Seven Stones: What can we think for you?  >

It might not be Dom in the picture.  But Seven Stones’ Head of Planning did write the lead article on how media neutrality, in terms of both planning and the generation of ideas, can help build the strongest brand experience for your target audience.

If you can’t lay your hands on the magazine, email dominic@sevenstones.co.uk who’ll gladly send you a copy of the article.

Being based on Cork Street is an inimitable feast for my inner artist.  The side of me that thinks – ‘Hey, I’m cultural, I dig creativity and aesthetics.’ Close by to us is the famous Halcyon Gallery, and while strolling past, glittering at me in the window were three dazzling, camouflage pigs on a velvet cushion, grinning right back at me (it was not my reflection, rest assured).  Upon the walls were a number of sculptures to fawn over, created by Mauro Perucchetti. The giant jelly babies that stand around are an exciting mixture of pop and social commentary on today’s rather more rotund society. Of note was a display of coloured polyurethane resin drug capsules – a must for any art loving pharmaceutical company surely? 

(even if it is entitled – ‘Luxury Fix’)

A product’s key messages are designed to help people sum up its benefits face to face, but they
were never intended to create a brand – and guess what – they won’t.

A strong brand will only happen if you distil these messages into just one key thought and then make it memorable with a healthy dose of spin (all customers react best to statements that are resonant and compelling, not just factual).

If you want to know the difference a single powerful brand proposition can make to the effectiveness of your brand communications, talk to Dominic about running one of our
proposition workshops for you. 

Capturing the brand experience for a patient in a way that would really reach out to the prescriber was the brief for the new “lungfuls of life” Fostair campaign for Chiesi.

With a bold idea, a great photographer (Andy Green) and extraordinarily obliging models, the resulting executions were spot on for one HCP.  She commented that was exactly how one of her Fostair patients felt after many months of under-treatment on different therapies. The client was very happy too, considering it “a stirling job by all involved”.

The other day I was chatting to my uni flatmate when she accused me of speaking differently since beginning my career as a copywriter.

“Please elucidate further on the matter to which you are purporting,” said I, as I wondered if I have become a shameless dictionary-abusing word snob.

However, according to her (I feel so rude referring to my friend as she and her; let’s call her Bob),
I talk more descriptively or, like, use more words or something.

After a brief period of reflection, I decided that Bob was probably not far wrong. But while I’m
sure my range of vocabulary has increased - largely thanks to discovering a new best friend in the thesaurus (hardback and .com) - I think the biggest change to the way I speak and more importantly, write, has come from an affirmed belief that there is always a different way to say what you want to say.

There is always an alternative approach to expressing what you mean. At all times, a contrasting method for conveying the same sense. Always a way to get across the same content while completely changing the words you use.

And sometimes, it turns out it’s best to say nothing at all.

Verbally, I’m still working on that one.

As I stare sceptically at the computer screen, a seemingly benign, almost reassuring, powder blue screen returns my look.  A cheeky little bird smiles in my direction as the siren call of the headline lures me in: ‘Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.  Sign up now.’

After years of self-assured (not to mention self-important) resistance, I take a deep breath and
click to join the conversation.  I’ve entered the world of Twitter.

The registration process is worryingly simple.  I answer all the questions truthfully and openly - managing without a hitch until asked for a profile name.  Too embarrassed to use anything too close to my real name, I work my way through office nicknames, inside jokes, even previous pet names.  All unavailable.  I venture into a sports theme:  Mrs Lampard?  No joy.  Mrs F Lampard?  Not a chance.  As the snickers from the West Ham-supporting finance department reach my ears,
I finally land one:  MrsSuperFrankie.  Done.

You see, it’s not as if I’m brand new to the social networking scene: I adopted MySpace fairly
early on before eventually abandoning it for Facebook (a sort of online maturing process.).
Something about Twitter though always seemed a bit distasteful.  Maybe it was the notorious celebrity followers like Ashton Kutcher or Demi Moore that made it sound so, well, useless. 

But it’s moved beyond the merely ego-fueled and inane - businesses are starting to use it as a means of inciting word of mouth, engaging with customers, gathering market research, and
at the end of the day, even selling product.  For a somewhat quirky example of this, just look to mobile food outlets (that’s American for ice cream or hot dog vans) that have used the site very
successfully to let patrons know where to find them on any given day (http://news.cnet.co/8301-13577_3-10242185-36.html).  A hoard of hungry followers testifies to the power of the medium.

What about more established companies though – or those restricted by the demands of government regulations, such as the pharmaceutical industry?  Are they jumping on the
buzzword bandwagon known as social media? My curiosity encourages me to continue on.

A blank profile page with my new name greets me at the end of the registration process. 
I scan the screen for clues… What exactly am I meant to do now?  I wrack my brain for
companies I remember advertising a link to Twitter.  I use the search field and find a local
company I work with fairly regularly and click to ‘follow’ them.  Their news filters through
to my home page.  Sigh. That seemed to work.

As the clock ticks along and nothing happens, I’m compelled to start searching  for co-workers and basically anyone I can think of (do I really not know anyone??), when I receive an email to say that I’m now being followed by the local company I’d instigated contact with.  A moment of cold sweat ensues as I realise the email contains my full name in addition to my ‘twitter’ name.  I quickly change my personal information before anyone else gets the chance to link my real name with ‘MrsSuperFrankie’.  Truthfulness and openness are clearly not always the best policies when operating within the world of Twitter (at least from a personal perspective).

A quick search of the big names in pharma reveals a blue chip list of those already participating: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, GSK.  Several clicks later and I’m inundated with their ‘tweets’.  Tweets that range from links to press releases to…links to more press releases.  Big pharma seem to be using social media in their usual approach to communication: one way.  Replies are not posted, off the cuff comments ignored.  I appear to have stumbled on a new toy for the PR department.

The one exception is Roche who integrate a large disclaimer into their profile background saying that they basically can’t be responsible for making the content adhere to the laws of every country, so view at your own discretion.  Brilliant.  Replies are posted, incentives are offered (click to download your own free poster: http://www.nature.com/reviews/posters/p53/index.html) and followers added (3,027 followers currently versus AZ’s 1,244). 

So at the end of my first day of Twitter, what have I learned?

1.
You only get out of it what you put in.  The most successful businesses who use the medium have dedicated people to constantly answer queries, add incentives and generally interact

2.
You have to be willing to take risks.  Get your legal team working on the most comprehensive and vast disclaimer you can find and slap it on your home page for everyone to see.  Then get on with using the site as it’s truly meant to be used

3.
Keep moving.  By the time you’ve worked this out, the world will be maturing on to the next big thing – the next siren call to connect with the rest of the world.  Don’t hesitate - take what you’ve learned and apply it

As for me, I’ve enjoyed my day’s dabble into the world of Twitter, but can’t say I’m ready to become a true Twitter-er.  I’d recommend that any other Twitter sceptics out there give it a try though - just don’t be too hasty when choosing your profile name.  Next up on my original list of names was MrsJohnTerry.  

Whether we like it or not, we live in a world of sound bites. That’s because they work – look at how hard politicians try to create them. People remember the good ones and absorb them easily.

But there’s a fine art to producing a single, strong proposition. Most people can produce logical phrases in a workshop through a process of reduction – but that’s very unlikely to produce an expression powerful enough to capture a sceptical doctor.

What we try to do is make a creative leap in the proposition before we ever get to the creative work. Then, when we’ve created a powerful proposition, we use pyramid messaging to add the detail below. We reinforce the link between the detail and the core offer by weaving the facts into a story that is easy to remember and retell.

That way, we don’t need to dumb down, we simply need to layer.