March 2014 - Rottman Creative

The Patriarch

THE PATRIARCH:

The Language of Protection and Duty

One last example is from work we are currently in the middle of, so we can’t give as many details.

It’s an association from the world of commercial building and architecture, and the members are mostly owners of or management level within small companies that handle very specialized product distribution. In our many discovery conversations and research, we came to understand that their distributor base fits the Patriarch archetype. They are leaders who feel an inherited responsibility to protect others. They make others feel safe and inspire respect, and they understand that this is what makes them good at their job.

Wrapping the voice in the Patriarch archetype will help this association validate to their members that the day-to-day of decision-making to preserve the order matters.

That being better at their job makes the whole industry better. It helps us strike the right balance in the voice, and understand what kind of emotions and ideas we need to tap into when we design and write the emails. From pictures to pull-quotes, archetypes help inform the look, feel, and tone of every piece of communication.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #41!
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Archetype Based Branding:

The Advocate

THE ADVOCATE:

Stories about Effecting Change

For the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), it was the classic story of difference-making, because we uncovered that their provider organization leaders fit the Advocate archetype. They are here because they want to make a piece of the world better. Their sense of purpose is linked to championing the rights of others and making life better for people. They want to effect change and help people use their voices for causes they believe matter.

Hence, the voice we created for ANCOR appealed to their members’ sense of justice and compassion.

It was big and inspirational: together, we’ll make life better. We’ll shape policy that makes a difference. We’ll give voice to people who need it. Again, understanding the archetype and the voice that needed to flow from it helped us shape their campaign and develop the right kinds of case studies to use in email communications and direct mail. And it helped ANCOR meet their numbers, even amidst funding slashes and members’ shrinking budgets for things like attending conferences.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #40!
The Lone Marketer

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Archetype Based Branding:

The Caregiver

THE CAREGIVER:

Talk to us About Nurturing

The American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) has a bright, cheerful brand, matched by a bright, cheerful summer conference. They are in the toy business, and the toy business is about loving to see kids smile and nurturing play and learning. In fact, it’s a brand with a deep story about nurturing.

After our discovery session with ASTRA, we realized that their retail members fit the Caregiver archetype.

They are in business because they want to nurture. They nurture their love for what they do, and in turn, they nurture their own businesses—which is related to helping parents nurture their children. Using this Caregiver archetype, we were able to create a branded voice that spoke directly to ASTRA’s retail segment. We knew what kinds of stories to tell, what kind of tone to take, what kind of subject lines to write, what kind of graphics to create, and what kind of words to use. In telling the story of caregiver, we were telling the story of the conference in a way that resonated with members at a deeper level than merely logic. By doing this, we were able to help ASTRA get a 15 percent increase in enrollment for their event.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #39!
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Step 5

How do you tap into this visual world to promote your event?

Fifth

Think about ways you can “unveil” your conference.

What can you borrow from successful product launches?

Find ways to highlight pieces of the event, by visually representing them.

Use your theme in creative ways. And always, always, always wrap everything you do in strong visuals. If you’re not sure if your visuals are strong, we’ll be glad to take a look for you. We have no problem telling the truth.

That favorite group of yours? They’ll be there. They’ll keep coming. But they can’t sustain you, and you know it. It’s really the other battle that will make your numbers. And that fight is only going to get more difficult. The only way to win it is to design yourself to victory.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #38!
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Step 4

How do you tap into this visual world to promote your event?

Fourth

Think more critically about the content of your magazine.

We know from reading surveys that an association’s magazine is often one of main reasons a person joins. But to reiterate: that doesn’t mean you’re dealing with a like-minded bunch. Your members/readers are not just a herd of sheep that will follow blindly to your event. You have to woo them with powerful visuals.

Your magazine absolutely has to have inspiring and visually-driven content that promotes the conference. We recommend a six- to eight-page spread that also has case studies wrapped in it. It should run at least one month before Early Bird.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #37!
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Step 3

How do you tap into this visual world to promote your event?

Third

Harness the power of video.

But edited video. Five-minute videos about why your association is great are just self-indulgent. And hardly anyone is going to watch them. Why do you think TV commercials are 30 to 60 seconds? The first thing people do with a You Tube video is look to see the time: they are looking for videos three minutes and under (under two minutes is even better).

For that same ASTRA event, we created a promotional video that was under two minutes short and graphic. It was the campaign’s biggest hit, and they got an increased number of registrations from it. There are plenty of examples of great video, based around a central theme. Two of our favorites are Back to the Start and The Scarecrow videos by Chipotle.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #36!
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Step 1 & 2

How do you tap into this visual world to promote your event?

Step one

Is to have a killer theme that you can build a visual world around.

Step two

You need to think about how to balance your content with your visuals.

We believe in visual email campaigns. Of course the substance matters: you have important things to say. But if it’s too text heavy and the visuals are just an afterthought, we guarantee that for the majority of people (the 70 percent who don’t just automatically show up), your conference will also be an afterthought.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #35!
The Lone Marketer

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Good Design is Good Business

Our roots are in design, so we’re biased on this. But we’re also right. Good design is good business. It’s a promise of quality. It builds trust, amplifies your brand, impacts members’ experiences (and the way they remember the experiences), and changes members’ behavior (by inspiring them to act).

You can create the best programming in the world and bring in a roster of top-notch speakers. But if your visuals don’t support content, don’t resonate with people, and aren’t powerful, nobody is going to think the event is powerful. In other words, bad design is bad business.

Too often we see associations forsaking design for the method of communication. They choose the way they are going to communicate and engage (email, social media, etc.) without taking time to create a design strategy that supports their message. Platforms alone don’t create emotional connection. Even Pinterest—one of the most visual platforms—doesn’t create connection on its own. The visions of life, via the Pinboards people pull together to inspire themselves and others, are what make emotional connections happen: you could do this; you could travel here; you can learn this; you can have this in your life.

Visuals you connect with don’t just create little moments: they create movements.

And that’s what your event needs to be: a movement on a larger scale. Not just an event made up of some good moments.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #34!
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Tips for Marketing to Drive Attendance

All too often we tend to focus on a “quantitative approach” when preparing for an upcoming conference- How many of this? How many of that? From a numerical standpoint, crunching these numbers can help you analyze what you need to work on and what you excel in, but from an attendee standpoint it poses little value to them. Instead focus on what will benefit the attendee when marketing for your conference.

Here are some tips that we find inspiring…

1. Personalize it

To begin marketing, you need to come up with a strategy on how to invite potential attendees. This message needs to be personalized. Yes, it may be more time consuming, but your attendee will feel valued. Take what you know about the potential attendee, and use it to your advantage! This will go along way in increasing your attendance.

2. Potential gain

Does your conference have something valuable to offer to the potential attendee? Tell them what they will gain from this experience. This is a huge make or break point.

3. Provide photo and videos

This is a great opportunity to show your potential attendee what they have to look forward to. Use photos and videos that captured last year’s event. A free app that we find helpful is Flickr. It enables you to upload and share as many photos as you’d like, so that everyone can see what your conference is all about.

4. Accessible information

Last, but not least make information to your conference easy to access. Your attendee wants to come prepared, so provide a packet with all the information they would need. If you feel like going above and beyond, creating your own app for the conference would be beneficial. Making it mobile-friendly allows it to be at your attendee’s fingertips and not have the hassle of a lot of paperwork.

We hope you find these tips inspiring for your next conference, and until next time keep a look out for clue #33!
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