We needed a new promotional campaign to help us get more clients, here's how our creative process produced a ballsy idea to get us noticed
To attract new clients to your business, or new donors to your charity, you first need to come to their attention, and that means standing out - not just from your rivals, but in the stream of digital content that we're all subjected to these days. But how do you do that? What are the steps involved in generating creative ideas and seeing them through to execution?
Here's how we did it.
The problem we were trying to address
There are literally hundreds of businesses like ours, all fishing the same pond.
And we all do pretty much the same things, even if the way we do them or the exact combination of services differs.
This is the same for most businesses and charities; we exist in a competitive landscape, where we're constantly having to invent new and different ways to be seen and heard.
We needed a way to differentiate ourselves, but how?
The inspiration: examining the value we provide to clients
Every so often, we review things like the 4Ps of our marketing mix and also our value proposition - the pains to we fix, and the gains we provide that define the value we offer in exchange for money (people and businesses don't buy goods and services, they buy the valuthose things contain).
Among the key pains we address is the lack of in-house capability and capacity our clients have when it comes to getting results. It was while we were thinking about this that we started to explore not just the business impacts but also the human impacts - how might someone feel when expected to get results with insufficient resources? The answer: pretty stressed-out.
This was the very first kernel of an idea that eventually led to our big balls campaign, though we didn't know it at the time.
Another part of the value we provide is the gain clients derive from our ability to conceive of and execute 'leap-of-faith' campaigns that stand out and deliver commercial results - it's in the feedback we get from clients all the time, with comments like "you have ideas we'd never think of ourselves", and "we were apprehensive at first because it was so different to what we'd done before, but when we saw the results, it was obvious that you were right to push us".
There was something in this, too, but it didn't immediately jump out.
Time and space to think
The review of our value proposition was a piece of work in itself, and not actually linked to creating a new promotional campaign of our own.
But when we carved out time specifically to think about how we could do something that would set us apart from everyone else in our space, it was the value proposition that kept cropping-up.
"We need a way to get these things across, but that isn't just 'here's our value proposition' because, let's face it, nobody reads that sort of stuff anyway!"
This work was done away from our desks, with phones off, no email notifications, and no social media to distract us, just some quiet, reflective time to think, bounce ideas around, and critique them.
That's when we asked ourselves this: what if we could pair the creative genius bit with the stress angle, and how could we convey that simply and visually?
The initial result was this slogan:
"For bold, stress-free campaigns that get results, you need an agency with balls".
To begin with, it was a play on words - the bit about having balls was intended to convey our bravery and willingness to go out on a limb. But there was no easy way to get this across visually without causing offence.
Then we had our eureka moment: branded stress balls that we could hand out to prospective clients, and use online and on social media.
These would allow us to make all sorts of ballsy references and tongue-in-cheek comments, but would also be a physical manifestation of the stress-relief we bring.
Testing out the idea and the message about presenting ourselves as the PR and marketing agency with balls
We fleshed out the idea a little more, and then started to test it. We wanted to know it had legs before investing in it properly.
By this point, the slogan had changed. Instead of 'an agency with balls' it had become 'the agency with balls'; we wanted to own it.
To test it, at low cost, we had our logo added onto some stock images of yellow stress balls, and produced a few graphics with the slogan on, then began to share these with existing clients and some of the freelance creatives we work with, asking for feedback.
It was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone could immediately 'get' the message, agreed it was visually striking, and also humorous.
However, the reference to balls was still one that might not be to everybody's taste, so we needed to think about a larger scale test.
To help with that, we paid for an ad on a giant digital screen in Preston's Euros Fanzone in the summer. We knew the audience of England fans enjoying a few scoops wouldn't be remotely interested in an advert from a PR and marketing agency, but that wasn't the objective: we just wanted a visually striking photo we could start to share on social media and elsewhere. Once we had obtained some great photos of our balls and slogan, we used these to quietly update the headers on our social channels, then monitored the reaction.
Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Which was what we were hoping for; what we didn't want was any online criticism.
So far, so good. Unanimously positive feedback, no negative reactions.
Next, we started sharing graphics organically on social media, variously declaring that we have balls, inviting people to squeeze them, and more in a similar vein. Again, no negative reactions, just likes and laughs.
By this point, we were pretty confident that we were onto something and that this was a campaign we should now fully develop and launch.
That's when we ordered our first batch of 250 branded yellow stress balls. Now, we really had become the agency with balls, literally not just figuratively!
Going for broke; but starting small ready to scale
Armed with our new stress balls, amusing graphics, and plenty of 'double entendres', we were ready to launch our promotional campaign.
But, again, to keep costs under control and not go wild, we have implemented it in a very tightly controlled manner.
Instead of sending out stress balls left, right and centre, we use them in a highly targeted way: only those who submit an enquiry on our website, and are qualified as valid leads, get their hands on our balls*.
We've now started sending these qualified leads two stress balls in the post, with a card enclosed. The card repeats the slogan, but on the reverse encourages recipients to: (1) take a photo with their balls out*; (2) post on their socials with an amusing comment; (3) tag or @mention us so we can join their conversation. Those that do automatically get a 10% discount (T&C apply, naturally!)
By restricting stress balls to just those businesses and charities that start meaningful conversations with us, we're able to keep our fulfilment costs to a minimum and, at the same time, afford ourselves the chance to keep monitoring for adverse reactions (we've had none so far, not even to the follow-up email in which we ask "Have your balls dropped yet?")
Key takeaways: how to generate, test, and implement creative PR and marketing campaigns
OK, so that's how we became the PR and marketing agency with balls. Here's a quick guide to how you can build and hone a creative process of your own.
1 Stay alert to sources of inspiration
This can be things you see other businesses doing, news and current affairs, or self-reflection like in our example
2 Carve out time for it
Get away from the daily grind and give yourself time and space to think creatively, without the usual myriad distractions
3 Experiment
Have fun with it. There are no right or wrong ideas to start with, they're all equal in the beginning, but eventually one or two will emerge that you instinctively feel have a chance
4 Test
We did our testing in a very controlled way, on a small scale. But we also run ads on Facebook to test concepts inexpensively, or pay for online surveys to gauge opinion
5 Embrace failure
Don't worry if, even despite your testing, your campaign idea didn't work the way you'd hoped; you should still have learned something valuable that will help with the next one
6 Start small, then scale
When you begin to implement your new creative campaign, start out small and then scale your spend as you see results begin to grow
*See, there are lots of ballsy references like this that we can use!