When faced with the need for a name, the possibilities are almost limitless – from functional descriptive names such as Northwest Airlines, to evocative names such as Virgin and Twitter to acronyms (a special mention goes to FCUK) and family names such as Cadbury’s.

Somewhere within all those choices there is a best option for the product and market you are entering. Getting to it certainly requires some creative thinking on the part of the writers, but also -crucially – the full involvement of the marketing and product developers. How do they see the product now, three years from now and what is the end game? What makes it stand out and if the answer is nothing, how will it survive in the market? And how can we find a consensus amongst the dozens of suggestions that can arise?

In the most recent project we worked on, the option was simply to change one letter in the spelling of a common word to create the extra character needed to brand the product. We got to it using a fairly precise methodology that helped us focus on and then filter suggestions at every level. That one letter actually says a lot in this case. It makes the name unique enough to stand out, while clearly announcing the product’s one key feature.

Ultimately, we will only run out of brand names when we are faced with a completely commoditised way of producing and marketing goods and services. I’m pretty use that won’t be any time soon.

Every year, Cannes produces mountains of newspapers, magazines, brochures, one-sheets, newsletters, treatments and – more recently – Tweets! We’ve been lucky enough to work several times for clients at the Cannes film festival, starting with Stella Artois about six years ago. We also worked for MIPCOM, MIPTV and the Junior and documentary versions. We’ve written newsletters, pitches, treatments, produced brochures and now run the foremost web site for visitors to Cannes at Cannes-or-bust.

For television, we wrote the FilmNet movie guide for two years solid, producing what were in effect thirty 50-word pitches for their subscribers every month. I learnt something very useful doing this: it was our job to give people the impression there were loads of great movies to watch each month and turn on their TVs. But it was up to the director to hold the viewers’ attention beyond 5 minutes. And this is in essence one of the “secrets” of pitching. You first have to perfectly understand your role and your goal – and the smaller and more precise it is, the better.

What constitutes a small, attainable goal? If you’re pitching verbally – the most nerve-wrecking but potentially powerful form of  pitch – I’d say the one goal you should focus on is getting permission to follow up. Why? In a busy environment such as Cannes, people are bombarded with ideas and have to deal with pushy but often completely irrelevant people. By accepting to hear a pitch, your contact is in effect filtering. Is it worth spending time with this guy/gal? Could I see myself dealing with him twice a week for the next five years? All you want is for them to say “maybe” internally. That, largely, is the goal. If they hand you a card and say, “Sounds interesting. Get back to me next week”, you have scored.

The next step has other challenges, as the pitch is in effect just another step in the long road from page to screen. But mastering the art is one of the most useful skills a copywriter can learn.

If you’re attending Cannes or a similar event, call us on +322/644 02 30.

On the one hand, it’s patently obvious that many of the ideas being thrown about are going to fall flat. Statistics and the laws of gravity have a way of getting the upper hand every so often. But this burst of creativity and optimism is precious in that it provides great momentum. Advertisers might look at this a little askance. Don’t. It’s a fantastic lab for not just creating funky sites and applications. It’s also a real-time experiment in creating buzz and hopefully a little revenue.

It’s a fantastic lab for not just creating funky sites and applications. It’s also a real-time experiment in creating buzz and hopefully a little revenue.

Will there be tears on the road of the creative gold rush? More than likely. But unlike the dotcom boom, this one seems to be built more on fun and is solidly anchored in the social networks that will be its distribution channel. And I think most people are going into it with more realistic expectations than was the case in the nineties.

In the meantime, a bunch of creative people are hooking up with techies and creating things – and this optimism and application can’t be a bad thing.

It will come as no surprise that branding at this level follows a well-trodden path for marketers. There’s a product with a USP and a potential market. The trick is to bring the product under the noses of the right market and let the combination of product and image work its magic. So far, so good. But the product in this case is an actual person (at least at the early stages, afterwards it might become a team).

The trick is to bring the product under the noses of the right market and let the combination of product and image work its magic.

So the image being portrayed is on the front line 24 hours a day, and the person will have to live up to certain expectations on a daily basis. I’m reminded of John Cleese telling the story of when he entered a shop to buy a box of matches. On the way out, he heard the shopkeeper whisper to another client, “Not very funny, is he?”

Be useful

The root issue is that no matter how fab you are deep down as a person, you still have to be useful to others. You have to deliver. So the branding cannot allow itself to become too wrapped up in the aura of the subject. Sure, it has to be personal inasmuch as it is dealing with a person, but shouting “me-me-me” will not cut it. Not even if you shout it louder, or prettier. The branding still has to bear in mind the fundamental question facing marketers: what will this product/person do for their market? What’s in it for them?

