I’ve been vocal about my battle with creative burnout and lately it’s been exhausting me. I began to think back to my days of painting and drawing and felt guilty and overwhelmed that I’ve let that creative outlet fall by the way side. But this time, instead of pushing it back in the depths of my brain again, I did something about it.

I had routinely driven past Workhouse Art Center on my way to 95S and had always forgotten to check out what they had to offer. This was the perfect time to look into the place. What had once been a workhouse for Lorton Prisoners was now a clean, bright-looking set of art studios! Immediately, I signed up for an Encaustic workshop with Lynda Ray, a talented artist and Encaustic teacher.

The Workhouse had a beautiful, eerie feeling to it as I walked the well manicured grounds. They have done everything they can to eliminate the feeling of a “prison” but you can’t help to think of the history of this place and wonder what of the past still remains. The studios are remodeled to fit the needs of resident artists and classes like my own but the original workhouse structures still remain—as do the holes in the bricks that I imagine were once the joints of cell walls.

And there in what may have once been someone’s cell, the burden of being creative as my profession was lifted as I painted with wax pigments and began to remember what it felt like again for art to be “fun!” Not wanting that feeling to disappear again, I immediately went home and set upon the task of creating my own Encaustic studio. It has taken some time and money but I’ve been able to recreate my own escape from the world. It may not be a prison cell, but the small spare bedroom will do just fine.

The Benefits of eCards

Information Experts has utilized this email marketing tactic throughout the years for a number of reasons.

Ecards:

• Promote products or services in a creative, compelling manner
• Create and/or retain brand awareness among client base
• Keep your brand top-of-mind among client base
• Represent a cost-effective, immediate method for reaching a target audience
• Enable distribution to customized lists of clients through the use of a CRM database
• Depict the personal, human side of your company
• Signify an environmentally friendly way to send a Holiday greeting to your clients
• Have the potential to be shared by clients
• Allow marketers to track metrics such as opens, views, clicks, shares, etc.

Tips to Improve Exposure

However, just like most email marketing campaigns, it’s easy for your greeting to get lost and/or deleted during the influx of emails received during this season. Here are some tips to help you increase your chances for exposure in the inbox:

• Don’t get lost in the mix. Send your email at least 2 weeks prior to the official holiday date to beat the rush, ensure your clients are at their desks and not on vacation, and effectively stand out among competitors.
• Use a third-party email marketing application like Vertical Response, Constant Contact, MailChimp, or AWeber to help organize your recipient database, develop HTML emails, and automate your launch date and time.
• Avoid the “Junk Mail” Folder. Comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection website to get the list of requirements you must meet when sending out emails to a list of recipients. Most email marketing applications will help ensure you don’t send out an email that doesn’t comply.
• Don’t ignore the accompanying email message. It doesn’t matter how great your ecard is―if the email that accompanies it doesn’t persuade users to click, no one will view the greeting. Make it highly visual and explicit about what users will see if they click the link.
• Skip the sales-y eCard. You have plenty of opportunities to talk business with your clients; use this opportunity to be personal, light-hearted, creative, and fun!
• Don’t forget about other Holidays! Beat out the competition by sending ecards on non-traditional holidays like Thanksgiving and the 4th of July!
• Offer your clients something of substance. You are asking your clients to go out of their way to open an email and then click on a link to view your greeting. Reward them with more than just “Happy Holidays.” Give them something that entertains, tells a story, and begs to be shared and viewed again.

ECard Examples

Check out my most recent article on the Information Experts blog, “Insights from the Experts”, to view samples of egreetings from years past.

Read the rest of this article posted on Information Experts’ Blog “Insights from the Experts“

Are you a Kindle toter or a book enthusiast? Do you love reading the New York Times on your iPad or do you have it delivered daily to your home? These questions now have a strikingly new significance. With the advent of the World Wide Web, it is a common belief that printed media―one of the most used tools in a marketer’s toolbox―is dying a quick death. Many magazines and newspapers―feeling the pressure and competition of the Web―have folded or attempted to reinvent themselves online, while major consumer brands have reallocated their advertising dollars to the Web to reach online visitors. After all, there are many advantages to utilizing the Web versus print.

