GSW Worldwide

Brand Liberators

Kelley Smilkstein

Author Archive for Kelley Smilkstein

Kelley

Google’s blinking cursor: How do we get back to believing we can change the world?

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on October 14, 2010.

I’m sure you’ve seen Google’s ad, Parisian Love. (And if you haven’t, run, don’t walk, to your nearest YouTube channel now.)  The spot has been around awhile: It was first televised during the 2010 Superbowl after a successful 3-month viral run on the web. I bring up Parisian Love now because of a recent article from Adage.com on the Google 5, the group of college students hand picked to work in Google’s own creative lab and responsible for the Superbowl spot. One of the key factors for selecting the Google 5, according to the article, was, “We want people ambitious and crazy enough to think we can actually change the world.”

I shared this article with a particularly cynical friend of mine, and we simultaneously arrived at the same thought: “Those kids can think that way because they’re too young to be jaded yet.” While the idea struck us both as funny, and many may believe it to be true, you also have to consider the world in which we live and work. How can we not believe in our abilities to touch the public? We may sit at desks, but inspiration is everywhere. And what makes the creative industry special is the ability to find inspiration even where others might find just an empty box with a blinking cursor. Google found a way to make the potentially cold search engine experience not a single moment, but a poignant chapter in someone’s life.

The question remains, why is innocence the key to inspiration? Shouldn’t experience add that much more to the overall product? What Google had the amazing foresight to do was to create a fresh team of people from different backgrounds and different perspectives, all with the same unifying goal: to create something new and special. The key for the Parisian Love project was not so much the youth that led it, but the way in which Google formed its team: “with the Google 5, the company gets new creative blood and the industry gets young talent that is … tech-forward, open-source, collaborative, and smart.”

The collaborative team experience needs to remain fresh, forward thinking, and cohesive. Staleness happens when we start to think a blank screen is just a blank screen. Or that a search engine doesn’t do more than just search. Certainly, maturity comes with a certain amount of cynicism. But even if we know we can’t change the world, we should never stop trying.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , .
0 Comments
Kelley

Circling back to print circulation: Keeping traditional media in the mix

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on September 9, 2010.

Let me just start by saying something scandalous: I love print. I love the look, feel, texture, and pliability that paper affords our industry. But in the past several years, digital has become king while print has become the pauper. Currently we are deeply invested – creatively and financially —  in new ways to harness digital as a means to information dissemination and brand influence. Of course, digital is not new. We are already well versed in Web site development; social media is king (watch this space in the coming months to see how FDA guidelines will shape pharma’s internet and social media influence); the iPad is the burgeoning star, though we’re still experimenting on ways to utilize it. There is no doubt that digital is here to stay, and will only get bigger and more sophisticated.

But with 90% of our focus on how we can innovate healthcare advertising in the virtual realm, are we forgetting about the virtues of traditional media? For one, research shows it’s getting more and more difficult for sales reps to get face time with doctors, and medical students themselves are being trained in ways to deflect these meetings. As visually attractive and easy to navigate tablet and iPad assets are, if reps can’t get in the door, they’ll have no audience to show off our brilliant, interactive brand story. That’s where paper once again becomes fundamental. It can be a tangible, lasting physical presence in the doctor’s office. Even without direct interaction with the doctor, print materials can leave an impactful message that can be revisited without limit. Paper can be multidimensional, textured, and come in any shape or size. Compare that to a tablet or iPad’s flat, rectangular surface.  Print materials can quite literally “pop,” meaning your messaging doesn’t have to be lost in the shuffle, or a fleeting virtual impression on the eye.

Yup, I love paper. And the best way to keep it alive is to maintain a seamless synchronicity between all of our media resources. By no means is this traditional medium obsolete. In fact, it may be circling back as a vital part of messaging. Joe Pulizzi of Folio.com sees a similar trend, “It’s hard to believe, but I’ve heard many marketers talk about leveraging print as something new in their marketing mix. Unbelievable.”

Paper’s dynasty is not yet over. Not by a long shot.

Categories: New ideas and approaches
Tags: , , .
0 Comments
Kelley

The foundation of strong creative

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on August 4, 2010.

Summer: the season of reruns and reevaluating. As pitches and new business ideas are being tossed around the office, I realized that this competition reality show I recently started watching on Lifetime.com (judge me if you will) seemed to provide some insight into, well, reality. Blush (2008) seeks to find the next great makeup artist but in the process has a few important lessons on the nature of our business. So in this installment for BrandLiberators.com, I present:

What reality TV taught me about a winning pitch

1) If you only stick to what you know, you’re going to get cut.

