How To Get On a Creative Streak - Adult B2B Marketing Tip

[AdultB2B]

HOW TO GET ON A CREATIVE STREAK

Previously we spoke about testing your advertising. I am here to say that testing is fantastic and gives your advertising a strength that cannot be gained in any other way. But I realize that there are some people who will find the idea of testing to be burdensome, tiring, deadening, and all around life sapping. Those of you with a more creative streak will want to focus on the spontaneity, the occasional burst and flash of insight. (A little note though: even you creative types had better integrate a little testing here and there. After all, it is what happens between the creative bursts that can make or break a campaign or relationship.)

There are two ways to go about developing the creative ideas that will result in marketing that – even with the word ‘creative’ in there – produces results, adheres to the methodology, and can fit into a marketing plan quite nicely.

Start With A Slant. At first this may seem to be the least creative thing to do: start with a prepackaged, preformed idea and then work from there. However, I have found that having a starting point greatly increases the quality of creative ideas, serves to jump-start your ideas, and gets you over the shell shock of a blank page. Not to mention if you have gathered pages upon pages of information and you are lacking direction and focus.

The time to do this is before you even sit down to gather information; before you do anything. First you pick a slant. The Headline Starters are slants.

Here are some examples:

• Advice

• Comparisons

• Inflammatory

• Warning


Now that you have a slant, begin to imagine the possibilities. If you chose a comparison slant, can you see the direction? For example, you have a furniture company and you chose the comparison slant, now what? Well, you get to go out and pick all the companies you want to use in the comparison. Then you get to shop around, discover the differences, and discover what makes a great piece of furniture. After you gather all that, then you get to put the information together – like the best darn Consumer Reports writer ever!!

Can you picture in your mind what the ads will look like? Can you envision what the DVD should include? Do you see the benefit of choosing a slant first?

More on getting creative tomorrow.

For more information SUBSCRIBE to our new weekly marketing newsletter.