Creative Differences

It might seem like old news to talk about the Super Bowl in March, but we “march” to a beat of a different drum often and we like it that way. In case you missed it, the Super Bowl was last month and while there’s always a lot of talk leading up to it (and perhaps a day or two after), the discussion sort of drops off into whatever is new and noteworthy, almost immediately. 

I teach a course in creativity for the University of Hawaii system and the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday was the class on “content creation”. I wanted to show the students how varied the responses were in relation to design, content, marketing and intention. So, I thought we’d do an activity to teach them a lesson and it ended up sticking with me too. 

I pulled five major news sources to show their take on the best Super Bowl ads of 2023. I reviewed USA Today, EW.com, New York Post, The Today Show and CNN. We watched roughly 40 ads in class and I asked the students to send over their top 3 ads, in order, at the end of class. 

What we found was, not just news sources, with their own bias (based on their advertisers and whatnot), but the students responses were drastically different too. I expected the newsrooms to have different opinions on some of the ads, but I was a bit surprised that these five publications had very little, if any, crossover on their top 10 ads of the Super Bowl. What surprised me even more was that 25 students—all living on an island in the Pacific Ocean, attending the same college, in the same field, roughly the same age, had such varied picks. They were just as different as the news sources, with very little overlap on their top three picks. 

That was a good teaching moment, for them and for me. You see, it tells us that even with giant (and I mean insanely giant) budgets and all the talent in the world (I won’t even guess how many creatives it took to produce every single Super Bowl ad), people responded differently based on their preferences, realities and other factors that are difficult to measure. 

While this can be confusing to clients, I hope it’s also a lesson in knowing your audience. You can’t win everyone over, but you have to figure out the best way to reach your audience, those most likely to purchase your product, believe in your campaign or follow your lead. More specifically, you have to know your audience to be “loved” by them. 

For those in creative fields, it’s up to you/us to figure out how to reach our niche, however big or small, because there’s always going to be someone competing against your brand. If you’re ever lucky enough to have the entire country watching, and with seemingly endless resources, I hope you don’t judge your success by the media’s response, I hope you judge it by the success of your consumers reactions. 

January is a Time for Newness

If January is a time for newness, February is a time for “continuous”. This is when the newness wears off and it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Keep going with those New Year goals, continue to improve your branding, look for better ways to market your ideas, products and campaigns. Think about the year ahead and take advantage of those moments when others fall in the lull. Prep for spring, clean out the weeds, do the hard work and watch for the best results. We’re cheering for you, always!

Need some February inspiration? Here’s some food for thought, https://www.ragan.com/ragans-top-stories-of-2022-nos-5-1/?oly_enc_id=9918C5599389G3T, and the last time we’ll mention 2022. After all, February is sort of like round 2 of January. Hone in on what is working and the cull the fat off the rest.

You’ve got this, we know you do. Dig deep and March will be so much easier!

Dashing Through the Snow

No, we’re not serious. Christmas is over and it rarely snows here; it’s the New Year and we’re doing what every respectable person does this week! We’re cleaning out our inbox from the slew of emails we didn’t respond to over the past 10 days, from the point we declared we’re off for the holidays, until we started our 1/1 reset and planning period for 2023.

In my inbox from who knows what day it was, sat an article on dashes and dots and I thought I’d get one last Christmas lyric stuck in my head while I finish a cup of coffee. Hence, the title of this post.

AP Style is something we pay attention to for client documents and something I drone on about with my University of Hawaii students. It’s a book that sat on the corner of my desk for years, until a google search led me to the same information. In short, it’s really important for writers and I hope we don’t lose it in our attempts to create shortcuts in social media jargon.

It was also an inside joke here for a few months this year that only Marcus and I could laugh about. Don’t worry, it probably wasn’t funny, but it made us chuckle regularly.

So, as we begin 2023 and step into new projects all over the country, we hope you learn something new every day and go to sleep grateful for those moments.

