Memory Theory and Advertising that Sticks

October 26, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

What were we talking about?

Oh, yes. Memory theory and advertising that sticks. Yes. Yes.

The topic’s important now because those old purchase models of yesteryear are falling obsolete. The line isn’t as straight as the awareness, interest, understanding, trial and loyalty diagrams of the past. In today’s world, it’s a convoluted customer journey that winds through life. For the marketer, therefore, it’s important the brand be remembered when the time to buy comes. In short, memorability matters.

So to start, before I forget, let’s cover the memory theory part.

Everyone is challenged with memory from time to time. Where did I put my phone? What’s that person’s name? Was that Samuel Jackson or Lawrence Fishburne in The Matrix?

The big worry with memory is it supposedly gets worse over time, and that’s a scary thought. So, after my beloved wife accused me of being spacey about important family matters, I took to studying the practice of memory.

The journey itself was, dare I say, unforgettable. As in:

Did you know there is a World Memory Championship held every year where contestants go through incredible feats of memory? http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/
Did you know former New York Knicks center Jerry Lucas memorized and recited the names of an entire studio audience on a 1970s talk show?
Did you know there are currently 151 Grand Master of Memory award winners? They earned it by memorizing 1,000 random digits in one hour, the order of 10 shuffled decks of cards in another hour and the order of a shuffled 52-card deck in under two minutes. http://www.world-memory-statistics.com/grandmasters.php

Fascinating stuff, memory is.

The study of memory has helped me immensely and, though I’m by no means a memory expert, I feel great about my personal improvement.

Proven Memory Techniques

The key techniques I’ve put into practice include these fail-safes:

Create visual references, stories
Make associations with familiar places, journeys
Revisit, regurge and repeat
Engage with hands-on involvement

Visual learning is the obvious and easiest to understand. People remember things they see because we’re programmed that way from prehistoric time. Early man didn’t read his way through life — he saw and experienced things. Complex concepts, such as good and evil, were made into people or animals not just because the words for them didn’t exist, but because people could visualize, understand and remember the stories and then pass them on. (And if they couldn’t, well, that’s a separate topic that Darwin explored nicely.)

Hence, as if by magic, it works well to remember things by creating visual associations and connecting them in a story. Even more magical, the odder the story, the more memorable it becomes.

A similar but different memory aid is to associate things with what’s already well known: common places and journeys. It’s the Method of Loci, which dates back as a study in mnemonics to Greek and Roman times.

The Method of Loci involves creating visual ties with familiar places like your home’s living room layout or journeys like your route to the office. This is a great technique because it compartmentalizes things nicely and it can expand and expand and expand into whatever level of detail you need. Once you’ve made the associations, you just have to enter the room or take the drive to recall things. Method of loci: http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/how-to-improve-your-memory7.htm

Next, there is the revisiting and repeating. Certainly, memory improves on anything the more you go over it. But when you go over the visual associations and the critical information together, it seems to hold the memory tighter, longer and easier. It’s in the connections in the mind, and it works.

Engaging is the last of the tools. You have to actually try something to learn it. That’s why we have internships. That’s why sciences are taught in labs. That’s why music is theory and practice. It’s the practice that sinks in.

Don’t Forget Great Advertising

So what does that have to do with great advertising? Plenty.

Brand building in general and advertising in particular are about being recognized, remembered and revered. It’s not surprising one of the fundamental research questions surrounding any brand or ad is about recognition and recall. Unaided recall: Very good. Aided recall: Ok. Never-heard-of-it: Bad.

True, great advertising isn’t all about being memorable, of course. The 2015 Super Bowl ads for Nationwide Insurance were memorable for the wrong reasons and created regrettably negative associations. Advertisements that cross into the inappropriate, off-target or confusing world of misguided creative may break through and be remembered, but that’s not good brand stewardship, either.

All the same, brand recognition and recall are essential to brand value, and I believe ads need to go beyond breakthrough and beyond blind repetition to be memorable.

Examples to Remember

So let’s connect the four techniques:

Create visual references that tell stories — and the odder the better. The still photograph, the illustration, the video are what people see and what they remember, way before the clever headline or tag.

Here are a few examples: Absolute vodka transformed everything we see into the shape of the bottle, and it became iconic. Snickers “Brady Bunch” ad brings in tough-guy Machete Kill’s Danny Trejo who morphs into Marsha and Steve Buscemi appearing as Jan. Nobody remembers the line “When you’re hungry you’re not you” but the message and ad aren’t forgotten.

Another campaign of historic proportions is the “Bud” “Wiser” “Er” ads featuring the talking frogs. They connected frogs outside of a swamp bar to a beer. That’s an odd visual story that can’t be disconnected, no matter how hard I try.

Bottom line: Copy driven ads don’t get remembered. It’s the visual elements that stick. Focus on the visual first in any concept.

Absolute: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-21-best-absolut-ads-2013-12?op=1
Snickers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqbomTIWCZ8
Budweiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkavReH4LE0&spfreload=10

Making associations with familiar places and journeys. Most advertisements, even the everyday forgettable ones, talk a common language and show common places. That’s not it. What makes the sticky ones stick is how they twist the familiar to create the tie-in.

