In a recent study by Nielsen Catalina Solutions on advertising effectiveness, creative quality was determined to be the most important factor driving sales. 47% of people said that the quality of the advertising copy and ‘creative’ was the most important factor when choosing to engage with a brand’s advertising. This is really very instructive.
Outstanding creativity is definitely a goldmine in advertising. It helps to develop truly valuable and catchy slogans and messaging across media. Creativity is the soul of advertising and branding. It is what gives life to messages about products and services that may otherwise be boring or insignificant in the hearts and minds of the target audience – customers or clients.
Advertising drives the engine of selling. Effective selling starts with awareness creation and the quality of it will make selling superfluous. It’s one of the most dynamic engines in the worldwide selling process. Every business requires advertising to thrive. It becomes even more impactful when the advertising is developed and driven by a creative strategy that is well thought out.
Advertising is not just about conveying information politely, formally, or something similar to a press release. It requires a lot more. It’s about the strategy driving the development and this speaks to who the audience is, what problems are to be solved, the message of the solution, and the best way to communicate it. Creativity plays a key role in the entire process.
The message should be engaging, clear, unique, and revolutionary so that the audience can understand/comprehend it and take the action required of them. Today’s advertising is not about noise making, but about providing amazing and creative solutions.
Since the first attempts in advertising, creativity has evolved following various cultural, social, and economic trends. Creativity in art differs from creativity in advertising simply because advertising is expected to have a different echo or impact, to the extent that it should generate on high-scale a particular behavior. While art is a free manifestation, in advertising, creativity is slightly restricted; more precisely, advertisers explore their creativity depending on predefined factors in order to have particular feedback. We could say that art and advertising have different purposes.
The quality of the message does not depend one hundred percent on the creative skills of one single advertiser, marketing departments are assigned to establish an audience and consequently to point out the audience’s spheres of interest in order to generate a message. Although, being creative means also being unique, advertising is expected to engage immediately and temporarily various categories of consumers.
Creativity plays a crucial role, in advertising. The more the message is able to create awareness, and raise interest/desire, the more likely the targeted audiences will pay close attention to further details and will adopt or buy the value (products or services) being advertised.
Ikechukwu Kalu is the CEO / Lead Consultant at Customer Passion Point Limited. He is a seasoned marketing professional, value creation consultant, public speaker, and corporate trainer. He facilitates thought-provoking sessions at both LBS and Pan Atlantic University, Lagos. His experiences cut across manufacturing, telecommunication, financial services, and business consulting.
