Is good design at the heart of a successful campaign?
Is it true that when people are creating personalised content they put too much empathise on the data, and not on content and design? Maybe they look at a campaign by the sum of it’s elements; not at what it’s suppose to achieve?
One of the first objections that I receive when talking to companies about XMPie and personalised; cross media communications is about the ‘Data’ – they either don’t have it; wouldn’t know where to start looking for it or have no idea what to do with it even when they have vast quantities of it! This is nonsense though. Whilst accurate and relevant data is indeed key to a successful campaign – it is not where a campaign should start or finish.
In my opinion traditional direct mail campaigns are going the same way as the newspaper industry – down the pan and quickly. I worry about the companies that keep employing the same tactics when creating direct mail – hoping that by sending the same message to a million customers; even with the recipient’s name on it will have some form of success!
Newspapers are the same – day after day filling the same medium with different content; blissfully unaware it seems that we …
- don’t like paying to read the news,
- we can get the same news; free and quickly online and on demand,
- and what something that is local and based on my interests!
I watched a very uplifting presentation by Jacek Utko on how design could save the newspaper. The full article is here, however I have also embedded it below.
What Jacek says is true, “give power back to the designers”. By empowering the designers to look at the piece from concept to grave is the ultimate secret to a successful campaign.
Asking a designer to design a spread for an article that he or she has no concept over removes a huge proportion of their artistic ability. How can they design something that they know little or nothing about?
The same principle is ultimately true with Cross Media and Interactive campaigns. Don’t just ask a designer to design a piece that will be used in a campaign – involve the designer from start until the finish. By allowing a designer to work alongside the team, with the data analytics and marketing they can start to understand the full impact of the campaign – not just an individual piece.
People ask me what skills they need to properly utilise XMPie’s technology within their environment. Traditionally I would’ve said …
- You need a designer – to work the creative aspects
- You need someone that knows data, and how to handle it properly
- You need someone that knows production (print as well as other medias)
- You would also possibly need developers and programmers if you wanted to get serious.
However in today’s market I would adjust my positioning slightly and say that the one person that you really want on board; if you want to make a huge success in this market ….. is ….. an Art Director!
This could be a very strange concept to many commercial printers and organisations already using XMPie – however a good Art Director that can understand the concepts of XMPie and how they can be used would be a huge asset to any company. They would immediately be operating on a different level.
Rather than simply attacking projects and campaigns at the functional level why not employ someone that has ‘Vision’; someone that understands the various mediums, how they work and the relation between them all.
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Dave is a 30-something year old technologist and professional working and living in the UK. Ever since he first sat down at a computer keyboard back in the early ‘80s he has been hooked on technology – good and proper! Now-a-days he works within the software business with a fast paced organisation evangelising how technology can help save us all time, and make us money! Dave’s wife and 2 kids tend not to share this enthusiasm and believes that he is just playing!
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer.