As published in adage.com

The young copywriter’s portfolio was so heavy we were both laughing as we struggled to get it up onto my table. It broke the ice for the interview. I was in my first creative director job and was probably more nervous than her.

She unsnapped the locks and raised the top. Inside were two stacks of plastic-coated print ads. The lamination was the thick kind, with felt backing, which explained the weight of her portfolio. But nothing could explain the first piece I reached for, an ad for The Economist.

“Read what the world is coming to before it gets there.”

I stood there, eyes widening at the headline and the illustration of planet Earth with little hands reading the magazine.

“Nice,” I said. “You came up with this?”

“Yes.”

“Body copy too?”

“All of it.”

The room was getting hotter. I asked how she’d arrived at the idea. Perfectly assured, she told me she was impressed by The Economist’s record of foretelling business and political trends.

We never got past this first ad. I kept asking question after question. I was fascinated by someone who would present as her own work the very ad I had created at another agency three years before.

Thirty years later, this improbable moment of catching a thief red-handed still makes my blood boil. What gets me is less that she misrepresented herself, but that she stole my originality.

What we should aspire to

For those of us who ply the advertising and communications trade, originality is crucial to what we do. It’s the big idea. The thought no one’s ever thought before. The holy shit moment that sends a smile spreading through your whole body. It’s the sensation your audience feels up their spine.

Trends and technologies come and go, but originality stands eternal. It is what we should aspire to. Sadly, most of us settle for the familiar, the comfortable, the less-than-original.

I say this to today’s young creatives who, with mentoring in such scarce supply in our industry, question their own purpose and why their job isn’t more satisfying.

Here’s the answer: Your job is to see it like no one’s ever seen it before, to say it like no one’s ever said it before.

There are talented writers and art directors who have entire careers, make lots of money, and never achieve a single original creative thought. And then there are some like legendary art director Helmut Krone who seem to have done it every time they got up to bat. Their work is fresher than most of the work you see today.

Mindblowing, isn’t it, how an original thought can stand the test of time? Two examples:

• Despite its hype as the best advertisement ever made, Apple’s “1984” commercial is still, 30 years later, a potent vision.

• While many have tried to capture the essence of this unique business newspaper, no one’s ever done it like Fallon’s Tom McElligott in the 90s: “The Wall Street Journal. The daily diary of the American dream.”

Saul Bellow once described a writer as “a reader who is moved to emulation.” This is true not only for writers but for all artists. But emulation does not necessarily mean imitation. It means inspiring you to your own heights of originality. This takes fierce ambition and a competitive spirit. It is not for the faint of heart.

That is why I am put off by artists in advertising — and film, music and other arts — who readily admit that their work was “inspired by” some other work. That was fine to confess in Shakespeare’s day, when audiences appreciated similarities to admired classical works. But Romanticism made originality a Western cultural ideal, and Romanticism is still going strong.

If you’re going to steal

“Inspired by?” Really? Aren’t you just saying you appropriated someone else’s idea and made it into yours? And we’re all okay with that? And okay with tracing the concept of an ad back to the creative team who thought nothing of clicking through award show web sites for “inspiration”?

If you’re going to steal, steal from the best and conceal your sources. That’s time-honored advice, if stealing is your thing.

Not quite stealing, but almost, is the art of building on approaches that have proven successful in the past. Some risk-averse clients get assurance from having lots of precedents, as though this were not advertising but constitutional law.

Doing what no one’s done before

But if you’re going to be authentic in your life, there is nothing like the kickass feeling everyone gets when you can break free of all those “best practice” restraints and do something so original it seems to have come hurtling out of nowhere.

Remember that hilarious feeling the first time you saw the fast-talking man in Ally & Gargano’s classic Fedex commercial? If you haven’t seen it in a while, go. It’s a startling demonstration of how to vault to the top of the category in one entertaining message.

I could go on. From the Old Spice man to Geico’s pre-roll “Unskippable” to the concept of showing real women in beauty and cosmetics ads for Dove — to name only three from the last decade — there’s a breathtaking history of originality that offers something to emulate.

