Awake Media’s Big Picture Process

This process is dedicated to my late friend, business partner and mentor, Dan Bockman.

When I met him, Dan was in his 70’s, at the tail end of a brilliant career as a Creative Director for an international ad agency in LA, with clients like Visa and Honda. Dan was primarily responsible for Honda becoming the “Number 1 car company” in the world in the 80’s.  When Honda came to his agency, they just wanted a small piece of the American market share, and they had a new, as yet unnamed, fuel economy car to advertise. Dan named the car Accord and raised their expectations and window of opportunity by pointing out that a low-fuel car COULD become  #1 during an oil embargo. And so it was. At the tail-end of his career, he was hired by Steven Spielberg to convert the characters in a commercial he had created into a feature length film called Gabe and Walker.

Dan taught me the Big Picture Process, and it is like a haiku in the world of overblown marketing processes. Before we sign a contract with a new client, whether for a website, an app, a crowdfunding campaign or an integrated marketing effort, we spend 1-2 hours in  meetings with the client via skype or in-person. Our goal at these meetings is to discover three things about you and your business or subject matter:

1. WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
2. WHO’S YOUR AUDIENCE? (we create a profile of your ideal clients/customers)
3. HOW TO TELL IT? (identify media channels and messages)

This exploration is the seed of the strategy, design, media or technology we will create together and for you because it gives us the big picture.