Social media has become an essential method to reach potential customers. Unfortunately it is little understand as to the best method of using it to qualify customers through inbound marketing to achieve a positive return on investment. The key is to connect with customers through powerful storytelling and then funnel them through a system to have them respond through calls of action.
Getting a Facebook page or Instagram liked is not going to by itself create new customers or have current customers make additional purchases. The business must understand that unlike traditional advertising (1 way) social media is more of a (2 way) conversation. The company can communicate its story and brand while the end user on social media has the opportunity to respond to that communication. The brand's representatives can then engage the potential customer further leading to a potential sale.
Let's face it, social media is complex and rapidly changing. It is important to retain someone with the requisite knowledge and skills as a guide. Image is Reality LLC is involved with media planning and production for the latest start up companies and follows the technology changes on a daily basis. We know the ins and outs and where the future technology is heading. We have great passion is engaging in important projects in which media can benefit the outcomes.
People and businesses are wasting their resources and time often futilely while engaging the wrong audiences. They confuse gaining mass attention through more "likes" with engaging their audience through the power of quality content. Quality content targeted toward core/niche audiences will have the wanted response when the engaged audience is called to the appropriate actions and funneled through in the proper method. This is the reason to have strategic development, social media consulting/creative advertising services, media production, and distribution overseen by one company with a visionary leader. Proper teams can be assembled to facilitate each company's particular needs and media plan.
Most companies can operate strong social media campaigns or projects with a well structured strategic plan, the leadership of a consultant on retainer, and media products that communicate powerfully. They can then facilitate tactical operations with reasonably paid employees and interns instructed on the proper tasks to achieve the intended results.
Crowdfunding has emerged as a popular way to raise funds for projects. The importance of this trend can not be underestimated to fund media projects and humanitarian efforts utilizing support from the mass populace. It has become a means to pull support together to see creative, artistic, and good work done. Many times crowd funding has opened up channels of financing where they didn't exist before expanding the social circle of potential funding sources.
The process outlined on this website was designed with the client in mind to reach quantifiable results and return on investment. Realistic expectations of social media are that is takes time, some money, and plenty of patience to see results both on short term and long term time horizons. It is important to note that social media and new technologies are still in nascent stages and committing now to successful strategies will lead to gains well into the future even as changes occur in the platforms and systems that end users gravitate towards.
Creative Advertising for a Mobile Social World
Steps in the Creative Process
Creative brief is received and reviewed
Creative Director assembles creative team
Team brainstorms ideas
Some ideas worth pursuing others not so much
The best idea(s) are sent to art department
Storyboards are made as proof of concept
Client approves or declines idea to project status
Project sent to art department or production unit
Project enters media production phase
The popularity of Mad Men (AMC Networks) has shed light of creative advertising in the late 1950s and 1960s. Much has changed technologically but the "Creative Process" itself has remained much the same. David Ogilvy glorified advertising copy in Ogilvy on Advertisingand there remains a place for great copy, but the visual element of advertising has become paramount. Images and videos have emerged as the most important elements in advertising. The Internet and mobile advertising have been growing exponentially. The power of combining visual, auditory, and written elements into powerful storytelling exists now as it never did before. We are on the verge of a new paradigm as broadband increases and traditional media sources are merged with technology. TV and the Internet will be indistinguishable and more and more people will be consuming their media through a variety of devices many of them mobile.
Creating brand and identity will come down to powerful storytelling through integrated media productions and distribution through the proper channels to reach the target audiences. One must understand the core/niche audience and how they are consuming their media and where. This knowledge will determine what kind of advertising to create, produce, and share (distribute).
Why video and visual media? Video or other visual media is a powerful tool because it has the power to engage the audience and communicate story in an effective and packaged manner. These packaged projects can then be distributed effectively throughout social media and mobile platforms. Cloud storage and distribution services are becoming more and more important. Media will be distributed out and the end user will have it to access of all their devices at any time. This process of anywhere availability will only increase demand for video and visual media in the future.
"It is my belief that we are at the dawn of a new era of creative storytelling which will propel man's progress and imagination forward in the coming decades and centuries. We are at the nascent stages of the evolution of technology from a data-centric informational age -- to an era when technology and data is obscured if by clouds seamlessly in the background and enables man to communicate stories, hopes, and dreams through the act of creation. This creation will use the modern tools to combine the elements of video, images, sound, special effects together in increasingly realistic ways -- the best part is that these technologies will not be controlled by only a select few with the monetary resources, but will be available to everyone due to the reduced cost and accessibility of the tools. This act of creation will often require many participants acting together to fund, develop, create, and distribute the projections of the collective imagination. From the prehistoric cave art of Chauvet approximately 40,000 years ago man has always told creative stories through the power of art. Hollywood no longer controls a monopoly in the age of "Digital Cinema". It is vitally important that we teach others how to use these tools and open up pathway of communication on the global stage." -Monroe James Yohey, Managing Member of Image is Reality LLC