Imagine That!

Just found out this blog has been named a Top One Hundred Advertising Blog.  Amazing.  Thanks for reading - I am pleased, but confused.  I don't promote, it's targeted to advertising students.  Since the ranking is dependent upon (among other things) relevant content, I'm glad I'm doing a good job.  Please tell your friends, your instructors, your Mom (she'll be glad you're not wasting your time online).  Thanks mucho.  Toodles!

Mercury, Google, My Next Post

If you're wondering where the next lesson/installment is, the answer is "almost done."  Retrograde Mercury has been making mincemeat with my schedule (went to Wed. doc appointment on Tues., cancelled Tuesday hair cut thinking it was on Monday, that kind of thing) and I want to apologize.  I'll hopefully finish it up when I get back from Atlanta this weekend, will post it asap.

I'll be in Atlanta to, among other things, speak to the Portfolio Center student body this week.  Their present Copy Director and my former student, Robyn Cohen, invited me and Robyn's not someone I'd turn down.  Am also hoping to connect with some other former students while I'm there, do some business, etc.  I'll be speaking 10 a.m. this Thursday, 4/5/12. Mercury goes Direct that day, so I should be at my best.  If any of you are in Atlanta and want to stop by, please be my guest.  Just say Doreen invited me, say hi when I'm done.  I'm committed to lunch with Robyn and a few of her students after, but if you let me know you're there, perhaps we can schedule something for later in the day (or Friday a.m.) if you'd like to talk, show me some work, etc.

One thing I do want to add:  Google has announced (more or less) that it's finally seen the light and agrees with the approach I've held regarding web writing for as long as there's been web writing.  They will no longer search for SEO key words, will look instead for meaningful, relative, and informative prospect centered copy.

I have refused to do SEO since before it had a name.  If you're looking up words you think Google is looking for, writing Prospect Centered, informative, relative copy is impossible.  If you load up on them, you also break a very important Kamikaze Copy Sin: repeating the same word too closely in a paragraph/piece of copy.  You're also not likely to be able to write in a targeted Language of Concept if you have to tailor your style for words that likely don't have any style at all.  All adds up to poor creative, impossible copy and a less than satisfying prospect experience.

My only question:  What took you guys so long?

All of you who have been fighting this battle with me - and I know there are others out there, because not just a few of you have complained to me about it - how's it feel to have something as all-pervasive and influential as Google say you're right?  Now on to the next great battle in this marvelous, inventive, explorative creative opportunity called the Internet.

One more thing - I am working hard to get my new website, kamikazecreative.com, up and running.  It'll be the new home for my blog (although I may also publish here, still mulling that one) and hopefully will enable me to add a Q&A forum, offer editing lessons on submitted copy (professional and/or student), show produced portfolio samples as examples of my positions, downloads + a few other goodies in the back of my demented and subversive imagination.  I'll let you know when it's up, but for those of you who've asked - I've been working on it.  Mercury's going Direct (see planetaryperceptions.com, Retrograde Mercury button in top left corner) so I'm hopeful as things go back to normal, I can at least put up the first piece of it.

See you in my next post soon. Here.  At kamikazecreative.com asap.  Toodles.

YOU WANNA WRITE COPY? YOU WANNA ART DIRECT IT? What it takes to be a Kamikaze Copywriter, Art Director, Designer (Web and/or Graphic), AE or any other kind of professional creative.

What makes a Kamikaze Copywriter (or any other kind of Kamikaze Creative)?  Insights acquired?  Talent and drive you found in the womb?  Can you study the requirements in school?  Figure it out watching others?  Is it the same for Copywriters, Screen Writers, Novelists, Poets and Performance Artists?  Art Directors, Fine Artists, Interior Decorators and Designers?

I can only share what my years as Copywriter, Creative Director, Life Observationist and Instructor of all things Ad Creative have taught me.

Besides wardrobe, what do Kamikaze Copywriters, Art Directors and Designers have in common?

