In this aptly named “attention economy,” driven by the rise of social media and the incredibly high quantity of content available, getting your brand 15 seconds of air time in a potential customer’s mind is a great success. If you want them to remember you, those 15 seconds better have a massive impact.
So, how do you craft a message that speaks to your audience in a way that will actually resonate with them? Music might hold the answer.
Music has been capturing hearts and minds since the beginning of time. It is so fundamental to culture that it’s one of the phenomena historians utilize when reconstructing the timelines of past civilizations. It endures through centuries, and it permeates every level of a culture.
How do we take these lessons and apply them to crafting an experience with a lasting impact?
Make Your Message Familiar
Music, at its core, is about patterns.
The viral “Four-Chord Song” from YouTube’s early days is an excellent demonstration of this concept. In the video, the band, Axis of Awesome, cycles through about 20 iconic tunes, never changing from playing the same four chords over and over. It’s a good laugh that makes an important point about how music works.
The musical catalog of any culture is little more than variations on a theme, which isn’t a bad thing. This familiarity allows for connection with the listener, a language with which the artist can then inject their own uniqueness.
In the same way, seek first to make your audience feel at ease and open them up to the possibility of connection.
Make Your Message Memorable
Familiarity is safe, but it’s also boring.
Great artists don’t see the conventional musical patterns as a formula to follow, they see it as a language with which to speak—to bend and shape into a message of their own.
Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” both follow the exact same structure, but through expression in melody and lyrics, they craft a unique sound. Striking that balance between familiar and unique is what gives a song earworm status. It is how society finds itself with a melody—or message—it can’t get it out of its collective heads.
Make Your Message Meaningful
As you likely already know, having a song stuck in your head isn’t always a good thing.
Certain tunes seem carefully constructed to hijack the novelty-seeking part of our brains. They give no consideration to whether we’d like to give it headspace. While your brand, like a musical composition, needs to hook your audience, it must do so with heart. If all you do is capture attention without vulnerability, without communicating who you are, you risk being made into a meme, landing yourself in a situation where your audience is laughing at you rather than with you.
When Your Message Is All Three, Magic Happens
When music hits all three of these marks, it’s a transcendental experience.
All iconic songs have these characteristics. They work their way into their listener’s mind, and once there, they speak to the listener’s soul.
Think about your favorite song. Think about the first time you heard it, how it stayed with you, how you hummed it to yourself over and over, eagerly awaiting the next time you could get in the car and listen to it again in all its glory. That’s the magic. It’s popular yet powerful, marketable yet inspiring.
If you can capture that with your brand, your audience will be your biggest fans—and that’s all you could ask for. Good news, Mad Genius can help. Get in touch, and let’s turn your message into a perfect blend of unforgettable.
This is a blog about initiative, disguised as a blog about inspiration.
in·spi·ra·tion
/inspəˈrāSH(ə)n/
the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.
Creative Agency: Idea Factories
When you hire a creative agency, you’re looking for ideas. You have a problem and need a solution. It could be that your website isn’t working the way you want it to, perhaps your brand requires an overhaul, or maybe you’ve got a product launch that requires an interesting angle to move units. So, you call people who solve those issues for a living: a creative agency.
We noodle the obstacle to your success until we find an inspiring solution. And it’s here, at this crucial moment in the process, that things get compelling… Clients aren’t looking for obvious answers. They have those. They’re all full up on the conspicuous conclusions. People pay creative agencies for out-of-the-box, effective connections.
How Creatives Meet Inspiration
Some creatives wait for inspiration to come to them. It can happen, but tends to test the patience of clients. It can also be a symptom of agencies who do work to win awards, not to address their clients’ woes.
Others creatives may just look at what their peers are doing and do what is, essentially, copying. This can lead to less-than-stellar results, as audiences don’t tend to engage as desired with work they’ve seen (or think they’ve seen) before. Plus, you know, it’s copying.
The best creatives work with their teams to seek out inspiration, drawing on their collective personal experiences—past, present, and future—to address their client’s problem in a refreshing way. The difference? Initiative.
in·i·ti·a·tive
/iˈniSH(ē)ədiv/
the ability to assess and initiate things independently.
the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do.
Find Your Perfect Agency
The questions you have to ask yourself when you’re hiring an agency is: What types of creatives have I found? Will these people wait for the perfect creative? How long will that take? Will their work make them look awesome and serve me secondarily? Will they give me work that’s already been done somewhere else by someone else? Can I trust that the answer to all of the above is no?
Or will this agency leverage strategy and initiative to generate genuinely new creative that can positively impact your business, while giving you something you’re proud to have your brand’s name on?
That last one? That’s what Mad Genius does. We pride ourselves on our ability to get past associative ideation (the obvious connections), through explorative thinking (shots in the dark), to inspired thinking—fresh ideas that draw fresh links to unexplored possibilities.