For All State Insurance, Mayhem walks you through reasonably probable perils of owning a home or a car in common settings. What makes it memorable is the terror the spokesperson goes through while explaining the insurance. Now, when you’re thinking of those insurance needs, can you not think of Mayhem and All State. All State: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErGzrPGJmoY&spfreload=10

Take Bud Light. There’s the a guy out on the town going to order a drink at the bar is the everyday — right up until the time it explodes into a over-the-top, raucous “Up for Whatever” fantasy. I’m not a big fan of the campaign (nor am I the target), but I can’t forget it for some reason. Bud Light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9A1NowrnGI

Bottom line: Show the product doing what it commonly does in an arresting, uncommon way. People will remember that when they are thinking of your category.

Revisiting and repeating. Frequency can rack up not just gross rating points but also memory cells. Still, running an add over and over again isn’t the answer. It gets boring (and expensive). What really works are revisions or retakes or fresh angles on the original theme. That’s the repetition that gets noticed and sinks in.

Absolute did it, running the campaign through a whole museum worth of art using its bottle. Snickers kept the brand theme going through a series of interesting, memorable ads that didn’t even look or really sound the same. All State’s kept with Mayhem, and he seems to survive an ever worsening set of terrors — none of which are covered with cut-rate insurance.

Bottom line: Play out the concept in as many fresh ways as possible to make it memorable. People won’t get bored with it, and it will have a long life in their minds.

Engagement. Just as with every thing, experiences become memories that we recall again and again. That’s why Brand Engagement is such a hot topic today and the modern call to action goes beyond “try one today.” Marketers today want prospects to experience the product online, through videos, with customer chats, with content and with samples. That’s all about earning engagement, which translates into memorability and activity.

Memorable ads of the past had gripping calls to action. The great “Just Do It” campaign is the obvious example. The ads themselves weren’t so memorable. They showed everyday people telling their stories of health and exercise. What really made the campaign memorable is that so darn many people actually “did it.” Millions bought the Nike shoes, joined the work-out subculture and took to practicing the mantra. That engagement keeps that ad line alive to this day, some 25+ years later. Nike: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/happy-25th-birthday-nikes-just-do-it-last-great-advertising-slogan-150947

Also a flash from the past, a great type of engagement comes in a musical form: Jingles. Remember those? People sang them. People caught themselves humming them. Others took them further and created musical parodies that made them stick even further. The jingle’s not as prevalent as it once was, but for memorability, there were many great ones: Plop Plop Fizz Fizz (Alka Seltzer); I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener; You Deserve a Break Today (McDonald’s), Stuck on Band Aid; I’d Like to Buy the World A Coke.

Bottom line: Advertising that helps engage the customer in any way, shape or form will help make it memorable.

What to Remember

There are many things that go into a great ad. Great ads need to have the right target, the right message, the appropriate voice and consistency. Great ads break through the clutter and have people take notice. And great ads build sales and brands.

Today’s ads need to work hard. They need to stick as much as they need to motivate immediate action. That’s why it’s important to develop ads that connect rationally and emotionally over a longer period of time.

In judging an ad campaign for its memorability, ask how well it exploits these keys to our memory banks:

Does it deliver a strong visual connection?
Does it connect to the familiar in a new way?
Can it be extended, refreshed or revised repeatedly?
Does it engage the target to action?

5 lessons from the 2015 Chicago Cubs

October 22, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

After losing to the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series, it’s certain Chicago Cubs fans will utter the annual adage, “Wait until next year.”

But this year is different for the Cubs and for once that optimism feels justified. That’s thanks to some very savvy moves the Cubs have made through recent history — moves that offer lessons to turnaround specialists in just about any business.

From lovable losers to championship contenders, the Cubs offer a short course in how to transform a business through a systematic approach to positive change. Cubs President Theo Epstein’s approach featured five proven ways to positive change. They are:

Admit failure. The Cubs had been entertaining North Siders of all ages for years and years with a fundamentally weak product. They hadn’t been in a playoff game for years and the team’s draught in World Series appearances is laughably epic. Yet they could stumble along nicely with little fixes here and there, and the bars along Clark Street would be filled as the faithful drowned their tears.

Just as Dominoes did with its pizza brand, the Cubs organization fully understood the policies and practices of the past had created a dysfunction that cursed the club to assured failure, over and over again.

Bring in fresh, young faces. At the center of the youth movement was Theo Epstein himself, who was the youngest general manager ever when he took over the Boston Red Sox at age 28 and turned that perennial also-ran into a World Series winner. He, too, had a bias toward developing new talent and he set out to build the Cubs as he had built the BoSox, with young players and through the draft.

In business, young faces bring new energy, different experiences and a willingness to try the never-before-done that’s needed to fire up a tired business model.

Adopt the latest practices. Theo Epstein effectively changed everything about the Cubs, with new systems and approaches for collecting data, analyzing performance, rating talent and making decisions. His Yale education and his Red Sox experience built a confidence in his systems. That enabled him to do away from the traditional team-building through free-agent bidding and trades.

In business, best practices and breakthroughs found in other companies or markets can make a big difference applied to your company. Innovation can be a new invention, but it can also be a new application of a tool or a resource that’s creating differentiation or value elsewhere.

Hire a winner to lead the troops. In Chicago, that’s Joe Madden. He had a proven track record. He was named American League manager of the year twice and won the ALPennant in 2014 as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. His great baseball mind and motivating demeanor ingratiate him to his young players as through the ups and downs of the long season.

The culture of a winner comes through the managers. The manager’s track record instill the confidence in the team and the manager’s mentoring ways keep the business on track without overwhelming those asked to perform.

