More than 140 brands.

Eight solid hours of promos.

Every year, I review hundreds of TV spots while putting together the Hot Spots Showcase for PromaxBDA: The Conference with Dan Bragg, SVP of marketing at Science Channel.

Networks and vendors send us the strongest material they’ve produced over the past year. Taken as a whole, it’s an informative snapshot of our creative universe.

If you attended The Conference in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, you might have caught the session and seen some of the best of the best. The work that stands out is often an indicator of where our industry is heading.

Here are five things I learned from seeing the year’s best work:

• The biggest risk? Not taking risks.

There’s no better way to kill a new show than to create a safe, generic spot that doesn’t register with a viewer. Risk-taking wins. In order to cut through and be effective, a new promo has to be distinct and memorable.

• Context is everything.

It’s no longer one-size-fits-all. The same spot won’t be successful on all platforms. If you’re buying media on Facebook, then customize it so it’ll play well on Facebook. Ask yourself “What can I only do in this context?” and craft your spot with the platform in mind.

• Make it shareable.

Is your spot something YOU can’t wait to share? If not, start over. Marketers are now short-form content producers. Successful promotion is sticky, shareable content that must be as interesting and entertaining as the show itself.

• Single focus.

The best creative has a singular, clear purpose. Don’t muddy the water with multiple messages. What’s the most important takeaway?

• Emotion trumps information.

Connecting on an emotional level allows you to deliver the goods to a receptive audience. Music and humor are effective tools to inject emotion and amplify your creative.


Mark Valentine is creative director and co-owner of ANATOMY, a New York-based creative services agency specializing in entertainment marketing and promotion. Since 2000, ANATOMY has produced award-winning image campaigns, commercials, brand films and trailers for a wide range of media brands including Discovery, FX, Fuse, Lifetime, National Geographic Channel, NBC Universal, Oxygen and USA Network.

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