Creativity and effectiveness should not be strange bedfellows. Creatively is often seen as a bit of a folly, whereas the data actually supports creativity as the key driver of effectiveness. Challenger Agency Mr Wolf’s Tony Singleton explains.

IF CREATIVE IS THE DOMINANT LEVER FOR EFFECTIVENESS, WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BAD ADS OUT THERE?

In a world of data, why are so many seemingly intent on ignoring the big data on creative?

Vegging out on the couch recently, I had the increasingly rare experience of watching a full ad break on TV.  Fortunately, it started with a Macpac spot – currently one of the best ads around so kudos to client and The Monkey’s Melbourne; well-cast, perfectly played deadpan humour and with the product/brand central to the concept.

However, the fall-off after that was pretty dramatic. Dull, poorly branded ads, seemingly intent on ignoring basic effectiveness principles and with objectively weak creative and questionable impact. Which got me back to a question I’ve never really understood: If the evidence on creative’s effectiveness is so compelling, why do so many in marketing seemingly ignore it?

IS CREATIVE REALLY THE DOMINANT LEVER FOR EFFECTIVENESS?

Is this just fluffy creative types claiming that they’re important? Nope. This is hard-nosed business people and organisations all lining up with the same message. And it’s not even a close call.

Paul Dyson (of Accelero Consulting/Data2Decisions) originally in 2014 and updated for 2023 showed that after your existing brand size – ie your market share and therefore not something you can just decide in a meeting – creative quality is the single biggest determinant of advertising profitability. And at a factor of 12, it’s ten times more impactful than your laydown/phasing (just think about how much time is devoted to that!)

Source: Paul Dyson, WARC https://www.warc.com/content/feed/creative-is-biggest-profitability-lever-brand-size-top-factor/en-GB/8292

Mark Ritson – not exactly shy of calling out bullshit – had a slightly different list in his ’10 Key Factors Driving Advertising Effectiveness’ presentation (https://vimeo.com/373969781), but with the same conclusion – after Brand Size, creative quality is the single biggest factor in effectiveness.

A 700% BUMP IN YOUR BUDGET WITHOUT ARGUING WITH THE CEO/CFO

The two people who have probably done most to advance our understanding of effectiveness – Les Binet and Peter Field of IPA fame – have consistently found that creative is the key factor in effectiveness. For example, in their ‘The link between creative and effectiveness’ they found that creatively awarded campaigns (their more objective measure of creative quality) were 7 times more efficient at driving Market Share growth. That’s like getting a 700% bump in your budget without having an argument with the CEO/CFO.

How about an organisation often approached warily by creative types; global research agency Nielsen?  They found that creative was by far the most important factor in total sales impact – more than twice as important as reach (think how much extra money is required to increase your reach?)

https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/principles-of-creative-effectiveness-or-what-is-good-creative-anyway/en-gb/5617#:~:text=According%20to%20Nielsen%2C%20creativity%20provides,connected%20to%20the%20specific%20creative.%E2%80%9D

SO, HOW CAN WE AVOID WASTING MONEY ON UNINSPIRING ADS THAT DON’T REALLY WORK?

 I’m sure there’s lots of options, but maybe the following could help:

 

1. Treat creative like it’s the biggest marketing lever in your control

If you’re in marketing, think about your average week. How much time, energy, resources and money do you devote to improving your brand’s creative quality? Does that investment reflect that this is the most important element in your control to improve your marketing effectiveness? If not, work out how to rebalance your time/$/resources investment. There’s almost nothing you could spend your time and money on that will give you a better return on the investment.

2. Get across the science of marketing effectiveness

During the last 15 years, many smart people have been unlocking the science and codes of marketing effectiveness and giving us easy to follow best practice guardrails.  Read/watch everything by Les Binet and Peter Field – they’re both really smart and easy to follow. Read Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow. Then reread it to make sure you get it (build mental and physical availability, create distinctive brand assets to help with this, prioritise penetration over loyalty, target the point of market entry). Jon Evans of System1 is always good. Make WARC.com a daily habit. And watch a Mark Ritson talk for the science with some added colour!

3. Work hard on building a great strategic platform for creative

Occasionally, brilliant creative just comes out of clever creative minds. But that’s like putting it all on black at the casino – not exactly a CFO approved ‘investment grade’ decision. Improve your odds significantly by devoting time to getting your brand/creative strategy right – it really is the foundation of great creative. And as a more logical process, it’s easier for the rest of your organisation to buy into your intent.

4. Release your inner challenger

Great creative isn’t about big money campaigns – in fact, that’s the beauty of better creative ideas; they work harder whatever the medium/scale. At Mr Wolf we focus on challenger brands. There’s a huge freedom with challengers because you don’t have the luxury of resources to force your message through; everyone knows that they need cut through creative – it’s not a debate. But you don’t have to be a challenger brand to harness this. Imagine you had way less money available. What would that pressure make you do? Would it make you embrace a more cut-through tonality? Would you be braver? Would you do things differently? Then just ask ‘What’s stopping us doing this anyway’?

5. Sell the idea of creative’s importance to the rest of your business

So much of what we do in marketing is dependent on getting the rest of the business to buy into our approach – and marketing doesn’t always command the highest respect inside organisations. So, get the business across the science of effectiveness and why your wild, wacky creative campaign is actually great business before you expose it to them. A lunchtime presentation or two will pay you back in spades.

6. If you need it, get some help

The world of creative can feel hard – it’s not the rational, deductive process we’re normally tasked with. So invest in talent that understands creative – you wouldn’t run an IT project without IT specialists – hire people who can help you and your brand harness better creative quality not just fill in spreadsheets. Reach out to your marketing peers in other companies, especially from brands you admire – almost everyone will gladly have a chat. And failing that, there are plenty of smart, committed people spread across the agencies and marketing partners in Australia – so reach out and get some help.

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