I find from time to time that standing on your head really is the best way to get a new perspective on things. I remember at school when I did my first self portrait that we were advised to look at our drawing upside down as it was easier to spot where the drawing wasn’t working.

Well so it is with the age old approach to media and advertising strategies. Not only does looking at these things upside down highlight some problems in the present multimedia/digital age – it may also provide the basis for the answer.

In general terms for years and years we have delivered emotive but mostly passive messages through traditional advertising streams like Print, Outdoor, TV and Radio. At their very best these messages are engaging and thought provoking – initially hitting an emotion and then staying with you on a deeper level. At their worst they are either pretty, superficial brand implementation or a cheap joke that lasts till the next ‘cheap joke’ gets your attention. Fine in a traditional media approach, executions from the great to poor all have a degree of success or so we think (no real hard metrics to prove either way!!).

In this model the perception of what we need to create and how we create both a strategic plan and spend to achieve this are based on the top down TV & Outdoor + a mix of print and radio + followed some consideration for new digital channels like online and mobile.

‘But if this ever changing world in which we live in‘ is to be embraced then we need to look at things differently. The basic principle of engaging as many of our target audience in an effective and engaging manner is being missed if we follow the traditional model – principally because the figures tell us TV and magazines (traditional media) are in decline – while new media is on the up. Further more those who engage with new media are doing so in an interactive not passive model.

So simply ‘turn it on its head’. Flip the model round with 5 easy steps:

1) identify your target audience
2) identify all the non traditional media they engage with
3) build media strategy and spend from the bottom up – you might not even need to make a multi million (insert currency here) TVC
4) develop a message and creative direction that works for an interactive/cross media world
5) deliver & measure

Here’s to handstands.

image by ‘Perfecto Insecto‘

Taken from The Age.

In ad land the words are pretty much playing the co-lead with the actual creative execution. In brand land it’s pretty much the same again. As a result a great deal of time and craft are applied to these words. Art Directors work along side their wordsmith counterparts – Copywriters. Yet in digital land words are pretty much the last thing to be considered, if they are actually considered at all. It is far to common an occurrence that a ‘copy deck’ is compiled by an account director/producer and or the client in the dying moments of a project.

Yet the words are critical on so many levels. For one the way the actual content of the site is written sets a tone for the brand just as it does for an ad or any other piece of marketing. But more importantly for a user centric space like digital land the words play an essential role in the user interface. It’s fine to put the functionality in the best place with a structured layout and clever hierarchy but if the words on the signposts don’t call out to the user then the experience breaks. Still most digital projects are tackled with a negligent disregard of the words.

It generally starts when costing a job as there is unlikely to be any budget allocation for ‘copywriting’ – it just isn’t considered. With this it is pretty uncommon for digital agencies to even have copywriters in their team (with the exception of the big global networks).

To some extent it seems endemic of a general trend, in communication in a wider sense that users themselves are probably not as critical of these details as they should be. The younger generations have become more adaptable than their forefathers and the odd bad bit of copy here or there on a website will not prove to be the biggest downfall for them.

When pondering this issue I am always reminded of one of my favourite applications of good copy online – the user welcome on Flickr, each visit you are welcomed in a different language. This simple copy device sets a warm welcome to all with every visit real displays the power of well thought out applied copy.

Mingalaba Friends!
Now you know how to greet people in Burmese!