Digital Creative: Planning & Process

Samit MalkaniCreative Head aka Yoda Jack

Jack In The Box Worldwide

Today’s Plan

• Module 1: – Digital Marketing & Creative | The Creative Team | On The Job

• Break

• Module 2: – Websites & Blogs | Content Strategy | Display Media Campaigns | On The

Job

• Break

• Module 3:– Five Tips For Digital Creatives | Q&A

Module 1

Digital Marketing & Creative | The Creative Team | On The Job

Digital Marketing & CreativeA point of view.

What, according to you, is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is, simply put, technology-enabled marketing.

And it isn’t rocket science.

So let’s look at communication differently.

Content Is The New Communication

• Communication has moved from a 30-second ad to Content that can keep a viewer’s attention for minutes – and have him coming back for more.

• Content could be anything: a tweet, a blog post, a TV show, a game, an app...anything that your audience want to consume, engage with and share, as opposed to have to.

• Audiences want content that informs and entertains. Increasingly, time spent on TV is decreasing in favour of time spent online, on a PC or your mobile/tablet. A brand that delivers great content to the audience in his/her preferred environment is a winner.

Engage, Engage, Engage

• With digital marketing, you have the opportunity to go beyond a screen and into a consumer’s life.

• In fact, if you blend the real world and the virtual world, it’s more fun.

• The more fun it is, the longer your audience will stay with you.

• And the greater his/her chances of coming back.

Build Influence And You’ll Build Virality

• We live in an era where everyone has a voice, and nobody’s afraid to use it.

• People have always wanted to talk to the brands they love and have the brand talking back to them. Now, as interactive audiences, they can.

• A TVC or a print ad offers no opportunity to start a conversation with a brand. But a post on Facebook or a tweet does. Give them content, engagement and an opportunity to talk back to you.

• The more you talk with your audience, the more you treat them like friends, the better the chances that they will talk well about you and help spread your message.

• In short, they will become your brand’s influencers – your brand’s (unpaid and most faithful) ambassadors.

Reward Your Audience

• What you need to remember is that your audience isn’t panting in anticipation of the next ad or product message you’re going to put out.

• They’re looking for…you guessed it…great content. Information, utility and entertainment.

• And, very honestly, they’re also looking for gratification. It could be freebies, merchandise, dinner with a celeb, or just fame!

• So when you plan your next digital campaign, make sure you reward your audience with information, utility, entertainment or gratification. Think of it as a small ‘thank-you’ for spending their valuable online time with you.

KLM

Coke Village

Kolaveri

The Best Job In The World

Understanding Digital Audiences

You Get All Types

PA

RT

ICIP

AT

ING

SHARING CREATING

LIS

TE

NIN

G

CASUAL CONSISTENT

FO

CU

SE

DB

RO

AD

SpecialistActivist

Celebrity

Pundit

Networker

Taste Maker

Thought Leader

Socialiser

BroadcasterCurator

FeederSyndicator

Observer

Dabbler Conversationalist

Explorer

Understanding Digital Platforms

The Creative TeamArt and Copy is just the beginning…

The Structure

Creative Director

Designers Creative Strategists

Content & Community Managers

Creative Strategists

• These are the Mad Men of the team.

• They mostly come from advertising backgrounds, mainline and/or digital.

• They are responsible for leading the ideation, cracking the Big Idea and presenting work to the client.

• They work very closely with Content & Community Managers.

Content & Community Managers

• The Jonah Jamesons and Perry Whites of the team.

• They typically come from Editorial and Social Media backgrounds.

• They are responsible for setting out the editorial strategy, generating content, seeding it and managing conversations around it.

• They work hand-in-hand with Creative Strategists.

Designers

• The Da Vincis of the team.

• Typically come from either print or digital backgrounds, rarely both.

• They are responsible for communication design across various platforms, from Facebook tab to e-commerce website.

• They work very closely with the User Interface teams.

The Support Ecosystem

• User Interface Designers

• Flash Developers

• Software Engineers

The Creative Director

• Part Creative Strategist, Content Writer, Community Manager, Designer and User Experience Guy!

• He also needs to understand digital media, platforms and analytics.

• Loses hair faster than normal.

On The Job

A mock brief on which we’re going to practice what we’ve learnt.

The Background

• The Indian Premier League is the world’s most-watched T20 tournament.

