One of my biggest realizations over the years, is that an awful lot of the “marketing” that gets done in terms of writing copy, designing creatives and artwork for campaigns, wordings, etc.,  is heavily influenced by what has been called the “bigger sucker” theory of marketing.  The idea being that if you are clever with use of “buzz words,” hype your ideas (embellish and exaggerate things to make them seem more important)  and use emotional triggers to overwhelm your audience, you will win a high market share and be profitable.

“Sex sells” is to some a cynical “reality” that has come to be a mantra to a great number or PR, marketing and promotion execs all over Corporate America.

A long time ago, I used to go along with the fashion that “all advertising is evil,” with the view that “everyone” out there was playing the “sucker-based” marketing game and using lies and hype to extract money from unsuspecting buyers.  While there is undoubtedly some truth in this, my realization was that CRIMINALS, or people who’s emotional state leaves them feeling that the only way to get a reach from people is to trick them, will be dishonest in using trickery to sell things, but that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with advertising.

The real bottom line it turns out, is that REAL communication is somewhat rare in our society.  People’s concepts of what it takes to get an idea or message across to someone else tend to be VERY skewed.  Our public education system all but totally fails to teach real communication skills.  The works of L. Ron Hubbard contain VERY effective data and training facilities for communication, probably the best I’ve seen or experienced anywhere.  To the current point, however, when people can’t conceive of how they can get their message across, they become pressured to use “desperate measures”  to reach their audience or market.

The result of this is advertising and PR methods that stoop down to the level of “base” emotional triggers and misleading hints or statements, “selling the moon” and other things that generally give advertising and marketing a bad name with people.

Well designed presentation and marketing copy that actually pinpoints a REAL idea that is acceptable and connects well with the correct audience or market WILL get a reach.  REALITY is what makes people reach.

When a person, company or group can work out correct wordings for their message, backed by properly designed audio-visual and multimedia presentation media, good results will occur.  AND the results will be much more favorable because the RIGHT people will reach and already feel goodwill toward the advertiser because they already have the benefit of experiencing real communication.

When I create presentations for clients, whether it be a web site, a video, Flash presentation or an interactive web platform, keeping these ideas firmly in mind uniformly gets results that more than pay for themselves over time, both for me and for my clients.

To me, “sexy” means aesthetic.  Artistry is part of forming and delivering reality and real communication.  It’s okay to get someone’s attention.  Good presentation does that, AND  it helps enlighten people that there’s something worth giving attention to.  It can heighten awareness, be fun, excite interest and help to convey a message.  This is all part of REAL communication.  It even helps build a better culture!

Let’s all work together and fill the world with REAL communications to our chosen markets.  People CAN tell the difference.  And people who might be “suckers” deserve better anyway, don’t you think?

Multimedia production is my life – I’m what you would call a digital presentation media artist/producer.  I make people’s message come to life using a combination of aesthetics and technology.  Most of my work appears on the Internet in the form of web sites.  I do a considerable amount of work in Flash (currently CS3) which now includes a lot of scripting using Actionscript 3.  The amount of cool animations, interactivity, ability to integrate music, verbiage, video, static and animated graphics along with all the traditional things normally associated with an HTML web site have made Flash a really great asset for me and for my clients.

I intend to keep this blog working and growing.  If you find this here due to a search for information about multimedia, Flash, web sites, online promotion, Internet related subjects, etc., I welcome you.  You will need to register as a user here in order to add any comments to posts.  Unfortunately, the amount of SPAM marketing and abusive or malicious code around the Internet has made the climate a bit “tense” in some ways.  Beyond that, you are welcome here, and I hope you find this blog helpful in some way.