And here’s the part where this blog drops its disguise and reveals its true self: Initiative matters. Don’t be lazy. Don’t take shortcuts. Do the work and embrace potential failures. That thing you need to get done? Go do it. It’s going to be inspiring.
Get in touch with us, and we’ll talk with you about your business over coffee. Or beer.
Marketing your brand well is a significant expense. We can all admit that now, right? And unless you spend your company’s marketing dollars with your eyes closed, you’ve probably noticed that the cost is going up.
Company leaders want to know exactly what they’re getting as return on their investment—or ROI. When those leaders ask, “How can we get more from our marketing dollars?” They are usually answered by marketers wearing a smirk with, “Spend more money.”
The question is fair (as is the answer). It’s an honest request and one that, frankly, more leaders should be asking. And those marketers wearing a smirk would do well to know why ROI is such an important metric for company leadership.
What is Marketing Return on Investment (MROI)?
MROI is the practice of calculating profit and revenue from the amount a company spends on marketing. ROI is an actual number that is only known after an investment is made, but MROI is an estimate based off of historical data.
MROI helps companies measure the degree to which their marketing initiatives will contribute to revenue growth. Now, when a leader asks, “How can we get more from our marketing dollars?” marketers can now reply with, “Let me show you how spending more money will impact your goals.”
What Else Does MROI Help?
MROI Justifies Marketing Budgets
MROI provides evidence (or lack thereof) that a budget allocated for marketing purposes is a good use of company dollars. If the ROI of a company’s marketing initiatives is meeting or exceeding company goals, this stands as a strong justification for keeping, or more likely increasing, the marketing budget.
MROI Advises Marketing Budget Spend
Since MROI allows marketers to better understand initiatives that have a higher ROI than others, decisions about where to allocate marketing dollars are crystal clear. Once ROI goals are established, multichannel marketing campaign budgets can be adjusted higher or lower, depending on how any specific channel is contributing to the goals.
MROI Creates a Baseline of Accountability
Telling compelling stories and creating beautiful content will deliver customers and sales when it’s strategically implemented—that’s a great investment. Dollars spent on great content that doesn’t help your business reach its goals (i.e. increasing customers/sales) is a bad investment. MROI allows marketers to think clearly about every dollar before they spend it, so that creative and media can work together to serve client goals.
Could you use some help with your MROI? Want to spend some time with Mad Genius, sipping coffee and diving into your company’s numbers? Maybe beer instead of coffee? Reach out today and let’s talk about how we can help you be successful.
Using Sound Design to Build the Horror-Inspired World of Delta State University’s “Fear the Okra”
Good sound design in film and commercials enhances the imagery on screen. It fleshes out the world, making the experience more tangible to the viewer. Deep rich sounds, detail, personality, and complexity work together to create an immersion that makes the viewer feel what they are watching. Often overlooked, sound is as important as video, but ultimately, serves the story being told.
With most sound design, whether live-action or animation, the sonic world we are creating is made from the ground up. How does the world in the video sound? Is it organic, synthetic, fantastical, mechanical, exaggerated, big and majestic, subdued, or combinations of all? What are the emotions that we want the viewer to feel? Do we want confusion, sadness, terrified, or laughter? Using the wrong sound elements can incorrectly articulate the impact we’re aiming for.
Early this year, Mad Genius were approached by Delta State University (DSU) to create a series of commercials revisiting the “Fear the Okra” campaign that we created for them back in 2012. Those were hugely popular, and DSU wanted to create something in a similar vein. This time around, each commercial would highlight different aspects of the school, including their new media arts department, athletic programs, and nursing courses. A horror-themed concept was decided on, with their Okra mascot being the creature/monster that unwitting students encounter in each commercial. Instead of traditional horror kills that happen in film, they would be punched at the end of each spot by the surly mascot.
Playing in the horror genre is fun and exciting. It allows us to approach all the parts of sound design differently than a standard spot. Once again, world building is key. The idea is that Okra is like an apparition that appears out of nowhere to claim each victim. Since this was for a commercial, the horror and suspense had to be intense, but not so intense that a younger audience would not be able to enjoy it. And, since each story is told in 30 seconds, suspenseful timings that are usually used in film, and that require a long audio or video setup to lull the viewer into a sense of calm, were not going to fit.
Editing and Dialogue
The next step of any audio production is to take what was edited, and work with just the vocal dialogue to determine if anything needs to be added. Additions could be something as simple as adding more bass equalization to a voice for more presence, or reverb effects to make the voice feel more within an environment.
The athletics/baseball commercial is a great example of that as there are only three lines spoken throughout the entire spot. The rest of the audio contribution to the story has to be told through sound effects, Foley (which are every day, real-life sounds like footsteps, clothing rustle, and other movement), music, and ambiance.