What you’d expect – and a good bit more. I have a handout describing the Creative Personality.  (If you want a copy, email a request.)  It includes imaginary friends, an offbeat sense of humor, innate sense of people, trends and events, good vocabulary, independent thinking, lack of inhibitions, comfort with disarray, yadda yadda.  It’s quite a list and while all ad creatives don’t have every single trait, they have enough of them to understand each other.

Copywriters are as visual as ADs, GDs and WDs

Even if you can’t draw, you’re drawn to a nice label, original layout, unusual use of space, color.  You may “see” your thoughts rather than “hear” them.   You instinctively understand great art (paintings, sculpture, literature, music, fine crafts, dance, etc.). Graphic balance, color values, how a line should look in a layout seem obvious.  Your innate ability to see things your AD missed, misplaced or made too big make you both loved and hated by those you work with, depending upon how you include them in your process. All these things should come naturally, even if you aren’t aware of it until you start working in creative teams.

If verbal/visual talent alone doesn’t qualify you, what does?

It’s one thing to know how to write well or draw.  Quite another to have an instinct for how words, design and visuals reach and motivate people and events.  You also need the ego/confidence to believe other people see what you want them to, they way you want them to, when you want them to.  If you don’t,  your work will never get approved, produced, win the awards you deserve.

You can be shy, just don’t Present like it

I had a client who let my students present copy as if they worked for him. Everyone learned how it was done; how to discuss/defend their copy, do While You Wait revisions, etc., with a real live client.

One student was so shy, he talked to the floor, his voice cracked, faded and mumbled. His work was good, but I thought he’d never make it in advertising because he’d never be able to present his work like he believed in it. 

His turn with this client was painful to watch. The client took him to task over a few lines, a word here and there.  Stuttering, stammering, sweating bullets, the guy somehow managed to defend his work and make back-and-forth revisions. 

When it was over, he stood up, put out his wet, clammy hand, thanked the client and beamed ear to ear.  “Boy that was fun!” he enthused, “when can I do it again?” 

He never stammered through, flubbed or sweated a presentation again.  He enjoyed it so much, he became one of the best presenters in the class, went to a good agency and was often the go-to creative in new business pitches.

Shyness doesn’t exclude you.  Not being able to present does.

Kamikaze Creatives risk it all with every assignment

As misguided (and dead) as Japanese Kamikaze pilots were, Kamikaze Copywriters and other ad creatives must be willing do what they did.  Put their professional lives on the line to get their best ideas produced. 

Going out on that limb can dangerous enough when it’s your idea.  But if that solution’s not good enough to ask the client to put his/her job is on the line too, you need a better one. 

That’s the concept behind Kamikaze Creative.  Being willing to risk your job on an idea good enough to ask the client to risk her/his job, too. Every time you present, the unexpected smartness and originality of everything you show must put you both out on that limb. 

I once asked a former student (SF Art Director of the Year, One Show regular, you name it he won it; Principal/Founding Partner of an agency everyone in the country wanted to work for) how he got even his most difficult clients to buy work that scared them.  “Every time they send it back,” he said, “we come up with something better.  If good is all they get, sooner or later they have to buy it.”

If you don’t have the courage of his convictions, you’ll never be a Kamikaze Creative.  

You believe deadlines are a challenge, not a death sentence

If the sound of the clock tick, ticking away the time you have to create, produce and deliver scares you, go back to Bard or Hampshire College.  Life is full of difficult deadlines.  Advertising deadlines make life’s due dates look easy. 

We don’t have just one deadline any more than we do one assignment at a time.Miss one, the dominoes may flatten your boss’ enthusiasm for keeping you employed.  Why?  It’s not just your deadline. 

Whenever it's due, you must do the same quality work.  If you don’t, Domino!  The date the AE promised the client, the date the media closes, the broadcast schedule starts, the printer needs final approved files, the site goes live, the event happens.  Miss your deadline once, maybe they’ll forgive you.  But if you can’t learn to consistently deliver, no matter how short the time frame, how heavy your workload, how much sleep you don’t get, you won’t last.

