Going through all the requirements for the answer document, I’m reading their policy and the Sustainable Assessment template. Kudos to the Nova Scotia government for their Sustainable Procurement Policy! Very comprehensive.

I’m now asking myself – do I have written policy, commitment or vision for sustainable operations? Commitment, yes. Written, no. Vision, not really. This has me thinking about all things sustainable, and how I operate my business. Does how I operate my business truly reflect my personal beliefs about sustainability? Probably not.

Just as I wrote a business plan to solidify my goals and plans for my business, I’m now going to sit and write down my sustainable commitment, to solidify it and make it tangible. I’m including environmental (waste reduction, green house gas reduction) and economic (buy local) factors. What else do you think I should consider?

What’s your Sustainable Policy?

What do you think? Do you include this info now? Do clients care?

Know of any great environmental impact calculators out there for print buyers? Please let me know.

http://naniprints.com/2009/10/03/how-to-review-color-image-proofs/

One of the reasons I choose this particular event was the speaker’s topic: The project management of an advertising campaign. This particular campaign for Halifax Harbour Bridges (HBB) had 2 goals:

1. Communicate the elimination of tokens after 50 years of use in Halifax/Dartmouth.

2. Increase macpass use by daily commuters.

The speaker, Allison MacDonald, Communications Manager for HHB, took us through the project, 3 years in the making, which involved almost every area of the organization. Communication channels included newspaper advertising, radio advertising, collateral, earned media (media releases and a partnership with Feed NS) and clever use of signage at the point of service delivery – in the toll plaza areas.

The takeaway for me was the lessons learned. The campaign was a huge success: HHB received very few complaints about the elimination of tokens and Macpass adoption increased 3 times over the previous year.

I didn’t get a chance to ask Ms. MacDonald whether success goals were set for macpass adoption, but they did have difficulties meeting demand. They experienced a shortage of macpasses at one point and staffing challenges in their customer service centre.

When looking at risks in your projects, remember to plan for success. One PR professional I have worked with encourages clients to imagine or visualize what success looks like. From that visualization, think about how that success would affect every area of your business and put some contingency plans in place, if appropriate.

Success can be a risk if you are unprepared for it.

Why? You’ve had a shift in colour models. Your monitor, which works on an RGB colour model, can duplicate many more colours than what can be achieved in traditional 4-colour process (CMYK) printing.

Here’s a simplistic explanation of the differences between these colour models for us non-techies.

RGB Colour Model (wikipedia)

RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is the colour model that runs most things digital…monitors, TVs, cameras, etc. It’s an additive colour model, meaning the more red, green and blue you add, the closer you get to white. A 32-bit monitor can display approximately 16.2 million colours.

CMY Colour Model (wikipedia)

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK) is the colour model used when printing using a traditional 4-colour process method. It’s a subtractive colour model, meaning the more cyan, magenta and yellow you take away, the closer you get to white (when printing on a white substrate). Or reversely, the more cyan, magenta and yellow you add, the closer you get to black. In theory, adding 100% each of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow equals blacK, but in practice you get a muddy dark brown. Black (or K) is added to get clean, true blacks. In CMYK process printing, approximately 3.125 million colours can be achieved.

RGB and CMYK are related, though. Here’s a great demonstration of RGB and CMYK colour models and their relationship from digitalArtform.com:

Many other factors can skew colour perception as well. I’ve discussed some of these in a previous blog.

If colour is critical to your printing project, ask to see printer proofs. It will take a little extra time before going on press, but can save money and time on the back end. Proofs are cheap. Reprints are expensive.

In an effort to shorten timelines for clients, we have abandoned getting colour proofs for sign off. We send pdfs to our clients instead. But, are you sure your client is seeing the same colour you are? No, they are not.

First of all, each of us perceive colour a little differently. No one seems colour exactly the same, even people with “normal” vision.

Second, lighting can effect the colour. Whether you are viewing a printed piece or a file on a screen, the lighting in the room (whether incandescent, daylight, fluorescent or otherwise) will cause a slight shift or cast. Try this test… take 2 pieces that seem to be the same colour, or really close (I did this with some spot Pantone chips and a digital proof). Have a look in daylight, then in incandescent light, then in fluorescent light. You will see shifts in the closeness of the colour match. What appears close under one light source can look like vastly different colours under a different light source. Colour is the reflection of light, therefore it is affected by that light.

Third, and probably the biggest issue when reviewing electronic files, is monitor calibration. Monitors depict colour in RGB (Red, Green, Blue). The RGB colour model is an additive colour model, meaning that the more red, green and blue you add together, to closer you get to white. Therefore, in order for two monitors to show the same colour, they must be set to the same white point (how much red, green and blue is added together to give you white). Once that white point is set, it affects the information relayed from the computer to the monitor, which in turn changes the values of R, G and B used to depict that colour. Don’t forget that light source can also affect colour depiction, and in areas where colour calibration is critical (like printers or anyone doing critical colour correction work), special, controlled light conditions are part of that calibration equation. They even have special neural gray paints for the walls, so that colour can’t be tainted by light reflecting off the walls.

These are just three of many basics in colour theory and certainly not meant to address the intricacies of colour management. Colour theory and management is a science, and the principles can get very complicated. But, in order to start getting better about accurately depicting colour to clients, I believe you need to address these basics first.

If you want to dive into the technical side of monitor calibration, visit the article on wikipedia.