Below are all the audio parts recorded that day that were used in the final commercial.
Notice, there are almost no sounds in the commercial. In fact, it’s so sparse that your brain might be trying to add sound effects in your head to fill the silence! In these cases, world building has to occur through the sound design. Otherwise, it’s dead and lifeless.
Music
We’re going to go out on a limb and say that most people notice music in film, whether they know it or not. You remember the musical scores for “Jaws,” “Halloween,” or “Psycho” don’t you? Music ties into the DNA of those films so strongly that it becomes inseparable from the film.
In the DSU horror commercials, we wanted to tie each commercial to a different homage of music in horror films. This is an auditory shorthand to get the viewer to know what this world means. The script of the athletics/baseball commercial was following the 1980s slasher trope where our catcher thinks he first sees the Okra, and tension is created when nothing is there. Or so it seems…
After that, a don’t-look-over-your-shoulder moment reveals the Okra right behind our main character. The tension has to build, but not take over, to allow for the emptiness in the space on the baseball field. We decided the “Friday the 13th” series would serve as our inspiration, with the Okra standing in as Jason Voorhees. By layering in dissonant orchestral stringed instruments, synth strings, low rumbles, and drones, we were able to create a rich and complex music track that gave a feeling of unease. In the next clip, you may be able to catch a bone-chilling hit that echoes just like it might when Jason approaches.
Another example of Mad Genius leveraging homage through music is DSU’s nursing commercial. The scene takes place in a lab that wouldn’t be too unfamiliar in the movie The Thing. We wanted to draw into the heavy synth music created by the horror master himself, John Carpenter.
At the end, all the commercials finish with the student getting punched in the face. That becomes the release of tension in the commercial as you realize it has become a comedy. For this, we decided that something over-the-top, bombastic, and very different from the music used earlier would create such a break. We went with a heavy guitar that had tinges of the Wyld Stallyns air guitar from the Bill & Ted films.
Foley
Back to the baseball commercial. In it, you’ll notice that while the commercial begins establishing its tone, some elements still seem missing…
During the shoot, there wasn’t time to isolate and record every footstep and foot turn (like with all major productions). That’s where Foley comes in to add to the realism.
By adding more footsteps of our pitcher running up, and running off, as well as closing a gate off-screen, we get a sense that he isn’t there anymore. Also, by adding the clothing rustle of the catcher who is removing his gear, and the scoots of his feet when he abruptly turns around, we give the viewer a sense that our catcher is actually performing those motions. Little details like, the quantity of gravel in the dirt, the speed of our running pitcher, and the materials that make up the catcher’s gear, all have to be considered in order to make each of the Foley sounds believable.
Sound Effects and Ambience
We are almost done! Now comes the final piece that brings all the pieces together. Adding sound effects and ambient sounds to a film or commercial heightens the atmosphere, brings punctuations and accents, and smooths the overall background. Music and Foley can do a lot to create that atmosphere as well, but sound effects and ambient sounds can also add textures.
In the baseball commercial, we needed a way to motivate our pitcher to leave the field. It was decided that a whistle blown by their coach off-screen would work best. Later in the commercial, you’ll hear a heartbeat to slowly raise the tension while the catcher is looking for the monster.
A gigantic ship horn, or what’s now termed a Braam stinger (made popular in the film “Inception”), abruptly reveals the Okra, emphasizing how startled our main character really is. At the end, the Okra’s punch is accented with a metal door slam to increase the feel of its weight.
It was incredibly hot and humid during the shoot (#MississippiLife). We wanted to bring that feeling into this commercial. Cicadas and sprinklers in the distance were used throughout to familiarize the audience with that time of year. These two sounds also create a monotonous, droning dissonance which amplifies the emptiness of the baseball field as our main character is looking for the aberration.
Designing soundscapes, whether simple or complex, can be a fun and creative process. It starts out as a blank canvas, but by incorporating all the elements above, color, texture, and mood begin to emerge for that world. It allows Mad Genius to create odd, sometimes obscure sounds to compliment what would traditionally be heard. Ultimately, it makes us feel for the characters, giving everyone who watches it a truly unforgettable experience.
Looking for expert sound design for your next commercial? Okra-themed horror is only one of the genres we like taking a stab at. Mad Genius would love to hear about your project.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A producer, a salesman, and a creative director walk into a bar…
What would become Mad Genius originated in 2005, when Rick Moore, Chip Sarver, and I decided to create a leading-edge ad agency in Mississippi. The first order of business? What to call the business.
It had to be something different—something smart. We needed a name able to encompass a creative philosophy attractive to clients yearning for work that’s crazy effective, insanely clever, and maddeningly beautiful.
