Author: craig@4tc.ie

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Let’s talk about ‘The Creative’

LET'S TALK ABOUT 'THE CREATIVE'...

Way back, when God was a boy, mobile phones came with a battery the size of a small suitcase, the internet hadn’t been invented and lunch (for some) was measured in bottles, it was a ‘a creative’ and ‘the creative’.

‘A creative’ was either an art director (who did the drawings) or a copywriter (who did the words), they came in pairs and they worked for full-service ad agencies. ‘The creative’ was the idea they had for the client’s ad campaign which – but only very occasionally – bled into the client’s other marketing activities and – even more rarely – into the client’s PR programme.

Nowadays, it seems ‘the creative’ is being used to describe the Big Idea that’s going to drive a campaign across disciplines. The owner of ‘the creative’ is, de facto, the lead agency and everyone wants to be the lead agency – not simply because it puts you in the driver’s seat, but also because it can come with a disproportionate budgetary whack.

Two things here:

  • ‘The creative’ still describes the idea that underpins the ad campaign, and there are creative agencies that exist to deliver it;
  • In its truest sense, ‘the creative’ is designed for, and works best in, paid-for media – it’s rare that a true ‘creative’ translates into earned or social, because what’s a great concept for a paid campaign, generally isn’t very newsworthy or interesting.

Nonetheless, everyone (and when I say ‘everyone’, I’m looking at you, PR and Digital) is using the term ‘the creative’ to add perceived value to their ideas and proposals. But because they’re proponents of speciality disciplines, I’d suggest, it’s difficult for them to deliver a) the creative for an ad campaign, or b) the Big Idea that works for everybody.  Or – more to the point – the Big Idea that everybody wants to work with.

From an earned media PR perspective we’re losing sight of what’s actually important. Let’s be honest, ‘creative’ is sometimes just another word for highly-strung, unpredictable, and off-message – and fixating on ‘the creative’ is, really, just adding another layer to the communication planning process.

What’s important is the ability to tell a story which delivers measurable results – eyeballs, share of voice, propensity to purchase, engagement – in the earned media environment.

Most of the time, those stories aren’t either Big Ideas or ‘the creative’. Those stories are found in the day-to-day operations of a business, in how the organisation interacts with its customers, in the USPs of its products or services, in the challenges it faces, in its purpose, and in the causes it champions.

Finding the stories, making them newsworthy and getting them in front of your audiences – now, that’s creative.

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Making the most of the Big Idea

making the most of the big idea

By JEREMY PROBERT

Recently, I got to listen to Andrew Simon, Global Creative Director of Edelman (a huge US-derived PR conglomerate). The subject matter was ‘The Blending of Earned and Paid Media’, a topic of some interest to us at 4TC as we operate in both spaces.

Why do we operate in both space? Well, because sometimes you can’t get the earned coverage you need and the best way to gain exposure for your message is by paying for it (and don’t start me on advertising vs advertorial). At other times you may want to amplify your earned media and therefore choose to support it with paid-for content.

The talk – and the learnings therein – were very much based on the assumption that your organisation or brand has a ‘big idea’ (a creative concept, a cause to champion, an issue to address) and if not, that it can find one.

Don’t let that put you off – great ideas don’t come in boxes of six and while you’re looking for yours, best to be prepared to exploit it when you find it.

So what are the things to consider when exploiting an idea and the story that you build around it?

What people care about is being rewarded with entertainment or utility. ‘Entertainment’ is not just the funny and the quirky, but stuff they care deeply about. ‘Utility’ is about receiving something of value they can share.

This is JFDI (Just Effing Do It) by another name. Kick off your communication activity and see where it goes, developing it and adding bits to it as you go along. Seize the moment and the opportunity.

Which is a bit weird, but what it means is ‘see it through to its natural conclusion’. Don’t give up halfway, don’t curtail the opportunity. Keep looking at how you can amplify it until you can’t anymore.

What does success look like? What do you want to achieve? Work back from there to see/decide how to make it happen.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This is really around issues and challenges. Look at the issues and challenges that face your brand – both those that have always been around and any new ones on the horizon and think, well, how can I turn these to my advantage?

(This is about campaigning and/or championing the cause of people and groups. It’s not suggesting that if, for example, you’re a mining company which has just buried 24 employees, you should be looking to leverage the positive.)