The Web is…

• Flexible. Need to add a page to your website? Correct a spelling mistake? You can make these changes and more in a snap on the Web.
• Cost effective. The time and money it takes to design for print, plus the cost of ad space, is exponentially higher than it is to design for and display on the Web.
• Accessible. Complying with current Web standards ensures we don’t leave behind any potential customers, by building digital materials that are accessible for those with various disabilities.
• An active medium. Unlike print or even broadcast, the Web requires user participation. The more a user engages in two-way conversations with a brand, the more likely a long-lasting relationship will form—the keystone of integrated marketing communications.
• Eco-friendly. For an evolving eco-conscious world, the Web and individual websites can reach millions of users with one distribution point, all while saving energy and raw materials.
• Controlled by consumers. There was a time when the Don Drapers of the world controlled what brands we were exposed to and even how much information we could obtain on a brand. Not anymore. Today, we as consumers control what we want to be exposed to and what information we want to share. And many times, we can even customize the online experience to our personal preferences.
• Made for sharing. The most effective form of marketing is by word of mouth. Period. One click on the Web allows us to share our personal experiences with brands, products, and services with anyone around the world. No longer are we limited to people in close physical proximity—we can communicate our preferences to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
• Measurable. Because the Internet is a transactional medium, it’s easier for marketers to track metrics, including how many users visited the site, how long they remained on the site, what they clicked on or purchased, etc.

Of course that’s not to say that printed media doesn’t have its own victories over the Web.

Printed media…

• Targets select audiences. Magazines are especially effective at catering to a variety of consumer interests.
• Has a long shelf life. A magazine may be around long after the launch date of the issue, which means advertisers can continue to increase their reach long after a campaign has ended.
• Has a pass-along audience. If you’ve ever read a magazine in a dentist’s office while waiting to have your teeth cleaned, then you know what I’m talking about.

But these advantages have been somewhat lost in the digital age. So, what is the print industry doing to maintain its relevancy?

• Touting the medium’s strengths over the Internet’s limitations. Last March, leaders of the top magazine publishing companies united to launch “Magazines, The Power of Print” campaign, which promoted the vitality of magazines as a media vehicle. The campaign ran for 7 months. Nearly 100 magazine titles published full-page ads touting the advantages of magazines and spotlighting consumers’ commitment to the medium. Powerful messages like “We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines.” reached over 112 million readers per month.
  
• Creating more eco-friendly printing processes and supplies. Paper companies like Neenah Paper have created product lines focused solely on the use of environmentally sustainable processes and materials to meet their customers’ needs. Printers like Greenprinter.com have committed to not just recycled paper but also to sustainable business practices.
• Adapting―If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Various newspapers and publications see the value in utilizing the Web and mobile phones as both distribution points and marketing vehicles, and have transitioned their print publications to digital content. Other publications, like PC Magazine and
  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have ditched their print versions entirely to create new, online brands that cater to the needs and preferences of their subscriber base.
• Integrating. Marketers have been experimenting with Quick Response (QR) codes (a barcode that can be scanned by a mobile phone to receive additional information; see the example below) in their marketing of print materials. This combines the best of print, mobile, and Web platforms. A marketer benefits from the shelf life and reach of a print ad, the portability of a mobile phone, and the flexibility and active engagement of the Web.
  

There are distinct and important differences between digital and print media that allow each to be more or less effective, depending on the strategic goals of the marketing campaign. Understanding how to leverage these two platforms to find solutions for any marketing challenge will be integral in creating compelling marketing campaigns now and in the future.

For the most part, these games have media tie-ins with movies and TV shows or they are sweepstakes or contest games to help promote the food item. And 76% of the game sites offer additional branded elements for download such as screensavers or desktop wallpaper.

Meanwhile, the US is facing an epidemic of childhood obesity. Schools are responding by banning vending machines in schools (or at least banning sugary drinks and snacks in the machines) and are offering more healthy lunch options in the cafeteria. Yet, it is very clear that the media is a huge contributing factor to overweight children. According to a poll of 3,000 children conducted by Intuitive Media, 43% of children noted that they are more likely to eat a snack they saw online. Another 61% admitted they had visited food websites before.