It had to be Mad Genius.
The Process Behind the Name
Mad Genius’s creative process starts with research. We spend the time to get a deep understanding of the competition we’re aiming to out maneuver, the audience we’re trying to reach, and the problems we’re trying to solve. We ask a lot of questions about market perceptions and operational hurdles, because we believe that breakthrough ideas can springboard from the most unusual, and often overlooked, places. The Genius side of our nature is our desire to fully comprehend any client’s business.
Yeah, yeah… So Mad Genius conducts exhaustive research to understand consumer expectations. What agency doesn’t?
All too often, marketing types build brands to meet expectations. At Mad Genius, we aim to exceed them, both in the brands we build and the clients we serve.
We invite clients to experiment, make discoveries, and create breakthroughs with us.
We believe the two most powerful emotions for new customers are surprise and delight. How can we surpass what’s expected and deliver a memorable, perhaps even shocking, experience? It’s as simple as that. That’s the Mad side of our nature: feeding the part of our collective brains that demands more ideas and pushes brands to find new opportunities.
Sit through one discovery meeting, and you’ll see that Mad Genius is more than just a name. It’s a singular passion, a bold promise of creativity and invention, and a fearless culture of “what’s next?” Perhaps most importantly, it’s a grand challenge to business owners and corporate marketing directors to embrace the unexpected, and to choose something that may lie just beyond their comfort zone.
Not Right, Ready
Everyone has heard the mantra hammered into the heads of anyone who has ever worked in retail or owned a business: “The customer is always right.” We respectfully disagree. At Mad Genius, we believe the mantra should be: “The customer is always ready.”
When asked to evaluate the relationship with their ad agency, one of the best questions an entrepreneur can ask is, “When was the last time your agency told you no?” (If you’re looking for order takers, then we’re not the yes-men you’re looking for.)
That’s why we invite clients to experiment, make discoveries, and create breakthroughs with us. For Mad Genius, the art of building connections with clients and their customers isn’t complicated; it’s about embracing surprising solutions and taking delight in the string of lunatic whims that got us there. It’s about trust, forged through mutual respect, and a willingness to listen, and to set aside the need to be right.
It sounds silly, but at Mad Genius, we enjoy being wrong. The more ideas we can eliminate during the experimentation and discovery phase, the greater chance we have for one of those ideas to be a unique, impactful breakthrough solution.
It takes a brave client to believe in the process and to celebrate all the ideas—the great ones and the not-so-great ones—resting safe in the knowledge that there’s genius behind the madness. The trick, of course, is to turn madness into momentum, the one-in-a-million, completely unhinged, insight driven spark that will change your business forever.
That’s easier said than done. But we didn’t name ourselves Mad Genius for nothing.
How Video Games Influence Visual Design, Interactivity, and Originality at Mad Genius
The web is a young medium. It was only just two and a half decades ago that most of us booted up Netscape Navigator for the first time and began our journey on the World Wide Web. By comparison, radio and television have been around since the early 1900s. The oldest known newspapers date all the way back to around 1600.
Young as the internet is, developers simply have not had the same amount of time to experiment, play and perfect their respective medium. The medium itself is constantly changing thanks to new technologies. Web pages have, since the conception of mobile browsing, turned into an amorphous goo meant to stretch and squish to accommodate varying widths from 300 to 2,000 pixels.
Mad Genius’s desktop and mobile views for Phi Theta Kappa’s website redesign.
There is another medium that shares many similarities with the web, both in its relative youth and the ways in which improvements in technology continually push it forward: video games.
First appearing in arcades in the early ‘70s, then quickly making its way onto home consoles and into our pockets, video games have become a multi-billion dollar industry complete with their own conferences, competitions, and theme parks.
Web designers could learn a great deal from video games.
Game designers face many of the same challenges as website designers. However, video games have an uncanny ability to capture us in their unique and beautiful worlds and leave a lasting impact. Why is that? How can websites do the same?
Visual Design: Make It Memorable
Most of us can recall far more video games we enjoy than websites we enjoy. The reason is simple: games tend to have a distinct style. Examples of some games that came to mind are “Hollow Knight,” “Hyper Light Drifter,” and “Celeste.”
Celeste, Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter
Whereas “Celeste” and “Hyper Light Drifter” take the pixel-art style approach, “Hollow Knight” utilizes a hand-drawn approach. “Celeste” makes heavy use of solid primary colors while “Hyper Light Drifter” relies on ethereal gradients, and “Hollow Knight” leans into a bleak palette of blacks and whites that convey a gothic, Burtonesque sense of melancholy. There is no mistaking any one of these games for the others.
What about websites? We took a look at the websites of three shoe brands: Nike, Reebok, and Adidas. If we obscure the logos, can you tell which is which?
