One phrase often
overheard in our office is - “I didn’t wake up today and think - I can’t wait
to get to work and design an awful website!”
At Sherpa, we try to create award winning work every time we
take on a new opportunity. That said, there are many factors that need to align
before top notch creative goes out the door.
As I look back on some of the most successful creative
projects we’ve worked on, I think of a pitch for Travel Manitoba we did a few
years back. We presented a well thought out, beautifully
integrated multi-channel campaign. We managed to have all the stars align and
performed what I think are the key steps of ideal execution.
First, let’s be honest. Everyone knows, time = money, and
budget is the main driving factor for most projects. What was unique about the
Travel Manitoba project, was that it was for a Request-for-Proposal (RFP), so the budget was
completely dependent on how much time we chose to invest. This work happened to
fall within a stretch of downtime, so we went all in! After everything was said
and done, we put in excess of six figures of time into the pitch. I will walk you
through our process.
Step 1. Defining the
challenge, and market research
This step was well defined and given to us in the RFP from
the people at Travel Manitoba. They outlined their goals for Manitoba, their
struggles, and how the campaign creative would need to fit with Canada’s
overall tourism initiative. They outlined the different archetypes of travelers
so we could think about the unique ways to target the different types of
people. They also gave us a few examples of where the bar was set in terms of
creative. This was a great catalyst for us to put our thinking caps on!
Step 2. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a great way to generate a large quantity of
ideas in an environment where everyone’s ideas hold the same weight. We brought
the three senior creatives into the Sherpa boardroom, and went to town writing
phrases, ideas and the things that we found inspiring about Manitoba and
reflected on these ideas within the defined scope of Canada’s tourism brand
umbrella. When we looked at all the ideas together we started connecting the
dots of common themes. This helped us come up with our big idea “You’re Welcome”.
We felt it was a winner because it had a double entendre play; advertising our
great province for its friendly, inviting people, but also displaying a bit of
swagger; a response to the amazing experiences they can have when they visit
here.
Step 3. Moodboarding
& aesthetic research
Most designers like to start a project by looking for
inspiration in various places. Whether it is a flea market, their record
collection, books, design blogs, or even just taking a walk, a good designer
knows that inspiration can strike at any moment. Now that we had a great
headline and theme for our campaign, we could start thinking about how we
wanted it to look. We knew we wanted to showcase how stunning and vast our
outdoors are. We also wanted to promote our amazing arts & culture. The
quest for imagery was on! We started looking for big, exquisitely shot images
that captured either the beauty of the scene, or the spirit of the people
within them. All with the goal to help the viewer relate to and aspire to be a
part of that scene. Next, we started looking at inspiring typography, textures
and colors. These feelings are quickly captured digitally and assembled in a
series of collages of images, fonts and colours.
Step 4. Design &
concept Development
We were ready to start the fun part! Through the
moodboarding stage we found some samples of hand rendered type we thought would
be ideal for the “You’re Welcome” tagline. The goal was to inject some
personality and a sense of humanity that would be impossible to replicate with
a computer-generated font. We did dozens of hours of photo research to find
images that would stop and hold the viewer. We then paired it with copy that
illuminated the scene. It the end, the outcome was that you couldn’t read the
ad without having the desire to be in that place at that time. Once we felt we
had a handful of solid designs we rolled out a bunch of designs to build the
campaign out. We then created the various requested materials for roll-out
(website, outdoor, collateral, as well as supporting ads for the hunting and
fishing part of their business).
Step 5. Focus groups
or A/B Testing
After we did all this work, as a group we thought it was
great, but nothing will tell you the success of a campaign like getting
feedback from people who haven’t poured their blood, sweat and tears into it.
You need impartial third-party opinions. For Travel Manitoba, we didn’t have
the time (or the budget!) to conduct a full focus group. Instead we conducted a
poor man’s focus group, by sending the creative off to trusted family and
friends, the type that wouldn’t say “Ohhh, that’s nice!” to spare our feelings.
Overall the reception was great, and we thought this was our campaign to lose
(spoiler alert - we lost it).
Other Variables:
In a perfect world, the creative team gets the budget (time)
they need to deliver and a flexible timeline to take the appropriate steps
listed above, and flesh out all possible solutions. The Travel Manitoba campaign
took us roughly four weeks, and we put in solid 60 hour weeks. If this was the real
world, and not just a pitch, we would likely have more time for preliminary
research, and get the proper insight from the client before starting, rather
than a multi-page PDF as a brief.
One of the downfalls of the RFP process is you don’t get the
opportunity to establish a relationship with the client. To do great work, you
need to understand the brand’s personality, and what makes it tick. Great
design is subjective; after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But,
we’ve found that great design is no accident. It is the output of a
well-defined process, that given the right amount of effort, is guaranteed to
drive our client’s desired outcome.
Thanks for reading!
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