I’ve known creatives who developed love/hate relationships with deadlines, others who saw them as the exciting finale to a very fast race.  Love them, hate them, part of the fun is pulling all nighters when deadlines are cut short, you’re buried, your creative partner is sick. 

It’s part of the drill.  It’s part of the excitement.  If it’s not part of who you are, there’s always an MBA.

Who cares about Ethics?

Advertising is a team sport.  Cheat, steal, slack off.  Lie, make false claims.  This isn’t politics, it’s Advertising.  Burn your AD, they’ll work with someone else.  Burn your client, be prepared to be known as the writer who lost the XYZ account and was never seen again.  Burn your Creative Director, hope your portfolio’s in order.  If the people you work with can’t trust you, if the client feels the same way, you won’t last.  No matter how good you are, sooner or later you’re the one those dominoes flatten.

I had a student with considerable talent who was a snake in the grass.  Adept at presenting someone else’s ideas so you thought they were his, he’d also outright steal.  He was rude and hurtful.  Arrogant is not a strong enough word. The school wanted him gone.  I was more than willing to send him packing. 

He had a good book, not all of it his.  It took two months for one of the best creative shops around to figure out half the work he showed couldn’t be his.  Two short months before clients, AEs, ADs wanted him off their accounts.  He bounced from agency to agency, never lasting long.  With each move, his salary got bigger, sure.  But the number of shops who hadn’t heard about him got smaller.  Eventually, no one wanted his work badly enough to want him. 

To his credit, he did calm down with age, and eventually became palatable enough to get hired again.  But he never reached the heights, never got the respect he could have, should have, if only he wasn’t such a lying, cheating SOB. 

If I have such a great job, how can I still be so hungry?

An idea is never good enough, big enough.  Your work can always be better.  Really good creatives feel that way, no matter how many Gold Pencils clutter their desk.  It’s a hunger to create more, create better.  A feeling the work is never good enough, the editing never done.  If you aren’t driven to perfection, even though you know it’s an imperfect world, an imperfect business, you’ll never be as good as you can be. 

Great ad creatives don’t slow down after their first trip to Cannes, they work harder.  Great copywriters don’t lock into a style once it wins a big award.  If you aren’t constantly pushing, striving for better, more original, more unexpected, you may become an AD or a copywriter.  But you’ll never be a Kamikaze Creative. 

The choice is up to you, but everything I’m going to share with you, all the technical tips and secrets, insights and techniques to come, is predicated upon that hunger.

All that aside, what’s the most important quality for Kamikaze Copywriters?

Good, creative, correct writing isn’t the first thing I look for.  My classes were full of natural, even genetic, talent.   That didn’t always make them Kamikaze Copywriter material.

Except for agency titles, my business cards have always read “Writer/Thinker” or “Writer by Trade/Problem Solver by Inclination”.  That’s what separates Kamikaze Copywriters from those best left to technical writing, journalism, PR or academic Creative Writing programs.  Ad writers are good at solving problems.  We think, therefore we write.

Innate problem solvers grok Kamikaze Creative Strategy on a molecular level. Solving problems is fun and easy.  We don’t stop at the first solution - there are always so many more to come.  We give the uncommon answer.  Creative, original ideas grounded in an instinctive grasp of people, trends and how to fill any creative vacuum.

Creative Strategy gives form and structure to doing what comes naturally.  The Kamikaze Creative Work Plan makes sense to us – whether we see it or not, innate problem solvers already use that process.

No matter how talented a writer you are, if you don’t have natural ability, drive and desire to creatively problem solve, you’re not going to be conceptual enough to be Kamikaze.

