Counting Our Blessings.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...
You are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place ...
You are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ...
You are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...
You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...
You are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful ...
You are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder ...
You are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore ...

You are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind everyone else
how blessed we all are.

You are wished a Merry Christmas




Creative Wonders will be closed for Christmas until Tuesday, Dec. 27th. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays.

Measurable Advertising Results

One of the biggest concerns surrounding an advertising campaign is the concept of measurability.

How do I know that my campaign was effective?

Measurable results are hard to get. Sure enough, you can measure brand likability, brand and ad recall, brand and ad recognition. You can run focus groups. You can do telephone surveys, online surveys. You can count hits to your website. You can incorporate a measurable aspect right into the ad, as in 'bring in this ad to save 10%'.

But in reality, it is not often that an advertiser gets any solid feedback on a campaign.

That is why yesterday was such a nice surprise.

Our 'pickin' is easy' campaign for Cottonwood Mall has been extremely successful.

Sales are up, traffic is up, gift card sales have been greater this month than all year and more than 400 kids came out to get their 'pics with Nick'.

People getting coffee have mentioned the billboard.

It's nice to know that advertising actually works, and that the money people put into a campaign to make it visually and conceptually stand out from the clutter will indeed provide a satisfying return on their investment.

Low Budget Shoots

The 3 ads for the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are now in daily rotation on Channel 2, and as of tomorrow they will be running as a public service announcement on CTV, Global and CBC, so keep an eye out for them.

As of tomorrow, the ads will also be close captioned.

The ads were shot on a very low budget, using regular people we drew from the agency, including management, directors and patrons.

Although low budget shoots do lack the lustre, it is a good reminder that it is the concept, not the production value, that makes an ad memorable.

Here is great low budget ad - zero budget, no brief.

Toyota Celica

Sustainability News Scraps

Here’s what’s in the news this week surrounding sustainability issues.

But first, a favourite, for dolphin-girl, and all of my dolphin-like readers. Archer's Via - plantation workers

Catch some rays. Honda has started an initiative to mass produce solar cells.

Flutter by, Sanchez. In Mexico, armed guards protect an endangered butterfly population from poachers.

More than another snazzy acronym. Lifestyles of health and sustainability (or LOHAS) has officially replaced well-being as Japan's consumption pattern of choice.

Spinning you out? Whirlpool has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index along with Whole Foods and McDonalds?

Sustainability Advertising Part Four – The Movement

As the sustainability movement picks up steam, it appears that there are more and more companies jumping on the bandwagon, including advertising agencies.

And why not?

The more people interested in pushing social change through consumption (probably the most malleable aspect of human behaviour) the better.

Across the border, there is a like-minded agency known as The Bellwether Group down in Seattle. And Vancouver, Canada’s hotbed for sustainability, appears to have a plethora.
Recently, Marc Stoiber has started up Change Advertising to bring sustainability to the mainstream and Don Millar at The Element Agency is doing work with David Suzuki and the Democrat party to ensure a sustainable future both here and in the United States. At Creative Wonders we specialize in conscious creativity, the integration of communications materials from sustainable companies and taking clients from where they are to where they want to be.

In a nutshell, enlightening ideas that work.

Here’s a couple of fun ads from McCoy's McCoy's Crisps - TV remote and McCoy's Crisps - Laundy

If you are wondering why I am putting up ads for products on the opposite end of the sustainability spectrum – no crisps are Not good for you, the earth or anything for that matter except obesity and munchies – it is because the creative work behind these ads is so good.

Ads like these have legs, they have talk power, and they make for an easy introduction into casual conversation. This can be done for sustainable products just as easily as for the wretched crisp by using humour, fun and energy.

This is the direction I would like to see sustainability advertising move in.