Plus, you can afford to. Being original doesn’t require an expensive canvas. You can have an original idea in a modest radio spot or a simple banner ad. One of my all-time-favorite frugal ideas was done by Scali McCabe Sloves in the 80s: A newspaper ad promoting a high-speed Nikon lens. The shot: a grainy blur that appeared to be a missile caught in mid-air. The headline: “Faster than a speeding bullet.”

Let’s face it. Given the time- and emotional pressure we’re under, it’s hard enough coming up with a good idea, let alone a great one. An original idea stands at the outer extremity.

It may happen by chance. It may happen when you’re so exhausted from trying that you’ve stopped searching. But it’s a game changer. You will have enriched our industry and your career. You will have created something truly worth stealing.

As published in SHSMD Spectrum

Healthcare marketers are finding new ways to overcome bias in communications by using the principles of neuropsychology. Understanding that how they communicate matters, smart marketers are using these principles to unlock the once-closed minds within their own organizations and in communities of color as well as in traditionally underserved patient populations affected by negative historical biases toward (and within) the healthcare industry.

This featured discussion, “Overcoming Bias: How to Unlock a Closed Mind,” was presented at the SHSMD23 Connections annual conference by Donna Walthall, the senior director of marketing at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Sarah Bridges, PhD, the CEO and founder of Bridges Consulting and an industry expert in neuropsychology; and Andy Semons, a founder and strategic planning partner at IPNY. The speakers discussed overcoming biases and developing effective communications that resonate with audiences despite preconceived opinions.

Applying Neuropsychology in Marketing

Dr. Bridges outlined the importance of recognizing biases and how they relate to perceptions. She also described the different types of cognitive biases, including:

• Availability heuristic: When something comes to mind quickly or is more sensational, people tend to think it is accurate.
• Choice overload and decision fatigue: If people have too many choices, they do not act.
• Cognitive dissonance, or difficulty changing one’s beliefs.
• Confirmation bias and looking for information that supports our beliefs.
• Halo effect, or how positive or negative impressions affect our opinions and beliefs.
• Negativity bias.
• Salience bias, which focuses on more prominent information or the big, breaking news.
• Status quo bias: Individuals stick with what’s familiar rather than what is riskier.

Dr. Bridges defines bias as “unconscious preference,” explaining that people make predictions based on what they know and often balk at the unfamiliar and things that don’t match their beliefs.

“We must understand the beliefs of our audiences,” she says. “We filter in information that confirms what we believe and do not see the information that doesn’t. And, with brands or with products, if there’s even one negative story that gets out among 50 good ones, people remember the negative story. Negative bias is wired into our brains.”

How the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Overcame Bias

During her 20-year journey leading the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s marketing efforts, what Donna Walthall learned about overcoming bias has been eye-opening.

As a world-renowned cancer institute that strives for a balance of 50% research and 50% clinical care, research has always been a large part of Dana-Farber’s DNA. However, the local community of color held a negative perception of the Institute, leading Walthall to find out why these biases existed.

“Although we were a world-class institution with a wonderful reputation nationally and internationally, our local community wasn’t loving us, saying things like ‘People go in, but they don’t come out,’” Walthall recalls.

She found that community biases included fear and mistrust, influenced by historical events like the Tuskegee study and the public’s belief that research and, by extension, Dana-Farber were detrimental to people of color. As a result, fear was intertwined with the Dana-Farber brand.

Components of the Campaign

Overcoming the negative bias and changing the narrative was the top priority for Walthall and her team. Their initial approach was to create targeted communications that were intentional and clear in telling the Institute’s story.

This effort included:

• Ads in local media focused on the expertise in treating cancer. Messaging focused on being welcoming and accessible, using positive language such as “Cancer can be survived” and “We’re an ally in the fight against cancer.”
• Telling the stories of local community leaders and real patients that lent credibility and honesty to the Dana-Farber narrative.
• A community mammography van that prominently featured the Dana-Farber name and logo, and included images of people who lived in the community to build trust.
• Events held at the Institute that invited the community inside to experience it in a non-threatening way.

“Instead of shying away from the Dana-Farber name that had evoked such fear in the community, we put it everywhere and told our community who we were very deliberately,” Walthall explains.

Walthall also enlisted the strategic communications help of Andy Semons at IPNY for a novel approach to encouraging community-wide cancer screening, targeting patient populations stressed by the pandemic and socioeconomic disadvantages.