Maintain the brand’s emotional bonds with loyal customers. The Cubs have a huge base of loyal fans who connect to the charms of the franchise — the old stadium, the ancient ushers and traditional “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the 7th-Inning stretch. The Cubs modernized some of it, but never lost touch with the past their fans cherish. They celebrated Ernie Banks. They revived Steve Goodman’s classic “Go Cubs Go” song. They kept the traditional uniforms and logo.

As tempting as it was to re-invent everything, the team owners knew better than to discard those things that kept fans loyal through thick and thin. They were fully aware of their brand strengths. They didn’t need to change them, in some symbolic way, but instead focused on fixing what needed fixing, the on-field team performance.

Remember in business, a strong base is essentially a brand’s intrinsic value. It’s to be nurtured and expanded, not abandoned. If you’re going to abandon it, you might as well create an entirely new business, new platform and new brand.

Go Cubs!

Making the Risky Comfortable: Managing the Relator Relationship

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

Ever had a peaceful, easy feeling with a client?

Then at some point you’ve worked with the client personality type known as the Relator. (Say: Re-Late-Or). You’ve had the pleasure to experience these considerate, thoughtful and organized client contacts whom AEs love — and vice versa. You’ve found smooth sailing with a client committed to keeping an even keel under everything, including the agency relationship.

Indeed, Relators are calming, dependable and… trouble.

Yes, trouble. In advertising’s dynamic world, Relators can be a muddy bog mucking the agency’s pursuit of excellence. They can soften the edgy, blur the clear and quiet the volume, all in the name of comfort and compromise. In time, they can get stuck in ruts that limit performance and drain creativity – the forbearers of trouble.

But, as with everything in client service, they are – after all – the client, no matter their shape, size or disposition. Your job, as always, is to make the relationship work. And here’s how.

First off, recognize that Relators are common and often get roles as agency contacts. They thrive in American corporations because they are perfect, living forms of an HR department’s middle management blueprint. They are the ones that fit in neatly. They are great team players. They “drink the Kool-Aid” and bleed the company colors. They are the “company men” and corporate citizens that are at home in big, traditional companies.

You may not immediately recognize client contacts as Relators, because being a bit invisible is part of the Relator’s style and charm. What you will eventually recognize and appreciate are the Relator’s skills in corporate behavior and human interaction.

They are predictable and trustworthy.
They follow rules, guidelines and processes.
They avoid conflict and favor calm.
They are patient, understanding and accommodating.
They have a tight-knit group of associates and they share credit.
They are understated and optimistic.

Relators often lack talents and traits of other business personality types that fulfill other necessary roles. Such as:

Thinkers, introverts who earn respect and authority through their trusted thoroughness and accuracy.
Executives, the directors who take charge through a strong “best for the business” bias and willful decisiveness.
Socializers, extroverts who bring energy to groups for collaborative outcomes, and enjoy sharing thoughts, ideas and results.

Unlike the Thinker, the Relator does not feel a need to own ideas and instead rely on collaboration and process to develop them. Unlike the Executive, the Relator lacks the will and confidence to push against resistance, as needed to drive edgy ideas through an organization. Unlike the Socializer, the Relator struggles to build a broad enthusiasm and support needed to bring big things to life.

But, all the same, they thrive in the corporate environment and fill key roles in client teams.

With the agency, the Relator is tailor made for most AEs. Helping matters is the Relator’s natural desire to build a relationship with corporate partners. To batten down a relationship with a Relator, the account person can succeed with these proven approaches:

Slow down: Have patience getting acquainted, engaging and interacting
Conform (some): Adapt to their style, behaviors and practices
Build trust: Share experiences openly, address agency errors proactively and hold tight confidential information
Set processes: Outline clear steps, decision points and timing
Embrace a role: Set responsibilities and delivery beyond expectations
Establish routines: Contact daily and hold regularly scheduled updates
Limit stress, emphasize security: Avoid conflict, challenges, ambiguity, dilemmas and last-minute crushes
Maintain order: Stay organized, document everything and solve problems quietly
Appreciate them: Give the positive feedback and credit when due, and support their causes

Countering the Relator’s shortcomings is a difficult challenge, particularly for the young account person. It’s the calm and consistency of the Relator that makes them great to work with. But great agencies aren’t order takers or conformists. Agencies are hired to help the client disrupt the market, enter new territories and grow through innovation. Risk accompanies those, and Relator’s aren’t particularly known as great risk takers.

Trust is the starting point, as it is with all clients. Here, it extends into faith – in the agency’s experience, resources and talents. For starters, introduce the client to the people responsible for media, creative and production, and let them show off their accomplishments. The resulting faith can engender the confidence and comfort the Relator needs to move forward with edgy ideas and approaches.

In addition, these tactics can help bolster the Relator’s comfort with big, innovative things:

Align strategy with senior management: Confirm and share top-to-top agreement on overall direction
Establish “breakthrough” as a standard: Alleviate stress of an edgy decision by making it essential to successful work
Put “stretches” into the process: Expect a slow buy-in, but set time to explore new approaches, big ideas and “stretch” executions in every plan
Champion the cause: With gusto and the client in the wings, represent the agency’s work to internal decision makers and stakeholders, and take the hits as necessary
Address needs of other client players: Compile materials and information to help the Relator feel comfortable selling to the Thinker, the Executive and the Socializer in the client organization.

