Every so often, we have projects where an envelope needs to be designed to match a letterhead or an invitation. Other parts of a design project can be free from rules and regulations, but the design space on an envelope is much more rigid. The Post Office is very particular about the layout of envelopes due to machines doing most of the processing and sorting these days. There are certain areas on an envelope that needs to be clear of background color, graphics and type. This can be a real challenge for a designer.

The envelope is the first piece that is seen and needs to compel a person to open it, yet space is so limited to convey a message other than a logo and return address. The San Diego Museum of Art Art Alive invitation envelope is a great example of keeping the branded look and feel of this years’ Art Alive, yet still meeting postal regulations. The pink area indicates the space that is off-limits for type and design.

For information and templates on envelopes, go to USPS.com. You can also find the Mailpiece Design Analyst contact information where you can send an envelope design to see if it meets mailing regulations. Do this before the job is printed and rejected by the post office. It will save you lots of time and money.

Are you familiar with The San Diego Museum of Art?  We work with them on advertising and PR and fortunately for me, I get to work with them on a ton of cool stuff.  Many people have no idea how much activity takes place at the Museum so I wanted to take this opportunity to spotlight a really cool event they throw every other month, Culture & Cocktails.  At this event last Thursday, I interviewed the artist behind one of the exciting new exhibitions, Brutal Beauty:  Drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite. Check out the video to hear Hugo’s own vision for the drawing he’s working on at the Museum until March 14th.  You can also see a really cool time lapse video on his current drawing here, but make sure you check out the exhibition for yourself.

Very often, we and other public relations firms get asked to “go big” and “hit the home run.”  We’re asked to miraculously get placements in Oprah and Good Morning America but as you may know, this caliber of public relations success takes time.

This is why it’s so important to make sure your public relations campaign is complete, including not only the big time goal publications, but filling it in with the little guys as well.  Here’s an example:

Bailey Gardiner has been thrilled to begin running the public relations for the creator of gummy vitamins, Hero Nutritionals, over the past few months.  If you aren’t already familiar with Hero Nutritionals’ Yummi Bears, Yummi Bears Organics or Slice of Life, the gummy vitamin for grownups, you must give them a try.  And if you’re wondering why the ladies of BG have shinier hair, an unfathomable amount of energy and glowing skin, you can attribute that to the all-too-tasty Slice of Life!

Our goal for Hero, of course, is to go big.  We’re talking Everyday with Rachael Ray, Oprah Magazine, Shape, Good Housekeeping and the likes. So the Hero Nutritionals team has been fervently sending samples across the country to win over the writers and editors of these major publications.  Just last week Carrie and Maya spent a week in New York where they met desk side with countless editors including those at Woman’s Day, the Today Show, Family Circle, Parents and Health Magazine to share with them, face to face, information and samples of Hero Nutritionals’ products.

So in the meantime, we put forth our efforts in creating a complete public relations campaign by targeting bloggers and websites with niche audiences.  Our best luck thus far has been with the ever-popular mommy bloggers and healthy living bloggers.  Within the latter category falls the even more specialized gluten-free blogs, nut-free, vegetarian and other specialty dietary needs blogs.  With more than 14 placements over the past two months garnered by working within these niche categories, a few stand out:

On January 21st, Stephanie secured inclusion for Slice of Life in a Health.com article on vitamins you’re not getting enough of.  The following week, this article had boosted Hero’s website visitors bringing 159 visits to the site on its own, making health.com the 6th top referring site for the month of January and the 1st top referring site behind search and other Hero Nutritionals’ websites.

A giveaway in FabulousFunFinds.com led to three other postings on blogs that blog strictly about giveaways.  This placement alone, though, brought 47 visits to the site, making it the 14th top referring site for the month of January in just a matter of days.

With both of these placements hitting after January 15th, they make great examples of an often-overlooked part of a PR plan – the very short-term, long tail placements that complete a public relations campaign. We’ll waste no time while Oprah snacks on her gummy vitamin samples.  We believe that placements such as these are imperative in completing a successful public relations plan by finding those purchasers who know exactly what they’re looking for.

When working with your public relations firm of choice, I hope you’ll take these tips into consideration:

• Be sure that your timeline not only fills the team’s or consultant’s retainer fee, but results in placements when you want them (all the time or surrounding one major announcement).

• Make sure your team or consultant is reaching not only the most people they can but the most people that will convert as well.

• Allot room in your budget for social media.  This can boost the buzz surrounding your PR and fill in some of those quiet holes.

• Consider the “outdated” means of publicity as well.  Not all products’ customers are online.  Consider radio, newspaper and even….books.