• It has embraced innovation, not just in terms of the cricket, but also in the way it is watched.

• Now in its fifth year, the IPL is looking to reach out to and engage with more audiences in newer ways.

The Problem

• The BCCI would like to increase the engagement of cricket fans with the IPL.– They want to drive more fans to the stadium, as well as

more TRPs.– They want to reach out and engage online with millions

of fans who do not have TV or stadium access.– This has to be drive monetisation of cricket’s wealthiest

property.

The Strategy

• To make the IPL a multi-screen event.– While watching it at the stadium or on TV, people

should be tuning in to parallel broadcasts online that will make watching the IPL even more fun and participative.

– There should be enough entertaining content for cricket lovers even after the game is over.

– We will be focusing on the Internet and mobile phones as our primary media.

Welcome To Your Digital Agency

• Where you’re sitting is your office.

• The four of you at your table will work together to crack every aspect of the brief.

• Your first challenge: to brand your digital agency.

Module 2

Websites & Blogs | Content Strategy | Display Media Campaigns | On The Job

Websites & Blogs

Step 1: Defining The Objective

• What does your client want to achieve?– Establish and introduce his brand and product/service.– Sell products online.– Provide a digital service.– Run a short-term campaign.

Step 2: Crack An Idea

• What is the creative hook for the website?– A design or content theme, like a Rajnikanth theme.– A value-add, like offering editorial content alongside e-

commerce.– A superb service offering, like ditto.in.– A really stunning user interface.

Step 3: The Site Map

• Also known as Information Architecture, the Site Map defines how the website’s content will be made accessible to users.

• The rule of thumb is that it should not take more than two clicks to access any information on the website.

• The Site Map springs directly from the Objective.

Step 4: The Wireframe

• The wireframe is the arrangement of elements on a particular web page.

• Again, this will emerge from the Objective and user behaviour/reading patterns on websites of the same nature.

• Some of the best examples of user-friendly wireframes are Google, Yahoo, Mashable and Amazon.

How People Read Websites

How People Read Websites

• People don’t read through websites, they scan them.

• They begin at the top-left and read left-to-right.

• They then move down and read left-to-right.

• Then they scan vertically down the page.

• This makes for an F-shaped reading pattern.

Step 5: Editorial Strategy

• You begin by defining the tone of voice based on the brand personality.

• In accordance with the Site Map, you then plan what each content bucket will contain. This includes choosing your content format for each section.

• There may be spin-offs into various themes as determined by the brand’s lifestyle associations.

• Content will then be written/filmed/photographed.

• Lastly, content needs to be optimised for search engines.

Step 6: Design

• Keeping in mind the brand’s personality and mandatories, a design look-and-feel is evolved.

• Designers work very closely with UI and Content teams.

• Designers must optimise their designs to suit various browsers and devices.

Step 7: Development

• Here’s when the tech team takes over, and brings the entire vision to life.

• The tech team will decide what technologies, software, widgets, apps and servers are required to fulfil the job.

• Coding for even a blog-based site can take anywhere from 7-21 working days – so plan well.

Mercedes A to S

Skittles

Content Strategy

Step 1: The Objective

• What platforms are we creating content for?

• What are we trying to achieve with the content for each platform?

Step 2: Themes

• It’s not enough to just generate content about the brand and product.

• Content will have scalability, stickiness and talkability only if it explores themes that derive from the brand’s philosophy or lifestyle associations.

Step 3: Content Formats

• What type of content are we creating?– Long-form– Short-form

• What’s the primary medium?– Text– Image– Video

• Your answers depend upon:– The overarching strategy– The platforms you’re using– Budgets

• Remember – while audiences consume text more than anything else, video consumption is shooting through the roof.

Step 4: Tone Of Voice

• There is a lot of information online – and lots of versions of the same kind of information.

• What will help your content stand out is a great tone of voice.

• The tone of voice will derive from the brand personality. The challenge is to find a voice that will appeal to a wide audience.

Step 5: Seeding Your Content

• It’s not enough to just create great content – you need to make sure it’s discovered by a large number of people and the right kind of people.

• Here are some places to seed content:– Video sharing platforms like YouTube, Dailymotion,

Metacafe– Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit,

Pinterest– Forums and communities that talk about similar themes and

interests

Blendtec

Old Spice

Display Media Campaigns

Types Of Display Media Campaigns

• CPM: Cost Per Mille (1000 views). These are generally brand or thematic campaigns that run on major portals.

