Anderson Marketing Blog

Chances are, the landscape of your art director’s desk looks a bit different than yours. And it’s likely that she spent a lot more time than you did choosing and maybe even designing her smartphone cover. But here are some important things your art director really cares about, and why you should care about them as well.

Earlier this month, 8,000 people from around the world gathered in Chicago for DMA 2013, The Global Event for Data-Driven Marketers. The theme was Big Data. Bright Minds. Best Practice—and there were many great presentations about data, analytics, technologies and trends.

People don’t read. They have short attention spans. Copy needs to be short. Really short.

In today’s world, everyone has access to the same stock photography. So how do you choose it better, and use it better, to help make your marketing efforts unique and have your message cut through?

Does brilliant design inspire exceptional copy...or the other way around? Or, are they inextricably intertwined? And what role does the medium play in what takes center stage?

On April 24, 2013, Anderson Direct Marketing participated in its first Google+ Hangout. Creative director Carlos Perez represented ADM in the second episode of Xerox’s “Ask the Experts” series. Joining Perez were Gordon Kaye, editor and publisher, and Ilana Greenberg, creative director from the magazine Graphic Design USA. The question that brought these experts together was, “Is print dead?” All of the experts answered confidently with a resounding no. Kaye started the conversation with the subject of tangibility. With print, you can touch, hold and feel a piece. Other mediums cannot connect to us in this way.

When it comes to marketing today’s complex products and services, less can be more.

Where does great creative begin?

Not with the writer or the designer. Not with a brainstorm or a concept, an image or a message. When it comes to driving response, great creative starts with a good creative brief. And a good creative brief starts with the customer or prospect.

Admittedly, it’s not brain surgery. And it won’t solve world hunger. But the practice of transforming a corporate litany of product or service features into dynamic, can’t-live-without-‘em benefits can often mean the difference between generating a qualified lead...and suffering the deafening silence of non-response.

Why USPs are key to winning new customers, yet so rare.