I just finished reading the memoir of David Foster, music producer extraordinaire. Laurie picked up the book because we’ve really enjoyed watching/listening to his PBS concert special (now in our disc library) “David Foster and Friends.” Even if you don’t recognize his name, you would most certainly recognize his music. Foster banged out hits with Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Chicago and Andrea Bocelli just to name a few.
Unfortunately, if the book were a record, it would have been dropped from most playlists…too many dropped names, too many dropped women—who, by the way, all dropped daughters, and too many dropped “F” bombs (commentary to follow shortly on people who drop too many “F” bombs).
There was this one pearl of wisdom though. Read the following excerpt. This made me—for the first time and likely the last—want to be just like Oprah and former President Bill Clinton.
…and I went off to be introduced to Oprah. I’m sure she knew absolutely nothing about me, but within seconds she made me feel as if I were the most fascinating man on the planet. (She and Bill Clinton have that gift in common. Most people are lost in a bottomless black hole of self-absorption, but people like Oprah and Bill make you feel as if you are the most important and fascinating person they’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.) When I told Oprah that the Beatles had been one of my early influences, she wanted to know why, and she was dead serious about it. She wasn’t just going through the motions. And it reminded me of an old saying: “If you find yourself interesting, you’re a bore. But if you find me interesting you’re a genius.”
By the time we sat down to dinner, I knew Oprah was a genius and I was absolutely crazy about her.
“HITMAN - THE MEMOIR OF LEGENDARY MUSIC PRODUCER DAVID FOSTER”
We have a very dear friend who embodies this very principle and she’s positively uplifting to be around. Here’s to our friend Toni! May we all aspire to be more like you, Oprah and Buba. Cheers!
A client introduces himself at a social event. He’s among doctors, lawyers and other respected professionals. He states his profession and can literally feel the other guests physically withdraw and look away—he’s been dismissed. There’s absolutely nothing objectionable about this man’s occupation; he owns a business in a critical financial market segment, his products and services add value to many lives and he likely earns a higher income than the family doc or the local attorney.
This gentleman’s problem is a communications issue—he didn’t communicate the big idea quickly and in a manner that won instant favor with his publics. We see this same issue all the time. Decisions today are made at the speed of light and first impressions have never been more critical. When you get the opportunity to tell your story, you have to compel your publics to engage.
elevator speech
A quick and compelling missive about your company, product or service wrapped tightly around one or two core messages and delivered within the time span of a short elevator ride.
As part of unearthing and building brand for a client, we fit the company tool belt with a very tightly constructed, on-brand elevator speech. This quick and compelling missive can be delivered in a social setting, but more importantly is used consistently with customers to help soften the point of entry and open dialog.
About now you’re thinking this is a no-brainer, so do me a favor. Go out into the bullpen and ask five employees to tell your company’s story in 30 seconds or less. I’ll wait. Okay, how many told the exact same story? How many were on-brand? How many got you excited? If your team responded like most, you’re probably feeling the need to start writing your elevator speech.
Start by writing two or three core messages that encompass the unique characteristics and key differentiation that inspire your company, product or service. Work to blend these core messages together to yield a simple, cohesive, tight and logical train of thought. Now add enough anecdotal flavor to make it conversational without diluting the message. And finally, practice your delivery. Use role playing and fun games to ingrain core messages and your brand new elevator speech up and down throughout the organization.
Build a great elevator speech and you’ll keep others from looking down while you’re going up.
Jeff Wenzel passed quickly from this earthly life from a form of aggressive brain cancer. Jeff was executive director of Youth Horizons. Jeff was a beloved husband and father. Jeff was high energy. Jeff was a bit random. Jeff was REAL.
Jeff wore no mask. He built no walls. He put on no airs. He played no games. He was REAL.
I don’t recall when we met. We didn’t actually spend that much time together. Yet, I knew Jeff on a deeper level than some people I’ve been around my entire life and I find that compelling.
We spend a significant amount of time talking to our clients about building authentic (REAL) brands and yet we can often neglect our own personal brand.
In honor of our friend, be REAL. Time is fleeting.
Youth Horizons is an organization devoted to serving at-risk kids in and around Wichita. The Strategy Group made the decision in 1997 to come alongside this compelling organization by donating strategic and creative services. Check out their website here.
Versatility is vital to success. The more a person can do, or know, the greater the potential for success in any discipline. It is no different in the advertising world with graphic design.
A common stumbling block in many advertising endeavors is the desire to focus too heavily on the design of one particular project without consideration for other projects that will directly correlate to the campaign or promotion. While it is common for one project to work as a springboard for others in a campaign this can create havoc down the road. A clear understanding at the outset of the vehicles or mediums the campaign will use to accomplish desired marketing goals is critical.
For instance, it would be one dimensional to focus time and energy on the creation of a visual concept for direct mail only to find out after it has been printed that a TV spot, full-page magazine ad and outdoor board need to follow that visual style. This type of scenario makes it difficult to preserve the design integrity of the campaign.
From a layout point of view there is now a kind of handcuffing that occurs, restricting all of the new projects to a design format that may not translate well to a different medium. Let’s say that the visual selected for use on the direct mail piece is an extremely horizontal photograph that uses the far left and far right areas of the image as necessary focal points for the visual concept. While this image may transform splendidly to the horizontal physical attributes of the outdoor board and a simple pan will accommodate the photo in the production of the TV spot, the vertical magazine ad suffers tremendously. The image has to be scaled down so small to fit the narrow page width. Consequently, it no longer has the visual power to intrigue the viewer. A decision must be made to either take the ad to a two-page spread or reduce the ad to a half-page or smaller ad. Either way results in costs to the client—from production design or lost impact and, therefore, lost revenue.
To avoid potentially aggravating and costly issues like the previous example it is important to always look toward the future, considering how a visual idea will translate to any medium. An effective way to accomplish this is to build a key image.
A key image consists of all of the driving visual elements (photographs, illustrations, typefaces, color palette, etc.) necessary to fulfill the visual concept in any given medium and also sets the overall design style for the campaign. No particular size or format is given to the key image to restrict it. This forces the designer and client to envision how the visual concept could be applied to other vehicles. It stages the most important question: Does this visual concept have legs? If the answer is yes, then there should be no problem in the translation of the visual concept to any medium. You end up with a versatile, “elastic” design platform capable of achieving success.
