How to develop creative pieces effectively
 
If there’s one thing that drives us nuts, it’s what we call the “slide show.” This could be in print, in a TV spot, a social-media ad, pretty much anything. It refers to the rigid pairing of one type of content with another. Like a slide show. Example: That annoying car-dealer commercial in which you’ll hear: “Sales! Service! Selection!” and, in perfect sync with “Sales!,” you’ll see that cringe-inducing salesman-shakes-the-customer’s-hand shot. For “Service!”, you’ll see the shot of the mechanic working on a car up on a lift. And for “Selection!”--
 
—we don’t have to tell you. You know. It’s that big panning shot across the showroom or lot. Maybe it’s even from a drone. 
 
Oooh. 
 
These kinds of creative approaches, well, suck. Because they’re anything but creative. In this article, we’re going to tell you how to escape this mind-trap, how to do a better job of surprising and delighting your audience, and to use these approaches to better motivate your prospects. They’re really all the same thing. 
 
What is the “slide show”?
 
That car-dealer commercial we described above is the quintessential example. But you’ll see this kind of lame approach in print, too. The advertiser will tell you something, and then show you the exact same thing, too. 
 
Why is this so egregious? It’s not just that it’s boring or uninspired. It’s because it’s insulting.
 
“If you tell me you have great service, I get it. I don’t need to be bludgeoned over the head, seeing the exact same thing.” That’s the unconscious thinking that feeds a reaction to this kind of approach. 
 
It also paves your way to a delightful opportunity. If you flip it on its head, you generate all kinds of goodness. Consider: “I’m smart enough to understand Copy Point 1, even while I look at an image of Copy Point 2.” That’s called synergy. It’s your opportunity to break this non-rule, and have a lot of fun, too. 
 
2 + 2 = 5
 
That subhead, above, is a brief description of “synergy.” It’s when two things add up to more than the sum of their discrete parts. 
 
So what if you intentionally make Point A not line up with Point B? What happens when you purposely insert dissonance into your work? The results can be powerful. 
 
We worked on a piece recently which described a situation in which half of the people in an office setting might go missing. Literally, this could have been interpreted in a straightforward way: You could “ghost out” half the people in a group shot. You could depict a row of desks, with workers at only half of them. 
 
But do you know what worked even better? Showing the office setting as completely empty. If the copy tells you that “half the people are missing,” yet the visual shows you a workplace entirely devoid of people, you instinctively grow a little uncomfortable looking at it. It gets a sort of Twilight Zone vibe to it. It’s compelling. It’s spooky. It entices you read more, to turn the page, to find out what’s going on. (This, incidentally, is quite true. This piece garnered excellent response.) 
 
Note, by the way, what you don’t do when you look at the piece we just described. You don’t throw it down in anger and say, “Hey! There’s supposed to be people in this visual!” No. You automatically accept what you’re seeing and what you’re, implicitly, being asked to compare and contrast. If you think about it, you’ve been conditioned to think this way by good movies, good books, and good art, all your life. 
 
Play it loose
 
Picture this in your mind: Imagine a pretty, frilly typeface. Something that’s very beautiful, script-like, the kind of thing you’d expect to see on, say, a wedding invitation. Now use that font to typeset the words “Nerve gas.” 
 
Arresting, isn’t it? 
 
You didn’t even see this example, but you can picture it sufficiently in your mind to appreciate its power. 
 
The trick, in case you haven’t guessed already, is figuring out which direction to pull when you’re providing counterpoint to your main message. You also need to decide which message—the “melody” or the “harmony,” to use a metaphor—goes with which element, e.g., headline text vs. visual, or musical tone vs. announcer. In our “Nerve gas” example above, the visceral power of the words themselves punches straight through the frilly font. The words are the “melody”; the font is the “harmony,” using the above metaphor. 
 
Here’s our last piece of advice as you venture down this creative path: Experiment. Go crazy. Purposely push things too far. You can end up with stuff that’s uproariously funny, or perhaps chillingly serious. But you won’t know you’ve pushed too far until you’ve actually done it. Be prepared, though: Odds are, you’ll find yourself pushing yourself far, far harder than you’d thought would be acceptable, before you cross the line that clearly tells you you’ve overstepped your bounds. Only when you get to that point is it appropriate to take a step back—and admire what you’ve created by purposely avoiding the “slide show.” 
 
