As painful as it is, I’m contemplating an issue I never thought I would.
Can bad advertising (or “badvertising” as we coined it back in college) be a good strategy? After all, if people are talking about the brand, if a bad jingle is memorable, if I’m including a link to one of the worst ads in recent memory in this blog, does it ultimately prove that badvertising works?
The spot drawing my ire is actually one the company brought back. Subway's Five... Five Dollar Footlong, which almost caused me to contemplate pulling a Van Gogh two years ago, is back. Much to my dismay.
The spots are horrible. There's damn little creativity involved. Just a jingle which sticks with the unsuspecting victim. The spots are in heavy rotation during the baseball playoffs, as part of Subway's Anytober Promotion.
I can't wait for Halloween. And I hate Halloween.
The first commercial that sparked the badvertising debate played repeatedly during early round NCAA tournament games. It was overdone. It was poorly acted. Though the song was terrible, it was infectious.
Kinda like the plague, but without all the death.
If you haven’t figured out which spot it is, you don’t watch much basketball. If you do, I don’t know how you missed it.
During our discussion, not one person said they liked it. In fact, the level of hatred spewed by everyone involved in the conversation led me to believe it was money badly spent. A quick cruise around Twitter proved it.
I mean, someone had to green-light the spot without thinking, “This is the best spot that we could produce.” Someone had to go out of their way to produce a memorably bad spot. That had to be the goal. It had to be strategy. Right?
I think no one would purposefully produce a horrible commercial, with a more horrible jingle. (I certainly wouldn’t.) It just isn’t effective. Or so I thought until a few admitted to having the song stuck in their heads.
Which leads to my conundrum: If you remember the jingle, and more importantly, the brand, does that mean the ad is effective?
I don’t think so. But I think that’s the risk when your goal is to create badvertising: losing customers. I didn't eat Pringles for years because of their ads. The question remains: Will someone avoid a brand simply because the commercials are bad?
I wrote much of this for a former employer to illustrate the evils of cookie cutter advertising. The director was focused almost entirely on SEO, and thought it cured all ills; I felt it necessary to try to convince him otherwise. It didn't have the desired affect. And I'm no longer with the company. So I decided to revisit the post in my own blog.
I recently left a company that had a marketing director who argued that creativity was unnecessary in advertising. The right SEO, correct placement, functionality - that's all that's required to be effective. He also tried to sell our services only through the website. In more than a year, he never landed a new client.
My response was a blog post I wrote in hopes that he would see what creativity does for advertising. I’ve been thinking about why a creative mind is required to work in the industry. Like many in the industry, the recent passing of Steve Jobs has reminded me how doing something amazing stops people in their tracks. And unless you've been under a rock, you know I'm speaking of the 1984 spot, as well as the "Think Different" and "I'm a Mac" campaigns.
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I googled (hard to believe that’s a verb now) “Is creativity necessary in advertising” and a post appeared for an advertising and marketing firm. Investigating further, I found that I happened upon, in my opinion, a very bad website. Really, really unremarkable in every way. Graphically unpleasing. Horrible writing. Difficult navigation.
In short, it went against everything the post said about creativity, which was not a surprise because what the author wrote was not very good.
Ovilvy preferred the term "The Big Idea" to "creative," but we know what he meant.
So this is what an advertising firm thinks about creativity in
advertising. That thumping I heard was David Ogilvy rolling in his
grave.
Sometimes, I imagine myself in conversations with him, as he is
arguably the guru who married creativity and advertising.Anyway, back to the post I read. In short, it ticked me off because even an advertising company doesn’t really know the role of creativity in advertising, how are we supposed to convince a client that we are necessary to the success of their business? The very fact that they will post more about what it is, rather than what it is not, is unfortunate.
What follows are the post’s statements about the necessity of creativity in advertising in italics, and my reaction immediately follows. 1. It is a pillar to build the marketing mix – personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations and sponsorship.
Not really. What I meant to say is not EVEN CLOSE really. Creativity NEVER was discussed in any of the marketing classes during my pursuit of two degrees in advertising. And fully half of those universities were well-respected institutions of higher learning.
2. It differentiates the ‘me too’ products by influencing attitudes and feelings to position the brand in preference above a competitors brand.
Bing. They got that one right. 3. It provides knowledge thereby stimulates thinking.
Not really. Most of the ads out there advertise ubiquitous products. Truly unique products, by the time they advertise, are common. Dyson really differentiates its vacuum cleaners, in style, in performance and (gulp!) price point. But at the end of the day, it’s a vacuum cleaner that costs about what a desktop computer costs. But upon seeing a Dyson commercial, I’ve never gone into vapor lock thinking about anything, much less the dirt, dust and dog dander on my living room rug. 4. It can persuade, be relevant and meaningful.
Yes, maybe and not bloody likely. (I always imagine that Ogilvy said “bloody” a lot.)
Some ads are socially relevant. Most, though, aren't.
They can persuade, but in a small way. There are things more important than creativity in the ad. “I’ve got an ant problem. Does this stuff get rid of them or does it kill bugs dead?” Relevant… I’m not so sure. Ads aren’t really meaningful unless they are for products that are meaningful, and while I appreciate nasal comfort as much as the next person, being Claritin clear isn’t really going to help feed the hungry or cure cancer. And I don’t see ads for meaningful brands very often during prime time. Is laundry detergent meaningful? What about snack chips… No? Don’t make me break out this spot. 5. It facilitates purchase and trial.
