Today we have Bowen Mendelson of the Son of a Mendel agency who’s worked with brands like The Coca-Cola Company, Orange Theory, BP, Quaker, Navy, Federal, Sears, Huggies, and many more. In this episode, we talk about the fundamentals of creative direction, where things have come since he started a couple of decades ago, and where technology is taking us. In addition, Bowen discusses how brands are continuing to interact and reach new customers with Apps, Social Media, TV, Radio, and Print. Below, you can listen to the podcast as well as read a truncated transcript created using A.I.
The Evolution Of Creative Marketing In The Last Decade
00:54. –> 02:48. I’d say that when I started, it was all about traditional media! I was writing for TV and writing for radio. Just the really simple traditional ways. Now it’s way more about what I like to call meaningful marketing could really be anything and everything these days. When I worked with Orange Theory, it could be creating a guided run and using beats to influence heart rate and breathing. This connects with consumers because people have become savvy nowadays and not a lot of people watch a lot of TV and YouTube video ads. People like to skip those. So it’s really trying to find new ways to interact with the consumer, and that’s where it’s going. It’s really becoming also who you’re trying to speak with, and that’s incredibly important that you know who your target is and what they like, because the more you know about them, the better you can target them and also speak to them in a way that they understand.
Creating Engaging Ads
02:49 –> 04:38. You don’t create ads, you create experiences. I’ll give you an example. So I was a creative director on Coke for a while. They have what are called advertising partnerships. So it’s like Coke and Delta as an example. We set out to create an experience, and that experience was to create a lounge in an airport. The lounge was made for people who are sitting in the middle seat because sitting in the middle seat sucks and airport lounges are usually reserved for first class people or, you know, sky elite is what they call them. So it’s like this was really set out to cater to people who had the unfortunate fate of sitting in the middle seat. So we called it the middle seat lounge. And that’s sort of like what marketing looks like nowadays. It’s creating these experiences versus creating ads and creating collateral. I mean, like granted, like those ads and coupled with these other experiences that get attention and gain earned media. So the media talks about it and writes about it in the newspaper, and people read about it, and that’s kind of like the new way of doing things.
Approaching Large Scale Campaigns
04:58. –> 06:43. There’s been so many amazing ad campaigns out there for cars. Volkswagen in the late nineties. You have to really think about how you’re going to position the car and really like, Think about a solid insight into driving and also make it intriguing because car advertising, car advertising and beer advertising, I think are the hardest because there’s so much great work out there. And so you have to really find a way to be unique and also, clients want to see their car like there’s no way around that. So you have to shoot. You know, when you go off and shoot a commercial, there is a lot to factor in.