• Consider more than just your primary product to get you in the news.  Is your spokesperson an expert in his/her field for bylined articles or speaking opportunities?  Do you have such passionate fans that they’ll start social media pages for you?

Do you have more suggestions to add?

When starting work on a project for a client, the account team always goes through the same process: open the job, put in a work order, write the creative brief, have a kick-off meeting, and then let the creative team work their magic. Being on the account side is fun because I am constantly amazed by the concept(s) the creative team is able to come up with based on just a creative brief.

Recently, one of our clients, Pierce Education Properties, asked us to design a print ad for their Michigan State University property, Chandler Crossings, that would run during March Madness and would focus on their spring promotion. The mandatories the creative team had were as follows:

1) Sign a lease, be entered to win free rent for a year (a $5000 value)

2) Sign a lease between March 15 – April 5 and have your $174 move-in fee waved

3) Call to action: Visit chandlercrossings.com or the downtown East Lansing lounge

4) March Madness/School Theme

The creative team came up with two different ideas for this ad and we presented both options to the client. One really focused on the “Sparty On with free rent idea” and the other focused on “the party you could throw with the $5000 you would save”. Our department was torn on which one we each liked better and which we thought they’d pick. Now, I won’t say which version the client ended up selecting but, if you had to pick the ad to run in the student newspaper and on flyers around campus, which one would you pick?

The short answer is “maybe”. And here’s the long answer….

We’re often asked this question by potential and current clients and we usually tell them that social media isn’t for everyone and having a Facebook Fan Page isn’t for everyone either. People use Facebook as a way to interact with the brands they have an emotional connection to and/or to express their personal interests to their friends.

For example, I’m a fan of Diet Coke, but I don’t make it a point to visit their page to interact with the brand or with other fans. I just like Diet Coke and wanted it to be on my list. I’m also a fan of Scripps Health because I’m a patient and think they are a wonderful health care provider. I often interact with them by answering questions posed to their fans or even posting my own questions. I also love paperclips and appreciate their function, but I’m not going to go out of my way to become a fan let alone post comments on the fan page.

When we advised our client, Vet-Stem, a company that provides stem cell therapy for dogs, to create a Facebook fan page, we were really excited and knew a page focusing on people’s pets and how Vet-Stem has helped them improve their quality of life, would be a success. But, we were not prepared for just how much people wanted to interact with the brand and shocked at how fast we saw results.

Our team set moderate expectations using past experience and industry benchmarks. We created the  fan page with a strategy and compelling content, and when it was complete in January, networked it out within our Bailey Gardiner team. We saw a slight bump in fans, but that was the calm before the storm. Vet-Stem sent an email out to their database which included veterinarians and patients. The email didn’t just include “become our fan”, but told people why we created the page and how we wanted them to interact. We were asking them to share stories about their pets, how Vet-Stem helped and opened it up to questions and comments from dog owners.

Now, Vet-Stem’s Facebook Fan Page has nearly 950 fans and sees several interactions per day on their fan page. Dog owners post pictures of their dogs and write stories about how thankful they are for stem cell therapy. We’ve also use the page to share links to our Arthritis in Dogs blog posts and have seen an increase of click throughs to both the blog and the website. Vet-Stem has also started using their fan page as a way to streamline their customer service protocol and gather testimonials for us to use for traditional public relations pitching.

The point is, if your brand is one that people are passionate about and already has a strong following of brand ambassadors, then a Facebook Fan Page is something you should consider. Remember that interaction and engagement are your two goals for your fan page. Creating a two-way communication with them and making them feel like they are a part of something is key to a successful strategy.

Why learn how to write a creative brief? A great brief clearly defines the creative challenge and expectations for your team and your client. And according to my former advertising professor John Philip Jones (and my own personal experience) writing a tight creative strategy will actually yield better and more prolific results from your creative team by honing them in on that one, key product take-away.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Research, research and oh yeah, research.

Whether you have five minutes or five months, understanding your target market is key to any good brief. Interview your client, dig around on the internet, go on-site to see where your product is made, sold and marketed, or even give out surveys to current and potential customers. The more you know about your customer the more impressed your client will be with your expertise and the more targeted your results will be.

Visualize your product or service as a person.

Is your product a male or a female? Where is it from? What does it look like? Does it have a mohawk, tattoos and drink gin shots for breakfast? Or wear high heels and only sport pink? Thinking about your product in this way will help you more clearly define your brand personality.

Simplify.

There’s a reason a brief is called a brief. Sure it’s tempting to dump everything you know into a massive document, but in this case less is more. A good brief shouldn’t be more than a page and a half long and should contain only the information that is essential to solving your creative dilemma.

