I'm giving a Seminar - Your thoughts required.

[SpugNothuson]

On June the 10th I'm part of a marketing seminar.

I've got a 15 minute slot with 2 other companies.

Company Number 1 is a marketing company and is giving a talk about why its best to employ a professional to do your marketing.

Company Number 2 is me.

Company Number 3 is a printing company that is giving a talk on why not to use your home printer and also showcasing printed materials that aren't the norm.

The seminar is to be aimed at young but established businesses, between 2 and 5 years old.

I was thinking my part should be about brand development and the importance of sticking to a brand. I was also thinking of throwing in some stuff to do with why not to use Office or Publisher or your next door neighbour's son. Should I stick to the brand ideas as I only have 15 minutes? Will telling them that they're all doing it wrong and complete amateurs come across badly (I would word it better for the day)?

Any thoughts anyone? All ideas welcome, but be warned I will pass them off as my own. :D

[mojoprime]

sounds like your idea of using the right tool and person for the job would sandwich nicely between those other two presentations. the brand idea is a good idea, but i think the other idea will really hit home.

[CkretAjint]

Sounds good to me! Gonna post it online for us all to view?!?! :D

[SpugNothuson]

My very first thought was to show them some lovely ideas created in Office and Publisher then our version created in proper programs using proper skills.

Maybe even throw in some "Font that sharnt be named" for a little extra oomph in the OMG it looks crap stakes! But then I started to think, I bet there is someone in the audience that'll think "I like the original one better" I may be forced to throw a chair at anyone that says that.

On the other hand the brand development idea maybe a good idea and informative but they might all leave the seminar thinking, "I like the cut of that Ginger boy's jib, time to implement it in Office/Publisher when I get back to work" which'd mean no work for me and that ain't the point of the seminar.

[SpugNothuson]

Sounds good to me! Gonna post it online for us all to view?!?! :D

I most certainly will be doing that over the next few weeks, that way you can all pull it apart and I'll end up with the Seminar of all Seminars!

Extra kudos for anyone that manages to flawlessly slip a joke or two into it.

[Yossarian]

I think you could meld the two by emphasizing the importance of establishing and maintaining a brand and how that is much better accomplished by a professional with the right tools.

Company #1 will have already broken the ice by telling them they're all amateurs and that are doing it wrong, so you won't be the first bad guy, then company #3 can back you up too! It could be a pretty demoralizing day for the attendees!

[Typically]

you need 2 signs. one with a happy cat doing something cute. and a second with a cat doing something stupid and it saying FAIL! and as you go through your samples you can raise a FAIL! or happy kitty sign.

i have attached examples of the graphics i was talking about
http://www.lafferty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/fail-24.jpg

happy cat
http://www.the-cats-meow.com/images/smile1.jpg

[Yossarian]

That has some great potential. Then if somebody defends a horrible design practice you can stroll up to them and *THWAP* a slice of cheese food product right on the ol' noggin.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I might do wrong things on purpose then if the 'punishment' was cheese. For instance:

I iz egzampul of gud desine.

Now someone hit me with cheese please! :D

[budafist]

Good luck with this Spuggie.

What kinds of visuals are you going to use? Do you get to do a slideshow or anything?

[createdirector]

I would phrase it as some common mistakes used by new companies are.....

[garricks]

I would phrase it as some common mistakes used by new companies are........and adding that graphic design professionals already have lots of specific knowledge about the design process, which will lessen the learning curve for the businesspeople (one less thing for them to worry about)...then you might tie it together by showing how the creative works with both the marketeer and the printer to provide the best possible face for their company!

You have quite the opportunity there, Spug! Good luck!

[urstwile]

Typically actually beat me to it, sort of, in the idea I had, which is to use the idea that anyone can make a LOL cat, as much as we love them, and as funny as they are, but they are the sure symbol for low-powered brand thinking and execution.

Sure, you can make a recognizable meme from something like LOL cats, but do you really want your (young) brand to be associated with a period in time, or to have some kind of longevity to it, that which is associated with a brand? For which you need a professional's guided eye.

