My nephew loves proverbs and idioms. He is 26! I am 24! But he is my nephew! All we have in common is the love for Rum, and a deep resentment towards the arsenic use of the word ‘Creativity’ with the same frequency as that of words like shit, f**k, please, sorry, hello, selfie, so on and so forth. Think about it. How many times in a day do you come across the word ‘Creativity’ in text or speech? Chances are you hear it more times than the number of times Trump says ‘my business’ in his speeches.
Just the other day he came in wearing a t-shirt with the quote “Barking Gods Sell Them Right!” A spin–off from the famous proverb got us thinking. What really sells stuff? Is it creativity, or just propaganda?
Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten. – William Bernbach
How much of Digital Advertising and Marketing is Actually Creativity?
Good advertising is not about evoking feelings like art does, it’s pretty much just good selling! – David Ogilvy
Yes, sorry if it is not something palatable but in our digital marketing agency world, ‘Creativity’ is now a commodity derived from a systematic process of creative thinking techniques in business. The qualitative aspect of it is highly abstract, powerful, unconquerable and too much of a wild cat to be tamed enough to sell. So what do we do? Distil the abstract all-powerful quality into a malleable, controllable object. Turn it into a product! Guess what! It can be sold, even if it is crap. Also, we can sell the product for a while till consumers (read clients)are bored, stop production, and then present it in a new packaging, so on and so forth!
Have a look at the following pictures.
If you look at the famous Subway billboard advertisement, a couple of things are extremely clear at first notice. It is not art! It is not something that you traditionally associate with creativity – right? So how can such an example, which is devoid of ‘creativity’ in the first place, have any mention in the list of most creative ads ever list across the spectrum?
Let us try to de-construct the ads. It produces shock, curiosity, and at the end a smile – eventually, creating a re-call for the brand through one of the most commonly used word.
It is a thought process that gets different abstractions into some usable form – “eating at subway”, or the “same day return”. It synthesizes multiple ideas – sexual desires with the desirable actions.
If you have an idea X, what is neXt? – Prof Raskar, a scientist at MIT Media lab
A brand communication, which can combine multiple ideas in a unique and effective way, and then create something so simple that even the lamest of minds can fathom it at the shortest span of time, is what really makes the difference. Let us face it. People are busy. An advertisement does not have all the time in the world to relay its message. These advertisements surpass all such limitations and drive home the selling point by capturing attention among all the noise.
In today’s world of digital marketing, It is the combination of attention and effectiveness that is what the creative minds of advertising seek to produce. Picasso may not agree, but Picasso is not a marketer here!
The world of advertising and marketing is a tumultuous tempest-ridden sea, and ‘Creativity’ as a word only ‘SELLS’ itself, but as the soulful ephemeral heart of this business ‘SAILS’ your ship through the storm with immense calm.
So what do you choose for yourself – your brand? Uninspired rolls of creativity bought from an industrious supermarket – just a decorative word with mindless AHAs, or Inspirational, genuine, magical, and original sea of ideas that sell your stuff. It is a free world. It is free choice!
Check out our creative showcase and look for yourself how we sell brands and businesses with our creativity and not just the word!