While each of these brands may have differences in styles and variations of products, what separates their online personas? At first glance of the homepage, not much.
There is a big image with a text area on the left, and a reversed-out, all-caps sans serif font. There are also buttons. These sites have a logo area on a white nav-bar in the top left next to the same all caps-sans serif menu, rounded off by search, account, and cart icons in the top right.
Let us say this: these do not look bad at all, but are they memorable? Distinguishable? These sites may very well be perfectly functional for the purpose they exist, but is that enough?
Many websites (and brands) are succumbing to a lack of personality and style—it is almost a trend. The reason behind it is up for debate. Maybe there’s an over reliance on template sites like Squarespace or Weebly. Perhaps it’s just uninspired design or an aversion to risk taking. Whatever the reason, Mad Genius thinks it is a mistake, and we think we can look to video games to point us back in the right direction.
Interactivity: Make It Worthwhile
In the early days of the internet, interaction was simplistic: you hovered over a link and the mouse turned from an arrow to a pointer, and when you clicked a link, there was a flash of white and a new page. In a CSS tricks article from 2014, Miguel Perez likened navigating the web to touching a doorknob and instantly appearing on the other side of the door. Today, however, we have more tools to make navigating the web much more intuitive. So, where can we look for inspiration to meet this challenge?
Take a look at this video from the aforementioned game, “Celeste.”
In the video, the protagonist, Madeline, is collecting one of the game’s many strawberries. The strawberry goes through an entire process, from stretch to explosion to transformation to disintegration, all for the purpose of making the collection of that strawberry feel important (not to mention that incredibly satisfying sound).
What if Madeline existed in the early internet? Would it be as satisfying? Would we feel like we accomplished anything, or are being rewarded? Doubtful.
There are over 100 strawberries hidden throughout the world in “Celeste,” each harder to reach than the last. Yet, players have spent hours and hours searching for and trying to collect all of those strawberries because they feel rewarded by the challenge—in part by that simple animation.
What if, upon signup for an email newsletter, an animation with as much love and attention as the above strawberry were triggered? Imagine a discount received after finding a hidden item on a webpage, like the cup of coffee in Coffee News. A site’s navigation could have some clever animation woven into the design, evoking a rewarding experience each time you use it (examples of Mad Genius doing this are at Colson’s Beer Company, Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals, and Pinelake Church).
Attention to detail is the type of thing that brings people back time and time again. It’s the little things. When you can tell someone has put their love and attention into something as small as collecting a strawberry, you can bet that the same love and attention has gone into every part of their work.
Make It Distinct
Most of the employees at Mad Genius love video games. We also believe there’s no substitute (yet) for human intention when it comes to design. Template builders have pretty site designs, but the idea of one solution that fits all doesn’t actually fit a single one. Each project presents its own unique challenges and therefore requires a unique approach.
And creativity doesn’t take an army. Have a look at the current indie game scene for inspiration at what can be done with very small teams. “Hollow Knight,” an absolutely massive open-world game, and “Celeste” were both developed by two-person teams at Team Cherry and Matt Makes Games, respectively. “Hyper Light Drifter” was created by Heart Machine who, at the time of development, had less than ten people.
Keep it custom. Keep it inspired.
Does Your Website Need Its Own Strawberry?
To learn more about what the game-loving creative cultivators at Mad Genius can do for you, drop us a line.
The digital art world has been set aflame with the rise of the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). There is no industry unaffected by this new, somewhat confusing revenue stream. What is an NFT you may ask? Well, dear reader, sit back as we do an almost comprehensible job explaining what we only sort of understand.
What is a Non-Fungible Token?
For centuries, art collection has long been relegated to the physical world. As digital art’s popularity has risen exponentially over the past 20 years, there was no way to own it in the collectible sense (other than a print, which is far from an original).
Enter the non-fungible token. Though “non-fungible” sounds like something you should find an over-the-counter cure for, it means: unswappable (no, that’s not really a word, but it’s okay because you get the point and we like the way it sounds). And “token,” in this sense, means a line of code. So, in essence an NFT is a unique line of code. This code functions as a receipt—or, in the NFT parlance, “a smart contract.”
When you purchase an NFT you are purchasing a smart contract to a piece of digital art.
Blockchains
And now you’re asking, “How can a line of code, that might be easily copied, represent the unique purchase of a digital asset, that might also be easily copied? Wouldn’t that token need to be entered into some sort of permanent unique online ledger that is publicly available for all the world to see as a means of proof-of-purchase?”
That is a great and specific question perfectly formatted for this answer: Yes and yes. Enter the blockchain. We’ll skip a deep dive into cryptocurrency (you’re welcome), but what you need to know is that digital crypto purchases are kept in publicly viewable ledgers called blockchains.
