The Impossible Project
At Creative Memories, we began a first-ever celebrity partnership with Nancy O’Dell (co-host of Entertainment Tonight). She was a lifelong scrapbooker, and shared our passion for motivating people to do something with their photos. We were developing a collection of products with Nancy when it was suggested that we publish a book. Nancy, a savvy and experienced entertainment journalist knew that improved media coverage meant promoting the line of products through a book, so it was a smart strategic move. Problem was, we were only about four months away from the launch, and one other minor detail—we’d never produced a book before.
As Creative Director, my team and I took on the challenge. We worked with Nancy to develop the content, layout, photography and cover. Being a lover of photos and someone in the entertainment industry for many years, Nancy had a significant amount of celebrity images she wanted to include. This meant I had to get approvals from the likes of Madonna, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson and Garth Brooks (just to name a few) in a very short amount of time. It was a whirlwind project and an incredible juggling act, but fun, exciting, and satisfying. Nancy was happy with the book, we were happy with the book, and in the end the launch tour resulted in millions of media impressions and appearances on shows like Rachael Ray, CBS This Morning, Anderson Cooper, Fox & Friends and many targeted print appearances. We had a celebratory book launch party in Los Angeles, CA at a swanky hotel with actual press coverage, and a happy, charming and vivacious celebrity spokesperson who helped dispel the myth that scrapbooking was only for Grandmothers in fancy sweaters. |
How Do You Market a Black Box?
When I was Director of Product Development at Creative Memories, we identified several business opportunities for the company along the life cycle of a photograph. One key opportunity was in organization. We’d already spent considerable development time creating a line of products used to store and organize scrapbooking supplies, but there was a growing need for a storage solution for the printed photos themselves. People just wouldn’t start doing anything with their photos unless they were organized and ready to go—which was often a roadblock to engaging them as customers.
Enter the black box. We developed a simple, transportable, photo-safe organizing system, and it was a black box (the black was essential for photo safety). Like all of our products, it was exceedingly well-executed and top quality, but how do you generate excitement for a premium priced black box? With good stories, strong marketing, awesome promotions and a great name: The Powersort Box!
This was the largest cross-functional project that we’d created to date. We engaged everyone in the company from sales to production—and they were all excited about this promotion. We developed a fantastic storyline for the launch at our National Showcase event that illustrated the power that this simple “black box” could mean for customers and our sales field. For customers it meant peace of mind and organization, and for our sales field it simply meant SALES! The result was beyond our expectations. We had anticipated that every sales consultant would sell 2-3 pieces initially, and they sold well over three times that amount…often to just one customer! It was the most successful product launch in the company’s history, generating millions of dollars in sales of...a black box.
Enter the black box. We developed a simple, transportable, photo-safe organizing system, and it was a black box (the black was essential for photo safety). Like all of our products, it was exceedingly well-executed and top quality, but how do you generate excitement for a premium priced black box? With good stories, strong marketing, awesome promotions and a great name: The Powersort Box!
This was the largest cross-functional project that we’d created to date. We engaged everyone in the company from sales to production—and they were all excited about this promotion. We developed a fantastic storyline for the launch at our National Showcase event that illustrated the power that this simple “black box” could mean for customers and our sales field. For customers it meant peace of mind and organization, and for our sales field it simply meant SALES! The result was beyond our expectations. We had anticipated that every sales consultant would sell 2-3 pieces initially, and they sold well over three times that amount…often to just one customer! It was the most successful product launch in the company’s history, generating millions of dollars in sales of...a black box.
Creative Memories Rebrand ProjectWhat do you do with a beloved brand that has become tired and has lost its way? You give it new life! The Creative Memories rebrand project was a gigantic challenge. The product line had been updated to meet shifting consumer needs, but the identity of the brand was actually a deterrent to reaching new customers. It was clear it needed to change, but it wasn’t as easy as just making that decision internally. There were 30,000 independent reps that had built their business identity around the “old” brand, and they weren’t interested in things changing. We’d heard promises of revolts and picketing if any changes were ever made to the old logo and identity.
As Creative Director, I carefully led my team through the research, design, planning, testing, and executive approval. The rebrand touched every corner of the company: from corporate stationary, badges and logo wear to packaging, cartons, and of course all marketing materials. Every department in the company was impacted in some way by this change. We created a dramatic roll out to coincide with our 20th Anniversary Showcase event, and after a few nervously excited moments of launching the new brand identity on stage—we quickly knew it was a fantastic success. I was so proud that the outside face of the company now matched the energized product line and motivated employees. The icing on the cake? Being chosen as a global Rebrand 2011 Award Winner. The redesign was also featured in the book Relogo from Sandu Publishing. |
Marketing the Enemy
When Creative Memories first began developing their brand and story and their legions of devoted fans, the high quality of their scrapbook albums and the poor quality of all the others in the marketplace was definitely part of that message. Competitor albums made photos fade, crack, deteriorate—the enemy of cherished photos and family memories. On top of that, those hand-crafted, made from scratch scrapbook albums were labors of love. We had set the bar high, and worked hard to consistently meet it.