Make your creative brief creative.

Who says a brief has to be boring? Some of the best ad campaigns have begun with an equally inspiring brief.

Take a cue from Wieden and Kennedy. When they first sat down to work on the ad campaign for Nike, they began with the strategy statement “Sport is war without the killing.” The result of this brief? The famous Nike tagline “Just do it.”

Keep your strategy statement short and sweet.

Your strategy should never be longer than one, maybe two sentences long and should have one main point. A bad strategy is like a loud outfit. The more messages there are screaming for attention, the more confusing your campaign will be to the consumer.

The strategy should be the most thought-out part of your brief as this is what the creative team will use to frame their campaign concepts and what the account team will judge the creative on.

Structure your thoughts.

At Bailey Gardiner, we’ve written a brief that we live and breathe by. We fill it out and share it with our clients before every single project we do and sign it with blood (okay, maybe not blood). Here are the sections we swear by:

Who are we talking to? (Audience)
This is where we define the age, gender and habits of our target.

What should we tell them? (Strategy statement)
Writing a good strategy statement takes practice. Use this formula below to help structure your thoughts:

Convince ____________ to _______________ by ______________.

So if I was filling this out for one of our clients (like Hazard Center) I might say:

Convince current customers to complete more errands at Hazard Center by educating them on the unique products and services offered at our stores.

The strategy should never be listed as creating a website, print ad, etc. These are not strategies but media executions.

How can we back that up? (Support points)
This is where we add any additional information that helps support the strategy. For Hazard Center we might list out the stores and what they have to offer.

What do we want them to do? (The resulting action)
Whether it’s buying more goods or raising traffic to a website, the end goal of the campaign is defined here and is what the overall results will be judged on.

What is the brand personality? (Adjectives that describe your brand essence)

What media are we considering? (Print, online, outdoor, etc.)

What are the mandatories? (Logos, taglines, maps, etc.)

Create your own strategic outline… and use it.
Your strategy should work for you, so customize it in a way that fits your goals best. The more you use it the more organized you and your clients will be.

What else do you like to see in a good creative brief?

We are entering our fifth year of working with Seaport Village, a favorite seaside destination for San Diego locals and visitors, and Bailey Gardiner is lucky to manage all of Seaport’s marketing efforts – public relations, advertising, special events and social media.

In preparation for a presentation to the tenants of Seaport, we wanted to compile a highlight reel of all the great work that went on throughout 2009. It’s a fun way to bring to life the advertisements, collateral pieces, events, public relations hits, social media, and onsite signage the Bailey Gardiner teams created. And it’s definitely more entertaining than me standing at the front of the room rattling them all off! So we gathered all the necessary pieces and enlisted Rich, our fantastic copywriter and jack of many trades, to put together our video (some of you may recall his great work on the BG Holiday Video and outtakes). Our client and the tenants enjoyed it and we hope you do to.

Creative work has begun on The San Diego Museum of Art’s primary fundraiser Art Alive, which will be held April 29 through May 2. We are revamping last year’s ideas while staying within the tight, non-profit budget. Below are a few tips for producing something wonderful when financial resources are low.

Tips for a low-budget photo shoot

• Keep the ideas simple. Extravagant ideas are usually expensive ideas. To make it simple, go with a clear concept and minimal props.

• Plan ahead and be very organized. This will help you be efficient with your time, which can be costly to your client as well.

• Use the heck out of interns (they live for it and an intern with their own camera is a big advantage). Interns often have fresh ideas, are hungry for the experience and best of all, cost little to nothing to the client. With the direction of an art director or designer, they can be a huge asset to the photo shoot process.

• Go with wholesale purchases of props. For this shoot, we went to a wholesale florist to get all of our props. It will save you a bundle.

• Do the photo shoot outdoors. We chose to shoot in my front yard where we could use the plants and flowers already there as additional props.

• Take an abundance of photographs (more than you think you’ll need) so there are plenty of options at the end.

• Do most of the creative production in Photoshop. This is where you have the opportunity to make a low-budget photoshoot look like a multi-million dollar production.

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

We have all had a client that wants to be on Oprah or wants a full-page feature in the Wall Street Journal, whether they are a fit or not. And wants it tomorrow. PR pros often encounter a client with unrealistic expectations, and it is the public relations firm’s responsibility to properly manage a client’s expectations. When starting a new public relations campaign or a new relationship with a client, an agency should remember:

Don’t over-promise.

When you are pitching new business or planning a new campaign, don’t promise the moon if you cannot deliver. Be realistic about what outcomes and successes can be expected for your public relations campaign and it won’t come back and bite you in the butt later when you cannot achieve what you said you could.

