Charlie Bowden – 9th December 2011

 

 

 

 

 

Added Value… We sell or we die.

In our studio there’s a sign, “we sell or we die”. This maxim is the core proposition of the course.

As a group we ran a creative/lateral thinking workshop at a Vodafone privacy summit last week; the aim, to encourage staff to look at privacy in a new light and help them find ways to spread the message of it’s importance throughout the company.

In my group was a women, I’m not entirely sure her title, but, she told me many times she dealt with executive committees and that they’d have no interest in privacy unless it was linked to profit.

I suggested that she frame it not just as the privacy of faceless customers but as the privacy of their spouse or children as well, for it affects us all. The underlying idea being a company that’s seen to care about privacy will be seen to care about it’s customers.

Before coming to SCA I was working freelance, much of it, helping with the creative side in marketing.

There was one brand I worked for most frequently. Our relationship grew strong enough that they were happy for me to come to them with ideas when they hadn’t asked for any.

They always seemed excited when I came with new projects.

Most were exercises in brand building, helping them strengthen their position and ties within the “urban” and creative communities. Store, window or public installations as well as art exhibitions and the like; there were, on the more expensive side, brand collaborations but few at that level most, involving just themselves, retails spaces and art students with very low costs.

They liked the ideas but very few materialised.

Why? Because they didn’t drive sales through the tills.

They had a similar position to that held by the women from Vodafone. Or at least the executive comities with which she dealt.

At the Vodafone summit Marc started things off with a talk, he used the line; “Creativity is the expression of an original idea that adds value.”

On the surface both this and “we sell or we die” suggest the monetisation of ideas.

It got me thinking about value.

I think there’s confusion between profit and value or how something that’s valuable can be profitable.

I understand making money and profitability are key factors in business but there’s value in creating an experience for your customer.

Something that may not drive up profit this quarter but leaves them with a sense of enjoyment. Creating fond memories and the key word’s memories?

A memory. An emotional attachment inextricably linked to YOUR brand.

I say all of this because I never thought I would work in advertising.

When I graduated, I was “an installation artist, I blurred the lines of graphic design and fine art. I wanted to create public interventions and choreograph experiences for unsuspecting people in the street.” (bullshit)

I began to feel that was all very self-indulgent and couldn’t go on self-funding forever.

I started to find out about experiential marketing and ambient advertising. It was what I’d been trying to do but for a client rather than my on personal in-jokes! Amazing!

It’s the idea that you can create an experience for somebody today that stays with them, and, although you may not send them running straight to buy your product you can create and emotional attachment to between them and your brand.

These ideas may not create a short term profit but looking beyond that they can build brands, relationships and create emotion.