Problem was—as digital photography overtook the world and photo stashes grew exponentially, not everyone had the time or inclination for those labors of love. People still cared about their photos, they still wanted albums, but they didn't want to spend hours laboring over them. And Creative Memories faced another problem. They'd done such a good job creating those devoted fans that believed that a hand-crafted scrapbook album was the only way to go—that we were driving away many new, younger customers that just didn't want to do the same thing.
As Director of Product Development, I knew that one of the issues we were facing (that everyone in nearly every industry faces) was new customer acquisition. Knowing that a large segment of our target audience was looking for an easier, less fussy way of creating albums, my team and I developed a line of top quality, slip-in style photo albums. Our researched showed that this was exactly what that particular segment of new customers was looking for. But we'd spent nearly 20 years saying that these kinds of albums were bad. For years our Consultants had been advocating that our customers take all their photos OUT of this exact kind of album...how could we now expect them to recommend it?
In addition to the R&D, I led our team through creating the branding and marketing plan for this product launch. We actually filmed potential new customers telling us exactly what they didn't like about our product line, and what they were looking for instead. Some of it was uncomfortable to watch...because we were listening to people say they'd never see themselves as a customer of "that scrapbooking company". But the payoff came when we showed them the new products. This collection was what they were looking for. This was something they could do. This didn't feel like scrapbooking. It felt fresh and ironically, modern. This was something they'd buy. And every single Sales Consultant in the audience could easily recall rejections from customers that just didn't want what they had to offer. Now they had something those customers would want.
We launched the product with a small collection, and demand quickly grew. We ended up expanding this product line extension from 10 SKUs to well over 100 in a short amount of time. We branded this product as "quick and easy", and focused our marketing efforts on reinforcing that message to new consumers via web, social media and consultant education. It became a multi-million dollar cornerstone product line for a company that once presented this type of album as the enemy of preserving memories. I call that a successful campaign.
Problem was—as digital photography overtook the world and photo stashes grew exponentially, not everyone had the time or inclination for those labors of love. People still cared about their photos, they still wanted albums, but they didn't want to spend hours laboring over them. And Creative Memories faced another problem. They'd done such a good job creating those devoted fans that believed that a hand-crafted scrapbook album was the only way to go—that we were driving away many new, younger customers that just didn't want to do the same thing.
As Director of Product Development, I knew that one of the issues we were facing (that everyone in nearly every industry faces) was new customer acquisition. Knowing that a large segment of our target audience was looking for an easier, less fussy way of creating albums, my team and I developed a line of top quality, slip-in style photo albums. Our researched showed that this was exactly what that particular segment of new customers was looking for. But we'd spent nearly 20 years saying that these kinds of albums were bad. For years our Consultants had been advocating that our customers take all their photos OUT of this exact kind of album...how could we now expect them to recommend it?
In addition to the R&D, I led our team through creating the branding and marketing plan for this product launch. We actually filmed potential new customers telling us exactly what they didn't like about our product line, and what they were looking for instead. Some of it was uncomfortable to watch...because we were listening to people say they'd never see themselves as a customer of "that scrapbooking company". But the payoff came when we showed them the new products. This collection was what they were looking for. This was something they could do. This didn't feel like scrapbooking. It felt fresh and ironically, modern. This was something they'd buy. And every single Sales Consultant in the audience could easily recall rejections from customers that just didn't want what they had to offer. Now they had something those customers would want.
We launched the product with a small collection, and demand quickly grew. We ended up expanding this product line extension from 10 SKUs to well over 100 in a short amount of time. We branded this product as "quick and easy", and focused our marketing efforts on reinforcing that message to new consumers via web, social media and consultant education. It became a multi-million dollar cornerstone product line for a company that once presented this type of album as the enemy of preserving memories. I call that a successful campaign.
Building Product Line Extensions
Creating more product selling opportunities is key to ongoing business. For Creative Memories, we'd invested many years in selling photo albums and accessories. We never ventured into home decor and display, but that's where the market was leading us. I saw the emergence of home organization/decor products and knew there was a place for us. We felt that our photos and stories deserved space OUT in our homes as well as captured safely in an album.