Explain the public relations process to your client.

Not all clients understand how public relations works, what is a normal time frame for getting press, and what is a reasonable outcome. Share the process with your client. Explain the details of your strategy, objectives and tactics. It could also be beneficial to share case studies with your client to help frame reasonable expectations for a public relations campaign.

Set and agree upon your scope of work, goals and benchmarks in advance.

Establish in advance how your success will be measured. Write down how you will be evaluated, discuss with your client and get approval. Make sure your client knows what falls under your scope of work and what they are responsible for doing. This should all be agreed upon before work begins.  Once work does begin, always provide your client with detailed reports on your progress and report your benchmarks clearly.

Communicate with your client, and communicate with them often.

This is most important, as the key to a great client relationship is communication. Having consistent communication ensures everyone is on the same page and your client is not in the dark about what you are doing, when they can expect results, and what those results might be.

Any other tips for managing client expectations?

Every once in a while, a potential client – often one we would really like to work with — asks us to participate in an agency review. Initially we are thrilled to hear we are on their list, until the RFP arrives and we learn they want us to do spec creative as part of their process.  Groan. Deal killer.

Maybe at the big agencies where multi-million dollar brands are pursued by companies with inflated egos and gargantuan overhead expenses, this would be considered de rigueur.  In fact, according to AdWeek, 154 major accounts shifted agencies in 2009 to the tune of $20.6 billion in billings. Presumably, those big agencies have the resources to commit to a freebie speculative assignment from a potential new client.  And perhaps, they are willing to use their considerable creative talents, strategic brainpower and billable hours (or in this case non-billable hours) to devote on the “if-come.”

Smaller shops like Bailey Gardiner cannot afford to do that for a number of reasons. And actually, the cost issue is not the most important among them.  Here’s some reasons why we don’t think spec creative works for anybody:

• Unlike some of the bigger shops, boutique agencies do not have people sitting around waiting to be devoted to the latest new business effort.  We have to schedule it, just like any other job that gets trafficked through the system.  Since we try to employ the right amount of talent to match the current workload, the teams are usually pretty well booked with paying client work, so…. the result is added workload on already stressed team members.  This is not a recipe for top-quality creative results.
• Many creative ad agencies like ours believe in the strategic branding process, and this provides the basis for all creative assignments.  We spend untold hours researching, planning, meeting, planning and strategizing WITH THE CLIENT to reach a point where we are mutually clear on a marketing direction.  Only then can we embark on a well-informed creative process that will fulfill those goals.  How could we just pull all that out of the air in the spec creative process? To do all that in the dark, often with only a few weeks time, is not optimum.
• This business is not like you see on TV.  Mad Men and Bewitched are entertaining and amusing, but Larry Tate and Don Draper are not true depictions of how good creative ideas are hatched.  You do not get good creative work by staying up all night, sketching a concept at the last minute, presenting to the client the next morning all jacked up on coffee, and winning the account because the client loves your BIG IDEA. Oh wait, that sounds like a regular work day after all.  Never mind.
• In past negative experiences with spec creative, we have seen the potential client put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak. By this I mean that the client bases their agency decision solely on whether or not they like the creative idea they see – not the team, their expertise, their ability to deliver, their longevity, their smarts or anything else they like or hate about them.  This can be a dangerous road for a client, since there is no way of knowing whether the creative they have fallen in love with was a one-time stroke of luck.
• Some agencies (disclosure: we have done this, too) bring in outside talent to help with spec creative and new business assignments.  If the client chooses this work, the agency team they are ultimately working with may not be the team that originated the creative they chose.  In a classic bait and switch, the agency may have won the account but now must live up to creative their team may not be able to replicate.  Plus, you have an in-house team that resents having to work on a creative direction designed by freelance talent.  Creatives want to own their work, and this direction does not allow it. Bad internal juju ensues.
• Plus — and this is a big one — spec creative is actually kind of insulting. We get paid as professionals for the hard work it takes to create compelling, creative and most of all, successful, marketing campaigns.  It’s really not right to ask for that for free. It devalues the considerable talents of the entire team, and all the many hours/days/weeks/months/years/decades we have put into our craft to become among the best there is.  A client should hire us because they are convinced we are the right partner to lead them with creative and strategic solutions.  Not because we made a pretty picture and wrote a great headline on the fly.

Now watch, a great opportunity will come through for a new  client I’ve been dying to work with, and I will end up approving a spec assignment and win the business.  Maybe then I will get off my soapbox on this topic, but right now I still say it’s not worth it for either side.  Done deal.