Creativity Without Strategy? That’s Art, Not Advertising.

It’s the day after the Big Game, which means it’s time to “Monday Morning Quarterback” the most important part of the game: The Ads! Well … it left most of us at COHN feeling that the big advertising budgets coming from big brands were a big let down. Blah, is the common consensus. What happened here? These ads are coming from some of the brightest and best shops in the biz, but they seem to be missing the mark.?

Now this is going to sound a little nuts coming from a CD, but creative just for creative sake is meant for an art gallery, not for pushing our clients goals and ROI forward!?

We have to remember that the key to speaking to our audiences is authenticity and strategic planning that hits them right where they need it the most.?What we saw yesterday was flash and very little filling. Even ads that might have a viral wave will fade out in a week. But what about ads like Cirkul? That was really really smart.?

What do I mean - what the heck was that ad even about? The true brilliance from the marketing department on that one was to take it outside of the basic ad spend and out of the tube and into reality. How'd they do it?

1. Started?with the age-old idea of “scarcity drives demand”
2. Mixed with?a little AI timeliness
3. A dash of authenticity by using a vocal Cirkul?drinker as their hype man
4. And the pièce de résistance … a front porch delivery of Cirkul prior to the game.

They took a Super Bowl spot and brought it to life right at the customer's doorstep.?

While not everyone got that special delivery (and many were likely left confused), my guess is those that did receive the Cirkul drop will have a huge engagement and retention rate. Equally valuable is the word of mouth advertising this will deliver for the brand. We know people who received the nationwide doorstep drop will be telling their friends and neighbors about it. That’s putting media dollars to work.

It's important to be smart with our creative thinking and to problem solve for our audiences so that they see us as partners and not just a brand trying to sell them something. Big ideas are important—truly the gold at the end of the rainbow—but without strategy to back them up, they are just ideas lacking ROI.

So, what might a game plan overhaul in advertising start to look like? I think we will see more …

• Extending beyond traditional ad spend & creating real-world engagement
• Merging authenticity & word-of-mouth marketing
• Marrying big ideas with smart strategies?to?back them up

Let's strategize together!