What about verbal proficiency and natural born talent? Here’s what I look for:

1.     A writer who doesn’t need modifiers, complex, sophisticated structure or repetition to make a point.

2.     A writer who can flush the extraneous and keep me interested as s/he cuts to the chase.

3.     A writer who thinks in poetry and doesn’t need it to rhyme.  Someone adept at haiku has the kind of poetic talent that makes for great copy.

4.     Writers who recognize how subject matter relates to the idea’s recipient (concept to prospect) – and gets them to see it as plainly as we do.

5.     Writers who love to write without running at the mouth.  Who love editing as much – or more – than the initial rush of words.

6.     Writers with a love of people and an uncanny knack for “knowing” how they’ll react, to what, how, when.

7.     Writers who always seem to know the next trend six months before it hits.

I once had a student so in love with words, so enamored of  flowery structure, I couldn’t teach her a thing. She thought writing was romantic.  Believed whole-heartedly that what can be said in one word must be said in twelve.  I pegged her as a mid-term drop out, but I was wrong.  Since she was past the date of tuition adjustment, she finished the term, then was never heard from again.

A Copywriter I worked with in Houston won the hugely prestigious The Nation’s annual poetry prize.  She could do more with a word than anyone else I’ve known.   Her poetry was spare, visual and visceral.  Did not depend upon nuance or dulling virtuosity. I thought she could rule the copy world, but she saved her brilliance for poetry.  While her copy could be clever, it never transcended.  She had everything but the drive to advertising.

Another student started school writing like a sixth grader.  His structure could confuse the heck out of you, no matter how simple his words.  Naively, wildly original, he took creative risks he never knew he took.  Found elegant, simple solutions to tricky problems.  Other instructors tried to tame him, make his words and ideas conform to prevailing standards.  I pushed him to mix it up, see his words as partner to his very original creative solutions.  The guy could laugh in haiku.  He went on to win every award you want. 

That said, how do I know if I have what it takes?

For one thing, you never take “no” for an answer.  For another, you risk a shot because nothing can discourage or dissuade your hunger and ambition.

If you don’t fit into any of these general Kamikaze Creative or Copywriting niches, don’t give up yet.  Quitting before you give it your best shot, then a better shot, then an one that’s even better, isn’t something Kamikaze Creatives understand.

More truth about Kamikaze Creatives:

1)                     Art Directors, Copywriters, Graphic and Web Designers have more in common than they are different.

2)                     Copywriting is as visual as any of the graphic arts.

3)                     Being a good writer or artist doesn’t mean you were born for Advertising.

4)                     If you don’t like selling, speaking in front of groups and have never laughed when caught in a studied yet spontaneous exaggeration, you may not like it here.

5)                     If you’re not a risk taker, if you can’t get your client to become one too, you can be an ad creative.  But you’ll probably never fly to Cannes at someone else’s expense.

6)                     If you can’t create under deadlines, often many at the same time, forget about the ad biz and stick to art for art’s sake.

7)                     Writing (or doing anything else) in Advertising does not eliminate the need for strong principles and rock solid ethics.

8)                     If you’re not hungry – for ideas, for experience, for fun, fame and even fortune, you may be able to do it.  But you’ll never rise to the top.

Now we have all that out of the way, next post we’ll start learning HOW.

As always, this is (c) Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative, 2012

It's coming!

Got busy, but have next post/first of CW series almost done, will post asap.  Thought I'd have it up by now, sorry.  D.

KAMIKAZE CREATIVE CRASH COURSE IN COPYWRITING/NOT JUST FOR COPYWRITERS ANYMORE: Lots of important stuff smart Art Directors, Graphic Designers, Web Designers, ACDs, CDs, ECDs, AEs and Clients should know, too.

I’ve been so focused on Kamikaze Creative Strategy, I almost forgot most of you find me seeking advice/wisdom/thoughts/techniques/etc. on writing copy.  Art Directors, Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Account Execs and other non-Copywriters - most of what's to come will make you better at your job. Don't think it’s not for you. 

