A print ad looks simple at the end but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When you go deeper, a lot of work and thinking goes into it. A lot of this is touched on in Overcome AD-verity but here is an example of a specific print ad.
Back before social media, getting an overnight announcement was very challenging, especially if you wanted to limit who got it. Easy to do now with an email blast, a tweet or a social media post. Not so then. Steelcase, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of office furniture, needed to rejuvenate its Canadian operation and… Read More: When the Dodgers Won the Day »
In this season of awards – no wait! … awards always seem to be in season. Doesn’t having so many awards for so many different things dilute the value of any award? We are just getting through Nobel Season. Soon it will be time for Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Emmies, Grammies, Junos, ESPys and on… Read More: Nobel Prize Award Winning Book! »
How do you decide whether to believe a message or not? As reviewed in Chapter Four of Overcome AD-versity, there are three basic components to judging a message to be credible. The receiver of the message assesses the source’s expertise, trustworthiness and motivation. To do so, you have to read between the lines and read… Read More: Credibility Is the Sum of Many Small Cues »
Mi primer año de estudiar en Filadelfia, en los años 70, un amigo mío en el edificio de mi dormitorio me dijo que él tenía una moto que había dejado en Carolina de Norte. Él iba a mandarla a Filadelfia, pero me dijo era demasiado caro de hacerlo. Yo recientemente llegué a la costa este… Read More: Mis Diarios de Motocicleta »
The first year I was at school in Philadelphia, in the 1970s, a friend in my dorm told me that he had a motorcycle that he had left in North Carolina. He was going to ship it up to Philadelphia but it was expensive to ship it. I had only recently arrived at the East… Read More: My Motorcycle Diaries »
Every place, person and thing has a name, mostly applied locally and then eventually agreed upon by everyone else. When the US thought of appropriating and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, it was trying to change a centuries old agreed upon name. It didn’t work. It got me thinking about how we call places and… Read More: Misuri, Arquinsau, and Germany By Any Other Name »
It is true that you have to have enough money to produce the desired commercial well. But how much is enough? We are often asked how much of the budget should be spent on production versus media. There is no simple answer but there are some clear guidelines. The cost of production is the overhead… Read More: Our Ad Cost a Lot, So It Should Be Effective »
In the time of mass media, the cost of entry was very high. To make a TV commercial could cost thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Airing on network TV was also prohibitive, even if you already had a commercial. This meant two major things: marketers had to take time and be careful what… Read More: Has the Inexpensive Entry Price Dumbed Down Ad Creative? »
Names are funny things. They are the nouns of our lives. Without them there would not be language. They create expectations and label us. They become our brands. We are often asked why we named our company Calexis and what it means. The truth is, we made it up. Our business is creativity. We create brand… Read More: Hey Calexis, Why the Funny Name? »