This week I attended the Effie Awards Gala at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan. For those unfamiliar with them, the Effies are the North American ad industry equivalent of the Oscars. What struck me most about the evening was not the ads - I will share my thoughts on the winner of the Grand Effie later in the post - but rather the introduction made by Ty Montague, Co-President, Chief Creative Officer, New York, JWT. Ty stated, “Every client I have ever worked with desperately wants every facet of the development of a product and its marketing to be infused with as much creativity as possible.” After the event, this comment led me to reflect on why true creativity is so difficult to achieve.

Before I give my thoughts, here is another quote from Ty’s introduction. Referring to Steve Jobs - probably the role model for many in the room - Ty suggested, “So when he launches iPod, the creativity starts with the way the product looks, works and feels. Then he builds out from there. The packaging, the distribution, the PR, even the business model - all creative. And finally, some creative advertising gets done.”

Ty’s basic point, that creativity was baked-in from the start, is true to the success of iPod, JetBlue (also cited by Ty), Google, Innocent, Egg, Camper - insert the name any brand where consumers’ emotional attachment transcends its purely functional benefits. The product itself is founded on a great idea which is then implemented well. Subsequent layers of creativity are built on this foundation to create a brand that people aspire to use, bond with and talk about, but without that initial foundation the power of those additional elements would be substantially diminished.

And therein lies the problem. If creativity is desired and sought by so many, how come it is so elusive? How many times has a good product or service not gotten the creative marketing that it deserves? Why is it so difficult to ensure that creativity is baked-in to every stage of the development and marketing process?

My answer would be “communication,” plain and simple. Let me give you just one example of how poor communication within and across companies can undermine the power of creativity.

A while ago, a team of people at Millward Brown worked with Bases to identify the reasons why so many new product launches were unsuccessful. One common problem was that advertising executions designed to support the launch did not highlight the product features that had made the original product concept appealing. The reason was a communications failure. Ad agency personnel were rarely involved in the concept testing, and the results - particularly the aspects that had made the concept attractive to consumers - were not communicated effectively to the team that then had to create the launch ads. It is one thing to see something written down in a PowerPoint presentation, it is another thing to engage with the idea and understand its real relevance. As one agency planner told us, the end result was that many ads then ignored the real reasons why people might want to buy the new brand in favor of creating “emotional resonance” with the target audience.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Emotion in advertising is important. But it is more important in some situations than others. A well-known brand can aim at building emotional resonance directly, because its basic proposition is known to most people. A new brand, on the other hand, needs to establish relevance and credibility first. People want to believe they are making a good choice, that they are not wasting money and that something they buy will meet their needs better than the alternatives (even if they cannot judge those things in an impartial manner). Ads for new brands that can get people to pause and check out the claims made will be far more effective than those that try to create resonance without that foundation. In fact, I believe that the new brand ads that do successfully “persuade” people are exactly the ads that will then create emotional resonance for the brand, once people check out the claims and find them to be true.

The communication and understanding breakdown I have highlighted here is just one example, but it is symptomatic of the issues facing many big businesses today. There are too many silos, and too few people with the commitment and strength of will to transcend those silos. I am reminded of the 9/11 Commission Report that concluded, “Good people can overcome bad structure. They should not have to.” Anyone aspiring to follow in Steve Jobs footsteps would do well to start by beating down as many silo walls as possible to unlock the creativity that otherwise gets trapped in them.

OK, enough of my musings, what about the Grand Effie?

The Grand Effie was won by Ogilvy & Mather for the Dove “Real Beauty” campaign. It received the universal acclaim of the Effie judges and there is no doubt that the campaign deserved to win. By tapping into the universal issue of women’s self-esteem the campaign strikes a very loud chord with the target audience.

The campaign is so successful because the advertising adds an additional layer to the basic product experience - it is emotionally differentiating. A key question, however, is whether or not the campaign would have been successful if the product did not deliver on its promise. One member of the Effie audience claimed she was very attracted by the advertising idea, but found product experience lacking, and so no longer buys Dove. While the brand’s sales performance suggests she might be in the minority, her comments are a good reminder that while great advertising is only successful if it is harnessed to the brand, the brand also needs to be able to do its part. If the advertising and product are out of synch, then neither of them is likely to be successful. Creativity is as much about creating synergy between the disparate elements of the marketing mix as it is about “creative” executions.

And that brings me on to one final point. Virtually all the winning campaigns at the Awards Gala were represented by TV ads. One has to ask, is this testimony to the ad industry’s fixation with the 30 second spot, or is it testimony to the power of sight and sound to create a compelling experience? Please let me know your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Creative. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print this Page