A big part will be increasing readability – as much about graphic sensibilities as it is about the writing.  Pay attention when I get there. It’ll make your work better. You’ll be a more useful partner to your Copywriter.  As importantly (if not more), you’ll find secret copy stuff that puts “CD” after your name faster.  Some things will be directly transferable to Art Direction/Graphic/Web Design.  Other posts will show you how to help your writer maintain style, edit for proper length, give insights that’ll make your graphics more compelling. 

One of my most popular classes is “Copywriting for Art Directors and Designers.”  A sleeper subject at first glance – ADs, GDs and now WDs think they’ll suffer through without learning anything useful.  A few insights and assignments later, people try to join the class late.  Interestingly, CW for ADs/G/WDs has inspired more than one student to change “majors.” 

Writers will find KCCCCW will do more than make them better.  You'll also get Art Direction for Copywriters.  Not just to make you a better partner and more promotable – like Copywriting for ADs/G/WDs, it’ll arm you with knowledge you can wield in approval/presentation defense.  The goal is to give CWs and ADs/GDs/WDs insights beyond their own specialty (although Crash Course in Copywriting will be heavily skewed toward How to Write Better Copy).  

I’m still working on priorities, order and emphasis. Watch This Space for upcoming posts.  I’ll cover more on Kamikaze Copy Sins, capitalizing on the KCWP, how to write (better) headlines, writers’ block, writing visually, where to start/how to finish, writing for integrated campaigns, the difference between online vs. traditional media copy, editing, style, structure/syntax/yadda yadda, Language of Concept, when/why/how to write what length (long, short, one liners), the copy process/yours/mine/others', lots of goodies obvious, subtle and just between you and me (writing for difficult client approval, presenting to various internal levels, that kind of thing).  I’m even playing with the idea of having you send me troubled copy we can work together online.

Bear with me if I veer into seemingly unrelated territory.  If something current comes up (example: the last few posts on Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategy), don’t dismiss it.  What we do for a living is a multi-layered intertwined set of skills applied in ways (teams and groups) that prevent anyone from doing their own job well without contributing to what the rest of the Creative Department is doing.

I’ll post the first piece (still deciding where to begin – copy has no Start Here button) before the end of the month.  Check back.  As always, if there’s something you’d like me to cover, email me and I’ll try to answer, either here or privately. 

NOTE FOR NON-COPYWRITERS:  Don’t get bogged down in minutiae.  Take what you can use, file the rest for when you’re Creative Director. 

THE JOY IS IN THE DOING: WHY ALL THIS MATTERS/WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU: Stuff every Advertising Copywriter, Art Director, Designer, Student and thinking-they-might-wanna-be needs to know about this “technical” stuff I’ve been telling you.

After I posted that last piece, it occurred to me that something I found tricky to write must be tricky to learn.  I sometimes share easier stuff, but mostly I’ve tried to give hard how-tos instead of easy anecdotes.  I must admit, however, some of my posts leave one big something woefully missing.  How much fun this is.

If it’s not fun, why would anyone want to learn it?  A job is nice.  Even better, being paid for a talent you’ve always enjoyed.  People perceive those who write advertising as infinitely more entertaining than those who underwrite insurance.  Good reasons, they don’t hit the heart of why knowing how to think, as difficult as it may seem, will get you more mitzvahs (look it up or ask a Rabbi), in more award books and potentially enjoying the best sex substitute you can have in a crowded office.

I got into ad copy because I was funny, a genetic writer, a fearlessly out of the box thinker, “creative” dresser and disastrous in any practical field whatsoever.  Fun, but until Y&R sent me to Strategy School, I had no understanding of what I was supposed to be doing. 

Make it fun, get it noticed.  Who cared how – or even if – it solved client problems, spoke to the Prospect, could backup the work with smart thinking.  Subjectivity determined value.  That, and how good you were at selling ice to Eskimos.

