Posted by : Jared Kisten Wednesday 9 September 2015


Creativity.

More than just drawing pretty pictures and being clever with words, a creative mind has the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships and create new ideas, forms, methods and interpretations. It is about being original, progressive and using your imagination to create a message that entice consumers to buy your product.

But many people ask what creativity has to do with advertising. Surely advertising should just tell the consumer about the benefits, the price and where to get the product? Surely that is the only reason why consumers decide to buy what they end up buying?

“Nothing is more efficient than creative advertising. Creative advertising is more memorable, longer lasting, works with less media spending, and builds a fan community…faster.” Steven Vogel, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather in Germany

Research has shown that creative messages do draw more attention to brands, and also build more positive attitudes. Unfortunately, this research has produced no firm evidence and does not provide actual information related to sales revenues.

Drawing on research in communications psychology, Werner Reinartz (Professor of Marketing) and Peter Saffert (Doctor of Econo-Mathematics) created a 70-month survey that measured the perceived creativity of various consumer goods along five dimensions.

The basic conclusions were as follows:

  • Creativity makes advertising much more (four times more!) effective than non-creative advertising, but only if your time scale for reporting is six months or longer.
  • If your time scale for reporting is under six months you will see no benefit: creativity does not drive effectiveness in the short term.
  • The time-dependent link between creativity and effectiveness applied to all major sectors; no evidence was found that some, or any, categories were exempted.
  • Creativity confers a particularly strong beneficial effect on price sensitivity, allowing brands to price harden even though no-one stated this was their intention.

These findings thus confirmed the conventional idea that creativity in advertising is important. In fact, with careful consideration of cultural preferences and different demographic information, companies can dramatically improve their ad spend, maximising profits.

“ We also found that certain dimensions of creativity are more effective than others in influencing purchasing behavior—and that many companies focus on the wrong dimensions in their campaigns.” notes Reinartz.

Decimal Agency believes in the power of creativity and centres it around every project we take on. By having an unbiased perception of a brand and its position in the market, we can apply the talents of a complete, talented creative team to come up with a campaign that will maximise the efficiency of your ad spend.

We apply the following fundamental elements to our projects in order to achieve the greatest creativity:

Originality: Decimal Agency creates original ad campaigns that are different to mainstream ideas and concepts. We develop unique visual, verbal or written messages that surprise and interest the consumer. An example is Mimmo’s “A Pizza Happiness” campaign.

Flexibility: Decimal Agency has the ability to apply a particular product or campaign idea to a variety of uses or media, thus reaching more people in different ways that all have the same messaging. This includes Print, In-store, Outdoor, promotional, POS, Social Media, Radio, Television, Digital and guerilla advertising. Being a TTL (through the line) agency, this is one of our strongest points. See our Soviet Summer 2014 campaign.

Elaboration: Turning good into great - as per Decimal Agency’s motto, we take simple messages and turn it into interesting, exciting, relevant campaigns that consumers want to experience. We achieved this with Soviet’s “Old Clothing” charity campaign.

Synthesis: Decimal takes objects that are seemingly unrelated to your product and brand, and turns it into a “brand story” that links the two in order to make it more interesting and relevant, without losing the brand’s identity and message. An excellent example of this Defy’s “Turning a mountain into a molehill” campaign.

Artistic Value: With a team of extremely creative designers, a genius art director and a quirky copywriter, and many more, Decimal Agency has all the tools it needs to add artistic value to all your consumer communication, whether it is through visual artistry or the written word. Our ODDS video is one of the projects that combined all our artistic talents to produce an exceptional result.

We know the best creative advertising doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to come up with the best ideas, plan, execute and get the best results from them. But at the end of the day, it is worth the time and effort, and the profits prove it.

So why is it of imperative importance for South African companies, big and small, Retail, B2B or even Direct Selling, to start branding their businesses?

With the technological advancements of today, especially in communications technology, people are empowered to be more informed, connected, united and interactive. Consumers are demanding accountability and transparency from the companies they support, and are forcing these companies to answer fundamental questions: What business are you in? Why do you exist? Why should I choose you, when there are so many others to choose from?

“Your brand isn’t just a logo and a quick tagline. Your brand is the way customers experience you. A good brand doesn’t just happen; it’s a well thought out strategic plan.” says Raffaele Mc Creadie, Managing Director of Decimal Agency.

A global marketing leadership study, Marketing2020, found that leading brands go beyond the functional product benefits and deliver on a higher order reason for being, thus creating the highest valued growth brands in the world.

“Put simply, the brands that care more about who they are, and what they stand for, do better. The most successful branding is built on a strong feeling, a feeling you and your staff can commit to and can deliver on.” comments Mc Creadie.

Branding promotes the following key indicators for businesses:

  1. Branding promotes recognition
  2. Your brand helps set you apart from the competition
  3. Your brand tells people about your business DNA
  4. Your brand provides your staff with motivation
  5. A strong brand gets recommended
  6. A strong brand tells people exactly what they’re going to get
  7. Your brand represents you, and its promise
  8. Your brand helps you stay focused and get clarity on your goals
  9. Your brand helps you connect emotionally with your brand
  10. A strong brand provides your business with value

Defining your brand can be a long road in discovering the core of your business: it takes time, effort and patience.To save yourself the energy, consider employing a branding agency that believes in leading brands, not just managing them.

“Brand leadership is based on the premise that brand building not only creates brand equity, but it is also necessary for institutional success.” notes Idris Mootee, Author of 60 Minute Brand Strategist.

Decimal Agency, a dynamic, sophisticated Branding Agency in Johannesburg, believes in this approach. Not only do they believe in it, they follow this doctrine down to the last detail.

With the expertise and tools to move your brand in the right direction, this agency also takes on branding tasks with passion, energy and creative spark. Their services include: digital, design, promotional, copywriting and online strategies and implementation to help your brand soar.



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