Pitching creative is always daunting and it never seems to come easy, but like most things, the more you do it, the better you get. Here are 5 tips for pitching creative to clients:

1. Put yourself in their shoes: Look at your idea from your client’s perspective. Is your idea unique and going to set them apart from their competitors? Sell your idea based on how it will differentiate them from everyone else and present the big picture changes that your work will do for them. Add value by comparing what they are doing now (this could vary from a website redesign to an entire branding system), and expound as to how much better they could be once the work is completed. What to do: Present “before” and “after” samples of work; it works wonders.

2. Tailor your idea: A great solution fits specifically to your clients’ needs, goals and strategy. Aligning your pitch with these specific talking points is always a win-win. What to do: Read through the statement of work or RFP, choose words that are used and integrate them into your presentation vernacular.

3. Practice: Try out your pitch on your boss, co-worker, friend, or significant other. Their unique perspectives can help you tweak your ideas and presentation. It may also help to get the nervous jitters out to try it out beforehand. Some people are natural presenters, others are not. As my old music teacher used to say “Practice makes permanent.” What to do: Practice. Dress professionally. Smile.

4. Use others’ success: Comparing your idea/concept with another successful product or campaign can make your idea seem more tangible and equitable. The key here is to not steal, but make to make a point of comparison. I read recently that Steve Jobs likened the iPhone 4 to a Leica Camera: “You gotta see this in person. This is beyond the doubt, the most precise thing, and one of the most beautiful we’ve ever made. Glass on the front and back, and steel around the sides. It’s like a beautiful old Leica camera.”  What to do: Analogy is a great way to communicate an idea, use it wisely.

5. Fight for your Ideas: The biggest lesson that I have learned is to not give up on a great idea. This can be a delicate situation, but if you truly believe that your idea is great and will help your client, lobby for it. What to do: There are different approaches to this, a subtle “This concept is everyone’s favorite” can help point them in the right direction. Clients are human and will usually respond favorably to positive opinions by others.

From self taught makeup artist to comedians the popular video website has become a 15 minutes to fame express lane. You’re probably reading this wondering what in the heck this has to do with you and growing your business. Many companies have also been using video as another component to their marketing efforts. Video can help your company feel more relatable. By putting face to your organization people feel like you are down to earth and trustworthy. A short video on your website (when appropriate) can also add a dynamic element to help it stand out from the rest. If you are in a more creative field a more whimsical and kitschy approach can be taken. Go out and find yourself a camera, get strategically creative, and who knows your video could go viral and your company could be the next internet sensation.

Being that I’m a PC user and that I have a Droid phone any devoted Apple fan reading this is probably saying “She just doesn’t get it.” Perhaps it is the age old PC versus Mac battle that prohibits me from running to Apple’s website every time they drop a new product. Despite my tech preferences, working at a company that focuses on strategy & communications means I definitely have noticed that Apple does a fantastic job at creating buzz for their brand. I think a huge part of the company’s success is their clean design and sleek communications. Everything from their website, to their television ads, down to their packaging is always consistent and simple. Like I stated before the Iphone4 is just a cell phone but Apple makes us feel like it is a part of life as we know it. It doesn’t just have longer battery life; it has longer battery life so we can talk to our grandmothers longer. The phone doesn’t just shoot HD movies; it vividly captures your child’s first steps.

You don’t have to be selling an expensive high tech gadget to get people talking about your brand. Take into consideration banks.  They all do the same thing and give or take, offer the same services.  With campaigns geared towards the convenience of having the most ATMs available across the U.S. or telling us how savings accounts are how dreams start, banks are also selling us lifestyle versus financial services.

Whether it’s a new product or service you are launching just remember using strategic marketing geared towards your targets lifestyle and pairing it with beautiful design will always get you good buzz.

This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed ‘Pale Blue Dot’, is a part of the first ever ‘portrait’ of the solar system taken by Voyager.