It was hard being so meaningless.  While I’d always managed glib, I was clever – not smart – for a living.  Then came Y&R Strategy School - all of a sudden it made sense.  The process worked.  My stuff was still creative, but it was also smart.  Got the Prospect involved, did what it was supposed to do.  When I ran lines, I knew what I wanted them to say.  Best of all, if it was On Strategy, it took quite a bit of subjective clout to kill my best work.

Practical, but far from a great sex substitute.  Or was it?

Any creative act releases the same endorphins that make us crave chocolate, death defying thrills and (more) sex.  I might not be able to get laid in my office during normal business hours, parachute off the top of an office tower or eat a total chocolate diet, but I sure can feel like I did.  And get paid to boot.

Money and massive endorphin release.  Not bad.  But that’s all under the radar stuff.  Perks. 

What Creative Strategy really gave me was the ability to let my mind – my creativity and rational+irrational brainpowers – run naked down Mad Ave.  I knew where I was going, had the tools to get there.  Instead of listing puns, playing with meaning and defining clever, I was solving problems, taking products/clients from status quo to something no one had seen before.  I had a verifiable blueprint for success.

(One of) the most general definitions of Zen’s Satori is “the state of sudden, indescribable intuitive enlightenment.”  The big Ah/O moment.  Because we’re talking endorphins fed by catharsis in the course of 9-5/M-F j-o-b, there’s also a huge element of “the joy is in the doing” to it. 

Doing ad creative – strategy, concept, copy, producing broadcast, wading in electronica, yadda yadda – puts me closer to Satori than most people ever get in life.  Let alone at work.  And that’s the best reason I can give to learn how.

Where I work people don’t just tolerate – they value and enjoy the quirks of the Creative Personality* other fields might consider firing offenses (although you can still get fired, and probably will*).  I work with people who understand the brilliant organization of an impossibly messy desk.  Who look and act more like me than the banker across the conference table.  My creative partners and I can pump endorphins all afternoon and never get called for cheating.  I can tack things on my wall, take field trips, tell people I’m reading Skateboard magazine (MAD, comic books, Rolling Stone, Car and Driver, kiddie books, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, whatever) for my job – and mean it. 

Doing great work feels great.  Collaborating with other creatives – writers, art directors, photographers, directors, studio engineers, the occasional AE, clients, whoever – only ups the endorphin count.  While all that’s making me happy, I’m pushing, stretching, reinventing myself, my world and all that gray matter so I can go farther creatively, personally and professionally.

I’d like to say that’s why I do it.  Why you need to learn it.  Why I want to help.  But ultimately, there’s still one final, selfish reason to take these lessons to heart – and the bank.  As strange as my Love/Hate relationship with Advertising is, it’s also the easiest thing I can do.  Not that the work is easy.  It’s that the work – and the industry – understands Doreen as Doreen. I can get high on just being me. 

As an engineer I know would say, “It’s the tits.” 

*Want more info on The Creative Process, Creative Personality, Kamikaze Creative Occupational Safety, etc., email me @kamikazecreative@gmail.com.  I’ll send you handouts.

MORE REASONS I LOVE WHAT I DO/FUN THINGS THAT KEEP ME WRITING COPY:

Hot roughnecks.  Early morning outdoor photo shoots.  Watching the Exxon tiger almost get somebody.  One agency’s house chef.  Helping Ed McMahon cinch his girdle.  Rock Concert Radio.  Watching the other World Trade Center tower sway in the breeze while presenting to fifty Japanese guys.  Stretch limos.  Flying First Class.  Hanging in gyms with female professional boxers.  Disneyland.  Free media dept. tickets to baseball games (field level, front and center).  Taking the executive helicopter from downtown to the airport.  Concepting at the zoo.  Making twenty suits stomp their feet and scream at the top of their lungs.  Being the expert because I’m the only one standing up.  Company jets.  Watching Jesse Caesar present.  New Business.  The Drake.  Life size rodeo beer babe cutouts.  My own hard hat.  Kraft Services.  Late night music production. No one noticing how late I come in.  Sunsets from the Chicago Merchandise Mart.  George, Raymond, Naomi, Robert, Bob, Jannie, Carol, Betty, Julie, Andy, Mitch, Scotts I, II, III, Allen, Gerry, Jerry, Jim, MC, Mary, Kim, Alison, Dave, Greg, Tom, Tony, Janet, Heddy, Ryan, Joyce, Dan, Lucy, Bob, Carmille, Minsoo, Keith, Beth, Andrew, John, Michael, Michael, Tondra, Cam, Larry, Jesse, Amerphil, Berkley, Stan, Lee, LaDonna/Madonna, Kinney, Ron…the list just keeps going and going.