The issue here is not that food giants are advertising to children, as they already do so in television commercials, it’s that advergaming is blurring the line between advertising and entertainment—a line that children who have limited cognitive abilities at their young age can distinguish between. Researchers are not yet sure how this form of online advertising affects children but they do know that while TV commercials have a wider reach, advergames reach children at a deeper level and that is a reason to worry.

Take for example, Volvo. In 2004, the car company utilized the short film method to try and change the perception of Volvo as an “old man” car company. Trying to appeal to young, affluent Europeans, Volvo created a mock documentary about 32 people from the Swedish town Dalarö who all bought Volvo S40s on the same day. As a result of the film, Volvo actually sold out of S40 cars for a period of time, proof that this method of message distribution can be quite effective.

On the other hand, marketers must be aware of the ethical quandary of short films as well. The film must be transparent enough for the user to realize that the film is indeed an advertisement. In the case of Volvo, the car company caught some flack for another issue: they initially sold the mock documentary as an authentic one (before outing themselves with an additional fake documentary that exposed the first as a fake). Volvo took a huge risk that the audience may view the company as untrustworthy and deceptive. Fortunately, the target audience thought the campaign clever and compelling, looking at Volvo with new eyes. Yet, this is a lesson to all marketers to think first about the ethical nature of your message because sometimes the risk isn’t worth losing your customers’ trust.

To accompany these humorous ads, CareerBuilder created a wildly popular viral email marketing campaign called Monk-e-mails. This Flash based application (still in use today) allows users to create their own monkey character, give it some clothes and a voice (by typing a message in the text-to-speech feature), and send it to all their chimp-like coworkers.

Monk-e-mail

I can attest–this is a sticky message! For about 4 or 5 months in 2005, my coworkers and I made Monk-e-mails apart of our day. We created characters and stories with wild plotlines that lasted days. I remember counting how many Monk-e-mails that were sent to my inbox in one day and it totaled 27 (Shhh, don’t tell our boss)! These emails were such a part of our company’s culture that when one of our coworkers had a birthday, we had one of the CareerBuilder chimps placed on the cake!

Sure, we were obsessed but we weren’t the only ones. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, more than 12 million people sent talking chimp messages. So why was this concept so successful as a viral marketing campaign? These lovable chimps utilized 4 out of 6 principles of viral marketing laid out by Ralph Wilson, Ph.D in his article “The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing“.

1. The marketing message was easily transmitted from one person to the next using email.
2. CareerBuilder prepared for huge success by buying enough server space to host all these sent messages without crashing
3. The marketing plan exploited a common human motivation: to be cool
4. The plan utilized existing communication networks—in our case, friends and coworkers.

If you haven’t sent a Monk-e-mail yet, give it a try but understand that once you start, you might never stop! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Sachi and Lee LeFever use a clever whiteboard and paper approach they call “paperworks” to explain complex new media communication tools in a simple, easy to understand format. Each presentation is video taped and sold online at the Common Craft Store. Using “Plain English” in all videos, the presentations are concise, creative, and engaging, making even the most complex concept a piece of cake to understand.

For those who find that new media technology is moving too fast for them to catch on to, Common Craft offers various videos on topics like Green, Technology, Money and Society. Need help explaining a complicated process in simple terms? The team is willing to create custom videos for you too!

Curious to see how it works? Here’s a sample from their website.

The Barbarian Group

This digital services agency redesigned their corporate website years ago in a blog format that was unheard of at the time. Years later, the site is still extremely easy to navigate, easy on the eye and very informative. It’s no wonder many corporations followed their lead using blog back-ends like WordPress to organize their sites.

Boone Oakley

I already devoted a post to this “website” earlier in the year, so this is a clear favorite of mine. Boone Oakley took a very innovative approach to a corporate website by creating multiple linked YouTube videos that basically formed the structure of a website. Innovative? Compelling? Memorable? Yes! But probably not the most usable or cost effective method to produce a website. Video, very much like print is somewhat “permanent” in that it takes time and money to make updates or changes to the information. Still, the site is sure to get them noticed.

