B2B Blog: White Space - When Less is More

Business people have a love/hate relationship with white space. Marketing loves it. Engineering hates it. It’s been that way for years.

White space is an important feature of any communication; in fact, it may be the most valuable part. The term “white space” (sometimes also called “negative space”) refers to the empty spaces between objects on a page—whether that page is printed or virtual (online). These objects include anything from graphics to margins to lines of text. Though white space doesn’t necessarily have to be white, it does have to be empty space. 

Effective use of white space can highlight your message and put it on center stage. White space exists for a reason—to comfortably lead a reader where you, as the designer/developer want him to go. Since white spaces are strategically designed, dictating the visual flow, they determine how we perceive and process a piece of communication. Basically, they determine the visual hierarchy of sections on a page, directing us what to read or look at first or next. The empty spaces around lines of text and margins allow the reader to quickly scan and understand the message being presented. In addition, they help to separate blocks of content and bring organization to the page. Without that visual cue as to how to read a particular page, the ability to effectively communicate any message is greatly diminished.

White space plays a particularly important role in advertising and marketing communications for two reasons. In advertising, whether in print, on television or online, the advertiser has but a split second to stop a reader and grab his attention. By isolating key visual and/or verbal points, white space creates a natural visual magnet that draws the eye, and by extension, the reader’s attention.

In marketing communications applications like a brochure, trade show display or a website, for example, white space creates an easy-to-follow, logical path to the communication of often complex and technical subject matter.

In short, the absence of content, strategically designed, is precisely what draws the eye to the content, aiding immensely in comprehension.

To the communications layman, white space is sometimes looked at as a symbol of design gone wild, as art for art’s sake with no practical purpose. After all, in print and web design, paper and screen real estate are valuable commodities since both have limited space in which to present a message. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Creating an effective, harmonious balance between white space and content is no easy task. Not enough white space will cause the communication to look crowded and unfocused, making it difficult to read; whereas too much white space can make the communication look disjointed and equally unfocused. It is a careful balance that must be struck, and there are few hard and fast rules. Still, whatever the design approach and the allocation of white space, the goal remains the same: to grab a reader’s attention and make it easy for him to notice, absorb and comprehend the communication. Examples of both good and bad design are everywhere, but some of the best examples of the effective use of white space can be seen in the marketing material and websites for companies like Apple and Google.

-Tom Sheehan is Principal Strategist and Creative Director at tomsheehan worldwide. He can be reached at tomsheehan@tomsheehan.com or 610-478-8448.

Are Trade Magazines Irrelevant?

To even the most casual observer, it's obvious that trade magazines are getting thinner. But does that mean that they are becoming irrelevant? I don't think so. Not any time soon, at least. In fact, I read some research just last week that indicated that readership of trade publications (unlike their broader, consumer-focused brethren) is up, and more important, so is engagement.

So why are ad pages down?

My personal opinion is that it's a case of a following the herd mentality among marketers. A few years ago, the media word became all about online. Online was the new model -- the panacea for any marketer who wanted to be at the forefront of the practice, easily picking off one new target after another with extremely micro-focused, data driven messaging and placement. And right or wrong, the herd followed.

Next, online morphed into an obsession with social media, and you ended up with steel companies on Facebook wondering why nobody "likes" them. Come on, folks, just because social medial portals like Facebook work for boy bands selling to teenage girls doesn't mean that social media is the new end-all for B2B marketers. Still, the herd followed.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that online and social media don't have a legitimate (and very desirable) place in b2b marketing strategy; however, I've noticed that, too often, these new media initiatives are funded on a "let's rob Peter to pay Paul" basis -- and "Peter" ends up being trade magazines. That's not a good solution.

The fact is, like any prudent investment strategy, diversification is key. Own your channels and conversations, yes; but own all of them. An engaged prospect is a solid prospect -- no matter where they reside in the pipe. Give me a balanced attack. Give me strategic integration among media in use. Give me engagement. Give me liberty or give me death. Oh, sorry, wrong speech.

Look for posts on intelligently integrating online and social media in future installments, all right here on this same channel. In the meantime, don't be tempted to simply follow the herd. Dare to walk the other direction sometimes, with thought and strategy. You may be very pleasantly surprised at the results.

-Tom Sheehan is Principal Strategist and Creative Director at tomsheehan worldwide. He can be reached at tomsheehan@tomsheehan.com or 610-478-8448.

A Real Pro (Bono) Assignment

At tomsheehan worldwide, we complete over 500 assignments each year, but the pro-bono ones that make a difference in our own community are among our favorites. In early 2010, we were approached by two National Football League players, John Gilmore of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chad Henne of the Miami Dolphins, to help brand and support their new Community Fund. The purpose of the Gilmore | Henne Community Fund is to revitalize local parks and recreational facilities in Berks County, as well as provide support for community programs and offer scholarships to local high-school graduates. Both are local guys who graduated from Wilson High School just down the road from our home office, and through local connections, ended up in our conference room seeking help. That was around the middle to end of March.

By that time, they had already developed their own grassroots campaign using local resources to generate graphics and stationery. While it helped get them up and running, they didn’t have the brand they were looking for nor a plan to make it sustainable. Enter tomsheehan worldwide. The task? Brand their Community Fund and develop a campaign to promote their principal fundraiser happening in just a couple of (very) short months. As a leader in branding and strategic and marketing communications, we jumped at the opportunity to get this Fund off the ground. First up, a new logo.

It was a no-brainer to utilize their professional team colors, with permission of course, as the starting point to the brand. The deep Tampa Bay red tied in with the Miami teal was the perfect color combination for it all. Just a week after we started, we had an approved logo; a real professional logo designed exclusively for real professional athletes. Thankfully too. Tickets were on sale and nobody knew it. It was time to start advertising for the event. 

As a new Fund, they had extremely limited resources to promote this event. Using our contacts, and through their hometown connections, we were able to bring the local media on board, including newspaper, radio, and billboard; a killer combo with virtually no out-of-pocket expenses. Plus, John and Chad hooked themselves up with a local printing resource to grind out and provide posters, handbills and event programs along with friends and family who created a street team to distribute materials in order to make this a successful event. And a successful event it was.

Close to 900 people attended this extraordinary event and just about everyone took part in bidding on silent and live auction items, vacations, one-of-a-kind experiences, and spectacular sports memorabilia; not to mention the fun they had in the ultra-luxe lounge and nightclub created in a ballroom on the third floor of the theater! In all, the Gilmore | Henne Community Fund netted $100,000 that night, not to mention awareness of the need for programs like this in Reading and Berks County. Money raised from this event alone was used to revitalize the Second and Oley playground, one of the most distressed parks in the city, sponsor programs at the Olivet Boys and Girls Club, award scholarships to two student athletes at Wilson High School, provide a grant to Berks Parks and Recreation for the revitalization of the Stone Cliff Recreation Area, and start work on the first of this year’s projects, Barbey’s Playground in Reading.

Through our creative and strategic planning efforts, the Gilmore | Henne Community Fund was able to get their Fund off the ground and host an incredible fundraiser in just a couple of very short months. John and Chad were impressed and thankful for the outpouring of support; the community really took this newfound Fund to heart, and most importantly, everyone involved did their part in giving back to the place we all call home. Kudos to our community! And to John and Chad.

-Kevin Bezler is Vice President, Client Services, at tomsheehan worldwide. He can be reached at kevinbezler@tomsheehan.com.

Run an ad. Create a landing page.

Think of it as a phone call. Your prospect sees your ad and has enough interest to want to learn more about what you have to offer. So they visit the link to your website. Sounds simple enough, but what happens next?

To understand the process, travel back in time to the “pre-website” days of marketing, where instead of a URL, you have only a phone number. If your prospect were to call that phone number and get a pre-recorded “one size fits all” message, what do you think would happen to their level of interest in what you have to offer—and by extension, to your prospective sale? The answer is “not much.”

Now imagine this scenario: your prospect calls the phone number in the ad, and instead of a generic message, they reach a live sales person who speaks directly to the prospect’s area of interest, drilling down on the message(s) in your ad, answer their questions before they’re even asked and deliver a logical, easy-to-act-on call to action. What do you think the result of that scenario would be? Much better, you would think. And you’d be right.

Those two scenarios illustrate the difference between driving a prospect to your general website and driving them to a custom landing page. By driving your prospect to a custom landing page, you’re able to focus and lead the conversation to and through the specific information that your prospect needs to see, read and hear in order to deepen their interest in, and connection with, your brand, product, offer, etc. It’s a no-brainer. And it’s a lot easier to implement than you might think.

Every ad you create should be accompanied by a specific landing page, customized to the topic/message of your ad. And while you’re at it, make sure that both your ad and your landing page also contain links to your social media sites so that you can continue to build the conversation with them, too.

Have a question? Get an answer. If you have a question about custom landing pages or social media integration, give us a call at 610.478.8448. Happy landings!

-Tom Sheehan is Principal at tomsheehan worldwide. He can be reached at tomsheehan@tomsheehan.com.