INTEGRATED OBJECTIVE BASED KAMIKAZE CREATIVE STRATEGY: Beyond the Creative How, What every Advertising Copywriter, Art Director, Ad Designer, Creative Director and Account Executive needs to know about using Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategies to concept Integrated Kamikaze Creative Campaigns.

I’ve mentioned Mad Man Bill Small a few times.  Much of this is an updating/expansion of basics he taught me. 

I’m always amazed when an old advertising idea recycles as something “New and Improved!”  Ad agencies are supposed to be originators, early adopters, the last commercial creative frontier.  But every time I hear Integrated Campaigns and their basic components talked about like it’s some new discovery that’s going to cure Cancer, make Congress useful and blow the doors off the competition, I want to scream.

True, Creative Integration is what most of the job listings I see now want.  What they’re really talking about is mainly experience in Traditional + New Media.  What scares me is how too many agencies talk about it as if were some Advanced – vs. Basic – Skill.  Too many creatives don’t know what it is beyond that New/Old Media divide.  Let alone how it’s supposed to be done conceptually and how much stronger it is when done right.

Bill Small and the Mad Men of his generation had their Integrated Campaign down pat.  No big deal, just how you bought media.  It was pretty much Traditional (Print + Broadcast) + Direct + Promotions + Outdoor + PR + possible Co-op.  Today, it usually refers to campaigns run across all the above + “New” (Web, Interactive, Ambient, Guerilla, Apps, etc.)  Media.  With or without corresponding Direct, Promotions and somewhat related PR. 

ICs (*a list of Kamikaze Creative acronyms follows this post) then/now might also include Internal Client/Employee/Shareholder Communications, Product Placement, Sports and Philanthropic Sponsorships, Training materials yadda yadda yadda.  The available media has expanded, but the basic strategy behind the Fully Integrated Campaign hasn’t changed since Bill was plying clients with three martini lunches. 

On the surface, an Integrated Campaign’s about the messengers (media).  If you’re playing with Integrated Campaigns from Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategies, it’s less about the messengers than the message.

You decide – based upon deep Prospect knowledge and everything else that goes into the OBKCWP – how to best reach your Prospect.  Then carry your campaign through every medium that’s conceptually related to product and Campaign Concept (that the client can afford).  Integrated campaigns give you more media options.  But if that’s all it is, it would – still – be just a media buy. 

The Truth is in the Concept.

The big difference between too many Integrated Campaigns and Integrated Kamikaze Campaigns is what it is you’re integrating.  In Bill Small’s day, an IC might be a spread ad reduced to a single page ad (same headline) reduced to small space (where have I seen that headline before?).  Plus a :60 and :30 for both Radio and TV that pretty much parrot the print.  Plus some reference in the PR.  Maybe matching Outdoor.  Plus coordinated and creatively matching Direct, Promotions, Point of Sale.  Plus a mention in clients' internal/shareholder newsletters, etc.

As much of the campaign as possible fed off the initial ad.  Maybe you repeat the visual + headline in all the print (including any Collateral, Direct, POS, etc.).  The radio and TV might not relate to the print at all (how often do you still see that), or it could just repeat/expand/make it “visual” (Radio should be an extremely visual medium).  Other than graphic elements and a few purloined lines, what made the campaign Integrated was the same creative ran everywhere at the same time. 

