Commercial creativity – that is ads, presentations, websites and direct mail – requires quite a bit of detailed information. Once you have that information, it’s time to get creative!

Clearly, the generalities of your audience make up will inform your creative decisions. If your audience is female, then your final creative product is going to look and feel considerably different than if your audience is male. The same can be said for creative aimed at “tweens” or boomers.

But it’s the additional details, like customer quotes and stories that lead to the true pearls of creativity. They lead us to an understanding of how your audience thinks and feels about your product and your product category.

For instance, when we developed the tagline for My Creative Team we paid careful attention to the true needs of our audience. Yes, marketing directors or corporate communicators want to present their companies in the best light possible, but they also want to present themselves in the best light possible. For most of us, it’s unspoken that we want to look good, but it hits home. It was that kernel of knowledge that led us to the tagline, “We make you look good!” It’s an undeniable truth to our audience…something that shows we truly understand them.

Once you have a concept in place, don’t forget that you’re not the only one trying to talk to your audience. Always review the competitive set to see what messages, concepts, design elements, etc. are out there. In most cases you will need to make yours different in some way. It can be a minute difference, such as a better offer than your competitors, or it can be dramatically different and driven by one of your “nuggets” of truth that no one is promoting.

When you’re ready to design the approved concept:

• Use the best, most unique imagery available (never shortchange photography/illustration – it will show)
• Beat the tagline discussion into the ground with variations until you can truly agree on the best one
• Take into account all other communications your company is sending to the audience (if the concept is too far away from everything else, it will be harder to make it recognizable as the same company)
• Pursue at least two completely different variations (the same idea can be realized many different ways)
• If possible, walk away from the design for a couple of days and revisit it (I can’t tell you how many times that’s gotten me past a block.)
• If possible, test your concepts with the potential target audience. (You may think you’ve nailed it...they may tell you otherwise.)

To sum up, be creative, have fun, but don’t forget the details. Creative done in a vacuum might as well stay in the vacuum.

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