Close, but I’m going to say advertising doesn’t facilitate purchase. If the consumer isn’t interested in the brand, the best, most creative ad in the world isn’t going to convince him to buy. It can generate interest in a brand. Whether the consumer purchases the brand of paper towel I’m writing copy for is up to them, and can be contingent upon a variety of factors, not the least of which is whether the store brand is a buck cheaper or is conveniently placed on an endcap display. 6. It creates loyal customers.
Couldn’t be more wrong. That’s like saying that calamine lotion creates mosquitoes. Brand loyalty is created by giving the customer what they want or need (big difference, but that’s a different post) at a price they are willing to pay, even though other brands may come close in quality for less money.
I’m a loyal Rawlings user. Wouldn’t dream of using anything else. Was it because the ad slogan “The Finest in the Field” is printed on every glove? No. It’s because my Dad bought me a catcher’s mitt when I was 10. It fit and was easy to break in. I loved using the glove and bought a fielder’s glove the next year. Then I bought an outfield model in high school and a softball model 12 years ago. When it came time to buy my boys gloves for Christmas, what did they get? You bet.
A quality product, added value through customer service, these days, an informative website… those are the ingredients to create a positive consumer experience, and with it, brand loyalty. I was talking with another copywriter about the unrealistic expectations placed on advertising. He said, “No matter how funny the Burger King work is, it cannot make up for dirty stores. How is that advertising’s fault?” And he’s correct. 7. It transforms boring ads to interesting ads.
This is kind of like saying “Paint makes wood colorful.” But I will put this one in the plus column anyway. A flashy graphic isn’t going to transform a bad ad into an interesting ad, as much as good copy isn’t going to make a bad graphic successful. But finally, they got another one right, I think, because I think I know what they were going for.
I try to write an interesting ad even when a boring one will do. But it leads to another question: Are creative ads more interesting? Of course they are, to me, Ogilvy and the general public. But it’s the way in which they’re interesting that is important. A bunch of young people walking on a hilltop isn’t particularly interesting. Drinking a Coke isn’t particularly interesting. Folksy 70s songs aren’t particularly interesting. But Bill Backer combined all three and wrote a commercial that became one of the most successful ads of all time. I always got a kick out of The Story of the Coke Hilltop Ad and Backer later wrote a very good book about the advertising industry called “The Care and Feeding of Ideas.”
8. Creative ads achieve objectives.
Talk about vague. With apologies to #6, I guess they could be more wrong. This is the most ludicrous statement of the post. What objectives? Again, there is too much in the environment that affects whether or not a person will visit your restaurant.
So, what is the conclusion I’ve reached? Is one, maybe two, out of eight reasons for creativity enough for me to say conclusively that advertising requires creativity?
Abso-freaking-lutely.
Why? We write creative ads because David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach took what Claude Hopkins did and took it to the next level, completely changing the ad world forever. By marrying the sales pitch with the creative, advertising has done wonders for mediocre products, and made absolute necessities out of great ones.
For the past 50 years, creative people have been competing against each other to do it better. Often they try to do it without a sales proposition in mind, which is unfortunate because advertising is a function of the sales department. It is not art, although it employs some of the same characteristics. Artists create because they can’t imagine not creating. Advertising creates because it helps the bottom line and in return, pays the bills. It gives the consumer an initially high opinion and gives him reason to be interested in the product. Creative advertising can spark debate about whose shoe is best or which computer to use.
But mostly, I think creativity is necessary in advertising because I can’t imagine ads that didn’t try to be creative. Plus, thousands of graphic designers, directors, artists, photographers, web developers, actors and copywriters would be out of work. So for the sake of my own career, I can safely say that one, maybe two, out of eight is enough.
Just like matters of the heart in literature and movies, in the advertising world, there is a conflict of interest between love and money.
The problem is that it’s our love, but it’s the client’s money.
We love doing anything “creative.” We love a pretty ad, great typography, a clever turn of phrase, cool visual effects in a commercial, and the challenge of doing something no one has ever done.
The client wants to do something that makes the cash register open and close. He doesn’t care at all about winning an Addy, mentions in AdWeek or getting something for his book. It’s an investment in his business. He’s concerned with the bottom line. He is trying to put food on the table, keep the lights on, and product moving out the door.
So who wins? No one, like The Great Gatsby? Everyone, like Pretty in Pink? (Yes, I just made that analogy.) Great creative sells. That’s what we tell clients. But the truth of the matter is, uncreative ads sell, too. Often not as well… sometimes better. But you’ll never hear us admitting as much to a client. After all, we’re in the creativity business. That’s what we tell ourselves, right?.
The truth is, we’re in the business of advocating for our client. We find the best way to get the client’s message to their consumer. Awards are nice, but they don’t pay the bills. We are in business to sell. And if we get to do something creative and great, so much the better. Is creativity a sign of great advertising? No, not really. It’s a sign that the copywriter and designer were thinking, but it doesn’t guarantee success. For one thing, the target audience has to “get it.” If they don’t, it’s a failure. There have been many debates about the necessity of creativity in advertising. But what does it do, really?
It differentiates the product from the competition.
It positions the product in the mind of the consumer.
It helps the customer’s memory.
It helps to build the brand.
The opportunity to be creative and the need for ROI, for some reason, don’t always cross paths. But we’re the matchmakers. We’re the ones who help creative and ROI get together because we know they will be great together. I’m just glad I’m in the room when they meet, because I’ve got a good feeling about those two crazy kids...
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