Underlying this is the Relator’s tendency toward safety, routines and ruts. Right alongside the Relator, the account person can be trapped in a sort of day-in-and-day-out habit that benefits nobody. The account person’s job is to recognize that a rut’s forming, and to try these things to break out of it:

Revisit your purpose: Remind the client why the agency was hired, what’s expected of it and how it does its best.
Review your progress: Compile a comprehensive recap of the last year or two, recognize where progress has occurred and project where it could lead.
Break a routine or habit: Move the standing meeting date, change the agenda or reformat a presentation template – anything. Just change something however small simply for the sake of change.
Make a habit of “new:” Set up a routine around sharing observations, insights and examples of innovative, edgy or controversial things.
Establish “breakthrough” as an objective: With the client, resolve to build a high-impact program or to take new risks as key goals to reach.
Take a ‘holiday:’ Invite the client to an event or happening in a new place with new people that’s simply for the experience and devoid of any business pressure or expectations.

A Relator is naturally a good friend to an agency. A good account person can mesh well with the Relator by paying attention, staying organized and working hard. That’s account service 101. But that’s not enough. The great account person finds a way to make the Relator comfortable with change, uncertainty and risk. The great account person helps Relators go beyond the processes and routines they embrace to find the innovative and at times edgy ways to success in today’s business world.

Rick Bayless & Constellation Brands Launches Beer

October 7, 2015October 7, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

The great Kieran Folliard model’s in play here, as famed Chicago restaurateur Rick Bayless joins forces with Constellation Brands to launch a beer brand

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-constellation-beer-tocayo-1007-biz-20151006-story.html

Kieran is the fabulous and famous owner of just as fantastic Irish pubs in Minneapolis. His business with Jameson Irish Whiskey was massive, earning him the title as (I believe) the largest Jameson customer in North America. An Irishman himself, Kieran set out to start his own whiskey brand. He created 2Gingers, a smooth and startling delicious blend. He targeted woman and (helped by his brilliant wife, Lisa) launched with a campaign surrounding his new invention, the Big Ginger — a refreshing summer cocktail featuring 2Gingers whiskey, ginger ale and fresh lemon and lime juice. Distribution rolled back up through suppliers of adult beverages to his bars and things caught fire. Eventually, Jim Beam bought the brand and Kieran could toast another of his great business successes.

As always:
May the luck of the Irish
Lead to the happiest heights
And the highways you travel
Be lined with green lights

If Business was a Party: Success with the Socializer

October 7, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

Social people are fun people. They live interesting lives, share their interesting lives and have lots of friends, frankly, because they have interesting lives.

As agency clients, Socializers are fun and interesting, as well. Meetings with them are active, engaging and quite often entertaining. Who wouldn’t like such a welcome interruption to the serious work of business?

Trouble is: The party ends at some point and a hangover can follow. Socializers aren’t always the business friends you need. And, if your goal is to help them and their companies succeed, they can trip up everything they touch along the way.

Well, the good times don’t have to end badly. Here’s how to think about it and make it work.

In many ways, Socializers are this paradox: Their personalities make them successful and their personalities get in the way.

Companies of all types need Socializers. They are the salespeople who build networks and relationships that they leverage into partnerships, sales and profits. They are the glad-handing executives who thrive at trade shows, on corporate boards and at new business meetings. They are the managers who know how to drive individuals, large groups and cross-functional teams to accomplish great things.

On the other hand, they can lack talents and traits of other business personality types that fulfill other necessary roles. Such as:

Thinkers, who earn respect and authority through their trusted thoroughness and accuracy.
Relators, who apply structure, process and organization skills to great success in collaborative efforts.
Executives, who take charge through a strong “best for the business” bias and willful decisiveness.

Unlike the Thinker, the Socializer has many ideas – some half-baked – that they share, sometimes at the wrong time. Unlike the Relator, the Socializer often appears headed in many directions because of a twist toward engagement and networking. Unlike the Executive, the Socializer struggles to own ideas and drive action and would rather favor inclusion and consensus.

Obviously, it’s not all fun and games with the Socializer.

The account person can quickly pick up on the traits of the Socializers from the start of a relationship. Socializers are the ones needing attention and getting it.

They also have these earmark tendencies that shape their behaviors:

Naturally warm and expressive: They engage people quickly, enthusiastically and emotionally. Some would say about a Socializer, “He’s have never met a stranger.”
Open with ideas and feelings. They like to share their thoughts and you know where they stand on most everything. They brainstorm particularly well with people they trust and like.
Long-winded, with short attention spans: They tell a great story with animated detail and have an urge to enter or redirect the stories of others they encounter. Patience isn’t a virtue here.
Overextended and apparently under-organized: They will get involved with groups or with projects as they arise because they like to be part of the action and the team.
Soft on rules, details and process: They want freedom from control and complexity, as well as from routines that tie them down from spontaneous activities or decisions.
Need to be (or appear) important: They want to influence things and crave the attention, respect and public recognition that goes with that. Conversely, they fear public humiliation.

The challenge for the account person isn’t meeting the Socializer. The Socializer will find you and engage you early and often. Socializers can be very good for the account person, as well, because they will introduce you freely to their cohorts, internal resources and activities – all of which can be a humungous help to agency performance and client-agency relations.

