I’m currently the Creative Director of the digital agency CloudRaker. Prior to this, I was Associate Creative Director of the international group at SID LEE.

Here are some things I believe and some examples of consumer experiences that I’ve created that demonstrate how those beliefs come to life.

1. Don't just make people want things. 
Make things people want.

This is the core tenet of consumer-centric marketing, the guiding principle behind all of my work and it's why, when we were asked to create the online expression of Dewar’s The Drinking Man’s Scotch campaign, we didn’t make ads. We created a resource: The Drinking Man's Guide. To bring the campaign's gritty fictional universe into people's real lives, we hosted live events and encouraged online influencers to write helpful articles on the central themes of our campaign. On our central hub, users could take in all of the tips and tricks created by our network, check out three short films about the Drinking Men of Glasgow and create personalized social artifacts. In short, we didn't just make people want things. We made things people wanted.

2. Advocacy is more powerful than advertising.

These days, the best ideas run on the medium of people. So in 2013, we rewarded New Era's most vocal brand advocates with a once-in-a-lifetime NFL experience and we empowered them to invite likeminded people to get involved in our outspoken brand universe.

To learn more about how we turned fans into advocates, contact my reference:
Creative Director at 72 and Sunny, Brandon Drew Jordan Pierce

3. A networked world calls for networked marketing.

In today's interconnected marketing landscape, the right partnership between the right brands can be a win for brands and consumers alike. For instance, when asked by Cirque du Soleil to come up with a way to get younger male audiences excited about their Las Vegas show KA, our solution took the form of a partnership and a social competition.

We worked with Marvel Comics to create a comic book that told the story of KA. Then we gave our audience the chance to appear in the comic book by choosing which of the tribes from the story of KA they would join and then recruiting their friends to do the same. The winner was chosen from the tribe with the most members and was immortalized in the limited edition KA comic book from Cirque du Soleil and Marvel Comics.

4. We’re not in the ad business.
We’re in the consumer experiences business.

Today’s savvy marketers concern themselves with all aspects of consumer experiences, not just advertising. So when we were asked to raise awareness of Coca-Cola’s initiative to protect the polar bear’s habitat, we proposed using technology to affect the packaging, instead of creating an ad.

We proposed printing the polar bears on the can in thermochromatic ink that disappears at room temperature. When the cans were in people’s fridges, there were polar bears. But without a cold habitat, the polar bears would disappear. This was, however, never produced. 

5. No bullshit.

The internet is a giant bullshit detector. And the gaming community is its most highly attuned sensor. So when we were asked to come up with the launch spot for a video game called Sleeping Dogs, we worked with end users to determine what aspects of the game were the most interesting, what they would want to see in the spot and what kind of language we should use to have credibility within the gaming community. Turns out: it’s Cantonese.

6. Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

It’s the Golden Rule. And it’s why we found ourselves in bit of a bind when we were asked to do pre-rolls for Kijiji, Canada’s largest classified site – after all, we hate having to sit through an ad before a video as much as anyone else. So we asked ourselves: What do we actually enjoy watching before a video? The answer: recaps of previous episodes. 

7. The best creatives are 
strategists who can execute.

To create a global brand platform for luxury jeweller The House of BIRKS that would be true to their DNA and resonate with their audience, we dove deep into where their core values and those of their millennial customers overlapped. The result of that thinking was their new global strategy which we initially presented to them with this decidedly poetic sell-in video.

To learn more about my strategic thinking, contact my reference:
Director of Strategy at BBH London, Shai Idelson

8. Don’t just create ads, create added value.

Marketing shouldn't just be about creating romantic metaphors about a product's intrinsic value. It should be about creating tools, resources and content that lend a product extrinsic value. As such, Creative Directors need to learn to act as Editors-in-Chief, as was the case when I oversaw the production of multiple issues of a premium lifestyle magazine created by CloudRaker for national milk brand Natrel. 

9. It’s not just about doing digital work. 
It’s about doing work for a digital world.

When we were asked to do TV for Canada’s largest classified site, a pure-play digital company and online community, we decided to get the community involved in the making of the spot and then thank them for their involvement as complimentary online content.

10. Go big or go home.

Just as with any creative endeavour, when it comes to consumer experiences, you’ve got to swing for the fences. That’s why, to launch New Era’s revolutionary new line of high-performance headwear and create a new sportswear category, we proposed a campaign that took ownership of one of the few white spaces left in the crowded world of sports performance: sports psychology.

Unfortunately it was not produced. But hey, go big or go home.

To learn more about how we really swung for the fences on this one, contact my reference:
Executive Creative Director of SID LEE, Kristian Manchester

As I mentioned above, I’m currently the Creative Director of CloudRaker Marketing Innovations Group, the top digital agency in Montreal. You can follow me on Twitter @NicholasPaget, send me an email using nicholaspaget@gmail.com or just fill in the form below.

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