Putting to work the lessons learned from neuropsychology, the IPNY team knew that to change behavior, they needed to build communications that didn’t elicit a threat response from communities receiving the message.

“It’s really hard to tell somebody who mistrusts you that they should be doing something,” notes Semons, who emphasizes the importance of empathetic communication in behavior change. Instead of prescribing actions, IPNY focused on benefits like support and being in personal control of one’s health.

Dr. Bridges adds: “When we are told we can’t do something or we must do something, the instinctive reaction is to resist it.”

As published in PM360 focus on marketing strategy 2024.

Sonic branding is a proven way to motivate your target. But not the careless way many DTC marketers are using it. Music can work wonders. I was part of the agency that helped United Airlines adopt Rhapsody in Blue as their sonic signature. The score fit the brand perfectly. Gershwin’s glorious overture made you feel that travel is a sophisticated adventure.

Just the opposite is happening in the wave of DTC campaigns that employ musical branding. Most offensive are the Jardiance commercials. Each spot is a music and dance number where a large cast and a portly heroine sing about “the little pill with a big story to tell.” The big story is about managing your type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It’s a hokey, energetic mess of a spot whose choreography tries to distract you from the fair balance, a tactic sure to make a brand seem less trustworthy.

I’m all for having fun in advertising, but even more for style, taste, and relevance. Viewers are not the fools cynical marketers think they are. We need to communicate the benefits of our medications in ways that don’t embarrass the brand or the target.

IPNY’s Bruce Lee discusses his career in the creative field, as published in MM&M

Why did you get into this industry?

Once upon a time, when I was considering what to do professionally, the idea that you could move people to action with the power of an image and a few well-chosen words was thrilling. Three decades later, when I spearheaded IPNY after having worked in so many categories, the thrill of being able to bring people to better health solutions through smart communications was just as irresistible as the day I had my epiphany.

Where did you get started?

I spent a few years learning my craft at The Wall Street Journal and as a speechwriter for American Express, then won a copywriter contest at Ogilvy & Mather. It started my advertising career. I became a creative director three years later, a position well in advance of my abilities. Several agencies later I returned to Ogilvy as North American executive creative director and was a cofounder of Ogilvy Healthcare, which marked my start in healthcare communications.

Who helped you out along the way?

Too many to name. You learn from every client, every planner, every creative person you work with. I was fortunate to have worked with some of the greats in advertising and entertainment: David Ogilvy, Lester Wunderman, Ed McCabe, Sam Scali, Ralph Ammirati, Steve Hayden, Rick Boyko, Leslie Dektor, Jonathan Winters, Jason Robards and so many others.

Any interesting events/stories that changed your career?

At Ogilvy we had the opportunity to create the unbranded disease state awareness advertising that launched Procrit. The work turned a medical issue that is hard to explain to patients into compelling drama, brought high production values and one of the world’s top directors to healthcare and turned Procrit into J&J’s largest selling prescription drug. In hindsight, we were just doing what felt intuitively right, but these were pioneering moves in healthcare advertising circa 2001 that showed me the possibilities in the field.

Video interview of Sarah Bridges by Andy Semons

Dr. Sarah Bridges – Neuropsychologist, Expert in Consumer Behavior and Motivation

With both a Ph.D. in neuropsychology and an MBA, Sarah is an invaluable resource to the IPNY team. Her keen understanding of human psychology and how the brain works has helped us craft both communications strategies and creative that help people break through their assumptions and motivate positive behaviors. Based in the Twin Cities, Sarah is a consultant to major Fortune 500 firms as well as start-ups and an expert in facilitating big change. For example, a recent engagement for a Fortune 100 company led to a new initiative that reduced safety issues by an astounding 75%.

Q&A with Managing Director Tom Steadman as published in AdForum.com

The harsh reality of the post-COVID virtual agency pitch process.

What is your view of the current climate in terms of new business opportunities and process? What has changed in the last few months and what is your forecast for the rest of the year?

There’s definitely new business to win but finding it these days is certainly more challenging. “New from new” new business is understandably, way more difficult. The last few months have made it nearly impossible to forge new relationships and we all know that the way to win new business is through strong, positive relationship building. We’re continuing to carry on dialogue with our new business prospects. I’d say patience and empathy are probably the two most important traits needed right now. We need to understand that the client’s decision to switch their AOR or award a project to a new agency during these times will require serious thought and understanding of the both near and long-term environment in which they’re operating.

