How Leading Brands Develop Breakthrough Creative -- and How You Can Profit

On the way to a recent conference, I noticed the digital billboards in the airport -- the kind that shifts messages every 30 to 60 seconds. The overhead screen launched a stream of messages as throngs of passengers on cell phones rushed past.

Jumping into a cab, I noticed that the digital portal on the back seat offered sports scores and the latest news. At the hotel, I was greeted with a sign-in kiosk as an alternative to the front desk, which allowed me to upgrade my room. And as I dashed into the elevator, a major network show was playing on a screen above the doors.

Once in the hotel room, there was more messaging: from the hotel channel, cable stations and even on the pizza box delivered to the room.

Welcome to the new consumer environment.

What’s significant is that the same people who are filtering, sorting, eliminating, accepting and processing all these messages also are your prospects and donors. And to get the attention of the time starved and over stimulated, you need fresh strategies and a creative approach that differentiate your organization from the rest of the pack.

A radical evolution in technology and marketing is changing the way we communicate creatively with prospects and donors. And there’s a big opportunity for nonprofits to not only leverage this new landscape, but also thrive in it.

The evolution is being driven by a number of significant trends:

COMMUNICATIONS VOLUMES ARE INCREASING

Ask any consumer about the volume of communications he receives, and he’ll tell you it’s at an all-time high. Overflowing mailboxes, incoming e-mails, phone calls and mobile texting, just to name a few. The average consumer is exposed to more than 200 marketing messages a day. And that’s the conservative estimate.

THERE ARE NEW WAYS OF COMMUNICATING