The creative approach in advertising, also known as mind mapping or brainstorming, is a timeless “classic” of marketing. Creativity takes a company beyond traditional solutions and sets it apart from the competition. And your place in the minds of consumers depends on how effectively the process is designed.
In this article, we’ll talk about the most effective ways to incorporate creativity into advertising and explore the principles of its work through examples.
«There’s nothing more effective than creative ad. It’s more engaging, lasts longer, requires less media placement and builds a community of fans faster»,
Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Germany
Why do you need creativity in advertising?
According to statistics, only 16% of customers can remember the advertising they have seen and associate it with the brand. This calls for a creative concept to somehow win over this small percentage. Here’s what you can do:
One of the main objectives of advertising isn’t only to achieve the widest possible reach, but also to increase interest in the brand and build loyalty.
Does creativity in advertising always guarantee its attractiveness?
Sometimes a creative approach plays to its strengths and goes viral, and sometimes it fails:
✅ Google’s “Year in Search” advertising campaign in 2009 is an annual reminder of how dependent we are on Google for news and events. The 2023 campaign garnered 351 million views in just one month.
✅ Focused on the PC and Mac debate, the “Apple: Get a Mac” campaign was the best in the brand’s history. It helped increase sales of Apple products by 42% in one year from existing shares.
❌ Razor brand Gillette has released a 2019 campaign with the tagline “The best men can be”. The commercial was viewed on YouTube 2 million times in the first two days and sparked serious controversy. Many users called the campaign “dead” because it showed shocking content: images of bullying, and aggressive behavior by men. Many comments on the video are negative, labeling it “feminist propaganda.”
In your pursuit of creativity, it’s important to consider the preferences and needs of the target audience. Things like the content’s relevance and the message’s timeliness also play an important role.
The mechanics of creativity. Where to find creative advertising?
The best way to get noticed in the information “noise” is to create something that either transcends it or “leads” it, if only for a while. To make the message “work”, it’s important to develop awesome storytelling with visual triggers, and to succeed with an emotional CTA. In general, the process is divided into 4 phases:
1. Focusing or hypothesizing the problem to be solved.
2. Generating ideas and abstract hypotheses are recorded in parallel in sketches, on post-its, or in notes — whichever is more practical.
3. Filtering. The leading minds must be “filtered out” of the total number” — by ordinary majority voting or, for example, by the Eisenhower matrix.
4. Idea Landing. At this stage, a set of detailed subject ideas is formed. Based on the abstract concept, solutions to the concrete idea are presented. For example: where to get the correlation between a burger and an Easter egg to be amazed by it? Burger King, in its campaign on the eve of Easter, simply flipped the product to resemble an egg.
Creativity doesn’t always come “on demand”, but is rather the result of serendipity combined with persistent brainstorming. If you’re not sure how to kick-start the creative process, here are some ways to help:
1. Analogies or visual metaphors for finding unexpected connections — Braun, Tabasco ;
2. Contrasting or comparing two opposing ideas — Pepsi ;
3. Bringing to the absurdity of conception, for singularity and original conclusions — First Call ;
4. A play on contrasts or audience desires that creates a memorable image — McDonald’s ;
5. Stature or use of aspects of prestige, elitism — Old Spice Smell Like A Man, Man ;
6. Collaboration or cooperation with other companies. For example, Spotify & Uber have integrated music streaming into their ride-ordering app and now, while waiting for a cab, people create their music playlists that play from the speakers during the ride.
How do you find inspiration for creating ads? From overheads to moodboards
Developing creativity, while abstract, is a necessary process. In the initial phase, it’s important to brainstorm or mind-mapping yourself at regular intervals.
Marketers draw inspiration from a variety of sources because it’s important that a creative concept captures the audience’s interest, influences their emotional response and inspires action. Here are a few ideas where you can get inspired to jumpstart the creative process:
What’s next?
These days, it’s getting harder and harder to lure customers with slogans: people want to be part of the product story and participate, if not in the creation of the product, then in its adaptation. Armed with all the methods of creativity, it’s time to get into practice!
We’ll present modern advertising formats and examples of famous brands in the next part, which will be published in a few days. Don’t miss it!
