bob wright creative

On Tuesday this week, Mike Nelson and I recorded what will end-up being the first in a series of Bob Wright Creative podcasts. I'm really excited about this and wanted to give our blog readers a heads-up.

Our goal for the series is help our audience with marketing and communication design problems by sharing our experiences.

This was the first time I'd personally taken part in making a recording like this and it was a lot of fun—so much fun that we'll be doing it on a regular basis. Usually I'm helping a client develop this kind of content so it was a special treat to be behind the mic. Mike is an audio pro and made it easy.

So, keep an eye out for the launch. (We still have to edit, etc.) Of course, we'll shout it from the rooftops when episode one goes live.

If you have topic ideas or questions you'd like us to tackle, feel free to leave them in the comments.

We're adding to our design team and are on the look-out for a graphic designer.

The following is some info on the position and the kind of person we're looking for. Also, take a look at our guiding principle to make sure you resonate with why we get out of bed every day.

Bob Wright Creative is in search of a talented designer for an entry-to-mid-level position within our close-knit team. Our collaborative environment offers an excellent atmosphere in which to create and grow.

The ideal candidate is a talented problem solver that is well organized, highly motivated and detail-oriented. Some work experience in the design field is preferred. Talent, drive and work ethic are crucial.

Responsibilities

- Concept development and design
- Client interaction
- InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator work for a variety of projects.

Qualifications

- Both thrive in a collaborative environment and work effectively independently
- Can handle multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously
- Proficiency with InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop is required.
- Flash, Powerpoint and web development skills a plus.
- Knowledge and experience in both print and web design is required.
- Ability to conduct research, analyze and problem solve.
- Organized, self-starter
- Illustration skills a plus

Design Aesthetic

- Corporate, clean, cool
- Communication Design
- Strategic, smart
- Concept driven
- Strong composition skills
- Strong typography skills

If you're interested email us your résumé and your digital portfolio as a link or a pdf to: info@bobwrightcreative.com

Remember the days when you had to develop a creative brief to kick off a project? You know, when budgets were not an issue and the three-martini lunch was standard?

Yeah. Neither do we and we’ve been at this for over 40 years.

But, don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of this great tool. Creative briefs can make your job much easier, help avoid mistakes and keep your project focused from start to finish.

What is a Creative Brief?

A creative brief is a planning and guidance tool. It outlines the critical information that’s needed to deliver a successful project.

It’s a simple document, usually one or two pages, that keeps the project team focused on what matters by answering important questions.

Creative briefs typically provide the following information:

General project information

Project purpose and goals

Target audience info

Requirements and restrictions

Timelines

Why Use a Creative Brief?

A creative brief helps the project sponsor set the project up for success by allowing them to think through the important questions before diving into the project.

A good brief helps the creative team by defining boundaries. Many people think of the creative process as something that should be wide open. They’re afraid that the results might be stunted if they impose limitations. But, oddly enough, the opposite is true! We deliver our best work when we have boundaries.

It also helps all the stakeholders by defining what a successful project will look like. You may be an experienced marketer and can tell good design when you see it. But, can your boss? How about your board? What about your business partner?

Not everyone understands marketing, but many times they are put in a position to evaluate or even approve a design project. A creative brief spells out the problem, project goals and target market, giving non-marketing stakeholders a focused, logical set of data that they can use to evaluate the project’s success, keeping them away from subjectivity.

Elements of A Creative Brief

So, what should a good creative brief contain? The following elements should provide you with a guide to creating your own creative brief.

Project name
The name of this element is self-explanatory. Right?

Trebuchets R Us Store Promotion Campaign

Description

A brief summary of the project in a few sentences.

The Trebuchets R Us Store Promotion Campaign is designed to drive traffic to our new retail location in Miami through a direct mail campaign.

The Problem
Explain your current situation, challenges, what’s wrong, what needs to be changed and what’s working. Talk about why you need to do this project and what you hope to achieve by it’s successful execution.

Trebuchets R Us recently opened a store in Miami, FL. This is our first retail store. We are having trouble getting people to visit the store.

Market research shows that people do not know about our store and they don’t know what a trebuchet is or how it can be useful to them. We want to alert people of our existence, educate them about trebuchets and communicate the value of a trebuchet for the average suburban home.

Target Audience

Here you define your audience and identify any unique characteristics it may have. This section should include any demographic information you have, distilled, of course.

Our target audience is grouchy white males, aged 56 to 75. We know that they are not worried about their safety. But, they do worry about neighbors walking on their lawn and want to find a way to keep people off it without building an expensive fence. These men take great pride in their lawns, live on a pensioner’s income and drive a GM vehicle.

Goals

What are the primary goals of this project? It’s important to have goals that are measurable because without measurable goals you can’t know if the project was successful. You’ll be left evaluating things like how much your coworkers liked the direct mail piece or how nicely it was to work with the agency.

The general goal of Trebuchets R Us is to drive traffic to our new retail location in Miami. Specifically, we have 10 people a day visiting our store. We need to increase daily traffic by 50%, which equals 15 customers a day.