Here’s a refresher on dashes and hyphens, https://www.prdaily.com/dashes-hyphens-ap-style/?oly_enc_id=9918C5599389G3T. On Dasher, on Dancer, on Comet, Blitzen…

We hope you had an incredible end to 2022 and we wish you the most prosperous year yet, in 2023! Happy New Year!

Write Away!

I came across an article this week covering tips for writing faster, it said that COVID brought us more distractions that necessitated ways to work smarter—which I don’t deny. We were, for the most part, working with kids at home for an extended period of time and allowing more lengthy zoom calls to fill our calendars. For many, we were adjusting to working remotely for maybe even the first time. For us, those distractions weren’t new, at different times of the year, for the past decade we’ve had kids home and we’ve worked out a way to make that doable. If you’re ever curious, ask me what a “station” is. Our kids are experts at them and super self reliant when you get them started. 

For me, learning to write faster wasn’t simply a COVID issue, it was an efficiency issue that preceded those mucky for years. No one has time to think of the perfect words before they start a document. For me, writing faster simply means getting started. Once you have words on paper you can always edit them, but without words on paper you’re just staring at your lack of productivity. Most of the time, getting started is the most productive thing you can do. 

This particular article also honed in on a few other things, one that made me laugh and a few practical ones too. If you’re either struggling to get back in the swing of things after the Thanksgiving holiday or just eager to knock out a few projects before the mid-December craze hits, I hope this helps. 

Here’s the article in case you want to read it in full, https://www.prdaily.com/5-tips-for-writing-faster/.

My top take aways:

1. Have more information than you need to write about, so you can sift through the best material at the end.

2. Make sure you know who to go to, to get an interview, quote or tidbit the fastest so you’re not waiting on someone to reply to an email for half a week. Reporters call these people “quote factories”.

3. Use the CRAP method (insert my giggle): Craft Really Awful Prose. Clean it up later. I totally agree with this. It’s my #1 tip.

4. New ideas are hard to come by, it’s okay to read and repeat. Not copy, make it your own. Scan content you like and repurpose it. Make the story relevant to your organization and be the expert they need their voice in.

5. Don’t forget the inverted pyramid—give the best information at the beginning so the skimmers get the important bits.

Good writing and fast writing can only come from (actually) writing. So, get to it. Don’t let writer’s block stop you from creating content. It’s like Christmas shopping, the sooner it’s done the sooner you can enjoy the presents under the tree and the less likely you are to have to fight the crowds and the traffic at the bitter end of the season. Grab some coffee and get to work, we’ll be with you in spirit, or we’ll just do it for you! 

Happy Holidays!

We Forgot to Tell You!

Sometimes we get so busy we forget to talk about the big stuff! Last month we had a great time producing the festival we created 7 years ago. The Fan Fest Society is quite a community and we’d love to tell you more about it. What a cast & crew…what a tremendous weekend. Fall in Maine, it doesn’t get any better, until you add these people & the attendees.

As we move into the end of the year, we’re mapping out 2023. We’d love to know your big goals! Did you hit all your marks in 2022? Can we help you with finalizing a project or getting it noticed? Reach out anytime, we love hearing from you!

We're Still Talking About It

Mental Health affects us all year long, so we’re extending September’s awareness into October. This week we’ll be in 6 cities over 7 nights, sharing notes from those we’ve lost to suicide and the ones who‘ve survived attempts. Please join us in sharing the message and spreading the word. We hope to see you in the theaters.

Awareness Leads to Prevention

This is the most important piece of content I have swirling around my mind.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and right now all we’re talking about in the office is filling seats for the east coast tour of Stan Zimmerman’s play “Right Before I Go”. If you’re in any of these states around these times, we’d encourage you to snag a ticket and join us for an important conversation.

Summer Reading

I guess we should have asked what you wanted to read this summer and then held you accountable. But, alas, it slipped our minds. We spent the summer reading, a lot! I was teaching Creatives in Media at the University of Hawaii this summer and when I wasn’t doing that or spending time on client work, I was deep into several good books with an impressive background to admire.