Simply put, build it and they will come. If you have a great idea and it gains traction, then it’s likely to feed off its own success, breeding further success. It’s the principle of contagion.

If a creative idea takes off, and it’s being pushed out across paid and earned media, with a multi-disciplinary team, then it’s going to get complex and possibly messy. Don’t worry too much about that – trust your instincts, run with what seems right, stop what doesn’t. You won’t have time to do a quick consumer poll to test the water.

Amplify your story in any and all ways. If that means throwing money at it – sponsorship, native content, promoted social – then do it to take the story to its natural conclusion. It’s not over until it’s over – keep it going until it can go no more.

Don’t just waffle on – do something. Raise an issue, combat a problem, challenge an attitude or position. Say/do something that actually means something.

It’s all sound advice – don’t overthink it, seize the day, wring every last drop out of it, accept that there’ll be a certain lack of control and be prepared to expend resource as necessary.

There’s just three final thoughts:

  • An idea of the budget you’ve got to spend, and agreement to spend it, is central to the process
  • This way of working requires you to be able to move fast, get agreement quickly and change direction on a 5 cent piece
  • There’s always an element of risk in this because you cannot – completely – know where it’s going. You can best guess but you can’t guarantee. The more accepting of that risk you are, the better.

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Skip The Word Salad – Get To The Meat Of Your Communication

SKIP THE WORD SALAD – GET TO THE MEAT OF YOUR COMMUNICATION

Probably safe to say that everyone’s familiar with ‘Bullsh*t Bingo’ – it’s a game to be played in meetings, the object of which is to tick off a list of cliches, jargon, acronyms and references to currently fashionable topics and issues.

Ideally you jump up and shout ‘Bingo!’ when you’ve got them all – although I doubt whether anyone’s actually done it in a real, life-or-death meeting scenario. Like when Vladimir Putin is chairing his weekly catch-up, for example. 

Maybe less familiar – you probably need to be a communicator for this – is the concept of ‘word salad’.

A word salad is a whole pile of words thrown at a piece of paper in the hope that they’ll become ‘writing for communication’. (Normally produced by the inexperienced, but don’t worry, we’ll soon have you writing taught, tight, concise and – above all – comprehensible copy, just you stick with us.)

‘Word salad’ also refers to copy which is the written equivalent of ‘Bullsh*t Bingo’. A loosely strung-together collection of cliches, jargon and buzzwords, masquerading as something like a news release, or a mission statement or a corporate position, but somehow failing to communicate anything useful at all.

This type of salad can be so generic that you could put any company name, or strategy, or product into it and it simply wouldn’t matter. Try this on for size:

“(Strategy name) inspires us to become so much more than we’ve ever been. We are expanding our vision, breaking the limits and embracing a new mindset, one that seeks to transform all facets of (industry sector/product category) for the betterment of our families, communities and the societies in which we operate. Powered by our diversity, (company name) leads the way the world moves by delivering innovative, clean, safe, and affordable (industry sector/product category) solutions.”

A properly weaved word Waldorf. Vision, mindset, transformation, family, community, society, diversity, innovation – we’re leaving nothing out, here.

Yet this isn’t made up – it’s a real example from a statement put out by a massive global conglomerate. We’d bet it’s a ‘committee word salad’, where tens of people have all had a go at it and it’s been re-written and re-written again, and then a smattering of senior execs have leant down from on high and have said things like: “I think we should include diversity,” and it’s been re-written again. And again.

No matter. The lesson is that there is no benefit in this type of communication. It says nothing positive about you. In fact, while your aim may have been to show how ethical and involved you are, it actually serves to demonstrate that it’s lip-service you’re paying to all of these things, no more.

Don’t be tempted to try and stuff everything in there – just like a proper salad, sometimes less is more.

If you’re concerned that your communication is more Russian salad than sliced tomato with olive oil and salt – we’d be happy to talk to you.

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Sleep difficulties due to pandemic lockdowns putting physical and mental health at risk

'Sleep difficulties due to pandemic and lockdowns putting physical and mental health at risk’

  • Expert warns of increase in number of people experiencing poor quality sleep
  • Coeliac Awareness Week ‘Sleep Session’ to provide simple, practical, and effective advice

An increasing number of people are experiencing sleep difficulties due to stress, anxiety and changing lifestyle patterns brought on by COVID19 and the pandemic lockdowns.

That’s according to Health Scientist and Sleep Coach Tom Coleman, who says that people experiencing poor quality sleep are putting their physical and mental health at risk.

