The key to an effective marketing plan is an intelligently crafted and consistently used Main Message. This must be informed by a company’s unique capabilities, its goals and an understanding of its clients and competitors. It will be the idea expressed at all touch-points: from website to portfolios, from samples to sales presentations, from PR to the way the phones are answered.
Pollock|Spark uncovers the unique strengths and goals of a company and creates a compelling and focused Main Message to be the foundation of all their communications.
Here’s how we do it for a typical creative company. This plan is fully adaptable to work for individual creative talents or for larger organizations
“Who do they think they are? And who do they want to be?”
Internal inquiry: Pollock|Spark conducts in-depth interviews with key principals/staffers to discover the company’s strengths relative to its competitors, the talents and services it offers, and their hopes and dreams. These interviews are face-to-face for best results and greatest insight. A review of the company’s work and a marketing audit are conducted.
“Who do their clients think they are, and what are they looking for?”
External inquiry: Pollock|Spark conducts telephone interviews with selected clients. These interviews will uncover their views of the company’s capabilities and their level of satisfaction with performance and product as well as whom they regard as the company’s competition.
Insights: Main Message
Pollock|Spark brings fresh eyes and objectivity to what it has learned. The company’s Main Message is crafted from our insights and is informed by our years of experience. This is not a tag line or a piece of advertising – it is an expression of the company’s unique value proposition and it will be used as the basis for all communications. In most cases it can be used as a brief “elevator speech” to describe the company. A report of the top-line findings and analysis will also be provided.
Projected Timeframe
The complete process usually takes around four weeks. The time is dependent on availabilities for interviews.
Deliverables
Main Message
Top-line findings and analysis report
Fees on request
Brainstorming sessions
Facilitated half-day brainstormings on a selected topic can be most valuable. These include such favorites as:
* Incorporating Message into the company’s DNA
* Communications/marketing planning
* Focusing the creative offering
About Pollock|Spark
Pollock|Spark, A Catalyst for Creative Businesses, is a management and strategic
consultancy that helps creative businesses to focus their vision and grow. We help make running a business fun again. To learn more, visit us at www.pollockspark.com
What Pollock|Spark clients have said:
"Michael (Pollock, Pollock|Spark) has a very strong ability to focus deeply on a company and draw out important, often overlooked, issues. His suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent. Michael has been instrumental in helping us clearly define goals and working towards achieving them."
David Gioiella, Partner, Northern Lights
“The Pollock|Spark report has served as a trusted guide for the board of directors and the professional staff. It has helped navigate the substantial structural and behavioral changes the association has gone through, helped change the way AICE conducts its business and the way it informs and engages its membership. The difference has been extraordinary. From the attitude of the board to the renewed sense of purpose of the membership, AICE is a reinvigorated association thanks in no small part to the careful and insightful work of Pollock|Spark.
Burke Moody, Executive Director, AICE
“(Pollock|Spark) navigated a potentially difficult internal political situation at our company very well (difficult because of the self-perception differences between the partners), advertised your services accurately and delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement.”
David Starr, Partner, Curious Pictures
Ask us for a quote - we would love to help you.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Asking the right questions
We met yesterday with an exciting young production company that is getting set for some significant growth. Here is part of a gratifying email they wrote me today:
"Thank you so much for meeting with us yesterday. You asked many questions that we had let lurk in the shadows and pointed us in the right direction."
Yes indeed; that is what we do.
"Thank you so much for meeting with us yesterday. You asked many questions that we had let lurk in the shadows and pointed us in the right direction."
Yes indeed; that is what we do.
Monday, August 20, 2007
AICE "reinvigorated" thanks to Pollock Spark
A testimonial from Burke Moody, ED of AICE:
"Pollock|Spark created and conducted a survey for the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE), a trade association representing 130 companies and over 600 editors whose primary business is editing commercials for television, the web and cinema.