Purchasing NFTs with a blockchain currency (currently Ethereum, yes that is seriously what it is called), you are entering said purchase into a permanent ledger that proves you own it.
People are buying a great many things: art montages, famous tweets, clips from videos, GIFs, and other odd-flavored digital accouterments. Even the NBA now sells video “moments” (read: truncated highlights) for six figures each.
NFT Advantages
Are there benefits to this new system? Maybe.
It allows digital artists to make money off their art in a way that isn’t strictly commercial (advertising, commissions, etc). Instead of just posting cool one-offs on Instagram in hopes it will snag them a job, artists can actually sell that collectible art. It also allows for a marketplace to open up for things people never thought would be “for sale” (see NBA moments above) that might lead society toward exciting ventures.
NFT Disadvantages
Are there disadvantages? Yes. Lots. Make a stiff drink, and we’ll throw a few at you.
Environmental Impact
Ethereum, like other cryptocurrencies, is “mined” by computers that are solving complex mathematical equations. We’re being a bit reductive. The point is that it takes massive amounts of energy to “discover” a “coin.” How much energy? Well, you can review some of those numbers here. It’s due to the fact that cryptocurrency is literally mined by warehouses full of graphics cards—yes, the kind in your computer. Incidentally, this is causing a global shortage of computer parts. Since the Ethereum used to purchase a single NFT can be equal to weeks/months/years of a single household’s energy usage, this new market is having a tangible impact on the world’s energy use and, thus, global climate change.
Art Theft
NFTs are currently in their wild west era right now, and that means that people are selling anything and everything—including other people’s art. Some marketplaces are trying to verify authenticity of the things people are trying to sell, but there’s a great many marketplaces that don’t have the resources to provide that sort of oversight. At this stage, it’s essentially up to the artists and community to find and call-out fiendish practices when they see them.
Questionable Activity
While the NFT world would like you to envision a community where anyone can come and join and be profitable, the reality is that it’s a very closed environment at the moment. Most marketplaces require invitations and only allow known artists with large followings to list. And even when they do, exactly who is throwing around hundreds of millions of dollars on these animated GIFs? There are a lot of theories that paint the community in a less than favorable light. But the $69 million buyer of Beeple’s work turned out to be a player in the cryptocurrency game and has a financial partnership with Beeple himself. Crypto doing good means his business does very well. Not exactly ringing endorsement for authenticity.
Whatever the NFT bubble ends up, today it’s a step in the direction of digital artists being able to create art as a collectible venture. It’s easy to support artists creating worth beyond their hourly rate. Just don’t dig too deep, or you might not like what you see.
Beyond NFTs, a great way to support a bunch of cool creatives is by hiring Mad Genius for your next project. Whether you need a new or improved website, an ad campaign, or a commercial starring human-sized mosquitos, we are willing and able to help. Contact us to get started.
The rise of cookie-cutter website templates has an unintended effect: the Internet is now lousy with well-meaning websites for small businesses that are visually adequate but have very little, if any, content. These business owners are foregoing customized sites, utilizing a “less is more” approach for their web presence. This is great if the intention is to have a beautiful, easy-to-navigate site that absolutely nobody can find. You see, the majority of these dime-a-dozen minimalist websites are not performing well in search engines.
We get it. Everyone is trying to avoid being verbose, boring users, and junking up our website with unnecessary copy. And yes, it is easy to become a windbag web presence. At a certain point, a reduction of content comes at the cost of being functional.
When is simple too simple? To answer this, think about website content from a user’s perspective.
Hypothetical Website Example: MedSpa
Let’s consider a hypothetical medical spa that is not based on one we were just looking at online. We’ll call it MedSpa. MedSpa offers a comprehensive menu of services. Seriously, they do it all. We’re talking liposuction. We’re talking microblading. We’re talking about the stuff they inject into your double chin that dissolves fat (it’s called Kybella). MedSpa is a magical land where Botox is just one of the many injectables you can choose from. It’s a veritable cosmetic smorgasbord.
MedSpa’s website, however, doesn’t properly convey the actual breadth of services to the site’s visitors. The owner is preoccupied with keeping the site’s interface as tranquil as the physical interior of their chic clinic space. In order to avoid a “crowded” interface, the owner’s solution is to use a single, short headline and attach a PDF of the physical menu brochure that clients are offered at the front desk.
That single, short PDF headline? “Medical Spa Offering Dermal Fillers, Laser Hair Removal, and Much More.”
The “and Much More” is doing the heavy lifting. There are probably 30 products and services contained within the phrase, and it’s detrimental to the MedSpa’s organic search results. When a user types “Kybella near me” into a search engine, this MedSpa will not be in the search results, no matter how pretty the PDF is.
When is simple too simple?
