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