As happens in many associations, AICE had stalled and become stuck in its ways. There was a general feeling among the members that the leadership was isolated and the organization was simply not performing well. So we hired Pollock|Spark to investigate, find out what our membership really wanted, what issues were of most concern and recommend a course of action.
Since it was issued, the Pollock|Spark report has served as a trusted guide for the board of directors and the professional staff. It has helped navigate the substantial structural and behavioral changes the association has gone through, helped change the way AICE conducts its business and the way it informs and engages its membership. The difference has been extraordinary. From the attitude of the board to the renewed sense of purpose of the membership, AICE is a reinvigorated association thanks in no small part to the careful and insightful work of Pollock|Spark."
Burke Moody
Executive Director
Association of Independent Editors (AICE)
"Pollock|Spark created and conducted a survey for the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE), a trade association representing 130 companies and over 600 editors whose primary business is editing commercials for television, the web and cinema.
As happens in many associations, AICE had stalled and become stuck in its ways. There was a general feeling among the members that the leadership was isolated and the organization was simply not performing well. So we hired Pollock|Spark to investigate, find out what our membership really wanted, what issues were of most concern and recommend a course of action.
Since it was issued, the Pollock|Spark report has served as a trusted guide for the board of directors and the professional staff. It has helped navigate the substantial structural and behavioral changes the association has gone through, helped change the way AICE conducts its business and the way it informs and engages its membership. The difference has been extraordinary. From the attitude of the board to the renewed sense of purpose of the membership, AICE is a reinvigorated association thanks in no small part to the careful and insightful work of Pollock|Spark."
Burke Moody
Executive Director
Association of Independent Editors (AICE)
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Why some ideas survive and others die
We've been writing creative briefs in the last few days. Getting the brief right - whether your client does it for you, or you do it for yourself, or to get your client on the right page - is arguably the most important factor in a job's success.
We got real inspiration from a book called Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. We recommend it strongly to anyone with ideas to communicate.
Click here to buy Made to Stick
Monday, August 6, 2007
Message and positioning are a natural fit
The pollock|spark team created a positioning and message for The Cooke Center (on behalf of The Cyrano Project.) Here is what the happy client said:
“Working with (them) was a pleasure. They did not come in and impose their vision, but helped us to articulate ours. They facilitated the creation of a central message and positioning for our organization that seemed natural and organic, something that grew from who we are, rather than something grafted on.”
Michael Termini, President, Cooke Center for Learning and Development, NYC
Let us help you create or refresh your company's positioning so that you can strengthen your communications and get more business.
“Working with (them) was a pleasure. They did not come in and impose their vision, but helped us to articulate ours. They facilitated the creation of a central message and positioning for our organization that seemed natural and organic, something that grew from who we are, rather than something grafted on.”
Michael Termini, President, Cooke Center for Learning and Development, NYC
Let us help you create or refresh your company's positioning so that you can strengthen your communications and get more business.
pollock|spark team enables stronger communications
The Pollock|Spark consultant team has created a Main Message for NFTE (working through The Cyrano Project.) The same team can bring the same level of insights and help to your creative business. Here's what David Nelson, COO of NFTE said about our strategic work for them:
"(They) worked with the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) on defining and honing our main message for communications. In the process of learning about NFTE and its work, the consultants demonstrated real understanding of our organization’s mission and came up with strategic insights which had impact beyond the message itself.
(They) helped our organization understand itself better and helped us resolve fundamental questions which are leading us to clarify our basic value proposition, as well as how we express it through messaging. This will lead us to more powerful promotion of our programs and enable us to attract more volunteers and donors over time.
I would recommend (them) to any organization seeking thoughtful analysis and stronger communications. (They) did a superb job."
Please get in touch if we can help your business clarify its value proposition and get more powerful promotion of your services.
"(They) worked with the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) on defining and honing our main message for communications. In the process of learning about NFTE and its work, the consultants demonstrated real understanding of our organization’s mission and came up with strategic insights which had impact beyond the message itself.
(They) helped our organization understand itself better and helped us resolve fundamental questions which are leading us to clarify our basic value proposition, as well as how we express it through messaging. This will lead us to more powerful promotion of our programs and enable us to attract more volunteers and donors over time.
I would recommend (them) to any organization seeking thoughtful analysis and stronger communications. (They) did a superb job."
Please get in touch if we can help your business clarify its value proposition and get more powerful promotion of your services.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Behavioral Marketing
A man recently offered his personal profile for sale on ebay for a minimum of $100. There were no bidders. Yet yesterday AOL bought Tacoda – one of the two big behavioral targeting networks – the price I am told worked out at $2.25 per user profile in their database. I went yesterday to the first conference dedicated to Behavioral Marketing.
There is a nice definition in the Blue Lithium literature – Behavioral Marketing "involves identifying user interest by observing their behavior online – what sites and what pages they visit, what links they click on, how they respond to certain ads and so forth."
On one portal, most of the visitors to the car buying section come to them from the religion pages. So if you advertised your car on the above mentioned religion pages you would likely reach a potential buyer earlier in the purchase funnel.
Clearly behavioral is a hot and growing category. One speaker told us that though the click-through rate is 33% lower for a behavioral than a contextual ad placement (contextual is where you put an ad for windshield wipers on the weather page when its raining), the ultimate conversion rate is 40% higher. This would be measured in the auto category by the user locating a dealer or requesting a quote.
Advertisers who use behavioral targeting are twice as happy with their banner campaigns as those who don’t, we are told. Yet advertisers 10% of their online budget seems to be as high as they are going for behavioral. What we see is that it works better for patient advertisers – they need to go a little way out of the normal direct marketing, immediate conversion, mindset.
But there is a long way to go before BT can achieve real scale. Its knowledge depends largely on those cookies that are stored by your browser. So every time you clear the cookies they have to start again. And multiple users of a browser of course create a jumbled profile. And anyway a profile becomes out of date very quickly. A buyer may be searching for a car for a couple of weeks - but after that she has probably bought one and a car ad aimed at her when she visit ivillage will be wasted.
There are attempts to link the data collected online with behavior offline and to use similar sets of metrics – but it isn’t coming easy. There is a long way to go, even for the high-end advertisers, in integrating their online efforts at any level with their traditional campaigns. Only 50% of advertisers on the last Superbowl had bought the relevant online keywords so that they would be easily found in searches by viewers who wanted to follow up.
More in a later post on what I saw as the biggest missing piece from this forum.
There is a nice definition in the Blue Lithium literature – Behavioral Marketing "involves identifying user interest by observing their behavior online – what sites and what pages they visit, what links they click on, how they respond to certain ads and so forth."
On one portal, most of the visitors to the car buying section come to them from the religion pages. So if you advertised your car on the above mentioned religion pages you would likely reach a potential buyer earlier in the purchase funnel.
Clearly behavioral is a hot and growing category. One speaker told us that though the click-through rate is 33% lower for a behavioral than a contextual ad placement (contextual is where you put an ad for windshield wipers on the weather page when its raining), the ultimate conversion rate is 40% higher. This would be measured in the auto category by the user locating a dealer or requesting a quote.
Advertisers who use behavioral targeting are twice as happy with their banner campaigns as those who don’t, we are told. Yet advertisers 10% of their online budget seems to be as high as they are going for behavioral. What we see is that it works better for patient advertisers – they need to go a little way out of the normal direct marketing, immediate conversion, mindset.
But there is a long way to go before BT can achieve real scale. Its knowledge depends largely on those cookies that are stored by your browser. So every time you clear the cookies they have to start again. And multiple users of a browser of course create a jumbled profile. And anyway a profile becomes out of date very quickly. A buyer may be searching for a car for a couple of weeks - but after that she has probably bought one and a car ad aimed at her when she visit ivillage will be wasted.
There are attempts to link the data collected online with behavior offline and to use similar sets of metrics – but it isn’t coming easy. There is a long way to go, even for the high-end advertisers, in integrating their online efforts at any level with their traditional campaigns. Only 50% of advertisers on the last Superbowl had bought the relevant online keywords so that they would be easily found in searches by viewers who wanted to follow up.
More in a later post on what I saw as the biggest missing piece from this forum.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Sparkings is here
Now you can find selected articles from past issues of Sparkings here in the blog.
You can still sign up to receive the Sparkings email newsletter.
But there will be more content here on the blog - so subscribe to the posts and keep checking us out.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Film company finds out what clients really think of them
Pollock Spark finds the answers to those questions that so many companies want answered: “What do our clients really think of us? Where do we fit in the marketplace? What about prospective clients – have they even heard of us?”
A leading NY film production company (identity withheld here, but call us if you want to know) wanted to discover where their brand stood in the minds of ad agency folks and who was their real competition. They were deciding whether to extend the current brand for a new venture, or to create a new one.
Pollock Spark talked to Creative Directors and Senior Producers, to writers and art directors. They also dug for fresh thinking within the client company: finding out how things looked from the point of view of individual members of senior management. Pollock Spark did the research, analyzed the responses, had the insights and made recommendations.
This client said of the experience:
“I said good things about you to your face and I'll say them behind your back as well. I thought you navigated a potentially difficult internal political situation at our company very well (difficult because of the self-perception differences between the partners), advertised your services accurately and delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement.”
A leading NY film production company (identity withheld here, but call us if you want to know) wanted to discover where their brand stood in the minds of ad agency folks and who was their real competition. They were deciding whether to extend the current brand for a new venture, or to create a new one.
Pollock Spark talked to Creative Directors and Senior Producers, to writers and art directors. They also dug for fresh thinking within the client company: finding out how things looked from the point of view of individual members of senior management. Pollock Spark did the research, analyzed the responses, had the insights and made recommendations.
This client said of the experience:
“I said good things about you to your face and I'll say them behind your back as well. I thought you navigated a potentially difficult internal political situation at our company very well (difficult because of the self-perception differences between the partners), advertised your services accurately and delivered an analysis that is relevant, clear and integral to creating forward movement.”
Coaching senior staff
A well-established film production/post production company (identity withheld here, but call if you want to know) had promoted one of their staff to the position of Executive Producer. But the owners were not sure that he was running on all cylinders. He wasn’t even really sure what the job actually entailed.
So they asked Pollock Spark to come in and work with him to discover what he was doing right and to help him with those areas where he was weaker – or didn’t even realize needed attention. They knew that using an objective outsider to do this would be far more effective than doing it themselves.
According to the owners of the company, the results were immensely successful. The EP’s attitude to the job changed: he was more efficient and productive. His bids were better and his relationships with clients were stronger. “Even the CFO was impressed!”
As a result, the owners have asked Pollock Spark to come in again. This time to work with their creative staff to help them focus their talents, develop their careers and sell themselves more effectively.
This client said of Pollock Spark President Michael Pollock:
"Michael has a very strong ability to focus deeply on a company and draw out important, often overlooked, issues. His suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent. Michael has been instrumental in helping us clearly define goals and working towards achieving them."
So they asked Pollock Spark to come in and work with him to discover what he was doing right and to help him with those areas where he was weaker – or didn’t even realize needed attention. They knew that using an objective outsider to do this would be far more effective than doing it themselves.
According to the owners of the company, the results were immensely successful. The EP’s attitude to the job changed: he was more efficient and productive. His bids were better and his relationships with clients were stronger. “Even the CFO was impressed!”
As a result, the owners have asked Pollock Spark to come in again. This time to work with their creative staff to help them focus their talents, develop their careers and sell themselves more effectively.
This client said of Pollock Spark President Michael Pollock:
"Michael has a very strong ability to focus deeply on a company and draw out important, often overlooked, issues. His suggestions for next steps and action plans are excellent. Michael has been instrumental in helping us clearly define goals and working towards achieving them."
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