Guess who will likely appear in the search results? Competing medical spas with prominent Kybella content. Competitor websites may have dedicated Kybella pages offering treatment information, before & after photos, patient reviews, and easy ways to schedule an appointment or consultation.
Mad Genius is pained to think of all the abstract double chins that this definitely-not-real MedSpa theoretically missed out on.
The Mad Genius Content Approach
Now that we’ve raked the bad MedSpa website over the coals, we have some good news: Mad Genius has and continues to make websites that are both beautiful and full of relevant content. That’s right, you don’t have to sacrifice ease of use for content, nor minimalist design for SEO. You can have it all. The designers, developers, and writers in Mad Genius’s Design Den perform this dance each and every day.
We make it a point of pride to work closely with our clients to optimize, revise, and create content that supports the goals of their website and properly serves its users. It’s literally our job. And we love it.
Is Your Website…Bad?
So, at any point while reading this, did you think to yourself, “am I the MedSpa?”
The answer is “Maybe.”
Listen, admitting that your website is maybe not as awesome as it could be is a first step on the journey to greatness. The second step is to contact us. We’ll take a look, keep a straight face, and give you some options to move forward.
There are roughly 40 advertising agencies in the great state of Mississippi, give or take a handful of boutique shops. As of 2017, there were almost 14,000 advertising agencies in the country—and the industry was growing. How many are there today? Oodles.
Everyone’s a Butterfly
One of the earliest steps in the branding process is developing one’s unique selling proposition (USP). It’s your je ne sais quoi; that thing that makes your company more appealing than your competition.
To nail one’s USP, to really get it right, it’s important to know what makes you the same as your competitors before you try to embrace what makes you different. With that in mind, here are a couple ad agency truths:
We are not so great at practicing what we preach (read: advertising ourselves).
We are all chasing the same thing, more or less.
As We Say, Not as We Do
Agencies explain their lack of advertising in a number of ways.
“There’s No Time”
Some may say that their team doesn’t have the time to market their own agency. The advertising world moves at a break-neck pace. We are often juggling multiple clients and jobs each day. So, that can put agency agendas at the bottom of a very long to-do list.
“There’s No Need”
Others may think that there’s no need to advertise. Growth isn’t a priority, and their dance card is full. They may have a large account or two, and that’s enough. Better to keep them happy than to add new business and potentially clutter a streamlined system, right? (Wrong, but that’s another blog.)
Our Excuse
Mad Genius? We’re no exception. We fall into the first group. We’ve got a whole lot of Mad Genius marketing efforts cooking, and we’re working hard to get to them. We absolutely believe in the need to advertise our agency, just as soon as we can get to it.
The Grind
It wouldn’t be fair to say that if you’ve been to one advertising agency you’ve been to them all. It might, however, be fair to say that if you’ve been to one advertising agency you’ve been to a lot of them.
Agency Clichés
We won’t write down all the things you likely saw at your agency visit like some Where’s Waldo checklist, but you probably heard the words “strategy” and “results,” glanced at a few trophies or awards (often at the entrance), and had a room full of people in dress-casual attire smiling at you just a bit too intensely (except for the tattooed Creative Director who only wears t-shirts, they never smile).
Are we painting with a broad brush here? Yes. Are we wrong? Not really.
Ad people are a very specific breed of human. Though each employee comes wrapped in a specific discipline, we are all attracted to the pursuit of the perfect moment. That’s what we’re chasing: the nirvana of unification when a story is elevated by all involved to move an audience into action.
Embracing Our Tropes
Cliché? Yes. But Mad Genius embraces our tropes. Most of our web team likes to work in the dark by themselves, our creatives are too loud, the production folks tend to think they’re the rock stars, and the media team sees everything as numbers like Neo in The Matrix. And that’s all great because it works.
What’s the Difference?
All right then, what’s Mad Genius’s USP? How do we elevate ourselves above our industry peers? What’s our je ne sais quoi amongst the oodles of agencies increasing in number year over year?
Evaluating the Uniqueness of a “U”
We should say something like “Creative Fusion,” which is the strategy behind everything we do (it’s all over our website). Does it set us apart from most agencies? Probably. Our infrastructure allows multiple disciplines to touch one another and that cultivates fresh perspectives.
Or this is where we could give a line, like “Smart works hard here” (also on our website). And it does. “We are a full-service advertising agency steered by strategy, driven by data, and powered by people.” All true.
But here’s a truth many ad agencies may not want to admit: the strength of those almost-14,000 ad agencies is the more than 191,000 people (as of 2017) people who work within them. It’s the talent, entrepreneurship, initiative, passion, and prowess of those who do the deed. Smart doesn’t work hard, and the creative doesn’t achieve fusion if the people don’t put their everything into the work.
