Somewhere along the way marketers, agencies and ad-land lost our way when it comes to the balance of creativity and commerciality in advertising. Consumed by fanfare, awards and caught up in the notion that we are the ‘creative’, rather than the ‘growth’ department.
Exacerbating this, often we create advertising that is appealing to the eye, draws on the heartstrings but fundamentally forgets what we are here to do; fulfil the commercial outcomes of an organisation.
Case in point: how many times have you stumbled on an advert but just cant remember the brand its from?!
Unleashing creativity in advertising is about getting the consumer to change behaviour by changing perceptions and increasing mental availability.
In addition, the most (commercially) impactful advertising, leverages the entire marketing mix (Price, place, product and promotion). Each of these levers play an important role in driving value to the organisation and so should be carefully thought through and included as part of the creative process.
Here is a checklist marketers and agencies should hold your broad and targeted (including social media) communications against:
• Does it achieve the objective?
• Will it get noticed in life’s noise?
• Will it keep attention for the duration?
• Will it be blatantly clear your brand did the ad?
• Will it be blatantly clear of what you are selling?
• Will it be blatantly clear what a customer should feel and do next?
