How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 29)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process

(part A)

by

Charles Lamson

The Creative Team: The Authors and Encoders of Advertising

In the marketing communications process,` a source encodes a message that is sent through a channel to be decoded by a receiver. The source is multidimensional, comprising a sponsor, an author, and a persona. In advertising, the encoding of messages---the conversion of mental concepts into symbols---is the responsibility of the creative team. While the client is the sponsor of the advertising, the creative team is the author.

Each member of the creative team plays an essential role. The team's copywriter develops the verbal message, the copy (words) within the ad spoken by the imaginary persona. The copywriter typically works with an art director who is responsible for the nonverbal aspect of the message, the design, which determines the visual look and intuitive feel of the ad. Together they work under the supervision of a creative director (typically, a former copywriter or art director), who is ultimately responsible for the creative product---the form the final ad takes. As a group, the people who work in the creative department are generally referred to as creatives, regardless of their specialty.

The creative team's taste, talent, and conceptual skill determine an ad's overall character and its ability to communicate.

The next couple of posts will focus on the creative process: where it comes from, how it is developed, and how it relates to a company's marketing and advertising strategy. But to get a proper perspective on creativity, we need to understand the characteristics of great advertising. What is it? Where does it come from?


What Makes Great Advertising?

We have all seen ads we love, and we have all seen ads we hate. The ads we love we refer to as "great." And it is only greatness that we are concerned with here. But what do we really mean when we say an ad is great?

This is a very important question, since research indicates that "ad liking" has a tremendous impact on "ad success." No wonder, then, that agencies want to author, and advertisers want to sponsor, ads that people like. But is liking all that is required for an ad to be great?

Whether the "ad" is a billboard, a page in a magazine, a TV or radio spot, or a hot new Web site, great ads do have certain commonalities. We can probably lump most of these characteristics into two dimensions of greatness: audience resonance and strategic relevance.



The Resonance Dimension

To resonate means to echo, reverberate, or vibrate. It also means to boom, ring, or chime. And that is what a great ad does with the audience. It rings their chimes. It echoes in their ears. It reverberates and gives them good vibes. It resonates.

Why? Because of the boom factor.

When a cannon goes "boom," it gets your attention---right now! The same is true with an ad. It is the surprise element---the "aha," the "gee," or the "wow." But in advertising, it not only gets your attention, it catches your imagination. In this sense, it is like great art. It invites you to stop and think about the message. In fact, often it does not tell you as much as it invites you to tell yourself.

In a Taylor Guitar ad, they juxtapose the image of a box with a musical instrument. They are both made of wood. So they are the same, but oh so different! We recognize this at an instinctive level, and we are left to think about it. More important, we associate the profundity of the question with the company that thinks to pose it. We like it, and we respect Taylor for it. The ad resonates.

Other ads may resonate for different reasons. In some of the classic cases, it is simply the headline that resonates---so much that it becomes a part of our daily lexicon. Memorable classics include California Milk Processors' "Got Milk," and Budweiser's "Whassup?!"

Negatively originated motives, such as problem avoidance or problem removal, provide the foundation for many great ads. These resonate with the audience by being highly informational, by offering relief from some real or perceived problem (FedEx's "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."). Other motives are positively originated as consumers seek sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval. Here, ads may achieve greatness by being transformational, using positive reenforcement to offer a reward ("Be all you can be.").

Unfortunately, most ads, whether they are informational or transformational, fail to resonate with the audience. Why? Because they lack a "big idea" or they fall down in the execution. The copy may be uninspiring, the visual may be less than attractive, or the production techniques used may be low quality. From the consumer's point of view, these ads are just a waste of time.

From the advertiser's point of view, ads that do not resonate are a terrible waste of money. In fact, for them the greatness of the advertising is in the "bang per buck." Great ads give their sponsors much more advertising effectiveness per dollar spent. Given this reality, isn't it amazing how much money invested in ads that are simply not great?

The Relevance Dimension

The second dimension of great advertising is strategic relevance. An ad may get you to think, but what does it get you to think about? A classic example is the old Alka-Seltzer ad "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." It captured everyone's imagination, but it reinforced the wrong feeling---the feeling of the problem (overeating) rather than the solution (Alka-Seltzer). The agency lost the account.

While the text and the visual carry the ad message, behind the creative team's choice of tone, words, and ideas lies an advertising strategy. When the ad is completed, it must be relevant to the sponsor's strategy, or it will fail---even if it resonates with the audience. In other words, it may be great entertainment, but not great advertising. Great advertising also has a strategic mission to fulfill. In fact, strategy is the key to great creative work.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 371-373*

END