Good ideas are timeless

I love ideas as in creative ideas that are playful with the written word or art directed in a way that captures your eye. (Ideally both of these skill sets work even better in conjunction). Take these two examples which came up in my social media feed, they stopped me in my tracks, my thumb came to juddering halt, I wondered why? Both have charm in tone of voice, both are also informative. They treat the viewer with intelligence and there's no need to 'fill in the gaps' as many marketing director's these like to do. This is what great ideas do, it moves you to act. To buy product, ohh those dirty words that seems to be the trend these days, to avoid selling stuff, ironically at all costs. 'Brand purpose' is all the rage but these posters have a purpose and their purpose is to flog stuff. What is also of interest, these two posters must be at least 40 year's apart, the Tide poster was conceieved just after the end of WW2, when Britain was in rebuilding mode after her cities where bombed, this is my hometown, London, East London to be precise. I love the line, it even has the brands name in the headline. (Dave Trott would I'm sure be impressed) and if you look closely it even has a bit of a special build going on, the use of type and graphics is dated but somehow would look fresh now, it has that retro feel to it. The headline" Tide's in - Dirt's out! what a line - just 4 words and hits a home run and the product benifit pitched in a charming way. Fast-foward to the 90's and we have a poster van driving around selling a bedside cabient. Again what a headline this is, it made me smile and again just 4 words to sell the product. How many ads have you seen lately that can do that? B&Q is the only work out of Uncommon London I can recall that has acheived that lately. These are timeless and like all good ideas will be remembered and recalled, as for the 99.9%, they'll all go in the black hole of nothingness. Work to be done for all creatives to get noticed and sell stuff. Tick,tock.

The Formula To Writing A Manifesto

I came across this and it shows you the tricks writers use when writing that powerful manifesto.After much crafting and late nights they finally stand in front of a suite of clients as they all turn and stare. He or she pushes play, the film begins with the exact formula as the poster below, same pace, same bullet points with a big final one word headline which is a bit random, it gets them all the time. High-fives as we see grown men with tears rolling down their faces as they hug one another. You take the glory but in your heart you know it’s just not really that creative it's a trick. So why do we all do it? Because it bloody works when it comes to winning pitches. Sad really that it will come down to the 'best' choice of accompanying music and footage.Most clients fall for this trap, but the good ones, pause after seeing this and say; 'Very good internal mood film now show me how that idea comes to life for our audience that they will react in a positive way?' 'How is that going to solve our business problem?' Wise words, maybe we should put that in all our future manifestos? Now that would be creative.

Beautifully Sad

These ads from Refuge have been popping up in my feed over the last week or so, you would have thought this type of behaviour from men would have been a thing of the past, but sadly if anything it's on the increase :( but this is wonderful work from a creative perspective to the work they do in supporting women in abusive relationships. Very well written and art directed. #HatTip to work like this McCann Bristol.

Copywriting at its best

Says it all; wonderful copywriting, someone understands their audience perfectly -mixed with wit and skilful writing.

Twitter Blueprint - The Perfect Tweet

Infographic via @gordonmacmillan