A reflection by Carl Sagan:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

A distinctive, modern-looking R logo is replacing the University’s current logotype. With its intersecting blend of greens and its unique folds, the new logo speaks to the ideas of diversity and community, important components of what the University stands for. “In the not-too-distant future, people will see the R and know immediately that it’s us,” said Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton.
— Press Release

Along with the new logo is a refreshed seal. It has an emblematic torch that is a nod to their history and tradition. The seal is much more simplified, which I really like because seals are often over done and busy. But the focus here is really on the torch with the founding date and Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote “Dedicated to the Enlightenment of the Human Spirit.”

The brand is significantly more modern and sophisticated from it’s predecessor. Following in the footsteps of Phoenix University who populated the billboards with their “I am Phoenix” campaign, Roosevelt University’s branding and dynamic website is well targeted, dynamic and a nice compliment to the new logo design. The new home page has a rotating student gallery with stories and photos complimented with vibrant color and fun type to illustrate life on campus.

Other branding efforts is this great signage that are downtown:

Armed with a new logo, seal and website, I think that the future of Roosevelt University is looking bright. The new contemporary look will certainly get noticed and their equity will continue to rise. And hopefully other colleges and universities will recognize the value of re-branding and increased marketing efforts, and will call us when they are ready.

We came to the conclusion that a great leader, is many things, but one very important one is a disseminator. A great leader is someone who spreads their ideas and vision to other people. Either through publications, speaking, coaching, mentoring, a leader is apt at “planting seeds” in as many places as possible not only to give greater life to his ideals, but also to help others grow with them.

Wait a minute, I thought! That sounds strangely like men’s biological function. As participants of life, men are programmed to spread their seeds as much as possible. From the sheer amount of sperm they’re able to produce, to the oft quoted idea that men are meant to be with many women, men are trained by nature to spread and create as many of themselves as they can. It’s part of the formula that allowed the human race to succeed.

It hit me that that is exactly why men have traditionally been “the leaders” in our society. It’s never been about men being better than women, its simply that their biological preparation has trained them to do what leadership has traditionally demanded. Replicate as much as possible!

Today however, we are in a world where the greatest imperial powers have crumbled. The largest companies that we have built have collapsed and to top it off, the economy has forced the greatest builder of the biggest stuff on earth, Dubai, to stop building. What does that tell us? Spreading your seed is not enough. It is good to expand, but what’s the point of doing so if everything you plant goes bust? What’s the point of having thousands of employees if you can’t properly nurture them? What’s the point of invading other countries, if you can’t handle them? What’s the point of having tons of children if you can’t love them all?

Women however are the nurturers. They are predisposed to take nascent beings, ideas and concepts and patiently nurture them to bring life. They are also more emotional thinkers, a value that has long been missing from strategic decision making. Women are also less impulsive. They are adept at thinking through a decision without diving in head first. Case in point, women investors perform much better than men. They lose a lot less money in tough times and earn more in the long haul.

The point is this. Today is the day for female leadership. Not because I’m a feminist (because anyone who knows me knows that that is the furthest thing from the truth), but because our economy and our society are in need of nurture and cultivation. This also doesn’t mean women leaders. What it means is thinking critically, investing in projects and seeing them all the way through, not just growing for growing sake. Employees are more dissatisfied than ever in big companies, people are tired of the demands and consequences of the bigger, faster lifestyle, our children need our attention. It’s time we invest in that that we’ve built and begun before going on to the next big thing. This will not only give us purpose, but further create sustainable ideas and businesses that are fundamental to growing and giving new life.

I have mixed feelings about this. The designer part of me thinks that it is inappropriate and offensive what Greenpeace is doing. Who are they to release the logo file to the general public, just for them to butcher it? But then the other part of me, thinks that the brand is all but dead, there is no way that if they survive as a company, that they will actually keep the same brand identity. This logo contest is a demonstration of people protesting what is going on, it is a creative way for them to express their frustration and disappointment with BP’s handling of things. Every day there is news of either more setbacks or other equally depressing news that an entire ecosystem is slowly being destroyed due to negligence and greed. I don’t know whether all of their PR people have quit or just have no idea how to handle this, but the lack of sincerity and apology is distressing. And their CEO certainly isn’t helping matters either.

