Creativity or Client Needs.. Which comes first?
While reading a recent article in Ad Age, I noticed the author's plea to not drop innovation and creativity just because the client does not ask for it. The ability to come up with great ideas is the whole reason we are in this business. Most anyone can do 'research' to find ways to 'best' the competition, but creativity and ideas come very specific to particular minds. That's how inventions are stumbled upon; innovation is our “standard” at Mad Men Marketing. If the only constant is change, then how can we thrive on anything but ideas?!
Creativity is typically the main reason companies shop for agencies in the first place. Not to see who's come up with the best analytics, or how you can beat your competition on the battle field of sales… but who is the most creative with their thoughts, ideas and execution along with their ability to conceive of something no one has ever seen before – therefore giving you the edge no bar graph can.
SO, give agencies a chance. Let us do what you hire us for… And if you didn't shop an agency with creative intention, hear them out every once and a while, they might surprise you – and if they don't… well then, maybe you're with the wrong agency. Bigger isn't always better.
GM partners with Manchester United
This change comes with a change in advertising for Chevrolet to a new advertising agency, Commonwealth. They replace the approximately 70 agencies that have worked on advertising for Chevrolet. They have changed up their thinking and are working to create more effective spending. An example of that is the 20 or so TV commercials pumped out for the Chevy Cruze, when only a half dozen were needed, as stated by Chief Marketing Officer for GM, Joel Ewanick.
Manchester United has long been one of the most popular soccer teams in the world. With 659 million followers, they are easily the most popular club in the world. For example, in a regular season game featuring Manchester United versus fellow EPL great, Manchester City, there was a recorded 600 million viewers, and compare that to the 110-115 million viewers of the Super Bowl in recent years. Looking at these numbers, it's easy to say they made the right choice here.
In other soccer and GM related news, GM has recently announced a plan to donate 1.5 million indestructible soccer balls all over the world (137 countries have already received soccer balls). This is a part of the project One World Futbol which started in 2010.
The Value of Quality versus Quantity
In our industry, when you're selling something, you always need to stay mindful of what the consumer finds valuable. But at some point along our road to get there, corporations have actually had the ability to redefine what we deem as worthy of our time and money through consistent advertising. What is value to you? Is it good food at an affordable price, or is it the most bang for your buck regardless of calories, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup?
Over the past 40 years – the food industry has evolved its message to push the value of “quantity over the quality”. So we, in turn, shift our attention from “is this good for me?” to “how much can I get for my money?” and I believe advertising's push in that direction correlates with the standard of American values today.
So what does this mean for our industry? It means that advertising is more powerful than any of us gives it credit. It tells us what to wear, where to shop, what to buy, what to eat, where to sleep, and ect.; but, with great power, comes great responsibility. Advertisers have the amazing opportunity to stand on a pedestal of influence while being broadcasted in High Definition all over the world. It is the agency's job to steer them in the right direction. Of course, the reason you advertise is to gain awareness of your product in hopes to sell more of it – but what if you could do more. What if you could change the way we look at the world around us?
Agencies have the luxury of choosing who they work with. We can choose clients who we believe can make a difference in our community – all the while keeping in mind that what we say needs to serve the client, speak to the consumer, and if we can – tweak the visual and message, so the rest of the industry can revisit the value of its own product. Agencies have, in my mind, been following the “fast food trend” of valuing quantity over quality for some time now – and it is time to change that. If a giant hamburger has the ability to change the nation's views of value, I see no reason why we can't do the same. Only this time, let's bring the focus back on quality, shall we..?
Advertising and Wall Street
I do not presume to know much about the stock market; however, due to the recent allegations hinting that certain investment bank underwriters supporting the IPO told clients earlier this month that they were reducing their earnings forecasts for Facebook, the social networking site has had quite the tumultuous ride during its opening week on Wall Street. And knowing what we know about the events leading up to this point, it's not very difficult to see the connection.
It is said these investment banks made the decision to sway their investors after supposed conversations with Zuckerberg. According to these reports, Zuckerberg hinted that he was worried his site's value was decreasing because so many advertisers had been pulling out recently, and that Facebook's mobile version was looking to have an even meeker forecast.
So what does this say about the power/affect of advertisers and their monies spent? It looks to me that; firstly, you need to create a sound platform that will ensure a ROI on ad dollars spent. As we have said before, ROI for ad dollars is not something you should expect immediately (consider it more like any other cost to run a business) BUT if over time, as General Motors noticed, you continue to see no return on dollars spent, you could blame it on the outlet, but it could also be as simple as – the campaign just wasn't good enough.. But I digress.
So where does this leave us? I've established two takeaways from this Facebook debacle. One: Where companies choose to spend their ad dollar has a direct correlation with how successful said company/outlet can be. Two: Some advertising platforms are indeed more successful than others, and just because something is “popular” doesn't mean it's always good for advertising. However; the bottom line is, and a point you will notice me making time and time again , you must think of the consumer before anything else, and no matter what outlet you use to get your message across – if you're not talking to them… they're not going to listen!
The Importance of Staying Power
Is it really a great commercial, if you don't remember the product after you've seen it? I agree that without entertaining or visually captivating material, TV commercials would have lost their value years ago. However, can being too “creative” actually hurt a campaign?
I would like to be clear before I continue… If you have read or heard anything about our agency, you know how much we believe in and thrive on creativity. It is the cornerstone for any good campaign and the catapult for a great one – but this specific argument is more about the different types of creativity; the best being the ability to create a campaign that not only entertains, but also has foresight, adaptability, and of course, staying power.
OK, so returning to my point… It is my belief that some creators allow an idea to get away from them. They can get so carried away and forget the idea's place in relevance to the campaign all together. The effect of that being, their efforts are lost on the consumer. To ensure this does not happen, the industry needs to get a prescription for something I'd like to call “AADD” (Advertising Attention Deficit Disorder) – to keep our heads from spinning in random directions while determining the course of an idea.
SO, instead of having your customer watch a man start on the couch, leave to play racket ball, go to the doctor, wear an eye patch, ride a bus home, be mistaken for a tough guy, get attacked, and end up in the gutter…? Why not simply show three frogs, sitting on lily pads, croaking out three recognizable syllables, while craving an ice cold beer… Remember that one?
You can push your mind creatively (through different characters, themes, scenarios, etc.), while still staying on track and being aware of the bridge between the product and the consumer. Here is the formula that will ultimately steer them right to your door – smiling the entire way… and if you're lucky… they'll remember how they got there for years to come.