Okay, it’s your big moment. It’s the creative presentation that everyone’s been waiting for. Your hands are shaking ever so slightly, but you’re confident that you’ve nailed the creative concepts. You stand and face down the audience…and with the style and grace of Vanna White turn over the first board to reveal your ad. Stop. You’ve already lost, on so many levels — from the paper your concept is printed on to the very notion of letting a print ad represent your creativity. You might as well have used a dinosaur as your idea, because that’s what you have become. A New Communication Model Today’s new model of communications has moved us away from the convention of a fixed, one-way message that’s pushed out to an audience. Control of information and the “journal ad" have been replaced with managing the dialogue across media channels. Our audience “seeks and finds" information — some we send out, some comes from sources that are, at best, guided by our influence but, at worst, the result of rogue communications driving misinformation. The good news is that creativity is alive and well. The power of a great idea to communicate with our audience now lives in a richer and more complex environment. Motion, sound, language, and graphic interface, to name a few, are all part of the new brand experience essential for the full expression of creativity and the brand. While the “idea" lives, it takes on a life of its own and thrives in a communication ecosphere where a print ad drives traffic to a website that sends people to a live event that gets coverage on Twitter where the video gets posted on YouTube while patients, sitting in a waiting room, speak with each other about a new way to get relief that drives the physician to Google to Sermo to WebMD to their PDA. Get the idea? The network of influence is a living and breathing organism that grows (yes, that’s sales) as a function of a brand’s direct involvement in the electronic, print, gaming, social network, live and virtual environments. These are the new places where your brand lives. Creating a Comprehensive Experience Today’s marketplace and today’s marketer can’t afford an idea expressed as just a simple visual and headline. Today’s brand must provide a comprehensive “experience" that brings its core idea to life — an idea or “brand promise" that provides the basis for creative development that builds the communication ecosphere. What results is an interconnected group of “channels" that together build a more complete story. Individually, they may express a certain element of brand character (simplicity or power, for example), but in concert they enhance the experience and drive the dialogue. Interestingly, the result of a well-built brand ecosphere is an element of vitality where the brand becomes self-sustaining and grows more vibrant and resonant in the market. The trick, of course, is to manage the communication interactions and ensure the correct strategic direction. Twitter is part of the journal ad is part of the visual aid is part of the website is part of the avatar is part…of the brand success! So, let’s try this again. This time, your hands are still and your stride confident as you push that tiny electronic button. It begins the intellectual cascade of emotion and involvement —the brand experience. You can feel it and as you look toward your audience, so can they. It’s the old-fashioned magic of communication brought to life in the “nEw world ordEr." n “crEativity in thE nEw world ordEr!" Ferguson, part of CommonHealth Today’s brand must provide a comprehensive “experience" that brings its core idea to life — an idea or “brand promise" that provides the basis for creative development that builds the communication ecosphere. What results is an interconnected group of “channels" that together build a more complete story. John Nosta EVP, Chief Creative Officer FeRguson, part of CommonHealth, is the network’s founding professional advertising and promotion agency and houses the Ferguson OTC (over-the-counter) Center of Excellence, a new initiative designed to address the rapid increase of promotion and use of OTC drugs. For more information, visit commonhealth.com/ferguson.

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