With the bathroom still littered with the cast-off swim suits and wet towels of summertime, parents have back-to-school on the brain. The days are growing shorter and the calendar is already starting to fill with PTA meetings, team registration deadlines and car pool schedules.
Despite our attempts to delay summer’s inevitable end, the sight of yellow buses lumbering down the road, learning their routes, makes the school year’s approach hard to ignore.
As it turns out, the kiddos aren’t the only ones getting an education. Motivated Marketing is here to pass along a few of the lessons we’ve learned over the years. It’s time to drop some knowledge – no classroom required.
1. Book bags or content, don’t overpack.
To the untrained eye, it can be tempting to cram a lot of words into a not-so-big space. But the top creative teams know that too much text often renders an ad ineffective. No one wants to wade through a wordy digital ad or listen to a TV spot that sounds like it’s being read by a speedy-speaking auctioneer. Whether you’re loading up a book bag or creating an ad, pack lightly.
2. There’s no age limit for Story Time.
Although we don’t sit crisscross-applesauce while listening, folks in the advertising world love a good story just as much as any pint-sized student. While a project’s time and space constraints often require brevity, some projects allow our storytelling to really shine.
3. Grown-ups don’t always know best.
Target proved this last year when they launched a back-to-school campaign produced entirely by kids, for kids. The ingenious marketing tactic went straight to the source – and the final product? Remarkable. Target, whose back-to-school sales come in second behind the holiday season, realized that the best way to talk to kids (and in turn, influence their parents) was through their peers. The student superstars produced the ads from start to finish, not only coming up with concepts or reading lines, but directing, designing sets and selecting wardrobes.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
A child’s inquisitive nature can teach us a lot, especially in the advertising world. Why does one type of digital ad get more engagement? Why does one color scheme get more clicks? Some huge ad agencies don’t have the bandwidth to give each client this type of personalized attention, but at Motivated Marketing, we aren’t afraid to ask questions – and then don our thinking caps to find solutions.
5. Show-and-tell … but mostly show.
You might assume that show-and-tell has no place outside of a kindergarten classroom. Wrong. Our team understands that showing is far more important than telling. We won’t just tell you that we can create a killer ad campaign for your business. Instead, we’ll pitch scripts and storyboards that encourage you to see for yourself.
Don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz. But if you’d like to borrow our notes or maybe hang out by the monkey bars, get in touch.