As Director of Product Development, I led my team down the path of researching, designing and bringing to market an entire line of display products. This was a whole new world for us. A world of frames and glass and unknown materials. Magnetic boards and ceramic jars. Home decor trends. I needed to secure buy-in with our manufacturing and operations partners. This was outside their expertise as well. We ultimately developed a successful and cohesive line of display products that increased our price point and could be marketed and sold to any customer, not just scrapbookers.
As Director of Product Development, I led my team down the path of researching, designing and bringing to market an entire line of display products. This was a whole new world for us. A world of frames and glass and unknown materials. Magnetic boards and ceramic jars. Home decor trends. I needed to secure buy-in with our manufacturing and operations partners. This was outside their expertise as well. We ultimately developed a successful and cohesive line of display products that increased our price point and could be marketed and sold to any customer, not just scrapbookers.
ProductCatalogs
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Every catalog is a fresh opportunity to present the brand identity to your audience. And when you've got over 400 products to share with the world, you need to do it in a way that showcases each of them in their best light, without overwhelming the customer.
As Creative Director, crafting the brand message was the first step, followed by 1,000 more. Managing outside agencies for photography and theme development, actually planning the photography and projects to be shot, gathering testimonials, and endless rounds of editing and proofing. Sometimes we introduced innovative ways such as a Cata-zine (or Maga-log) to present the products to the consumer. This industry thrived on ideas...specific ways to use the products being featured. Offering idea suggestions and product usage was a great way to provide value to the consumer...the catalog was something they'd keep for a long time, referring to the ideas contained within. That was good for business. I was always proud to launch the catalog—as it was the foundation of all our consumer outreach on web, social media and other printed pieces. |
Branding Videos
At Creative Memories, we had an annual Showcase Event to share new products, promotions, incentives, business information and reward our Consultants for all their hard work. These were the die-hard brand loyalists...the people you really hope to have on your side—and they loved seeing the new product that they'd be able to have and to sell.
When these videos were produced, the company was facing a tough time financially, so the big production budgets we were used to were gone. At the same time, we were ramping up our social media efforts, and wanted to create dual purpose videos: something to use as a product launch video to play at our Showcase Event for thousands of Consultants, and also something that our sales field could share via social media with their customers. These videos, produced on a tiny budget, fit the need perfectly, and were a nice reflection of our streamlined, less fussy brand identity. As Special Projects Manager, my team and I developed the story line, video concept, projects to be featured, and even provided the hand model. I wrote copy and oversaw the photo shoot. It was an all-hands-on-deck project, and we couldn't have been happier with the results! |
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Here's to Fabulous You
This is the third book that I produced in collaboration with Nancy O’Dell’s partnership with Creative Memories. “Here’s to Fabulous You” was a departure from the other books in every way. It was designed to be a portable and beautiful “keepsake” of all the everyday moments that make life special. This was a particularly meaningful project to all of us, as we recognized the reality that people, especially women, need a little reminder now and then that their jam-packed busy lives hold moments of sincerity and sweetness each day—and they needed a place to jot it all down.
As the Creative Director, I led the development of the content, design direction and product development, and worked closely with Nancy and her team to plan the media tour, including the launch presentation. I was proud that by this time I could channel my inner “Nancy O’Dell”, and could write copy for her main stage presentations and TV appearances. Check out this clip of Nancy promoting her book on Fox & Friends during the fall 2012 promotional tour. |
Changing Everything
Sometimes good ideas are not your own. And sometimes the best thing to do is just take them and say thank you. This is exactly what happened when one of our respected Consultants with Creative Memories came to us with an idea to revamp our paper product line. We immediately recognized that it was a fabulous concept, and further analysis revealed that it would generate tons of sales. But it also meant reworking the entire paper category (nearly 200 SKUs) in a very truncated timeline. As Director of Product Development, this was one of those defining moments for me. The idea was sound, but the project was massive. Knowing that it was the right thing to do, I took the idea, said thank you, and ran with it. I learned that casting a vision for your team and inspiring them with what could be makes the hard projects easier and more rewarding—especially when you launch them to thunderous applause.
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My Very Best 200 Words
At the end of each year, The New York Times offers an opportunity for people to submit stories of loved ones who have passed away that year. It's a really beautiful and poignant public In Memoriam feature called "The Lives They Loved". They allow you to submit one photo and up to 200 words for potential inclusion. In 2012 after my sweet father passed away, I had to contribute something—he'd meant so much to me. But 200 words. Really? How can you express a lifetime in 200 words? I admit, it was tough. I agonized over every single word. They were the most important 200 words I've ever written, and I was so happy for the chance to share a little bit about who he was with the world.
Click here to read more. These stories are beautiful.
Click here to read more. These stories are beautiful.