That said, there’s nothing holding us back from expanding our business with our current clients. In fact, the trusted relationships that have been forged over the years with many of our current and past clients get called into action when clients are thrown into unique, stressful market conditions. Our core clients from the healthcare, nonprofit and financial services sector have all remained active in the market over the past few months. Of course, we’ve maintained dialogue, modified strategy and tactics where appropriate and managed to earn a few new projects along the way. These new projects were awarded based on the strength of the relationship, the mutual respect and understanding we have with our clients and smart, targeted promotion defined to help our clients business stand out during these challenging times.

How challenging was it to develop an idea for a pitch across your creative, research and growth teams, without being able to collaborate in the same physical space? How did you overcome those challenges?

IPNY’s basic philosophy has been to encourage working remotely. Operating as a virtual agency is nothing new. We’re very comfortable working within a virtual business model and have learned how to develop winning integrated ideas while not sharing the same physical space.

Everyone plays a key role in developing our ideas. Strategic insights, Media Planning, Creative, Production, Public Relations and Account Management all share equally in the development of our work. The team is accustomed to working with one another as we’ve known each other both professionally and personally for years. As such we have no issues reaching out to one another in the development stages of our ideas.

One of our more recent pitches challenged us to develop a campaign that had little-to-no media support with the assumption that it would leverage the use of PSA’s. Therefore, it became critical to the success of our idea to understanding the media landscape around PSA’s so that we could instill confidence in the client that the spots would actually air. Our ideas leveraged insights to deliver powerful messaging for the target audience, but also took into consideration that in order to run they would need to capture the attention of the local market station managers.

To help bring the idea to life and to confirm its value, we were able to quickly pull together some market research. The focus groups were all held online and the entire pitch team was able to take part, which furthered the continuity and development of our pitch preparations.

An interview with IPNY Chief Creative Partner Bruce Lee as published in AdForum.com

Tell us about some of the creative partners you’ve worked with.

As a copywriter I’ve worked with many types of creative partners over the years. Starting out, I teamed with an art director twice my age. He couldn’t come up with an idea to save his life, but what a talker. Every time we’d work we got into these incredible conversations and I’d find myself coming up with ideas, ideas, ideas – way better than the ones I would have come up with on my own – even though we barely talked about the work. In some weird way he opened my flow. But isn’t that what you want – to be with a partner who gets you going? Magic is hard to explain. Fortunately, you don’t have to explain it. You just have to produce it.

Most art directors I’ve partnered with had collaborative styles. We’d toss thoughts back and forth and build on each other’s ideas until one of us had the eureka. Which neither of us would take credit for. We felt the process made it happen. At the other extreme I worked for a while with a lone wolf. He preferred to close himself off and come up with his own ideas. Creative problem solving is a delicate process – you can’t make someone interact if it’s out of their comfort zone – so I adapted to working as a recluse as well. In the end we’d show each other our hand. I never liked this subtly competitive approach but there was no other way to get him to deliver. He was talented, and the work we did brought a lot of attention and new business, so it was worth it from that standpoint, but it was neither a satisfying or efficient experience.

What makes for the best creative partner?

In the beginning, before the writing or the art direction, you and your partner are idea people in quest of unexpected ways to express the strategy. I’ve always done the best questing with a partner who wants to create something never seen before and is flat-out obsessive about finding it. You wouldn’t want to live with such a person, but you sure want them for your partner. Because they push you as hard as you push them and it makes the solution, when it comes, that much sweeter.

Another quality one appreciates is a partner who’s open to new things. I’ve worked in categories known for flashy work, but these days I enjoy more complex categories like financial, healthcare and nonprofit, where the work can be just as challenging but there is more opportunity to rethink the rules. And having an art director who enjoys problem-solving no matter what the category is essential.

When is a creative duo not a duo?

To paraphrase Freud, creative people are polymorphously perverse. I’ve been party to great creative ideas by working solo, in a pair, in a triad. With some of our TV projects I work with my long-time art director partner and our favorite TV director who is a former agency art director. The process is so easy because the three of us have been collaborating for years and there’s a high degree of trust.