Skittles

Skittles clearly understands its digitally savvy audience and that social media in all its community-building glory, will always win the over static, one-way communication of corporate websites. Their solution? To craft a corporate website that nearly has no original, static content written by the company. Instead the site is essentially one huge aggregated page of user-generated content such as silly videos, photos, ads. Users can upload their entries and those selected by Skittles are posted to the site where users can rate the entry and share to their social media outlets. Sound forward-thinking? This comes from the same brand (and ad agency) that linked their homepage to the Skittles entry on Wikipedia in 2009, letting users control the content of the “site.” What will they do next?

We understand her pain.

It’s not easy being the creative executors of your own internal products. Usually we are able to approach our projects as unbiased consultants—strangers essentially with no personal or emotional ties to the client or project. We conduct our research among users and stakeholders, make our recommendations and then execute on them. Done and done.

Not so fast when the baby is YOUR baby. All of a sudden it’s easy to second guess your decisions, continuously add on to the project requirements or over do it while trying to hard to showcase your expertise. Add to that the fact that there are usually too many cooks in the kitchen weighing in with their opinions, the redesign has the potential to be a disaster!

The biggest piece of advice I can give to keep you on track is to treat the internal project like an external one. For example:

• Assign a Project Manager who can be the point of contact for all communication and can help keep the project on schedule and under budget
• Treat the internal stakeholders as “the clients.” Gather their requirements, meet with them frequently, send out status reports and present deliverables.
• Craft a schedule and stick to it. More requirements from the “client”? Tell them how it impacts the schedule and perform a change request.
• Forecast and book resources’ time early so they won’t be stolen away to complete billable projects.
• Schedule weekly meetings with the project team so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Don’t skimp on the deliverables. Would you normally create a recommendations report or wireframes for your clients? Then do it for your internal projects as well.
• And most importantly, celebrate your milestones, big and small. This is a long, hard journey you will embark upon. Keep motivation going strong and morale high with time set aside to appreciate and praise each others’ commitment and progress.

Good Luck!

Fast forward to “parent/teacher night” in 6th grade. Our assignment was to write a paragraph on what we wanted to be when we grew up. There were lots of future Doctors and Firemen in the room but I wanted to be an Artist, which made it very easy for me years later to decide to major in Studio Art/Graphic Design and minor in Art History when I attended James Madison University.

Now over 7 years after graduating I’m spending 8 hours a day doing just what I said I would do in 6th grade—Art! More specifically, I’m a Creative Director at Information Experts, working with a group of enormously talented folks in print and interactive design for Government and Commercial clients.

People constantly ask if my job is fun and I answer a resounding “YES!” It’s truly wonderful thing to be valued by your employers for being creative and crafting compelling solutions! My days are filled with appreciative clients, amazingly fun and talented co-workers and engaging projects.

But (and there’s always a but) being creative on-demand for 40 hours a week has its price. In my line of work, with so many tight deadlines there is high probability for burnout and exhaustion. Creativity is not as easy as it looks. Physically and emotionally it takes toll on the right side of the brain to constantly come up with new, exciting ideas that are appropriate for the client and their goals and then execute them perfectly. Sure, we designers all have tricks to help with idea generation. Some ideas like keeping a journal, looking at online trade magazines, flipping through books, going out into nature or even taking a long shower can really help inspire the next “big idea.”

But personally, my battle with creative burn-out is a constant one. Before working in the creative industry, I used to indulge in a number of creative hobbies like painting, and drawing. But now I find, after 8 hours of designing the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is more art! By then my brain needs a serious break so it can recoup for the next day of creative demands.

The real trick to a balanced work/personal life is to find other interests outside what you do for a living (even if your job is something creative) to satisfy your need for a creative outlet. For me it’s cooking/baking, fashion, crafting, interior design, music, Yoga, reading and learning that keeps me going. Without those other interests I would surely be laying face down in a ditch somewhere letting my brain languish until my next day of work. And how much creative inspiration could I get from that?

Click here to enjoy the ecard! You can also check out my portfolio to see some ecards from past years.

For the first week of freedom I actually felt very anxious and somewhat depressed, as the transition from student to graduate felt abrupt. I was used to a very rigid, organized schedule that I lived by for 3 years: work, school, sleep, repeat. All of a sudden it was over and I had nothing to occupy my time and thoughts. But as the days went on I started to enjoy my newly relaxed schedule. I started reading for pleasure, spending quality time with my fiance, vacationing, and restarting a social life again. I’d also like to resurrect some prior creative outlets like painting and maybe discover some new ones that can be both fun and stress relieving.

Overall, I’m very happy I made it through the program with flying colors while working full-time but I’m even happier to have my life back.

Of course all of this is in response to low ad sales and competition from the web. Personally, I think it’s about time the printing industry stood up and became proactive in prolonging the life of their medium. It may even be 5 years too late. After all, what is the real message here? Don’t advertise on the web, advertise in print? We’re more immersive; we have more readership; we have a longer shelf life and pass along audience? The problem here is that most print magazines have online versions as well so are they insulting their own digital brand?

The real challenge for magazines is to get ahead of the digital curve and become relevant again by altering their medium to fit new digital innovations like the iPad. That I’d like to see.

It appears the creative industry has embraced this new approach as the “site” is a 2010 SXSW Interactive Award winner. But I wonder the reaction from their clients and other decision makers. Is it too innovative that traditionalists have a difficult time catching on? Has the new approach increased sales?  Awareness? I also wonder about accessibility, as there isn’t an option for closed captions or a link to download a transcript. Maybe something to think about for BooneOakley 2.0.

Click on the link below to take a 10 question survey on blood donation perceptions. All responses are anonymous and confidential. And please share this link with your friends/family/coworkers. My circle of 18-24 year olds is not as big as it once was!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BG2PRJ6

When I’m not focused on my countdown, I’m spending  some quality time with my new client, American Red Cross. Our campaign goal is to increase and retain blood donors between the ages of 18-24. This is a fun cause and audience to work with. I can see a lot of social media and PR tactics getting integrated into this campaign. So far I’ve done a ton of extensive research on the client, industry, competitors and external environment. Next week I start digging deeper on the target audience, which will include some primary research as well as secondary (an online survey and a focus group is required). I’m still overwhelmed and my “big idea” hasn’t come to me yet but I’m confident it will.

This week has flown by and I image the next 8 will as well. Here’s to hoping!

It hasn’t all been easy though. Working and going to school full-time requires a strict routine. I’ve had to give up a lot of things to get through this program. I’ve spent many weekend nights in working on papers. I’ve had to sacrifice lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons with my fiance to work on homework. We’ve had to push our wedding date till after graduation so I would have time to plan. Vacations and major errands had to be planned around school breaks. Burnout has been a huge obstacle for me and as I approach the 9 week mark, I find myself very much in “senioritis” mode.

In the end all the sacrifices will be worth it. I just need to get through the next 9 weeks…

WVU’s IMC Program

Unfortunately, while making more than $100 million in its opening weekend, Alice has been received with mixed reviews—and for good reason. The story take place 13 years after little Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole. It can be considered a sequel, considerably veering from the original Alice in Wonderland story written by Lewis Carrol. Most of the characters are still there but significant changes in the story can rattle those who were hoping for an adaptation closer to the original.

Of course, there’s also the issue that the movie is released through Disney studios so while the story has its dark moments, it is also juxtaposed with lighter, cheesier “Disney” moments clearly pandering to the children in the audience. It can seem disjointed at times for that reason.

On the positive side, the side I’m more concerned with, the acting and art direction truly lifts this movie up from what might be a huge disappointment for some Burton or Alice fans. We see some fantastic performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter who both excel at expressing the comic and dark aspects of their characters. Burton helps them along with some great visual tactics that reinforce their characters’ quirkiness—an enlarged head, wacky colorful hair, eye makeup that changes color depending on the character’s mood and some fantastic, gothic twists on the traditional Alice costumes.

The details are always where Burton succeeds in my mind and there are some great Burton-esque touches that make the film clearly his own. Gnarly tree branches, broken down fences, twisted asymmetrical buildings and scarred faces are some of the few elements that stood out to me as Burton’s style. He makes decrepit, fascinating and deformed, intriguing. Even down to a dog chain whose links were made of hearts, this guy really immerses the audience in a fantastical world that seems so real thanks to these creative details (and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the film is shown in 3D which only enhances the details). These are the touches i find inspirational and completely worth the time and money even if the story falls apart in some places. Which is why I’m looking forward to seeing what else Burton has up his sleeve.

Visit the official website for Alice in Wonderland