Requirements and Restrictions

In this section we define any requirements that have to be met and any restrictions that need to be placed on the project.

Typically, both requirements and restrictions are technical in nature. You don’t need to address things like budgets or the fact that your CEO wants to approve everything before it goes.

Requirements:

- Three mailings executed within one month

- All printing to be done by InkMaster’s House of Printing

- All mail fulfillment handled by Stuffer Sam

Restrictions:

- Mail piece format must be based on USPS standard sizes

- Restricted to existing marketing database. No new names will be purchased

Schedule

This is where the project’s schedule gets defined. It can be as specific as a timeline with dates or more general with blocks of time assigned to each phase, or simply a due date.

Project complexity will drive the level of detail needed. As always, simple is best. If you want tons of detail, leave it out of the creative brief and make a Gantt chart.

Jan 2 - Project kick-off
Jan 18 - Initial concepts
Feb 3 - Final concepts
Feb 6 - Final concepts approved
Feb 7 - Files to printer
Feb 22 - Printed assets to fulfillment house
March 1 - First mail drop
March 15 - Second mail drop
March 30 - Third mail drop

Stakeholders

Here you identify who has a stake in this project and what their involvement will be.

This helps you think through who to include in the process, both internally and externally.

Also, this helps the creative team to know who they need to consider when doing the project. If it’s clear from the outset that accounting gets final approval then the agency can present their solution in terms that make sense to the accounting department.

Ed Big, CEO - Ed will have final say on pretty much everything

Wilma Barney, Product Manager - Wilma will take part in initial brain-storming session and sign off on all copy

Chet Armstrong, Marketing - Chet is project sponsor and will be involved in all aspects of the project

Sam of Stuffer Sam - Sam will handle all fulfillment aspects

Michelle Breeze of MB Creative - Michelle will art direct the project and handle all client and vendor relationships

Who Should Write A Creative Brief?

Finally, who should write the creative brief, the client or the agency?

Of course, there’s no hard and fast rule--either can do it. The key is not really who writes it, but that the document is a collaboration.

The marketer sponsoring the project at least needs to be able to help answer the key questions: general information on the project, its purpose and goals, the target audience, requirements, restrictions and timelines.

The agency can take the lead on developing the creative brief and help the client flesh out their answers. Both the client and the agency need to approve the document once it’s done for it to be valuable.

Now you know all you need to develop a creative brief for your next project. Make sure to leave a comment and let us know if you found this post to be helpful.

Our very own Ken Townsend's personal and professional art is on display in a show dedicated to his work!

We're proud to announce that our coworker and friend, Ken Townsend, has his personal and professional creative work on display in a solo show at the Wayne County Council for the Arts.

If you happen to be in the vicinity of Newark and want to see evocative work that reflects Ken's interest in nature, anatomy and symbolism, be sure to visit.

You can get the address and directions here. Or you can download the council's press release in pdf format.

For anyone that works with Ken in his capacity as an illustrator it's a great opportunity to see his personal work and get a different view into his creative talent.

The show will continue through May 29th and is open to the public. Make sure to check it out!

It's time for the Marketing Tip of the Week, a feature dedicated to helping marketers get that extra edge.

This week's tip: Map the decision-making process.

Everyone goes through a decision-making process when they buy something. We may not consciously think about it, but we all do it. Savvy marketers map the decision-making process of their prospects and then build campaigns that address every step of the way.

For example, I've got an auto lease that ends in 10 months. I'm not going to make any big decisions tomorrow, but I'm thinking about my next car in the back of my mind. Auto manufacturers need to be on my radar now. That's a step: felt need.

Then as time moves along and I'm researching options, they need to be on my list of top three cars. That's another step: research.

This goes on until I sign a piece of paper locking me in for another three to five years of financial commitment. Then the process immediately starts all over again!

Our job as marketers is to understand what steps our prospects will go through in making a purchase and to develop marketing assets and tactics that help them through each step. To do this we have to answer three things:

- What are the steps or phases of their prospect's decision-making process?

- What is our job at each step or phase?

- What tools are available to us for each step/responsibility?

The following table is an example—it's not a real decision-making process, just a quick hypothetical example.

What steps do your prospects go through when they make a purchase? Do they need to get approvals, convince others of the purchase or can they make the decision on their own? Do they have financing issues that play into the decision? Do they need to be informed of technical specifications as they research? How important are customer testimonials? Do they even know you exist?

Mapping the decision-making process not only helps you understand what steps your prospects go through when making a decision and what your job is at each step. It can save you a lot of time and energy because it helps you to focus. You eliminate needless activity and wasted money and put your time and resources behind engaging your prospect in ways that deliver success based on how they make decisions.

Bob Wright Creative is proud to announce that it has become a member of the Drupal Association.

We joined because the Drupal Association is the main organization dedicated to the support and growth of Drupal. The more we have been integrating Drupal into our web development offering the more important it is for us to get involved with the Drupal community. With thousands of members from all over the world we felt this is the place to be.