Advertising effectiveness
As a senior advertising-design creative who likes to keep up with the “cool kids” in our profession, I recently attended a virtual seminar featuring a peer, Karen Pearce, GM of Rethink, the hottest agency in the world with its head office in Vancouver. It was hosted by the Calgary Marketing Association (CMA). Karen gave a talk called “Breakthrough Creative and Advertising Effectiveness” to creatives, marketing professionals and business owners who are members of the CMA (of which I’m one).
As a side note, Karen and I go back many years to when she was the GM of another internationally well-known agency, TAXI Agency, where she had approached me to consider running their new Calgary office. I declined the amazing opportunity as I would not leave the AdMaki team. In hindsight, it was the right decision. Thinking it would be a great collaboration at that time between an international advertising juggernaut and local boutique ad agency, in my response letter I included a graphic of their logo with the AdMaki logo’s ‘sushi brain’ dotting TAXI’s “I”. I said “Take me and my team. Or nothing”. Alas, AdMaki continued on its humble way where we continue today, unlike TAXI which is no longer represented in Calgary.
Back to the topic at hand. I was pleased that Karen had focused on the importance of “emotion”, defining what creates breakthrough and effective advertising in her presentation. I’ve never strayed away from that most important element of advertising-design. Whether as a teacher, creative director, or public speaker, to this day, I strive to communicate the importance of emotional engagement.
Creating content whether it be for a print ad, tv, logo, radio spot, social media post, butt tattoo, we as creatives must engage the audience through emotion. Again, as I’ve preached my entire career, Karen presented research-derived stats which I paraphrase here:“Famous brands are always on peoples’ consideration list… people will naturally buy brands they remember…make your brands less ‘ignorable’… campaigns from remembered brands have 62% more ROI…brands that are distinctive are 23% more likely to gain market share…95% of purchase decisions are made instinctively, driven by emotion…investing in emotive brand building campaigns over time can and will drive product sales…” These were points were shared from research she and her team at Rethink conducted. But it’s easy to conclude that “emotion sells”.
Of course, we can’t forget that the creative must be relevant to the target audience. So you want to be remembered or at least get on your potential customers’ “consideration list” and build some brand loyalty? Then make sure every piece of communication you or your professional creative team develops for your advertising pushes the buttons of your target audience, causes a reaction or even stirs the pot. Get people thinking! Be memorable!
Anyway, I want to thank Karen Pearce for re-instilling in me the fact that I have always pushed the importance of emotion in creative communication at all levels. And that it still holds true today. Emotion is essential to a successful brand presence in any business so make sure you’re cooking up some stimulating ideas in your advertising.
Until next month, gobble, gobble.
Cheers, mark.