For Gerry Murray – who takes a very practical approach to coaching (ie, the coachee has to work hard) – the branding we developed with Guy Stevens of Pix&Com is based around the phrase, “Take That Step with Gerry Murray”. He makes people do things, brings them on a journey of sorts, helps them take a step in the right direction. So the copywriting and soon-to-come website reflect this (check the layouts here). Rather than turning inwards, they have to keep the audience very much in mind. So in this respect, personal branding is not like a personal computer; it really does have to be shared – with the people it’s targetted at.

Gerry Murray will be conducting a weekend seminar called “Reset Your Compass for 2010″ in Leuven, Belgium on January 16 & 17. Follow his writing on Thinking Differently or follow the website at GerryMurray.com

MIDEM 2010 campaign image

In 7 years of creating the campaigns for Midem, we have seen the world of trade fairs transform at an unbelievable rate. It’s not unfair to say that many trade fairs until recently had been seen by their organisers pretty much a way of renting space to companies. Yet Midem, part of the Reed MIDEM group, has blazed a trail and is re-inventing the way trade fairs see themselves and engage with their audiences.

Central to Midem’s philosophy is the idea of “community”. Now this is a word that is bandied about a lot, and in many marketer’s minds, it still translates as “target group”. If that is your approach, please call us! Trade fairs such as Midem are fighting tooth and nail to provide a leading role for the industry that is serves, music. For Midem, it transpires through the visuals (which we work hard to develop with the talents of Guy Stevens of Pix&Com and Consor), the pricing (they froze many prices several years ago), the number of services and conferences they provide and – new this year – the way they communicate. It’s not a little add-on, such as a Twitter button! You have to go further.

If your trade fair has been getting by on a few e-mails and brochures, expect the worst. It is vital that you keep a closer eye on what is happening within the business, and that you have systems in place to actively identify and pursue the various groups of people that can make the difference between a busy event or empty corridors – or profit and loss, if you prefer.

Think louder

To quote from our 2008 Midem campaign, trade fairs and conferences have to think louder. Midem is interesting. As it serves the music business, it has been dealing with a ferociously difficult market for the past 5 years at least. And when the going got tough, Midem responded in kind. But I can’t help feeling many trade fairs will suffer from the downturn, rather than recognising it as an opportunity for the industry as a whole to re-define its way of functioning and relationship with its participants.

We also worked on the EAS 2009 in Amsterdam, which was very successful (not just because of us!). If you are involved in organising events such as this, we really think we should be talking. Call me on +322/644 02 30.

Countdown 100 leadership coaching

I was amazed when an art director at a major agency recently told me that on average, their contact with a client had changed every six months over the past three years. That’s quite a turnover, with the inevitable loss in productivity and continuity. Coincidentally, coach and consultant Serge Pegoff told me that between 25-40% of managers in new positions don’t meet expectations. The managers themselves claim that a lack of support was often to blame.

Pegoff and some coaching colleagues started a programme specifically to enable managers to get up to speed as quickly as possible – roughly 3 months. So when they asked us to develop a brochure and identity, the name Countdown 100 was an obvious choice. It stands out, as other programmes on the market are given horrendous manager-speak names. The visuals, developed by Pix&Com, play on the countdown theme. For details about the programme, visit Countdown 100.

We’re all beginning to understand that anything is possible in CGI. If you’ve sat through a dozen ads on steroids at the movies recently waiting for the big show to begin, you know how tiring it can be. So what if the screen shakes when the monster stomps by? Or of the screen seems to melt. We’ve seen that already. So it’s important to reach people with something more conceptual, which this ad does. In fact, it’s not just conceptual, it’s the emotional juice that raises the smile at the end.

Interesting also that it is basically a silent movie (the music is Charles Sheffield, "It's Your Voodoo Working").

The traditional role of a trade fair was to enable companies to showcase products and services and meet people. So the operators were basically companies that sold square meters to other companies. With the web, something as mobile as music has no problem finding showcases that are faster and cheaper. And if you’re looking for contacts in the music biz, LinkedIn has literally thousands of people willing to meet you.

Better ways to connect

So what could  a trade fair possibly have to offer? This is the challenge facing the developers of the new website  and indeed Midem globally. The answer is quite simple: better ways to connect and the very latest market information. Although it seems like an easy conclusion, turning this into real customer benefits and an effective website is another matter.

I won’t go into the changes on the trade fair site,which are quite extensive. But on the website, the new direction is reflected by offering lots of ways to engage  with visitors through newsletters, Twitter and a very informative blog. They are also putting their noted conference sessions online throughout the year (hint: these involve monetisation of websites – you might want to check them out). Ultimately, the principle being applied is that you have to stay relevant to your target’s business, both in what you do and in how you offer it.

The Write Stuff provided the copywriting for the new site and brochure through Consor, and we’re currently working on the newsletters.