
Tea also set up hidden cameras to find out who actually followed the honor system. They then compiled
the data from their videos to create the National Honesty Index, a website that features interactive
infographics about who is honest ... and who is not.
Why: Spreads and builds the brand’s core values in a way is fun, interactive, and shareable for anyone
involved – from those who took tea at the pop-ups to those who check out the infographics
Link: http://thenationalhonestyindex.com/

28. How do you get people to drink more of
your beer?

30. Bud Clock:
Who: Budweiser
What: Budweiser created a “Bud Clock” that counts down to the end of the Happy Hour. Every
Budweiser you buy at the bar gets you a QR-coded coaster that, when scanned by the Bud Clock, adds 1
minute to the Happy Hour countdown.
Why: Provides a direct incentive for partygoers to purchase more Budweisers at the exact point of
purchase
Link: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/budweiser_budclock

31. Can Charmin’ redeem itself for years of
heinous advertising?

33. Charmin’ Sit or Squat
Who: Charmin
What: An app to help people identify clean, nearby public restrooms from their phone.
Using basic mobile technology and location based services, users can simply open the app and find a
restroom.
More importantly, they can contribute by uploading locations that they identify with a few simply entries.
And, if they are so inclined, they can join, which, of course, gives the brand data about who they are and
where they go.
Why: Provide utility, marketing as service, capture data, hope that doing something for customers
translates into loyalty or trial.
Link: https://www.sitorsquat.com/

34. Who creates these ideas?

36. What is the shortcoming of efforts
like these?

37. Hard to scale, can’t guarantee size of
audience or reach, slower build.

38. Need a combination of everything.
Driving brand idea.
Advertising for awareness.
Social for engagement.
Experiential to connect in context.
Mobile to be ever-present.
Shareable ideas to be viral.
Platforms to be lasting vs temporary.

39. So now what are the fundamentals of
creative development?

40. Art and copy

41. But also, an understanding of media,
technology, consumer behavior, social,
mobile, experiences.

42. Got ideas?