Sometimes the most valued creative partner does not meet the strict definition of a “creative.” I work successfully with our strategic planner, because he inspires me with his deep appreciation of the problem. And because he has the ability to see my ideas the way the marketplace will.

As published in adage.com

Growing up in Queens the cool kids didn’t greet each other with “Hi.” They said, “What’s the story?”

So imagine how jazzed we were when a popular TV campaign for a New York appliance store opened up with an announcer shouting, “Hey Jerry, what’s the story?”

We’re forever learning about new formulas for sales success. But nothing can beat a formula that has conflict, characters you care about, escalating excitement and a satisfying ending.

The story is the single most motivating sales technology known to advertising.

No one likes being told what to think. That’s why no one likes straightforward selling. But storytelling is different. It’s a form of gameplaying you willingly give yourself over to. It provides a seductive way around our mental pay wall, beguiling the rational self by making a pleasurable emotional connection with the brand.

News, drama, people you love, hate, sympathize with – the story has it all. And we’re wired for it. Think of all the bedtime stories you were read, all the cable series you’ve binge-watched. Think of Chinatown, On the Waterfront, The Shining, City Lights and hundreds of memorable films. Our mind nestles into stories like a head into a pillow.

Watch this spot for the French cable channel Canal+: It has a compelling narrative arc. Starting in medias res, the action grows more outrageous, leading to a denouement that makes you realize the whole thing was a demonstration of the quality programming Canal+ offers. The brand message is so deftly woven in you absorb it without blinking.

Or take this end-of-the-world tale from Jose Cuervo: The brand message is carpe diem, but the way this story tells itself, that ancient advice is strikingly contemporary and weirdly moving.

What makes these stories work? A combination of empathy and chemistry. As we watch our protagonist try to overcome his situation, tension rises and our brain secretes dopamine, so at the brand reveal we feel rewarded and hopeful.

Stories activate our brain’s language processing centers, sensory cortex, motor cortex and any other areas we use when reacting to the events in the narrative. As viewers, we share the emotions of the characters and turn the story into our own experience.

It’s been said there are no new stories, just new ways of telling them. This spot for The Guardian shows how one of our fundamental stories might be treated by contemporary media: As the news swiftly unfolds from front-page headlines to social media discussions to the nasty revelation that the villains are actually the three little pigs, we see just how The Guardian shows all sides of the story.

In the words of a YouTube viewer, “If this were a movie I’d watch the shit out of it.” Headlong suspense, being unable to stop watching or listening – these are critical to storytelling. Smart marketers know the longer your prospect is involved with your message, the better the chance of being persuaded and taking action.

Print media was once a home for beautifully crafted storytelling ads. With declining readership the venue has shifted. Today it’s about seeing how close we can come to spending nothing on our advertising.

Century 21 realtors did just that by taking advantage of a well-known story. Instead of running a costly commercial on the media event finale of “Breaking Bad,” they listed the actual Albuquerque house that Walter White owned on Craigslist. This singular image calls up many memories of the series, putting every “Breaking Bad” fan right in the center of the action. Such pennywise ingenuity gave Century 21 over 80 million impressions and gave fans an unforgettable experience.

One particularly successful brand trend has been immersive story experiences.

Last year, Manhattan’s iconic Carnegie Deli, which closed in 2016, was reincarnated for the second season premiere of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Every detail of this popup store, from décor to food to prices, screamed 1958, when the series takes place.

Stories have always been at the heart of myth, which is what our greatest brands are built on.

In an era without a national myth we can all agree on, along comes Colin Kaepernick: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” With this tweet Nike launched its new campaign based on the story of the man who brought attention to racial inequality through the NFL kneeling movement. What better way to bring attention to the values behind “Just do it” than with real stories of athletes who did just that?

What’s the secret to the best stories? Confounding expectations. Whether it’s butchering the star in the first act of “Psycho” or not explaining the hyper-passionate runners until the very last moment of this classic spot, being surprised violates our expectations and gives us a visceral jolt. Couple this with your message and your message hits deep.

Want stronger creative? Find the story in what you’re selling. It’s a time-tested persuasion system, as deeply human and inventive as you are.