Need assistance with that next creative assignment? We help with these kinds of challenges all the time. Contact us for a no-obligation call today. 

​Today’s aide is tomorrow’s leader
 
If you’re looking to land new business, you certainly want to get a sit-down with that big senior decision-maker. Yet all your efforts are hampered by those layers of assistants, aides, and administrators standing in your way. Right? 
 
Maybe not. 
 
A lot of the “problem” depends on your perception. If you regard them as hindrances, then they will be. But you don’t have to. In this article, we’re going to turn that perception—the one that says that junior personnel stand in your way—on its head. Not only that, we’ll show you how you can build your business by opening the door rather than trying to batter it down. 
 
How to build business: Navigating the org shoals
 
First off, don’t bemoan what is an accepted reality: Senior leaders need junior assistance. Once they rise above a certain stratum within a given organization, these leaders will need to focus on their highest-value skills, while delegating the lower-level tasks to others. They’ll also need someone to help manage their schedule, screen calls and emails, and generally protect them from the hordes of hungry vendors out there who regard them as a ripe prospect. Because they are. 
 
So unless you’ve got personal or other privileged access to this ripe prospect, there are only two ways for you to proceed: cleverly or brutishly. If you haven’t guessed, we’d advocate the former above the latter. But first let’s see why the latter won’t work. 
 
Beware the battering ram
 
You might be tempted to make an end-around and get by that assistant. You may want to go above them and reach that decision-maker directly. If so, good luck. You’ll need it. Consider: 

• The decision-maker likely won’t see your advances, and if they do, they’ll probably just kick them back downstairs to the assistant, anyway. 

• Even if you do get the decision-maker’s attention, you’ll stoke the ire of the assistant for having demeaned him or her—guaranteeing that they’ll do their best to torpedo your efforts when you’re not looking. It’s a lose/lose. 

 
Besides, what would your messaging to the senior leader even look like? It would smack of desperation: “Please give me five minutes of your time! I want it so badly that I’m willing to blatantly insult your professionalism by trampling roughshod over your carefully-planned organizational hierarchy! ”Ugggh. 
 
The smarter way in
 
As we’d hinted above, you can be infinitely more successful in your business-development efforts if you actually cultivate your relationship with the assistant. There are so many reasons for this: 

• In direct contrast to what we’d mentioned above, when you respect the assistant and their role, they won’t be ticked off at you for trying to evade or ignore them. 

 

• The senior decision-maker you want to reach will ultimately respect you more for having played by the rules and utilized the proper channels. You’ll automatically position yourself as a standup person. 

 

• If you’re courteous and respectful to the assistant, they will like you. So they’ll want to help you. (Contrast that to all the other “barbarians at the gate” who don’t respect the assistant. How much senior-level access will any of them get granted?) 

 

• Once you establish and cultivate a relationship with the assistant, you’ll always have an open channel to reach them—and, by extension, the senior leader, too. 

 

• When you ultimately prove your mettle to the senior leader, this reflects well on the assistant for having vetted you. It’s a feather in their professional cap. In other words, you want to help the assistant to advance his or her career. That should be a clear, if secondary, goal of yours. 

 

• When that assistant gets promoted, you’ll suddenly have the “personal or other privileged access” that we’d mentioned earlier! 

 
How to do it
 
You need to engage the assistant directly, with respect, and wholly cognizant of their role, and your goals. Be clear. Be candid. Be helpful. 
 
By the way, we worked with a client recently in which we helped craft some direct mailers that were ostensibly addressed to the senior leaders, even though we well knew that they’d be screened/intercepted by the assistants. And guess what happened? Our client got requests from various assistants, to the tune of: “Hey, that piece you sent us was great. My boss wanted to know if you would you mind sending us three more.” 
 
“My boss wanted to know…”
 
Ta-dah. As you might’ve guessed, our client was able to secure senior-level meetings, based on those assistants’ notes, shortly thereafter. 
 
Need help crafting the right messaging that gets you in the door and up the ladder? Contact us today.We do this kind of work all the time, and would be happy to discuss your needs with you.