An Agency Celebrating Creativity
Specifically, Mad Genius is built by and for people who value creativity—the process of being creative, the work itself, and the failures inherent in the effort. It doesn’t matter if we’re working on something for a client or something for ourselves, it’s going to embrace creativity. And you can trust that the moment we think we’ve found a solution that looks like a solution another agency could’ve come up with, we’re going to find five more fresh ideas.
Mad Genius isn’t about being different for the sake of being different. This isn’t vanity. We embrace the act of creativity and leverage our collective experiences to generate the most fulfilling work for our clients and ourselves—that’s our unique selling proposition. We’re special because we celebrate the creative in the destination and the journey.
We wholeheartedly love what we do. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Get Creative With Mad Genius
Interested in what you and Mad Genius might do together? Let’s talk.
It’s that time of year again—boxes are everywhere! Boxes of all shapes and sizes, carrying things big and small. And when they come in the form of a present, getting into a box can be exciting.
In the marketing world, however, the word “box” tends to have a negative connotation. Over the years, I’ve been part of many meetings where the goal was singular: to think outside the box. Think big. Think bold. Think glorious thoughts that will expand the client’s horizon and help them rise above the clutter. Like opening a present, it’s exhilarating and fun. True genius can’t be bothered by rules and the confines of a silly box, right?
Well, I disagree.
As a business owner, I love the adrenaline created by outside-the-box thinking. It’s delicious. It’s intoxicating. It’s (cue obligatory seasonal metaphor) the eggnog of any creative business endeavor. I also know all too well the frustration when I’m forced to admit—sometimes to myself—the truth, that the box is there for a reason.
What is the Box?
The box may contain a tone, a direction, a set of goals, and/or simply a budget. It needs to be respected. What business wouldn’t love to have a great Super Bowl commercial that people are raving about on Monday morning? And what advertising agency wouldn’t want to create it? It’s easy to come up with great ideas when money is no object (or at least easier).
The real genius is in presenting a great idea that can and should be created. Does your marketing budget allow for a million-dollar production and a five-million-dollar media spend? If so, let’s get to work! If not, is it really a good idea to expend time and energy “what-iffing” the project to death? Instead, focus on creating great marketing that you can afford to see to the finish line. Budgetary parameters don’t have to constrain genius thinking; in fact, they tend to inspire it.
Don’t Hide Your Budget
I get it: it can sometimes be scary to share a budget. Knowing your budget parameters helps your agency keep you from throwing darts at a chess board. From an agency perspective, it’s not about outspending your comfort zone, it’s about using the experiences and expertise we bring to the table to guide the allocation of your precious resources.
Your money isn’t spent once you share your budget. You’re still the one in control. If you love the ideas your agency presents right out of the gate, great. If not, we work together and try again. Communicating your expectations and budgets early will always get you the best results.
You are only as good as your weakest link, so don’t let it be your marketing.
Good to Great
The 80/20 rule is very real when dealing with the quality of advertising and production, now more than ever. When I started my first business over 23 years ago, I had to make some very difficult financial decisions to get started. Providing a level of quality I could be proud of required a sizable investment—close to $300,000. It was cutting edge at the time and allowed us to make a lot of clients very happy.
Much has changed since then… The technology is exponentially better, cheaper, and more accessible. People’s expectations are much greater, as is the amount of money required to exceed them. I’m pretty sure an investment of $10,000 today could produce a spot no less than a hundred times better than what I was able to with 30 times that amount. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a limited budget that can be considered good. “Good” is the standard anyone can achieve these days. What does it take to be great?
That gap between “good” and “great” is where the 80/20 rule really comes into play. For 20% of your budget, you can make something good. It takes the other 80% to make it great, to make it stand out. That commitment can be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s the difference-maker. The time and expertise it takes to polish a product to truly be the best it can be is what enables you to break through the clutter. Setting the bar that much higher is what elevates your brand and gives your customers the confidence they need (or want) to commit to you. You are only as good as your weakest link, so don’t let it be your marketing.
Trust the Experts
I’m a firm believer in surrounding myself with people that are better than I am. That’s why Mad Genius isn’t called The Moore Agency. I’ve always said if something is not bigger than me, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’ve been fortunate to have great success in building a team that supports my vision of something that is bigger (and way better) than me. I trust them to do great work, which allows me to do what I do best: dream. The same should be said for your relationship to your advertising agency.
Whether it’s Mad Genius or another creative partner, trust them to do what they do best so you can concentrate on what you do best. Share your vision, your expertise, and your budget to give everyone a chance to succeed. Define the box. Some boxes may be more elastic than others, and the box can always grow, but it should always be respected and even—dare I say—embraced.
Define Your Box with Mad Genius
Are you looking for a creative partner to share your goals with? Get in touch with Mad Genius and let’s go from good to great together.
