Creative in Context of Commercial 3rd July, 2017

It’s that Cannes time of the year.  A time where the focus is on excellent creative – what makes it, how to harness it, and who is doing it best.  I am a huge fan of good creative.  As I’m not particularly creative myself, great concepts executed phenomenally really drives inspiration.  And who doesn’t want to be inspired?

Creative used to drive commercial.  The best creative television ad had the capability to harness the purchase power of millions, dropping credit cards like flies for the latest milk chocolate or iPhone.  However, as more channels are developed, more creators are surfacing and it’s now harder than ever to guarantee that great creative will drive the bottom line.  With exceptional creative, this still exist (and perhaps stands out more than ever), but on the whole – it’s harder to get your ad to stand out.

And so the value of understanding commercial in view of the creative increases.

Commercial in the creative industries can be viewed in two ways:

1. Creating ads that are more effective
2. Reducing the spend on ads through other channels

Efficiency

Being more effective can be done in many ways now that brands have the capability to take more risks.  Creative is no longer confined to pre-planned, locked-in billboard and television ads, creative now can be tested in real time with smaller markets producing immediate feedback.  Furthermore, planners can now be more creative on how that spend is made.  Efficiency can also be found through sponsorship.  Purchasing assets that can have multi-purpose uses throughout the business; tickets for hospitality, brand ambassadors for influencer marketing, rights for reach.  The value to broadening the historical isolated view of marketing and sales departments can produce even greater results than exceptional creative alone.

Multi-channel

Ads no longer work like they used to.  And for that matter, the logo in sponsorship drives zero value.  And yet, sponsorship is on the rise.  The reason being is that sponsorship provides multi-channel marketing that is wrapped up to make it financially less risky than ‘putting all your eggs in one basket’.  The cost to repurpose creative across these channels makes it easier to become more effective, whilst also saving money.  Understanding how to leverage a sponsorship proposal’s multi-channel assets is incredible vital to the success of the sponsorship campaign – and yet most don’t even go into detail to what channels they are purchasing and how they can be used until after the deal is done.

By viewing creative in context of commercial at the outset, you can ensure that even so-so creative has the power to drive the bottom line.  And whilst I wouldn’t want to champion average work, it is important to view this in light of the ever growing marketing industry shifting faster than most of us can truly keep up with.