• CPC: Cost Per Click. Focused more on getting users to click on banners.

• CPL: Cost Per Lead. Focused on getting a user’s contact details so that the brand can contact him again later.

• CPA: Cost Per Acquisition. Tries to get users to buy a product or service online.

The Process

• The Brief

• Idea

• Copy

• Design

• Illustration/Animation/Photography

• Development

Things To Keep In Mind

• Where your banner will be. It’s important to understand banner formats, dimensions and sizes.

• The portal’s own constraints. These include technology, use of editorial elements and banner size.

• Bandwidth considerations.

• Creative optimisation. In a CPC, CPL or CPA campaign, it is important to vary your creative in order to keep it fresh and keep people clicking.

Tnuva’s Chocolate Dessert

Pringles Can Hands

Uniqlo Lucky Switch

On The Job – Task 1

• Based on the brief shared with you, you are required to develop a plan for the client’s:– Website– Official blog

• You must also conceptualise an online media CPM campaign to drive traffic to the client’s website.

• You have 20 minutes.

Module 3

Social Media Management | Technology | The Brief – Task 2

Social Media Management

Step 1: The Objective

• Again, it’s really important to know what you want to achieve before you set out to achieve it.

• Social media can have both B2C and B2B goals. It’s just about choosing the right platforms.

• Part of setting the objective involves deciding the metrics and ROI you will aim for.

Step 2: Platform Strategy

• Here is where you get into specifics of how you’re going to be using each platform.– Content– Engagement

• The best, most successful campaigns are the ones which have found a new use for each platform.

Step 3: Content Strategy

• In accordance with the platform strategy, you’re going to need to develop content accordingly.

• Content across platforms could include:– A post or tweet that is complete information on its own.– A post or tweet that drives users to other content

outside of these platforms.– Conversations you have with fans and followers.– A hashtag you might generate on Twitter.

Step 4: Influencer Strategy

• If done right, influencer management programmes can yield better results, faster and cheaper than media campaigns.

• How it’s done:– Decide what you want influencers to do – promote content, generate

content or both.– Choose your platforms accordingly. Typically, Twitter, tweetups and

Blogger Outreach Programmes are seen as the best way to run influencer programmes.

– Make it worthwhile for the influencers, without compromising on their integrity.

– Think of it as a long-term engagement rather than a short-term one, and it’ll give you the best results.

Step 5: Seeding

• Once you’ve put your content in place, it’s time to make it discoverable.

• Here are some simple steps:– Make it SEO-friendly.– Place it on social bookmarking services like StumbleUpon,

Digg, Reddit and Pinterest.– Find forums targeting the same interests and people, build

up your reputation there, and seed your content occasionally.

– Use your own personal networks.

Step 6: Conversation Management

• The basic rule is: “It’s rude to ignore your fans and followers on social media.”

• Make it a point to respond to appropriate comments on posts and tweets.

• Responding quickly will help do two things:– Create dialogue, which is why social media exists.– Continue conversations, therefore increase engagement.– Defuse potential crises and prevent embarrassment.

• In cases where it’s not appropriate for the brand to respond, get some of your colleagues to chip in and extend the conversation.

• Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER make fake profiles to respond from.

Dove Yahoo Real Beauty Blogger Outreach

Burger King Whopper Sacrifice

Ikea

Technology

It Takes All Types

• Facebook Apps

• Mobile Apps

• Augmented Reality

• Online/On-ground

Nike Chalkbot

Kaiak

Mini Augmented Reality

Nissan iAd

Nat Geo

Turquoise Cottage

Jordan Melo

BMW

On The Job – Task 2

• Based on the brief shared with you, you are required to develop a plan for the client’s:– Social Media Management– Tech Innovation

• You have 20 minutes.

Module 3

Five Tips For Digital Creatives | Q&A

Five Tips For Digital Creatives

• Study, study, study.

• Be active on the platforms you’re selling to others.

• Get a smartphone.

• Don’t get carried away by the technology available to you.

• Get involved in every aspect of the campaign.

My Daily Reading List

• Mashable.com

• Techcrunch.com

• ContagiousMagazine.com

• Creativity-Online.com

• DigitalBuzzBlog.com

Q&A

Thank You.

samitmalkani@gmail.comtwitter.com/smartkani

www.whatisaninsight.com