A Three-Pronged Approach.
There are essentially three tools we use to keep our projects plugged-in, grounded and on track.
One: Brand Halo Worksheet. Are you a brand or just bland?
Our Mission is this: To create a likeable Brand Halo for our clients. Just as heavenly halos hover above this earthly dimension; a Brand Halo transcends the actual product and services you offer. This “Halo Effect” creates an emotional association with your business which in turn triggers belief, loyalty and repeat business.
Our Creative Philosophy is key to creating this glow. A “brand” is not a name on a store front or package, it resides in the mind. By creating work that evokes emotion, laughter, tears, pride or misty-eyed hope … we attach those emotions to the source … you.
Just being known is not being loved. Branding is more than just getting your name out there. Here are two well-known names: Donald Trump and Walt Disney. Both made money, but only one wears a Brand Halo.
If you want to push information at the consumer then join the ranks of the noisy Car Dealer. If you want to gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace, create a Brand Halo and hover above the rest. Our Brand Halo Worksheet is an effective way to jump start a lively discussion about the promise, values and personality of your brand.
Those who create and maintain a Brand Halo hover on a higher plain, and that’s the best place to achieve higher profits.
“I have to explain something that’s soft, emotion-ridden, and out of context in many business discussions. I actually have to use the word “feelings” and explain how they arise in the right brains of human beings. And I’ll have to explain another, often more compelling P-to-E ratio…the one that means not price to earnings, but promises to emotions.”
Daryl Travis
Emotional Branding
Two: The KEY LIGHT Work Plan. Start wide. Focus in.
In photography, video and film, the Key Light is the first and strongest light illuminating the subject. At Halo, it’s a one page, five point document that is the first and strongest way to get a project off on the right foot. The KEY LIGHT Work Plan starts wide and then focuses in. It requires all stake holders to answer the questions most relevant to the advertising objectives and therefore informs the Creative Strategy. Without the Key Light process in place, bright ideas remain unfocused and can’t achieve meaningful results. All big time ad agencies have this kind of process to follow. Since all of our key creative talent have cut their teeth in large agency settings, this is the best way to see the way forward. Or, put another way:
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Lewis Carroll
Three: The Research C.H.A.I.N.
If the purpose of the KEY LIGHT Work Plan is to identify specific communication goals and objectives, the CHAIN Research Process is to gain the knowledge to pursue it. (If we were into corny acronyms, we’d say CHAIN stood for “Client/Halo: All Insight Needed.” But we’re not.)
CHAIN pulls (excuse the pun) all relevant research together to help both client and Halo gain insight that resists the obvious. Want effective creative that’s grounded with innovative research? Pull CHAIN for service.
“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”
Albert Szent-Gyorgy
Nobel Prize Winner