Getting along with them isn’t such terrible duty, either. Many of these things will be quite natural for an account person, especially with a trusted business partner:

Treat them as a host: Let them set the pace and direction
Engage them in your network: Reciprocate associations and show pride in your relationship
Have fun with them: Share experiences, jokes and mutually interesting stories
Be enthusiastic and positive: Openly praise and support their ideas
Bear their burdens: Summarize all details, simplify complications and own responsibility for follow-up

Getting Socializers to make decisions – and stick with them – is among their big challenges. They can be flighty on one end and downright irresponsible at the other. The Socializer relies on persuasive skills and personal relationships to get out of trouble when it hits, but that doesn’t work always in favor of the account person and the agency. (Google “Bus Thrown Under.”)

Some tried-and-true practices exist for keeping the decisions flowing, the deadlines met and results positive. They include:

Give ownership in the idea or strategy: Engage in early iterations and spin results in reference to their input or feedback
Show how it reflects on them: Stress effects on prestige, image and recognition
Add a touch of theater: Present ideas with flair, graphics and energy to overcome short attention span
Support with testimonials: Accompany with favorable opinions or demonstrable success of others of high reputation
Own the deadlines: Make meeting deadlines feel like a personal responsibility

Even more challenging, particularly for the less-experienced account person, is getting caught up in the bad habits of the Socializer. As the relationship grows, an easy feeling can set in that makes it easy to fall into bad habits. Watch out for all of these, because they can work against the account person and the agency in time. They include:

Gossip: Don’t join the fast-and-lose sharing of opinions on people – especially if it goes negative.
Sloppiness: Don’t let their lack of discipline become yours, because them mess ends up on your lap eventually.
Informality: Don’t forget that won’t work with the other personality types that can be “all business” and expect the same.
Tardiness: Don’t miss deadlines or attend meetings late because the Socializer procrastinates or gets tied up in conversations.

The advent of social media, of course, offers a new place and new ways to interact with clients, and Socializers are notoriously large participants on social media. Many, not all, thrive on it – posting everything imaginable about their families, their friends and themselves.

Some observers adamantly oppose friendships on social media with clients. Some law firms see it as unethical. Government employees report fear of “big brother” spying. Ad agencies are notoriously lack in their direction on using social media in business, but they should be as wary as anyone.

Friending on social media can cut both ways. When you friend a client on Facebook, you get access to the client’s birthdays, friends and posts – and vice versa. So keep these rules in mind should you decide to become a Facebook Friend.

Pay attention to their posts: They’ll expect “likes” and positive comments – so be ready to give them.
Recognize them on key dates: Birthdays, anniversaries and even holidays warrant a special note every time.
Avoid controversy: Beware of comments, posts and photographs that are even mildly political, religious, sexist or inappropriate.
Set privacy settings appropriately: Control aspects of your profile, tagged photos, contact information and wall posts that can be viewed publicly.
Be careful.

All in all, having a Socializer as a client is interesting, fun and rewarding. There’s never a dull moment with Socializers – thanks to the energy, enthusiasm and ideas they bring to a business setting. They see possibilities all around them and share generously. When you make the most of them, they tend to make the most of you and your relationships and success with the client organization.

Overcoming the Overthinker

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

What are more horrific than the overthinker and the dreaded paralysis by analysis? Ok, there’s life-sapping negativity and all its horrors. But in agency life, an overthinking client is horrible all the same.

No agency team enjoys the tangled mess of an overthinker. There’s the grinding rigor. The endless rehashing and revisiting. The redirection and revision. A kind of tired apathy can settle in and – watch out – everything erodes. The interest. The work. And god forbid, the relationship. Ouch.

Now that I think about it, overthinkers can wear it out just about anywhere. The lost time, money, attention and energy are just as bad within their own organizations. These clients aren’t the “fail fast” innovators and risk takers today’s businesses need. That eventually catches up to many of them and ultimately makes them their own worst enemy.

As an account manager, however, the job is to make the best of things and win over this client. Adaptation is your key skill and here’s a challenge: Make it work for everyone – the overthinker, the client organization and the agency.

It can be done. Here’s how.

First step, let’s throw out the term “overthinker.” It’s too negative and just labels someone for blame without accomplishes anything. A negative label has no place in this picture.

Also, so-called “overthinkers” aren’t failures. They often get significant responsibilities – for good reasons. They are thorough and smart. Their bosses trust their processes and judgments. They don’t do anything rash or dumb. They earn respect and are rewarded with increasing authority. They often end up as a strategic insider, a central role within the client’s entire business.

Hence, I prefer the term “Thinker.” The image may be that of Rodin’s sculpture, “The Thinker,” with its pained pose that’s (oddly) paralyzed in bronze. But the Thinker is revered. The Thinker gets credit for discoveries, philosophies and theories that make us great. A place of honor is a better starting point for a client talk, as always.

All considered, the Thinker isn’t like everyone else. The other client types commonly fall into three major classes:

The Executive, who likes to control and direct things with single-minded efficiency.
The Socializer, who brings energy to groups for collaborative outcomes, and enjoys sharing thoughts, ideas and results.
The Relator, who works best in small, intimate groups and succeeds internally by applying structure, processes and proven methods.

Thinkers are different. Thinkers are those independent introverts who relish in clarity and certainty. Thinkers doggedly research subjects, examine their options and polish things along the way to a final approval. Thinkers are driven to be “right,” because, in their soul, if they are not right, they are wrong and that’s not right.

In general, Thinkers have these characteristic work behaviors:

They thoroughly analyze things: They develop perspectives and insights deep into a subject’s nuances.
They work independently, methodically: They collect information constantly and prefer undisturbed times to think.
They think logically: They look for reasonable causes and effects and embrace rationale arguments.
They esteem accuracy: They value statistics and reports from leading research firms and can quote specifics from them.
They avoid risk: They won’t commit to the unproven, will find flaws or oversights, and won’t move without a high degree of surety.
They are perfectionists: They check, recheck and fine-tune in the spirit of getting it “right.”
They seek assurances: They’d rather not argue, because they don’t like conflict, but prefer substantiation that comforts them in their direction.

How do you work with the Thinker? A simple answer is to be a thinking partner. The Thinker finds it very helpful to have agency minds and resources at hand, and you can partner in several ways.

Anticipate information needs: Search out, organize and share information on relevant business challenges and opportunities
Dig alongside them: Ask what information is needed and go find it – the harder to find the better
Engage agency resources: Introduce the Thinker to your research team and resources and share access, as appropriate
Be an understanding sounding board: Bounce around their thinking with a bias toward improving their thinking, not challenging it
Assist with organizing and communicating: Thinkers appreciate ways to express or show their thinking – particularly engaging new visual ways

If you want get a bit deeper, understand the thought models Thinkers use. Rather than whimsical flashes of brilliance and inspiration, Thinkers tend to structure thoughts under one of the analytical forms or plan formats they learned in business school. Others adopt those of their own company or the consultancies they have worked with over the years. Others still apply strategies and approaches they’ve found in the business press or books.

An expert’s understanding of business models can help the account manager in a number of ways, including:

To ask questions that stimulate the client’s strategic thinking
To anticipate the client’s information needs
To develop sources or practices for getting the information
To understand the client’s logic and thinking
To build visual tools for best presenting the information
To become a trusted strategic partner

Among the most common of these and certainly worth further understanding are:

(Duh) Strategic plans: Outlining near-term or long-term direction with a situation analysis, objective, target customers, strategies, tasks, tools, responsibilities, budgets, timing and key performance indicators
Brand analysis: Understanding the positioning, strength and value of a brand relative to competitors and market opportunities
Customer journey mapping: Step-by-step look at the customer’s experiences with a brand from first learning of it to possible displays of loyalty and advocacy of it
Stakeholder analysis: Determining how a strategy will affect key individuals or groups
SWOT analysis: A look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for a product, service or company in a marketplace

The Thinker isn’t just gathering facts and filling in blanks, though. Thinkers add value through their imaginative skills and through asking questions. Here’s where the account person and agency can add value, too.

For this, just remember a single word: What. It’s central to the Thinker’s thought process. It defines. It stimulates. It challenges. It energizes. The Thinker uses it in these ways to build an idea, a rationale and a plan:

What? What is the product? What is the problem or opportunity? What are we trying to accomplish?
What if? What different course could be taken with the product or to meet the need? What would fulfill our wildest dreams?
So what? What’s the purpose? What will we accomplish that matters? What will people care about?
Now what? What’s needed to get this done? What are the steps and priorities to success?

But at this point, doesn’t it still feel like a lot of overthinking? These thoughts sound reasonable for working with the Thinker, but do they really solve the Thinker’s main problem? Do they address “paralysis by analysis?”

They will help because they build trust, which is essential to the Thinker’s decision-making process. Yes, the Thinker is a rationale being, seeking facts and logic to support an idea. But emotions play a big role for them, as well. They keep niggling to avoid the discord that accompanies ambiguity, uncertainty and risk. They seek comfort. Assurance. Surety.

So how do you get decisions made and keep them made? How do give them that comfort and assurance? How do you cure the paralysis by analysis?

The best in the business always have a well-established trust and partnership relationship with the Thinker – as with every client type. But for the Thinker, they keep things moving with skill and attention to the following:

Process: Establish a comfort with the way you’ll tackle the assignment and then stick to it. Respectfully call out deviations from the process and the consequences.
Timing: Establish firm deadlines for key steps in the assignment and honor them. Make them reasonable and meaningful so that there is no reason they shouldn’t be kept and that there are consequences to breaking them.
The Big Idea: Articulate the main idea or strategy in simple, meaningful terms and gain its approval and establish it as a guideline. Connect smaller decisions to that Big Idea and deflect time-consuming efforts that are off it.
Substantiation: Challenges and criticism will confound matters, but new information, insights or observations that substantiate a decision will enhance the client’s comfort level. Look for substantiation and avoid the negative.
Support: Build support for the idea through your network at the client and at the agency and share with the client. Help them feel idea has general acceptance and momentum.

Thinkers can change the world, but they can get stuck in the paralysis of analysis just as well. They struggle because they find comfort in researching, understanding and thinking, and they find risk in committing, deciding and doing. The account person’s job is to build their trust, help them think and allay their fears. That makes everyone successful and happy – the client, the client’s organization and the agency.

Warning: Infographic Content

September 24, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

What’s more interesting, more illuminating and more powerful for presenting information than the infographic?

The infographic’s unchallenged value makes me feel a bit doltish to be writing at all. Why not present my thoughts as infographics and people will read, understand, share and ultimately mount my work on their walls for proper worship?

The magnificence of infographics is such that there’s now a great infographic on the greatness of infographics. Here it is http://tinyurl.com/ofy7clp and it has all you need to know about the popularity of this tool of all communication tools.