The pace of summer is a bit slower. The kids are home and there’s less running around. Ours are an age where we should be present, but we don’t need to interact all the time. They play together. They read too. They journal. And, thankfully, they still don’t need electronics. And, when you’re in Hawaii for the summer, there’s plenty of natural spaces to explore.

I found myself reading a lot of fiction and a few books related to the field. Two of my favorite books were historical fiction, loosely based on real accounts of life—Sister Stardust by Jane Green & Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera. But page turners and interesting works of fiction that taught me a bit about a different time of life.

We’d love to know what you’re reading! There’s a constant queue on our Kindles and recs from people we admire are always welcome! Especially now as we prepare to return to Austin, where the temperatures are too high to do anything outside until October! As we close out summer, we hope yours was enjoyable, full of things you love and happy memories. We’re ready for another school year and eager to see what’s ahead!

Five Yeses

We’re giving this Forbes article five yeses, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2022/03/31/how-to-use-pr-to-strengthen-your-brand/?sh=1d8ae26a5771.

Looking to strengthen your brand? Whether it’s something you’re tackling on your own, as a small business owner, or you’re part of a large corporation (with more layers than ranunculus in bloom), this article is spot on.

Read it, apply it and thank the good team at Forbes. We’re just passing it along…

Your Guide to a Restful Summer

Ha! Is there such a thing as a restful summer for families of young kids? (The answer is no). But, Community Impact, is trying to help. Bless them.

The bad news is that if you haven’t secured plans for kids this summer, it’s not too late, but you’re dangerously close to all your kids hovering over your every breath. So, I’m just going to leave this right here and close.

https://communityimpact.com/austin/southwest-austin-dripping-springs/education/2022/03/03/2022-south-austin-and-dripping-springs-summer-camp-guide-41-academic-arts-day-and-sports-camp-options/

Happy Summer! I hope if you aren’t in our area, that you find a similar link—and quick!

"May" We Introduce You to Seedling Events?

We know, the title is a lame attempt to illustrate our announcement! The hope was that it got your attention!

It’s May, the month of Mom’s, margarita’s and Memorial Day! It’s also the month we unveil Seedling Events—which I hope the disappointment over my lack of alliteration doesn’t overshadow our excitement!

Seedling Events, which you can click through on our website headers now, can also be reached at www.seedlingevents.com. It’s another arm of our communications agency, meant to “plant, grow, share” good things—messages, joy, community. Plant, grow, share, was our agency tagline from day 1, in case you missed it and Seedling Events will be no different.

We’ll use that platform as a way to produce events, be it a play, a retreat, a seminar or a race. We invite you to watch the space and see what’s next. For now, if you find yourself near New England, we hope you’ll join us for our inaugural event, on a very important topic, as we raise money and increase awareness on the topic of suicide this October.

We’re grateful for all the opportunities we’ve had over the years, but this one feels extra special to us, as it combines our love for live events & crafting good messages as a way to increase awareness, participation and education.

Darn Good Advice

Sometimes you read an article and think, “yes” to a few takeaways. You remember some, you incorporate some and you leave some behind. Other times you read something and you think, “yes, to all of the above”.

When I came across this Entrepreneur article I couldn’t deny that it really encompasses all the things I believe strong PR initiatives require today. But, before you hire a scantily clad woman with unbelievable proportions to grace your social media with a dozen filters to show your ability to hire an influencer, I implore you to do A LOT of research (or ask someone who is willing) on what an influencer is for your specific brand. And, at the very least, make them relatable & authentic for your specific goals.

There are several takeaways here, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/402683, but I just wanted to clarify that specific point because the water isn’t clear and there are a lot of organizations doing this poorly, to their demise—from a financial standpoint to a branding standpoint—and the right influencer will add to your communications goals without being confusing to your audience or burying your team in unrequited costs.