Assessing Good Creative - 10 of Value for Every Dollar Spent


Stan Richards
The Richards Group
Principal

Successful Branding and Advertising

We define a brand as a promise. It is a promise that there will be certain deliverables that come from this product or service or company, and those deliverables must reach the ultimate consumer at every point of contact every time – otherwise a brand gets weak. The difference between weak and strong brands is consistency. Delivering on a promise at every point in time and opportunity makes a strong brand. To make a weak brand strong or a strong brand stronger, we must understand what the essence of the brand is – what that promise is – and deliver that consistently and effectively. It does not just stop with advertising: It has to find its way into every point of contact with the consumer. An example would be our work for Motel 6. In all of our radio advertising we use Tom Bodet as the lead character, and if you stayed at a Motel 6 and you requested a wake-up call, your wake-up call would not be what you would get at other hotel chains. Your wake-up call would be Tom Bodet, who says something like, “Good morning! You have just won the lottery! Just kidding – but it is time to get up and hit the road.” It is that kind of consistency along every point of contact that makes strong brands stronger.

It is important for clients to understand that the greatest risk is being invisible. We have to find ways of making people notice our work. We want to make the work likeable. We want the viewer or the reader to like the advertiser. It is exactly the same as if you were selling in a retail environment – in a car dealership, for instance. If you walked up to a customer as he or she entered a show room, stuck out your hand and said, “Hi. How can I help you?” the very first thing you want to happen is to have that customer like you. I think advertising works in exactly the same way. We try to make our work as endearing as possible – to find some basis on which the viewer or reader will like the work, consequently like the advertiser and ultimately be easier to engage in business. That sometimes involves breaking rules and taking risks, but most often it is simply a matter of putting good work on the table, explaining to the client why it will be effective, and then jumping out and doing it.

Ultimately, what constitutes a successful advertising campaign is moving the needle. Whether this is measured by increasing awareness of the advertiser or enhancing the brand, or whether it is measured at the cash register – both are valid measures of the campaign’s success. Success has little or nothing to do with how the work does in the award shows. The ultimate measure is how it works in the marketplace. Are we delivering $10 worth of value to the client for every dollar he spends? That is the difference between weak creative and good creative. Weak creative gives you a dollar’s worth of value for every dollar spent. Good creative gives you $10 of value for every dollar spent.




The Art of Advertising. CEOs from BBDO, Mullin Advertising & More on Generating Creative Campaigns & Building Successful Brands
The Art of Advertising: CEOs from Mullen Advertising, Marc USA, Euro RSCG & More on Generating Creative Campaigns & Building Successful Brands (Inside the Minds Series)
ISBN: 1587622319
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 68

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