Of course, infographics aren’t really a new idea. Could you argue that cavemen used them with their drawings and notches on their stony walls? Weren’t Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks actually infographics? And who can forget the posters of the solar system in my 5^th Grade science class at St. Robert’s: the planet photo, its name and size, its distance from the sun, its arching orbit’s distance and duration, and some other neat-o facts.

The infographic’s current popularity is more an inevitability than a surprise. People have always been visual learners. Kids books are photographs and drawings. Instruction guides are filled with diagrams. Missouri is the “Show Me” state in deference to the power of seeing. Virtually every memory class I can remember teaches you to convert concepts into visuals. The visuals trigger the memory, not the concept or the facts.

When it comes to data, the world has always had a struggle. First, factoids have both a precision and a “relativity” to them. Knowing the number is great, but what does it mean? Is it big or small in scale? Is it a trend or an eternal truth? That requires explanations that can be crazy complex.

Second – and perhaps most significantly – trouble is found in the first syllable of the word “number:” numb. Data can be awfully numbing. Doubt me? Ever heard a research presentation? Delivered in monotone? For 90 minutes? Just after lunch? Of course you haven’t. Nobody has. By minute four everyone is dead asleep at those.

Communications instructors since time immemorial have stressed the importance of visuals for bringing information to life. That’s not lost on numbers people. Consulting firms have made gazillions based on their nifty ways to sort information into visual forms. The list is fabulous, including bar charts, pie charts (and sister donut charts), bubble charts, spider diagrams, scatter diagrams, trend lines, spark lines and the beloved matrixes, both two-dimensional and 3D. Now, it’s the infographic’s turn and voila!

Helping expand their popularity is their ease to produce. You don’t need special graphics talent to create infographics. There are several free sites where you can build your custom infographic from arty templates using simple tech-tools. The best of them I’d highly recommend a visit to, including:

Easel.ly
Piktochart
Infogr.am
Visual.ly
InFoto Free
Venngage
Dipity

What’s next? The interactive infographic? Oh, we have those, too. I stumble on them from time to time and get caught in their web of fascination. They get the added benefit of tactile engagement, which is another key tenant of learning theory. The only problem is that they don’t print out neatly for placement on the grotto wall. But they are fun and effective, as you can see from these examples:

http://www.webbymonks.com/infographic/webtesting/infograph.html

http://autodesk360innovates.com/landing/social-collaboration-infographic/#

http://www.nuspire.com/linked/infographic/#/slide3

http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/

As if I need to draw you a picture, I like infographics. They work a sort of magic on me and I’ve found myself collecting them on Pinterest. I’ve loaded up on them for many things that interest me and every one is useful to me. My small collection includes some great topics, such as:

Food marketing
Strategy
Public speaking
Social media
Innovation
Wines

Check those out here and enjoy: https://www.pinterest.com/johnnyz1959/

But that’s not to say all infographics are great or even good. They may have a cool look and tons of great information, but many simply don’t make a point. Nothing jumps from the bad ones and they are as messy as the big pile-o-data they were supposed to clarify.

The best infographics have an implied objective and attain them through the applicable communications structures. The most common take these recognizable directions:

To educate: Logically build the storyline from basic to more advanced concepts in buckets people can understand and remember.
To persuade: State a challenge, posit a solution, support the argument, debunk alternatives, direct steps to the solution.
To entertain: Surprise and delight with something new, peculiar, funny in a visually engaging way.

Infographics can be great tools applied to content marketing and brand development. An infographic can connect to and support a brand if it has the same look, sound, feel and overall messaging you’d expected from the brand. The trouble occurs in B2B communications when marketers and their creative partners lose track of their brand guidelines or don’t believe they apply to their infographics. Of course they do.

The infographic is a powerful and popular tool for communicating data and complex ideas. Which begs a question:

Should I have done this in an infographic?

How to build a lasting client relationship: The Executive Version

September 22, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

Agency account people work with all types of client personalities, from the affable fun-lover to the know-it-all bore to the torturous sadist.

The adaptable account person can deal with every one of them seamlessly and sustainably. That’s why the best account people are not just smart, interesting and insightful – they are fantastic people people, as well.

But emotional intelligence, empathy and endurance aren’t enough to succeed with everyone. So here, I’m going to share with you how to work with the most common and challenging client type: The Executive.

For starters, I ask you not to fall into a trap. Don’t think of The Executive as a generic title, because it’s not. Many managers and contacts don’t fit The Executive mold. At your average corporation, you’ll also find these other common types in the management jobs:

The Thinker, who likes clarity and certainty, and gets there through dogged research and examination of options.
The Socializer, who brings energy to groups for collaborative outcomes, and enjoys sharing thoughts, ideas and results.
The Relator, who works best in small, intimate groups and succeeds internally applying structure, process and proven methods.

The Executive, however, is among the most common and, dare I say, the most important for the agency. The Executive possess the talents and traits that make them successful in the near term and stars over the horizon. These Executives are critical to the account team for three key reasons:

They can power big ideas through an organization. They (and you) can accomplish great things together.
They have the attention of senior managers. They can help or impede client relationships with those who matter most.
They get promoted most often to roles of greater responsibility and authority. They can anchor a long-term partnership for the agency and team.