Next on my list… why doesn’t the printer’s proof match my monitor? Or, the differences between the RGB and CYMK colour models.

Take the idea of building a house. No one would start the carpenter on the walls until the foundation is complete, right? It’s a simplistic example, but illustrates the point. Each project has a logical sequence of events. So, why is it that people want to skip the foundation and start building walls? Or completely ignore that electrical permits/inspections are needed on the electrical work before the construction crew can put up the gyprock?

This seems to be a recurring theme for me lately. Maybe I just don’t get it because I plan projects for a living.

Is it because the foundation of a project (the planning) doesn’t appear to be an end product? It’s not a tangible thing you can hold in your hand or view on a screen and see definite progress? Maybe it’s not sexy enough. Maybe we need to have our designers pretty our plans up so they look cool.

Or is it because we don’t bother to read and follow the plans developed for our project? I have suspicions that once the plan is complete, we throw the print out in a pile somewhere or file the PDF away, never to be referred to again.

Is it possible that the plans are so complicated that we take one look at the plan and our eyes glaze over? Maybe the plans developed are too busy or complex to comprehend quickly, so we give up trying?

I know that complicated advertising/marketing campaigns can sometimes be overwhelming. The timelines are tight and the spend is big. A good project manager will read the briefing document (scope definition) take a deep breath and dig in, breaking down the campaign into baby steps (work breakdown structure). From these baby steps and input from the team come estimates, resource planning and a timeline/schedule. A little extra effort and you can have a project communication plan, so check ins with creative teams, client updates, peer reviews, designer briefings all can be noted ahead of time and prepared for.  A really good project plan can serve double duty as a checklist to keep everyone on track and accountable to each other.

So, please, let your project manager build you a foundation before you start the walls. Chances are really good that the house you build will be more stable and will last longer if you do.

Please help me understand! Leave me a comment and let me know why project planning seems to be so painful in advertising and marketing. I would love your insight.

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international organization formed to promote responsible management practices for the world’s forests. In the FSC’s own words: “FSC is a certification system that provides internationally recognized standard-setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services to companies, organizations, and communities interested in responsible forestry.”

When it comes to paper making and printing, FSC provides chain of custody standards and accreditation. So, in theory, here’s how FSC Chain of Custody certification is supposed to work: independent third parties audit the forest, the paper manufacturer, the resource for recycled materials and the printer to make sure that each handler of the forest product is adhering to the standards set. Standards cover everything from forest management, material sourcing, record keeping, storage controls, production controls, and even sales and delivery.

In theory, a good system. FSC Canada claims that when consumers purchase an FSC certified product, they can trust in the fact that they are buying a product that has been produced under a strict set of environmental and social international standards and verified by an independent third party. Sounds great, right?

Well, I won’t get into the Forest Management certification debate, but there are organizations on both sides of the FSC fence. WWF, CPAWS and Greenpeace are in the “for” camp, others are against. One organization, FSCwatch.org was formed for no other reason than to act as a global watchdog. They report on transparency issues, certification complaints and activities that appear to go against the “international standards” set by FSC. I think a big part of the problem is that standards are set nationally and regionally, not internationally. Love it or hate it, FSC is the fastest growing certification of its kind globally. And, as with any standardization, process or organization, it’s not perfect.

I believe the Chain of Custody certification is useful because somewhere in FSC’s databases there’s documentation tracing the materials right back to the source. It would be more helpful, FSC, if consumers had the ability to trace the materials used in the paper they have purchased. Right now, a COC certificate number on a product can only be traced back to the printer on FSC’s website, not back to the paper manufacturer or the source of the pulp.

Each buyer has to decide for his or herself whether FSC is another case of greenwashing. Personally, I like the idea that someone has checked that my business cards (FSC certificate # SW-COC-000952), printed on stock claimed to be made with 100% post consumer waste, has come from an audited source and has verified the content to truly be 100% post consumer waste. I just wish I could find that information in the FSC database for myself.

Why? Most creatives I’ve had the opportunity to work with focus on the creative concept, and rightly so. They need to focus on this in order to deliver a creative, compelling concept. That’s their job.

But clients want more than just compelling creative. Clients have superiors to answer to, just like the rest of us. They need measurement in order to justify and track their marketing dollars properly and calculate their return on investment. They need assurances that the campaign will be in market on time, and within their budget.

What about the Agency owners/directors. They have a stake in the campaign as well. Does this campaign have the potential to be award-winning, getting the agency well-deserved media attention? What is the profit going to be and when will the revenue come in? The bills have to be paid.

Oh and there’s the target market. Don’t forget about them. Are they going to see creative for a new product, communicated to them so that they understand the benefits and are compelled to buy? Will the creative speak to them? Care about them? Understand them? Provide a solution that makes their life easier?

So, how is a project supposed to meet the needs of all of these stakeholders? What’s included in the scope of the project? What isn’t? How will progress be reported? Who’s responsible for what? When’s it due? What’s the budget?

Creating a project charter for the campaign can properly document all these answers up front, so that everyone on the project team understands the raison d’etre. Once documented and agreed to by everyone on the project team, every decision that comes up in the course of the project can be made based on the goals laid out in the beginning. How does this choice help achieve the goals set?

By sitting down at the beginning of a campaign, and having a frank conversation with all parties, you can develop a project charter that will help guide the entire team to success.

For a great definition of what a project charter is and where to get more information and sample templates, see this article from BrightHub by Natasha Baker.