Mr Coleman will be speaking about the importance of sleep as part of Coeliac Awareness Week 2021, which runs from Monday 10th to Friday 14th May. His ‘Sleep Session’ will focus on the importance of sleep to the physiology of a healthy body and examine how mental wellbeing and emotional stability are regulated by the quality of sleep.

The health scientist and sleep coach will outline the many stress and physical triggers that cause disruption as well as providing simple, practical, and effective advice on how to regulate this most important aspect of living a healthy life.

Mr Coleman said: “Sleep is the ultimate act of self-care. Not a single aspect of physiology or psychology isn’t affected by sleep. When you’re asleep, your immune system is awake, the good bacteria in your gut is active, and your body is repairing the wear and tear of the previous day. These are all vital functions that are required to maintain a healthy body and mind, and they can only be achieved through good quality sleep.

“This is true for everyone but particularly for people suffering from auto-immune conditions such as coeliac disease or severe gluten intolerance. By the nature of their conditions, people with these conditions need to pay particular attention to their body’s ability to regulate their immune function and health in general.”

“Over the past 12 months I have witnessed a significant increase in people experiencing sleeping issues caused by the worry and anxiety of the COVID19 pandemic.

“We all should be spending roughly 36% of our lives asleep. But currently the levels of stress are high due to pandemic concerns, and the ‘always on’ nature of working from home and spending an increased amount of time on screens, particularly at night.

“People need to give themselves the opportunity to bring themselves down form this arousal continuum, to live in the now rather than constantly think about the future.”

Gill Brennan CEO of Coeliac Society Ireland said: “Coeliac Awareness Week will have lots of events focused on helping people take care of their nutritional health and mental wellbeing, as well as various activities that will be fun for all the family – including live cooking demonstrations, a kid’s corner, and a laughter yoga session.

“There are around 50,000 coeliac sufferers in Ireland, but as many as 37,000 are undiagnosed. These people are living with an untreated lifelong autoimmune condition, which can have a massive impact on their health. There are also over 400,000 people who are gluten intolerant.

“That’s why Coeliac Awareness Week is so important – it’s an opportunity for people with unexplained symptoms such as bloating, stomach pains, diarrhoea, constipation, anaemia and fatigue to ask, ‘Could it be gluten?’. The Coeliac Society can provide information about getting tested, diagnosed and start living a gluten free lifestyle.”

Find out more Coeliac Awareness Week, coeliac disease and living gluten free at the Coeliac Society of Ireland.  

Top 10 tips for a good Night's sleep

Trying to stick to a routine when it comes to bed is really important. We should try go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. When you stick to a regular sleep schedule, the brain learns unwind and relax when it’s time to go to bed.

Light plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythm, the body’s internal clock that tells us when we should be awake and when we should sleep. Morning light anchors our circadian rhythm and sets a timer for melatonin release later in the day. It also boosts our “cortisol activation response” which energises us for the day ahead.

Exercising has all round benefits for health. Both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise can improve sleep quality. Physical activity improves sleep quality, reduces wake episodes and shortens “sleep latency” – the time it takes to get to sleep. Remember that exercise can delay sleep, so ensure you leave about 3 hours between exercise and sleep time.

Nutrition is another fundamental role in our health. It is recommended to avoid large meals and spicy foods prior to bed. There are certain foods like whole grain and proteins both of these contain tryptophan which can increase the sleep hormone ‘melatonin’.

Monitoring and limiting your caffeine intake is important. Stimulants like coffee can have a negative impact on your sleep maintenance and quality. Alcohol is a sedative which sends signals to the brain and can also interfere with sleep quality and restoration. You should not drink coffee after 2pm and you should stop drinking alcohol 4 hours before bedtime.

While lowering sleep pressure can help with exhaustion, it can also make it difficult to fall asleep at night. People who have trouble falling or staying asleep at night should avoid naps. If napping is necessary, it is recommended that the nap length is 20 to 30 minutes and earlier on in the day, to avoid sleep disruption at bedtime.

Using electronic devices which give off blue light at night can disturb both the quantity and quality of sleep. This blue light emitted by technology devices impacts the natural production of the sleep hormone, melatonin, and can throw off circadian rhythm. By putting your phone down an hour to 40 minutes before going to bed can help improve sleep quality.

