1. A Talk & A Workshop
with Josh Sklar, President, CD and Chief Heretic
of Heresy – heresy.co / josh@heresy.co
Understanding Why Creatives Ignore
the Data Staring Them in the Face
& How to Help Them Embrace it

4. Advertising Heresies
Media channels should not
be put into independent silos.
television
printdigital
© Steve (Maxx) Landeros

5. The “red thread” that runs
through all marketing strategy in our
new, obsessively connected world is Digital.
Advertising Heresies

6. If you work in Digital you really are an adman,
not just a nerd that isn’t good enough for TV and Print.
Advertising Heresies
© Carmen S

7. You do not have to be
a developer, engineer or
technologist to
know what the possibilities are.
Advertising Heresies
© Joshua Cripps

8. Turning 40 does not mean you’re
“out of touch” and
can’t possibly understand
new media and new audiences.
It means you have
invaluable insights
in the form of
something called experience.
Advertising Heresies

9. Clients should be considered and
act as integral, contributing
team members all the way through.
Instead of decision makers
to pitch ideas to
at scheduled milestones.
Advertising Heresies

10. You do not need to heavily invest in a BIG IDEA® –
instead you can try many directions via small trials
in real environments and iterate those that work.
Advertising Heresies
© Pedro Salaverría

11. To be profitable,
agencies do not need to:
• build complicated team structures
• demonstrate success through
costly overhead
• build up custom infrastructure
• or, in other words, bill like lawyers
Advertising Heresies
© Yuri Barichivich

12. We shouldn’t give away
the research, strategy,
and creative ideas.
We should be paid
for our thinking;
not only media buys
and execution of
“deliverables.”
Advertising Heresies

13. People should be given time
to think and become inspired
before committing to
an expensive and defining strategy.
Being able to move fast is good.
Having time for thinking things through is much better.
© Javier Fenoll
Advertising Heresies

14. Loyalty can be rewarded instead of abused.
Quality of life and profitability can co-exist.
© Thirada Srinil
Advertising Heresies

15. Ad agencies can create “new” revenue streams
by owning and licensing
creative technology and content.
Advertising Heresies

16. Brands can bring
creative strategy
in house.
Advertising Heresies

17. Creative ideas
can be stronger
if they rely on
insights gleaned
from real data…
…instead of only
gut and experience
in story-telling.
Advertising Heresies

18. Why Creatives Ignore
© Dimitri Androutsos
• Damn it, Jim, I’m an
imagineer not a statistician!
• Not given enough time to do
the assignment, let alone
absorb so much input.
• Planners and analysts tend to
read endless data points at
the creative team.
• Past experiences deemed
useless and a waste of time.
© Taylor Beseda

19. The Creative Process
• Internalize the creative
problem, the client’s goals
and who the audience is.
• Empathize with the target
audience’s pain points.
• Imagine what that individual
will positively respond to.
• Absorb the assignment’s USP
vs. those of the competition.
• Think of creative ways to
tell a story that are tone
appropriate and on message.
© Dimitri Androutsos

20. How to Help Them Embrace it
• Paint the data as insights, then
portray the insights as scenarios.
• Help them distill what’s important.
• Write up a list of bulleted
findings, categorized by insight
or touchpoint as a handy
reference — never simply leave
behind a binder full of facts
• Be sure to share campaign
results during and post, if you
want them to care about
applying data findings. Have a
conversation about them.
© Fajar Andriyanto

21. A Day in the Life of Your Audience.
From the time they get up until they go to bed…
list all of your opportunities for
Reaching your primary audience and
brainstorm how to develop
a relationship with them
via desirable and appropriate
digital, social, and mobile approaches.
(Focus on: entertainment, information, and utility.)
Exercise

22. josh@heresy.co / @chiefheretic
heresy.co / heresy.me
+1 (512) 415-1698
Digital Doesn’t Matter (and other advertising heresies)
http://facebook.com/digitaldoesntmatter