Anyone in marketing that’s wanted to hire a quality photographer, develop a brave ad campaign or create and launch a new brand has experienced it: resistance. And not just any resistance, the cock-sure-you-have-to-be-crazy-and-why-did-I-hire-you-anyway kind of resistance.
“We don’t need to ‘freshen up our brand.’ We just need to sell more.”
“We just need to get the word out.”
“A new logo? Where’s the ROI in that?”
“Can’t we just use stock photography?”
But make no mistake, there’s plenty of research proving the return on creativity is real. Check out Peter Minnium‘s excellent article, It’s the Creative, Stupid on Marketing Land where he shares research showing:
- Better creative yields greater engagement and brand lift
- Creative quality is five times more important than targeting in driving ad awareness; and
- Creative quality is four times more important than media plan quality in driving sales via this research by comScore.
The impact of quality creative drove more than half the sales changes for brands analyzed, which had four times the impact of the media plan involved.Jeff Cox, executive vice president of comScore ARS put this way:Though often overlooked, getting the creative strategy right from the start is essential if an advertiser wants its creative execution to actually perform. Doing so will improve the likelihood of achieving a successful campaign that will generate increased sales. A sub-par upfront strategy is a virtual guarantee that the execution is destined for failure.
Take that creative doubters, haters and ne’er do wells!
Here’s the reality: If you want a return on an investment, you have to invest your money and your time. And if you want a return on creativity, you’ll need to do the same thing.
#CreativeSummer15
Day 92/93
