A Rant

This past week I was asked to put together a writeup of sorts - explaining my points of view on creativity, design and advertising, and the agency model. Not trying to preach just thought it would make for an interesting post…

I think that historically, the measure of our success as advertisers lay in our ability to reach big audiences with big creative ideas. To an extent it still is. However, I see advertising evolving into something where those big ideas are used to not just reach, but entertain, communicate with, and benefit audiences. This requires being able to adapt and tell the creative idea or brand story in new forms, at many different points of the purchase path – to potentially smaller audiences. This, as far as I’m concerned, is the real ‘seismic shift’ currently changing advertising that has so many within agencies frantic.

The main part of what we do in advertising, the creative idea, is and always will be inherently present. Great creative will always entertain as it seeks to get attention for the brand. However, with every brand vying for consumer attention even great creative gets lost in the noise. As such, the stronger ad shops are looking beyond the traditional sell line in a 30 second spot or clever slogan in a full page media buy. In other words, as a result of all the clutter some of the most creatively daring advertising now involves gorilla or viral marketing, and is targeted at a very niche market. Beyond that, some of the most brilliant and effective advertising isn’t even advertising as much as it is entertainment – as in the end, nobody really wants to be marketed to, but they do want to be entertained.

But what happens after a message entertains? In my opinion, great creative doesn’t just talk about a brand, it also communicates. The difference, communication is a two way process; it’s a dialogue instead of monologue, it’s inclusion marketing instead of intrusion marketing, and it’s a big change of thinking for a creative agency. Nontheless, I think companies are increasingly looking for agencies to no longer produce creative that simply sings the praises of a brand to anyone who will listen. They’re looking for them to create dialogues with consumers that motivate and activate them to interact with a brand through feedback, social networking, and word of mouth.

Finally, I think one of the largest shifts currently happening in advertising is that it has switched from talking about the size of the media buy to reaching people along the purchase path. In other words, it doesn’t matter how many people see your ad, it’s about when they see your brand and how it can benefit them. The simple example is this; buying a camera isn’t anyone’s final interaction with that brand, taking photos, downloading, editing, and uploading or printing them is. The argument can then be, why should advertising work only in it’s traditional form in pursuing awareness or sales. It could evolve and be used to create a real added value for the user – after the purchase. For a camera purchase, it could mean downloadable widgets to help with photo editing and down/uploading, sponsored photo competitions, or branded podcasts about photography.