An article I had written earlier.
An analysis of creativity can be done from two different perspectives. One is from the angle of the marketer in alignment with the ad maker. In this case the inducement of trial or an increase in propensity to buy the product or buy in the message is the ultimate dream of the ad maker/marketer.
However from the perspective of the user most important is the emotional connect. For high involvement products too TV ads show that the quirk in the ad has to ultimately connect. For the user if this does not happen then it will never translate to sales or a brand embrace.
Creative effectiveness can be depicted as a 3 phase analogical process:
The first one is the creative blitzkrieg or the clutter breaking usage of drama, the heightened use of extreme/odds and maybe even a slow narrative (the first 30 seconds in a TV ad). Customer’s attention is drawn at this stage. It is not a sequence but more like what happens in the mind of the viewer as he is going through the advertisement. So unless attention can be drawn the very perusal of the ad by the viewer falls into jeopardy.
The second stage is the touching the customer’s heart, when the emotional connect happens. With a little more exposure maybe first time or on a subsequent viewing this can happen best. The imagery maybe negative or positive but the emotional connect is almost a necessity, the ‘connection establishing’ is most important. This stage for the viewer showcases the ‘real creativity’ and nuanced and painstaking details that have gone in tandem with the creative team behind the advertisement.
Almost like the pairing of the marketer and the user the third and the final stage is when the effectiveness comes into play and the child of this pairing (of viewer’s emotional connection and ad maker creativity in strategic message delivery/imagery/narrative) is born as the behaviour change. The sperm of strategic intent and the message that the adman is trying to convey fertilizes the ovum of the receptive viewer’s mind. This receptivity flows from the earlier stage of emotional connect that the marketer has been able to establish.
This is the zone of ‘creative effectiveness’ when the viewer fully understands, and embraces the brand and its message and ultimately what it stands for. ROI is almost a measure in the long run or in the short term brand establishment, strengthening, user generated viral campaigns, social buzz etc can be the direct result from this stage.
Either the ad itself becomes famous or the product is utilized more effectively.
The very basis of this effectiveness established above is to understand the target segments’ realistic expectations. With the advent of social media on the internet this is becoming more important as honing on the target segment is becoming easier. The ad must then package the same in a visual, message that will establish this in the minds and induce a behavior change. However there is no one way of doing this so the routes maybe many.
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