Unearthing Creativity by Sharing a lot and Being Curious

Communication concept ala Miko and Erry in the UNS visit to Fortune Indonesia

Who says that sharing and being curious are only for those who are in love? As creative people, these two things are also necessary! This is delivered by Dwi Jatmiko as Creative Director and Erry Firmangus as Creative Group Head of Anyway team in the visit of D3 students of Visual Communication Design of Faculty of Literature and Arts of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta to Fortune Indonesia on Tuesday, October 22, 2013.

Taking place in Agus Salim room, Gedung Galaktika, Miko, Dwi Jatmiko’s nickname, conveyed to the fifth semester students that there are a number of stages through which the creative team creates communication products. The process begins with sharing. “Sharing from client is the briefing process that usually contains the background of the brand to be communicated, the business objective to be achieved, weaknesses and strengths, and many more,” said Miko.

Next, Miko explained, it is followed by what Miko referred to as kepo (curious) process. This is when the team does the investigation process, digs as much data as possible to accommodate the needs of the client’s communication campaign. What should be sought out? Miko explained it in six points. First, business highlights, that is to understand the client’s character, the subject matter, and the solutions required. Second, competition behavior, that is to learn about the competitive situation of the brand’s industry and what is the best chance for the brand. Third, unique brand benefit, that is to figure out the benefits the consumers gain from the brand in order to find the hallmark of the brand.

The fourth point, target market highlights. On this stage, the team tries to dig up as much data as possible in order to understand who the targets are and what kind of social group they are from. Fifth, unique brand attitude, that is to understand the brand’s uniqueness in the future and its potential in the long term. “Lastly, category behavior, that is to understand the behavior of the target market toward the brand category,” he said.

All data and information as the result of being curious is then taken into the next stage that is becoming a matchmaker. Then, what are to be matched? “Consumer insight, which is the aspects about the consumers, and the brand promise on the excellence it provides. We match the two aspects to generate sweet spot alias key message. We will use this keyword to develop the idea,” Miko continued.

Once the key message is found, the team then begins to generate ideas. Ideas can be obtained from various standpoints; product standpoint i.e. the rational side of the product content and material benefits of the product , human motivation standpoint i.e. how motivated the consumers are in getting the product when viewed from the effects, and the circumstance standpoint i.e. what change in circumstances which may appear after using the product.

“When the idea is developed, then we need to be kind of narcist and get into the amplification process, that is to transfer the idea into a product campaign concept through the stage of AISAS,” added Miko. AISAS stands for Attention, Interest, Search, Action, and Share. In Attention process, the brand awareness begins to build through media such as TV, printed media, digital media, social media, public relations, and so on. Interest is an effort to raise attention to interest so that consumers obtain more detailed knowledge through advertorials, digital media, social media, and many others. Meanwhile, in the Search process, the proper information is provided to serve the consumers’ curiosity about the brand. “In the process of Action, we begin executing the communication activities that can encourage consumers to perform all actions related to the brand. This could be done through activation, design, and so on. Then, in Share process, we hope the consumers will share with others the experience they have got on the brand,” said Miko.

To present a more in-depth knowledge about the practices of creating communication works, Erry also explained to the visiting participants about production process of TVC and print ads. What made the participants more enthusiastic was when Erry also explained about the creative strategy, execution process and stages behind the scenes, up to the communication product of Terbelit Untung from Bank BRI that they have done and are working on, as well as Vitacimin that is using Cherrybelle as the icon.

“I think the materials presented by the speakers from Fortune Indonesia are really unlocking the students’ new insights. They look so eager, especially since Fortune gave a real overview of the processes, procedures, and results so that they could immediately understand instead of only imagining. From this visit, the students can learn and understand about what their industry is really like, so they will not be surprised when they have to face it in real situation. I hope that in the future we can have cooperation. Fortune can be a place for our students either to have internships or to develop case studies,” said Laksono Widianto, the faculty staff serving as the chaperone.

As a visiting participant, Fanny Octaria Andini agreed to that. “It was really exciting. I get to know the long process of ad creation. I usually just watch it. Hehe… In fact, there are so many processes to undergo ranging from strategies untill the technical preparation. Cool. I really learned a lot from this visit,” she said. In line with Fanny, Deasi also expressed her excitement. The girl whose full name is Deasi Tutwuri said the material was interesting because of its relevance to what she was learning in college. And most importantly, the speakers were fun. “So, it wasn’t boring. Moreover, it was completed with video showings. We could understand easily and it sticks in our memory. Before we got here, we visited other places and it really made us bored and sleepy. Hehe…” she said.

“All in all, we just want to share about how youths should think before they get into the communications industry. As they are the ones who will be an important part in the movements of creating big concept of brand campaign,” Miko concluded.