What’s a Campaign Concept?  Thought you’d never ask.

This is where today’s Integrated Campaign should claim new territory outside New Media.  One of the trickiest parts of IOBKCS is that the media should be a Conceptual Partner to the Creative Concept.  Not a venue for an individual ad, repeated.  A Campaign Concept (hit that Prospect + Key Fact) hangs together no matter how many different mediums you use.   

A friend and Atlanta CD once gave me the best explanation of a Campaign Concept I ever borrowed, here with some Doreen mixed in.  “Think of it as a coat rack,” he told me.  “The rack itself – the Campaign Concept – is a Big Idea strong enough, big enough to hang dozens of coats – conceptually related creative pieces running in various, media - off it.”

We’ve already played with Concept vs. Ad/Idea vs. Illustration (it’s worth going back and reading those posts), so you should have an idea how that works.  Use your Kamikaze Key Fact to insinuate the client/product into the Prospects’ lives.  Keep pushing.  What do you have.  Ad? Concept?  Push that Key Fact some more.

The only way to hang Ambient, e-, Outdoor and Traditional media off a single headline/Illustration or a three ad series is repetition.  If not exactly word-for-word/image-for-image, close enough to bring the original placement to mind, building that connection.  If your Campaign Concept isn’t Big Idea enough to play the same KKF off varied expressions and media, the only thing integrated is still the media buy.

Start with a strong, scalable Campaign Concept/Idea big enough to put its different  - but conceptually, stylistically, strategically related – creative expressions in conceptually related mediums.  Everything you have will fall from that single (Campaign) Idea/Concept.  Not by using the same exact headlines, not by using the same headline paraphrased and/or otherwise disguised.  With a real Concept that all the creative in the campaign harks back to, no matter what the headline. 

You’re now working a Kamikaze Integrated Campaign.  Integrating the Big Idea with conceptually related media. 

There are tricks, hedges, Integrated Campaigns where the first headline (example: Get All You Have Coming) becomes the tag line to the rest of the pieces.  That’s Integration by Tag.  On the other hand, if Get All You Have Coming is really your campaign concept risen from Prospect Definition and Key Fact, none of the pieces has to actually use that line.  They just have to share the Big Idea.  Individual headlines, body copy, direct, POS, etc. will all be different expressions of the same (people want as much as they can get).  The Idea stays constant across all supporting mediums, no matter how it’s expressed. 

Each piece will need the same conceptual tone, graphic style, language of concept, etc.  If your Campaign Concept – your coat rack - is big enough to integrate, you’ll never have to repeat a headline to make it so.

What you’re really Integrating, then, is the Idea.  No matter how many different mediums you use, the Idea (Campaign Concept) comes through to push the Prospect (and the media) to the Objective.

Integrated Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategies in twenty-five words or less:  A single Campaign Concept carried across conceptually related Objective Based mediums makes an integrated Campaign.  Not product, creative repetition, media buy or Graphics.

Everything old is newer again.  What makes Integrated Campaign Strategies so today is starting with an OBKCWP and making the media part of your Creative Campaign Concept.  Not the other way around (starting with the media buy as per Mad Man Bill Small and adding creative repetition of the original print across it).

Brush Up on Kamikaze Acronyms:

IC – integrated Campaign/Creative

IKC – Integrated Kamikaze Campaign/Creative

FIC – Fully Integrated Campaign

KCWP – Kamikaze Creative Work Plan

OBKCWP – Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Work Plan

KC – Kamikaze Creative

KCC – Kamikaze Creative Campaign/Concept

IOBKCWP – Integrated Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Work Plan

KCS – Kamikaze Creative Strategy

OBKCS – Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategy

IOBKCS – Integrated Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Strategy

POS/POP – Point of Sale/Point of Purchase

TMBMBWTM – There May Be More But Why Torture Myself