What if you took a brand, LOL catted it, and then professionally branded it, to show the difference? It could be a hypothetical.

[Broacher]

15 minutes? Isn't that one whole Warholian unit?

Why waste it berating their ability to distinguish good design from bad? Show them what they know. Business. Show how costly poor strategy, lame communication can be. And how effective and profitable the great stuff is. Don't bother with the mechanics or the software comparisons--it's results that tell the story.

Then give them benchmarks that they can actually use to evaluate a presenting designer and their portfolio. (Questions to ask, signs of professionalism, experience clues).

Keep it simple, clear, punchy. For entertainment and humour, include great ads that rely on this factor (Lord knows why, but we still have to work hard at selling this valuable communications strategy) throughout your presentation. And emphasize that great design is above all a collaboration between an involved client and a dedicated, experienced graphic professional. Like the dentist, you have to open up, and be prepared to brush between visits! Or whatever metaphor you want (maybe peruse the attendee list to pick up some good ones to choose from the businesses represented). Jusat get across the idea that it's a lot more than knowing which menu buttons to click. That's just the execution. The fun part is finding the solution that will blow away the competition and make the product fly off the shelf. We basically sell trust-- so tell them how we earn it and why it's a great investment.

A great book to review in looking for a way to say a lot of things would be Paul Arden's 'Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite'. The structure of the creative argument in that book is compelling-- you could do a lot worse in finding a model to build your presentation around.

(I probably stole that from someone else)

[budafist]

Ask your audience to view their own branding as consumers. Are they more likely to buy and trust from a company whose branding looks like wordart? Or something more refined?

Another idea is (depending on numbers) that you could run the seminar a bit like a branding focus group. People tend to pay more attention when they are asked to be involved.

[SpugNothuson]

What kinds of visuals are you going to use? Do you get to do a slideshow or anything?

There's a huge board to scribble things on and also a projector I can plug my laptop into.

The world is my oyster in that department.

[SpugNothuson]

Sure, you can make a recognizable meme from something like LOL cats, but do you really want your (young) brand to be associated with a period in time, or to have some kind of longevity to it, that which is associated with a brand? For which you need a professional's guided eye.
I've never looked at a LOLcat in that way before. I like the concept though.

I'll look at restructuring what I've already got to include this. I should (hopefully) by Friday have the main guts of what I'll be saying. Once I've got that nailed its time to source some images to accompany it.

[SpugNothuson]

We basically sell trust-- so tell them how we earn it and why it's a great investment.
Excellent point.

I'm really starting to get the feeling for what I'm doing.

On Thursday I'm meeting with the Printer and the Marketer to go over our proposed ideas to make sure we don't overlap each other too much.

[SpugNothuson]

Another idea is (depending on numbers) that you could run the seminar a bit like a branding focus group. People tend to pay more attention when they are asked to be involved.

We are looking to present to between 30 and 80 businesses. It's an early morning seminar designed not to disturb the working day as much as possible.

8.00am start on a Tuesday Morning (Free Bacon and/or Sausage Baps and coissants plus all the coffee and fruit juice you can inhale).

Crowd involvement is a shaky area for me. I'm not a natural speaker, I can do it but I have to mentally prepare myself first and get into the "zone", I may even go see my hypnotist on Monday to focus me.

[budafist]

Maybe don't do the crowd involvement then. If they don't participate (and that might happen because they're still waking up) then it will flop. We don't want our Spuggie to flop now do we?

So where's my invite to the free Bacon and/or Sausage Baps and coissants plus all the coffee and fruit juice you can inhale?

[PanToshi]

Mmmmm.... Bacon.....

[Broacher]

>>8.00am start on a Tuesday Morning (Free Bacon and/or Sausage Baps and coissants plus all the coffee and fruit juice you can inhale)<<

A takeoff point: how did THIS get here? Look at the breakfast table and see what products/services are represented. How did the companies represented at the table-- got ON the table? Food can be a very direct and powerful point to use as a metaphor or even an example into the listener/diner's consciousness. It crosses all our senses, cultures, histories, arts, science, industry, nature and environment-- just about everything.