Every account executive will encounter The Executive eventually in a corporate client. The Executive could be a man or a woman, but you’ll recognize them from these truths:

They have a plan. They are organized and single-minded against a thought-out plan; hence, they appear sometimes stubborn or impatient with derailments.
They are decisive. They know what fits their plan or doesn’t, and they’ll decided quickly from their perspective.
They appear tough. They’ll share their opinion with you on their decisions and they won’t shy from public opinion. They’ll make it known they stopped an initiative or went around some uncooperative player to get what they want.
They wield authority well. When they approve something, it moves forward – even if they have to ‘run it past’ their boss. Most everyone recognizes them for this power.
They are ambitious and competitive. They like individual sports or to play the star position in a team sport, and they see competitors internally and externally in their business world.

Some people might label them “control freaks,” and that’s not entirely correct. They need to control both business and social situations to be comfortable, but it’s more important to them that things are “under control.” The Executive will gladly delegate to others and allow them to do their thing, so long as they deliver the goods. Everything – creative, research, innovation, media, execution – needs to meet The Executives’ standards, but unlike the “control freak,” The Executive won’t take over the job if it doesn’t. They’ll just find someone who will.

So how do you work with The Executive type? How do you build a relationship with someone who puts their own achievements first and the value of a relationship somewhere down the line?

First, recognize, a great relationship with The Executive is quite possible and quite valuable. Recognize that it will have to be both earned as a professional and nurtured as a professional. But once it’s achieved, it can be one of the most loyal relationships you’ll find in all of business. A strong relationship with The Executive, because it is so challenging to get, becomes an impenetrable trusting partnership over time.

So here are the ways to earn and nurture that trust:

Grasp their plan firmly. Digest the essence, the exact content and the desired intent of the plan and apply yourself to it.
Always think practically. Avoid any emotional reasoning or rationale.
Focus on the task. Keep interactions about the job and little else.
Be brief. Headline thoughts, get to the point and move on.
Listen closely. Miscues won’t be tolerated and over time learn to anticipate their thinking.
Act quickly. Respond fast and accurately to requests or changes.
Show control. Document progress against the plan, including timing and costs.
Uplift the ego. Note accomplishments, successes and insights with sincerity.
Downplay your personal relationship. Avoid discussing feelings.

The Executive won’t be your drinking buddy and you won’t be The Executive’s confidante. The Executive will not appreciate funny story and won’t enjoy a brainstorming session. But The Executive can be a great business partner for an agency and an account person for years to come.

Would your mother approve?

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

A great rule of conduct is this: Would your mother approve?

Nobody’s watching and it’s there for the taking. Would your mother approve?

You could choose the easy way out. Would your mother approve?

You can test the nerves of everyone here, just for kicks. Would your mother approve?

A conscience is natures way of telling you that something’s going wrong. It’s motherly — emotional and smart, all at once — and it’s soft spoken. It keeps you from harm mostly because it keeps you from doing wrong and, thus, keeps your Karma positive.

In today’s super-transparent world, we need to tune her in, turn up the volume and take heed. When things go bad, everyone everywhere knows and instant Karma’s gonna get you. On the flip side, society wins when its members have a conscience. So listen up: That’s your mother talking.

But can we do it?

I’m not too optimistic. I’m particularly pessimistic when I consider the case of the owner vs mom battle at Marcy’s Diner in Portland, Maine. There, everything evidently ran clear off the rails and a reset down the road is unlikely.

The sad sequence of events: A mother tolerates her out-of-control toddler while out to eat, forcing the owner of the diner to lose her control on the toddler, leading to an overt embarrassment of the toddler’s parents, prompting the mother to unleash a backlash against the diner owner — all brought to you for your enjoyment by the world wide web.

Once on the web’s — a completely different forum of social consciousness — it took on a life of its own. All shapes and sizes jumped into the fray. Opinions and barbs were shared as lines were drawn, offenses taken and defenses mounted.

And everyone took their lumps: The mom for her “bad parenting.” The restaurant owner for verbal attacks on a child. The child for catching the flak of those intimidating screams. The restaurant patrons for witnessing this debacle. And, not to be left out, the rest of us for having to listen to this horror story of modern inconvenience over and over again.

With clear hindsight, we can all be righteous about this. The mom needed to manage the toddler or leave. The restaurant owner needed to find another way befitting someone in the “hospitality” business. At a minimum, in the middle of it, someone somewhere should have asked the question: Would my mother approve?

What’s left from the wreckage is what’s next: A toddler who’s mother evidently would approve of bad behavior. The new generation, raised by the child-worshipping parents and allowed to act without conscious, is sure to run rough over everything, as their mother’s would tacitly approve.

And, to make matters worse, the web turns bad behavior into stardom. No such thing as bad publicity, right Mr. Dillinger? The restaurant we never heard that stood up against the wild child has a ballooning fan base of followers on Facebook.

That’s where we going, the land of the absurd. You want to get known? Think of something that would make your mother cower. Go do it and film it. Edit it and post in the most dramatic way you can think of. In fact, do it a way that would go deep under your mother’s skin. That ought to work — and does.

We’re doomed. I want my mommy.

http://tinyurl.com/plxvn3q

Z Creative Marketing

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015John Zebell Leave a comment

Experienced. Insightful. Versatile. Creative. Resourceful. Collaborative. Effective.

Founded to bring strategic thinking to creative processes for companies of all sizes.

Z Creative Marketing is about optimizing your marketing through a clear look at today and a smart creative approach to the future.

We will build recognition and understand of your offering through fully integrated communications that’s fresh, relevant, unavoidable and unforgettable.

We leverage our experience, our network and our drive for you.

Zebell & Partners Market Development

Food Marketing. Brand Building.

Author: John Zebell