Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses Plus account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
In this episode we work with Chris Hamze, Treehouse's Ad Marketing Manager, to create an exciting new ad campaign for Treehouse.
[? Music ?] [Treehouse presents]
0:00
[Exercise Your Creative]
0:06
In this episode of Exercise Your Creative
0:08
we're going to create an ad campaign for Treehouse from start to finish.
0:11
Let's have a quick chat with Chris Hamze, our ad marketing manager,
0:14
so we can get the details.
0:18
[Chris Hamze] [Ad Marketing Manager] We chose to advertise on Smashing Magazine
0:20
because their client base is made up of designers and developers,
0:22
and these are the kind of people that we really want to be Treehouse members.
0:25
They get over 10.5 million page views per month,
0:29
so it's a highly trafficked site that we hope will bring us
0:33
lots of people who want to sign up for Treehouse.
0:36
Our approach to this campaign was to increase the number of clicks
0:39
our ads were getting on Smashing Magazine.
0:42
We've been advertising with them for over 3 months.
0:45
The first month the clicks were very high, and then it rapidly decreased
0:48
the second month, and by the third month we're down over 70%,
0:51
so these campaigns we're using custom professional photos
0:55
and custom illustrations to increase the engagement with the customers
0:59
and get more clicks on these ads.
1:03
The designer was provided with a lot of creative freedom.
1:06
The only stipulations were that they use a professional photo
1:10
and they incorporate what the subject area the teacher taught,
1:14
and it was the designer's idea to do these custom illustrations
1:17
that were very out there.
1:21
They really get the customer's attention, and it was all the designer's ideas
1:23
and creativity that was used.
1:27
For this project, we have 3 main content fulfillments,
1:29
the first being the photo of each teacher, the second being
1:32
the custom illustration overlaying the photo, and the third
1:36
being the title and call to action for each teacher.
1:39
Before scheduling a photo shoot, let's create a quick mockup for each teacher
1:43
so we know the correct positioning.
1:48
When creating these mockups, I simply want to import the images I took
1:50
from my phone into Photoshop.
1:53
Then I want to make super rough sketches over the top of each image.
1:56
This will give the correct positioning of the teachers in the ad space.
1:59
Also this allows the teachers to know why they are in awkward positions
2:03
and so they know what their facial expression should be.
2:07
Now we are ready for the photo shoot.
2:11
Since we have so many teachers to shoot,
2:13
we don't want to waste any time.
2:15
We want to set each teacher up in their correct positions.
2:17
Since we've prepped for the photo shoot with our mockups
2:21
we know exactly what we're looking for.
2:23
Now it's time for our illustrations.
2:25
For this process I'm going to use a tablet and Adobe Illustrator.
2:28
I'm using the same sketch techniques that I used for the Code Racer illustrations.
2:32
I simply create a custom brush and start with the outlines,
2:36
then with the fill color.
2:40
Once the character illustrations are complete,
2:47
then we need to add the copy and a call to action.
2:50
For Nick, I wanted to have him holding an HTML 5 shield
2:54
and dressed in a medieval knight/Robin Hood costume.
2:58
[? Music ?]
3:02
As for Jim, I wanted to illustrate him in his lab coat
3:13
and have him writing on a glass surface with molecular structures in the background.
3:17
This gives a nice programmer appeal.
3:21
[? Music ?]
3:24
With Amit, I wanted to portray his magical skills as an iOS developer.
3:35
I felt the clouds, lightening bolts and bow tie
3:40
were all a necessary touch.
3:43
[? Music ?]
3:46
Hands down, Jason's is the most abstract and yet direct relation
3:57
to his expertise, programming Ruby.
4:01
I wanted to put Jason in a miner's uniform while holding a pickaxe
4:04
and a Ruby gem.
4:08
[? Music ?]
4:11
For Allison's ad, I wanted to have her painting a web page
4:21
to visually communicate Photoshop and web design.
4:25
I really emphasized the dripping of the paint and art smock
4:28
so when the ad is sized down you can clearly tell
4:32
what the subject matter is.
4:35
As you can see, when prepping for a photo shoot and knowing exactly
4:37
what you want by creating mockups we can quickly create
4:41
a powerful, robust ad campaign.
4:44
A few days after the ads were run, we touched base with Chris Hamze
4:47
to see how they were performing.
4:51
This is what Chris had to say.
4:53
One of the ads has been live for 2 days now,
4:55
and the number of clicks has increased 3 times from the previous ads.
4:57
Once the rest of the ads are live, we hope that this will make the campaign
5:01
super successful, and we hope to use this kind of creativity
5:05
in these types of ads in all our marketing campaigns going forward.
5:08
As always, have fun and exercise your creative.
5:12
[Exercise Your Creative]
5:17
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign up