CS2 Live

BY: Brian Sullivan

Does being uber connected help you communicate better?  Smartphones, ipads, netbooks, and laptops have made it easy to stay connected via talk, email, text, twitter, facebook, instant messenger, skype, etc.  All of this is supposed to help us communicate easier but it doesn’t help us communicate better.

Technology is not the answer to better communication.  Content is still king.  What you say and how you say it is still the key to better communication.  Don’t be distracted by all the additional channels you have to spread the word.  Focus on the word you are trying to spread.

Further, be aware that people walk around on information overload.  They have to make decisions about what is important and what is not, what they are going to pay attention to now and what they put away for later (or never).  A good message, delivered at the right time through the right channels is the way to get someone to pay attention.  While overload is a very thin line, some amount of frequency, even if it is gathered by adding up all the potential channels, is still necessary.

BY: Brian Sullivan

Time management is something everyone struggles with whether you are a managing a household or a multi million dollar company.  There are schedules to juggle, deadlines to meet and commitments to honor.  Since almost everything involves one or more additional parties, good communication is the key to good time management.

Some of you may argue that organization, not communication, is the key to good time management.  While being organized is a critical element to managing multiple tasks simultaneously, communication is the key to managing the tasks themselves.

There are three steps to ensure effective communication regarding a task, project, or assignment:

1. Check for Understanding

When discussing a potential task or project, getting things right on the front end is essential.  To be successful here, you need to think through the project and ask as many questions as possible to make sure all bases are covered.  Think through the steps that will be necessary to complete the project and consider how these may relate to each other.  End the discussion simply by saying something like…let me make sure I understand what we are being asked to do, and then state the action items as you see them.

2. Set and Communicate Proper Expectations

Setting and communicating expectations on the front end of whatever task will go a long way towards a successful outcome. The most important thing in this step is to make sure everyone is on the same page before starting. This can be as simple as recording what is to be done, who is going to do it, and the timeframe for each assignment in a conference report.  This written communication helps to frame the project going forward and provides a reference tool should you need one.

3. Acknowledge Completion

This may sound pretty ridiculous, but closure is an important but often overlooked piece of project management.  There are many forms of closure from memos, emails, or invoices, and you should use all of them if appropriate.  Many times the number of people involved in a project changes during the course of the work.  It is important to communicate the completion of the project to each member of the team regardless of whether they are still involved at the end.  Everyone appreciates being kept in the loop.

Of course, there are a many different ways to accomplish what I have laid out in these three basic steps.  The most important thing is to find what works for you and communicate religiously.

BY: Brian Sullivan

Chick-fil-a advertising represents how a great creative idea still requires great courage on behalf of the client and agency.

We have an art director at the agency whose family is from Mississippi. Like many of us, his parents don’t exactly know what he does. His mother came to visit the agency one day and relayed a conversation she had with one of her friends about the Chick-fil-a outdoor boards. Apparently, she told her friend that her son had done those billboards (which he did not, hence the idea that our parents don’t know exactly what we do). Her friend responded by saying somebody needs to tell him those are dairy cows.

Funny thing is, she’s right. They are dairy cows. Which, of course are raised for milk and not beef. Now, unless you are from an area that has a lot of cows or your family is in the cow business, you may not know which cows are dairy cows and which ones are beef cows. However, you probably know that beef comes from cows and that the animal on the Chick-fil-a billboards is indeed a cow.

So, what is more important? That the right type of cow is represented or that you make sure people can recognize it as a cow.

For reference, most, not all, beef cattle are either black or brown and are generally a single color. On an outdoor board, there is no telling what that would look like. More times than not, when you see a cow represented in anything from the Far Side cartoons to movies to advertising, it is the Holstein (black and white) dairy cows. So, because of that type of exposure and their distinctive markings, they are the most recognizable. Not to mention that for some reason (maybe all those Far Side cartoons), they seem to have a little more personality. Don’t you think so?

Imagine the conversation…we want to use cows to tell people to eat more chicken. Get it. The cows are trying to save themselves from the slaughter house by getting more people to eat chicken. Specifically, Chick-fil-a chicken sandwiches. That’s hilarious. And, since we don’t think people will easily recognize actual beef cattle, we want to use dairy cows. Wait a second…

Again, ask yourself what is more important? That the right type of cow is represented or that you make sure people can recognize it as a cow.

The idea in this case transcends the need to be 100% accurate in your portrayal of the cow. The more recognizable cow helps sell the message. But, this kind of decision takes courage. You know there could be some backlash, but you also know that if the idea is strong and consistent with your brand personality, consumers are willing to give you some latitude.

The art to the science of advertising is knowing when you have a great idea and when you just have a funny idea. Those two things are not always the same. The basis to the art must be rooted in solid strategy and preferably research.

Know your audience. Know your competition. Know yourself. Further, a clearly defined brand platform with positioning, promise, personality, beliefs and behaviors will help you determine whether you have a great idea that is appropriate for your brand.

This type of knowledge and understanding will give you the courage necessary to make decisions about your message or maybe even what type of cow you should use to deliver your message.

BY: Kate Metcalf

We all have standards — expectations of behavior for both ourselves and others, frameworks in which we operate on a day-to-day basis. Some standards apply to our work lives (like not missing deadlines), some apply to our personal lives (like not dating serial killers), but all standards and our adherence, or non-adherence, to them shape the way others see us and the way we view ourselves.

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BY: Brian Sullivan

In every campaign or promotion, you will be faced with finding the right balance of reach vs. frequency.  Briefly, reach refers to the number of people you will “reach” with your message, and frequency refers to the number of times those people will see or hear your message.

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BY: Brian Sullivan

“It’s easy to be lulled into thinking that face-to-face communication skills are no longer important. If you’re anything like today’s typical manager, you communicate mainly through email and voicemail — and have complicated business relationships with people you’ve never laid eyes on.But what happens when you need to conduct a delicate performance review, hammer out a tough negotiation, or persuade your skeptical boss to approve funding for a project? No amount of technology can replicate the subtle nuances that are present when people are actually face-to-face.”
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BY: Keith Essary

I’m on the back porch burning down a Rothschild when I receive an email from an associate with an AOL email address.  I think this guy, and maybe one other, are my only contacts still using the AOL service for email. Heck even my friends who met on AOL and are now married have long since abandoned the service.  I guess the Internet has surely changed over the years – or has it?

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