Is Your Creative Just Creative — Or Does It Sell, Too?

John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; I just don’t know which half.”

This iconic line offers a mini cautionary tale on the necessity of pairing analytics and research with any creative initiative. Having a strategic road map before crafting an ad or campaign — on the radio, through digital solutions, or otherwise — ensures that a brand engages with the right audiences through the right stories in the right places.

Essentially, the lesson is this: When data informs creative, money is never wasted on advertising, because you can be confident it’s being used as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Know Your Audience to Create a Connection

Everything starts and ends with your audience. Your brand cannot connect with them mentally or emotionally without knowing who they are, what matters to them, and why. Here’s a look at what you’ll want to understand:

• Basic demographics
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Location
• Employment/income level
• Marital/parental status
• Detailed demographics
• Education level
• Family size
• Home ownership
• Lifestyle
• Psychographics
• Cultural values, beliefs, and vernacular
• Influencers that resonate
• Interests and hobbies
• Hopes, desires, and fears
• Behaviors
• Hobbies
• Shopping habits
• Browsing habits
• Devices owned

A perfect example of a brand that knows its audience is Always and its #LikeAGirl campaign. Owner P&G compiled research that revealed that 49% of teenage girls will actively avoid trying new things because of fear of failure. They chose a visually emotive campaign, Always: Keep Going #LikeAGirl, to remind this audience segment that yes, they will try and fail, but they will learn, too. It successfully taps into fear and balances it with hope and inspiration.

Have a Goal to Strive For

You should never advertise just to advertise. Each ad campaign should stem from SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-restricted objectives — each relevant to your greater business goals. 

International smartphone service provider, Three, wanted to generate more social traction, build brand awareness in various countries, and earn goodwill with its customers. In a new initiative that allowed customers to use their phones in other countries with no added fees, Three spread the word with its "Holiday Spam" ad campaign that "apologized" for the increased bragging and photo spam from family and friends on vacation.

According to data analytics brand GlobalWebIndex, Three determined that customers used 71% more data, especially on photos, during their trips abroad than they would have otherwise, helping customers save ￡2.7 billion in roaming fees. In turn, this bolstered brand metrics and lifted its social conversation volume by 90%.

Tell a Story

Today’s media relies so much on moments, on instant content that’s immediately consumed and disposed of, that marketers sometimes forget they’re supposed to tell a story about how the brand fits into the consumer’s life. Susan Credle, global chief creative officer at FCB, pondered this in her 2016 think piece for the Wall Street Journal, noting that events like the Macy’s Day Parade and the Tour de France would never have been invented today. Even if they had, she suspects, they would never have lasted.

At the same time, consumers are more empowered than ever. They want to know that the brands they choose align with their values, and they’ll do the research to uncover that information. Price is still an important factor, of course, but sustainability, fair trade, and community support matter just as much.

As Seth Godin said, “Marketing is no longer about the products we sell but the stories we tell.” Why? Because stories are what convert data insights into something that makes your audience feel. The more memorable a brand’s story is, the more that brand sticks with its audience, impacts their lives, and influences their choices.

Of course, there are some common elements required for brand storytelling:

• Branding alignment
• Messaging (language, tone, purpose, values)
• Design elements (color, font, imagery, voicing, characters)
• Cross-channel customization to format
• Authenticity and transparency

Nespresso’s ad campaigns used to be marked by quirky appearances from well-loved celebrities, especially George Clooney. However, in 2017 the brand made a radical change in its marketing — it chose to embrace the growing number of consumers choosing brands that make a positive impact and emphasizes the uncompromising choices it makes for exceptional coffee products. Rather than a mere collection of ads, "The Choices We Make" involves a brand platform that tells the unique and inspirational stories of the people involved in production. Currently, its focus is on the driving force of women agronomists in Ethiopia.

Give Them an Experience

According to EventMarketer, 72% of consumers view brands providing great experiences in a more positive light. For some time now, brands have also had to recognize that a major demo — 73% of Millennials — don’t buy material goods the way previous generations did; they prefer experiences (per CNBC). As I just noted, stories are critical to connecting with your audience, but experiences take that a step further. They go beyond a static message to make your audience part of your story.

It’s important to understand that creative initiatives like this should not be thought of as a one-and-done, self-contained effort. Experiences need to be a part of a larger brand strategy that leads your audience into a greater understanding of who your brand is, the variety of your offerings, and your channels of engagement.

Google is a corporate powerhouse that could talk about the way it makes donations in certain areas. Instead, when it was ready to donate $5.5 million to non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area, it wanted to integrate its users in general, as well as Bay Area residents specifically. As you might expect, there was a branded hashtag (#GoogleImpactChallenge) and a landing page for voting at Google.org, however, when it came to involving residents, Google got creative. Relying on behavioral data, it installed interactive posters near bus shelters, food trucks, and various locales. Passersby could touch specific parts of the poster to vote for their charity of choice. In a mere 3.5 weeks, the campaign received more than 400,000 votes.

As Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” Your advertising creative needs to be more than just creative and eye or ear catching — it needs to tie a brand to its audiences in a way that produces results. Utilizing data to define and support your creative and, in turn, using analytics to refine your creative, will strengthen that connection with your audiences in a way that lifts your bottom line.