We live in a digital age, where news spreads in less then 140 characters. People have jumped onto the virtual protest bandwagon and are using digital media in new and savvy ways. Let this be a lesson in corporate responsibility, that if you let bad things happen, people may very well take your brand into their own hands.

As a business person reading this I’m sure you are thinking ‘That’s great in theory but I don’t have the time or money to sit online and chat with everyone in my network.”  Interacting on social networking sites does not always mean mindless chit chatter. Take a page from companies like Dell and Comcast who both use Twitter for customer service.  Twitters search options makes it easy for any company to type in their name or product names and see what people in the twittersphere are saying about them.  If you happen to run across a customer who is complaining about your products or services you can @ reply them instantly and take care of the situation.  Most likely other people in the customers’ network will see this interaction and appreciate your company taking the time to resolve the matter.

Good customer service is an essential component of any successful business.  Using social media as a way to provide customer service will not only help you keep existing costumers happy it will also prove to potential customers that you are a company that cares about its clients.

The holding company for the new entity will be named United Continental Holdings, Inc. and the name of the airline will be United Airlines. The marketing brand will be a combination of the brands of both companies. Aircraft will have the Continental livery, logo and colors with the United name, and the announcement campaign slogan will be “Let’s Fly Together.” The new company’s corporate and operational headquarters will be in Chicago and it will maintain a significant presence in Houston, which will be the combined company’s largest hub. Additionally, the CEO will maintain offices in both Chicago and Houston.
— Press Release

When looking at the long-running brands for each of the airlines, I have always thought that United has done a pretty stellar job. This is partly due to the fact that United is based here in Chicago, and flying in and out of O’Hare, it is hard to miss the impressive over-haul of the United terminal and the branding throughout. Overall, the United logo is cleaner and more modern while the Continental logo looks outdated and heavy. The now long running illustrative ad campaign that United launched a few years back was imaginative and ahead of it’s time. It made companies re-think using illustration in their ad campaigns and branding. And let’s be honest, has Continental done anything memorable in the past decade? In an odd twist, both companies worked with graphic design great Saul Bass to help create their logos. He created the original tulip icon and identity for United and he also created the 1968 jet stream logo for Continental Airlines.

As far as the idea of taking the best from both logos,  I think that the decision to use the Continental icon with the United name in the Contintental typeface was a poor one. If anything, it should have been the other way around. If it’s keeping the name of United Airlines, wouldn’t it have made more sense to continue with the United branding and keep the brand equity intact? I can only hope that in the future, this logo and brand will be reconsidered and re-branded, they have nowhere else to go but up.

Hire Professionals! – Probably the number one step people feel they can bypass is hiring professionals to help them launch their brand. Most people avoid this step because they want to keep cost low. At first consultant fees may seem like a pretty penny but in actuality the money you will spend hiring experts is nothing compared to the money you could potentially lose by blindly going into a new venture. I recommend you seek out someone who can help you with the strategy of your launch as well as someone who can help with the look of your brand. In fact save yourself the hassle and hire a company that can do both!

Know your competition- Almost every wonderful idea you can think of belonged to someone else 5 minutes ago.  Competition is everywhere and it’s important to know whether you stand a chance in your market or not.  Research is critical in order to create a smart plan that stands out.

Strategic planning is your friend – Take your time to develop a thorough strategic plan. Most launches fail because the people behind them never bothered to create a plan. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a great idea which can sometimes lead to off-the-cuff decisions. Just remember all buried treasures require a map to get to them.

Baby steps- If your idea or product is as good as you think it is what’s the rush? There is no need to make a full investment right out the gate. A soft launch or test run to see how your new brand fares in low stakes situation will save you and your wallet from any unexpected curve balls.

Time to assess – Once you have taken all the above mentioned steps take a step back and assess what you have learned. If people are raving about your soft launch it’s a good time to start making a significant investment into your brand. Did your test run fizzle? Perhaps it’s time to tweak a few things and go for a round two.

Launching a brand can seem a little overwhelming but a good idea paired with a good plan is always a success.