The croissant: what's the connection between this tasty pastry and Islamic history? Bacon? My God, the ultimate food seduction, right? And an interesting tidbit: a purely American food (at least in the way we cook and eat it). Or that many southern traditional Jews consume bacon because they consider bacon part of their partrimony. Or that in ancient times pig farmers fed their animals lobster -- which was considered unfit for human consumption. Or that during the second World War, one of the things that the 'homefront' campaigns collected (besides string and aluminum foil) was bacon fat and converted via rendering plants into--- explosives!

What business lessons do these facts represent?

Coffee, juice: zillions of stories and tasty facts.

It could also be an opportunity to showcase how you can take your research skills and synthesize new connections and insightful observations. And to prove that great creative is work: research, innovation, and always, at some level--just like that delicious, but artery clogging breakfast, it's risky. Why? Creativity is all about risk. About nerves, about seducing your customers' minds and behaviour.

And maybe that is also why any designer of professional rank is never satisfied to be asked to create for their clients a 'typical ad' or a 'typical logo' any more than any of them would prefer to go see a 'typical' movie, read a typical book, drive a typical car-- or enjoy a typical meal. We do our homework, we sweat bullets for ideas, and we assemble all the pieces into what we all hope is the one BIG idea we're all looking for.

[SpugNothuson]

Broacher you are a mind full of amazing facts. A knack of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. That kind of research takes me and my employee a few days of serious head scratching and lots of ideas consigned to the waste bin.

any designer of professional rank is never satisfied to be asked to create for their clients a 'typical ad' or a 'typical logo' any more than any of them would prefer to go see a 'typical' movie, read a typical book, drive a typical car-- or enjoy a typical meal.
I love that, I may change the title of my presentation to "Not the typical".

[garricks]

Damn, I feel stupid now. I may have to lick Broacher's brain... :p

That was some serious thinking, broacher...that last 'graph just might end up taped to my monitor. :)

[SpugNothuson]

Right then, the presentation is definately taking shape.

Tomorrow I'll add a couple of tweaks after talking to the other companies involved, then I shall post it up here for some critique.

But for now it's Goodnight from me, "Goodnight".

[budafist]

Goodnight Spuggie!

May you dream of being a huge Spugzilla crashing through a city of tiny tiny tortoises.

[Broacher]

For tortoise lovers everywhere:


TO MY PET TORTOISE

My friend, you are not graceful -- not at all;
Your gait's between a stagger and a sprawl.

Nor are you beautiful: your head's a snake's
To look at, and I do not doubt it aches.

As to your feet, they'd make an angel weep.
'Tis true you take them in whene'er you sleep.

No, you're not pretty, but you have, I own,
A certain firmness -- mostly you're [sic] backbone.

Firmness and strength (you have a giant's thews)
Are virtues that the great know how to use --

I wish that they did not; yet, on the whole,
You lack -- excuse my mentioning it -- Soul.

So, to be candid, unreserved and true,
I'd rather you were I than I were you.

Perhaps, however, in a time to be,
When Man's extinct, a better world may see

Your progeny in power and control,
Due to the genesis and growth of Soul.

So I salute you as a reptile grand
Predestined to regenerate the land.

Father of Possibilities, O deign
To accept the homage of a dying reign!

In the far region of the unforeknown
I dream a tortoise upon every throne.

I see an Emperor his head withdraw
Into his carapace for fear of Law;

A King who carries something else than fat,
Howe'er acceptably he carries that;

A President not strenuously bent
On punishment of audible dissent --

Who never shot (it were a vain attack)
An armed or unarmed tortoise in the back;

Subject and citizens that feel no need
To make the March of Mind a wild stampede;

All progress slow, contemplative, sedate,
And "Take your time" the word, in Church and State.

O Tortoise, 'tis a happy, happy dream,
My glorious testudinous regime!

I wish in Eden you'd brought this about
By slouching in and chasing Adam out.

-Ambat Delaso