The very first episode of Blush taught us this prime lesson in creating new business. Contestant #1 had been a successful makeup artist for years, but when tasked to create a funkier music video look, she refused to create anything but “pretty.” Her insistence on staying in her comfort zone and refusal to think outside the lipstick tube, as it were, meant she was the first on the chopping block.

Like Contestant #1, you may have a lot of talent on your team, but if you continue to fall back on safe, easy tactics, you may as well get used to staying at the bottom.

2) Stay true to yourself, but always with the client’s needs in mind.

Oh, Contestant #2. She wanted to make a real statement with that purple eye shadow. However, she didn’t listen to the basic guidelines provided by her client, Mr. Celebrity Photographer. In fact, he flat out said he hated her work. Instead of listening and adapting her own vision to her client’s needs, Contestant #2 didn’t budge, made no changes to the final presentation, and yes, was out of the competition before the powder could even settle.

Avoiding the obvious and expected is certainly a sound objective, but disregarding your client’s needs in the process will only lead you out of contention.

3) All that experience will only get you so far. You need to prove yourself each time.

Twenty years in the business, over 300 films. Contestant #3 had everything going for him. Except he failed to prove himself now. After four challenges, Contestant #3 missed the mark with ho-hum looks again and again. His great track record earned him a spot in the competition, but poor Contestant #3 couldn’t bring it this time.

Your portfolio may get you in the game, but failure to demonstrate new skill and innovation may have your client giving you the brush off.

I still have three episodes left to watch, but I have a feeling there will be more lessons to contemplate during these sleepless, hot summer nights. What has reality TV taught you?

Categories: New ideas and approaches
Tags: , , .
0 Comments
Kelley

The trick to planting a fly is to button it up

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on May 18, 2010.

Here’s your task:

Take these four everyday words and write a story:

plant – button – trick – fly

What’s the first thing you think of? Gardening, perhaps? Maybe sewing, or the circus? NPR’s Three-Minute Fiction, featured on All Things Considered, recently challenged its listeners to write an original short story using these four words in any way they want. The premise is simple. The task, however, is much more complex than it seems. How do you take seemingly unrelated words and structure a story around them?

Similarly, in developing the story for a new drug or healthcare product, we are often met with the challenge of a product or condition with which we have no personal connection. Without personal experience or direct knowledge, creating a story around that critical unmet need can create a major disconnect with HCPs and patients. It’s a difference in meaning as disparate as, say, a pop fly and a zipper fly. So how do you assure that you’re not talking about baseball when the customer wants, or more likely needs, to hear about denim? The obvious answer is to plant your team down, study up, ask around, do whatever you have to do to make the story your own. The words belong to everyone; it’s your own personal insight that give them meaning.

But herein lies the second challenge. There are a dozen meanings for fly, but what if fly can mean one and only one thing? In pharma advertising, FDA regulations stipulate that your “fly” can only mean exactly what the results of clinical studies will allow. And within that definition, there can be no nuances, no hidden messages. So what’s the trick to delivering a non-nuanced, yet complex and compelling “fly” to your audience in the shortest amount of space with the most amount of information? Keep it concise, keep it honest, and button it up.

Curious about what NPR’s listeners came up with? Read the winning story here: Not Calling Attention To Ourselves

Categories: Break-through advertising
Tags: , , .
0 Comments
Kelley

Let the individual speak through the crowd

Published by Kelley Smilkstein on April 26, 2010.

“Know the value of the end-user and know the value of just listening.”

-Ben Heywood

In a recent article on how social media can help pharma advertisers connect, Ben Heywood, co-founder and president of PatientsLikeMe.com, highlighted not only how important it is for a patient to be able to voice his or her personal experience in a nonjudgmental setting, but also how valuable it can be for the companies that serve those individuals to actually listen.

As an editor at GSW Woldwide, one of my primary tasks is to keep an independent perspective as I evaluate the material that will be presented to HCPs and eventually filtered through to consumers. As part of that role, I am often (and rightly so) left out of the creative process. The team needs me to see their work from an outsider’s perspective.

So imagine my delight to hear that the guys and gals upstairs (or rather, the creatives down the hall) were inviting anyone in the company to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming pitch. The outsider in me, the serious, to-the-letter regulation abider in me, would get the chance for one afternoon to say what I thought, not just what the rules of grammar, design, and regulatory agencies dictated.

A shop that creates a truly team atmosphere – where each individual, no matter in which department he or she sits  can have the chance to participate – is a shop whose work looks less like a tired cookie-cutter on a conveyor belt and reflects more of what the consumer needs: simplicity, honesty, a touch of humor. A perspective that matters.

Regardless of whether my ideas made it to the end, I know that I’ve been heard. Likewise, as consumers, as patients, or as providers, having a sense that the crowd is made up of individuals, well, there’s real value in that.

Categories: New ideas and approaches
Tags: , , , .
1 Comment