The temperature in your bedroom has a big impact on how well you sleep. The recommended temperature for your bedroom is 18-20 degrees Celsius. In the evening, our bodies are conditioned to feel a small drop in core temperature. Turning the thermostat down at night will help regulate your body’s temperature and signal that it is time to sleep.

Having a good night’s sleep depends on your bedroom environment. Creating a sleep-friendly bedroom atmosphere is an essential aspect of sleep hygiene that will help you get quality rest night after night. A decluttered bedroom with warm and appealing colours with an appealing layout can improve sleep quality.

Sleep problems are often caused by stress and anxiety. The stress response can be turned off by activating relaxation responses such as breathing techniques and visualization exercises, according to studies. By partaking in these it can help calm the mind and help ourselves drift off to natural sleep. Writing or keeping journals can help declutter and our mind and help us destress.

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What the Carlow school uniform story tells us about accuracy and reputation

What the Carlow school uniform story tells us about accuracy and reputation

About 10 years ago a journalist colleague told me they had never encountered a story that was worth going to jail over.

It happened while as we discussed a story about alleged banking corruption, what we intended to publish, and how strong and assertive the language and headline could be.

His argument was not that there would never be a story worth going to jail over – the fact that some 248 journalists globally are languishing in jail for doing their jobs suggests there are stories that are. No, it was that journalists have a responsibility to ensure that they are operating fairly and legally when reporting and that there can be consequences when they don’t.

This much was clear following last week’s false news story about Presentation College Carlow, which quickly transformed into a story about journalistic ineptitude, and the dangers of following bad reporting and sensational content.

“Female students at a Carlow secondary school have been told by teachers not to wear tight-fitting clothing to PE, as it is distracting for male staff.”

Thus tweeted journalist Kacey O’Riordan, attracting more than 10,000 likes and 4,000 retweets. The very fact that the tweet was presented as a statement rather than an allegation should have caused alarm bells to ring. But no, what followed was a frenetic and unprofessional rush to judgment by a journalists, commentators, politicians, and members of the public.

  • “There is an old-fashioned narrative or viewpoint within the school, and this has stemmed from this,” said a radio presenter who had no specific familiarity with the school.
  • The Lord Mayor of Dublin chimed in on Twitter, accusing teachers of “shaming and blaming the wrong party”.
  • The Labour Party issued a press release demanding that the school “apologise to the students and parents”.

The problem was that it was a story built on second-hand information which the reporter ran without verification. Others similarly failed to verify the facts, or lack thereof, as the story spread like wildfire.

By the time the school stated that asking students to wear the correct uniform at PE was part of a regular reminder of school rules and regulations, the damage had been done. The story was all over national and local media. Teachers had been demonised for being sexist or, worse, paedophiles, all based on unreliable, second-hand information. Some tweets were deleted, including those that started the furore, but no clarifications or apologies were forthcoming.

Elaine Byrne’s article in the Business Post provides a good analysis of the basic lack of professional standards employed by journalists and media organisations.

In journalism, there are stories where you’ll get away with reporting rumours – the stories where the information doesn’t defame anyone. You’ll find lots of them in the sports section.

But when a story contains allegations that are potentially damaging to people, journalists must tread carefully – and so must anyone who chooses to comment on social media or anywhere else. If something is true then you’re on solid ground – but here the terrain was clearly shaky.

Why did it happen? It might be the rush to publish on Twitter – generating attention for an upcoming story – meant the usual checks and balances weren’t applied. Either way reputational damage was sustained by individual and organisations. Media organisations may not be responsible for their reporters’ personal social media accounts, but mistakes like this reflect badly on them.

So what's the lesson for businesses, brands and communicators?

Personal social media accounts, despite stating ‘opinions are all my own’ or ‘do not reflect those of my employer’, cause collateral damage. With that in mind, here are three things to think about:

Whether you’re a journalist, commentator, politician, CEO, or self-opinionated spoofer, you need to be able to stand over what you say and write. If you can’t, you will be called out on it.

It doesn’t need to be your mistake for it to impact on you. Retweeting or liking might not be an endorsement but it can impact on you by association.

If you do get it wrong, issue a correction – and do it quickly. You may also need to consider apologising. Admitting you got it wrong speaks to integrity, and your colleagues, customers, followers, and members of the public will respect it.

If you would like advice on your business or brand’s reputation, issues management, and social media, get in touch with 4TC.

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