The Importance of Creativity in Advertising

Competition for ad space is fierce, so how do you get your ads to slay?

The roots of advertising run deep. We’ve come a long way since William Caxton printed what would be described as Britain’s first advert in 1477. How grand it would be if advertising was still so simple. Nowadays, we have a bit more to contend with on the marketplace than ol’ Caxton. While this makes for a more exciting day at the office, it requires a lot more effort to stand out in the ad world. We’ve put together an extensive guide to explain the ins and outs of creative advertising; what it is; how to carry out a creative advertising strategy; how to create impactful work with creative advertising. We will cover four main elements of advertising and how creativity fits into each: purpose, audience, relevancy and platforms. But first, a little about the meaning of creative advertising and what creative advertising agencies like ourselves do.

WHAT IS CREATIVE ADVERTISING?

Creative advertising is when a team of creatives come together to make a campaign or commercial that creatively and effectively tells the story of a brand or nonprofit. Creative agencies can perform any number of functions for clients; from strategy and design, to technology or media – all creatively or expert lead. The work is often strongly defined by values or a particular guiding philosophy – in other words, the work creative agencies produce is much more conceptual and meaningful than any old promos. Here are the four key reasons why we think creativity is so important to advertising…

WHY IS CREATIVITY IMPORTANT IN ADVERTISING?

MEMORABILITY

It may be a little disheartening for advertisers to read but research suggests that only 16% of advertising is both recalled and correctly attributed to the brand, suggesting 84% of ad spend could be going to waste… ouch. A recent study revealed that internet users are now spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social networking and messaging platforms. That seems like a lot of time to get through to them, right? Wrong. On average, you have around 5 seconds of that time to grab your visitors attention. If your material doesn’t compel them to hang around, it’s game over. We’re bombarded by advertising every time we open a browser or pick up a tablet, so creative ads which can cut through this constant onslaught of content are essential for success. British market research company Millward Brown identified the ten biggest reasons why ads are widely shared and reason numero uno, by a wide margin at that, is that they are creative and engaging. It seems that the best way to be noticed in the midst of advertising “noise” is therefore to be compelling. And the most compelling ads are creative ones, which grab and maintain your audience’s attention. The rest just get lost in the eternal abyss that is the internet! Creative advertising is what lead to the success of safeco now insurance login company.

EFFECTIVENESS

Creative advertising campaigns are proven to be more effective at getting results. Author James Hurman, among others, has researched three decades of ad campaigns and found that when executed effectively, creative ad campaigns deliver an ROI that’s as much as eleven times higher than non-creative campaigns. Research carried out by The Harvard Business Review revealed: “A euro invested in a highly creative ad campaign had, on average, nearly double the sales impact of a euro spent on a non-creative campaign.” To qualify this, our creative campaign for Save The Children, Most Shocking Second A Day, achieved a 93% uplift in fundraising for the organisation. The relevant second-a-day format brought the crisis to a painfully familiar setting for parents in a platform where they were already engaged, striking an international chord, and resulting in over 150million views, 2.5 million shares.

BRAND LOVE

Creativity can help brands to create a following, as well as promote their products. A study by Micael Dahlen, Sara Rosengren and Fredrik Torn, published in the Journal of Advertising Research, found that a highly-creative ad is likely to make its mark with consumers. It turns out that many people believe that a brand is high-quality and worth their attention, simply because they’re impressed by the effort that went into producing such a creative advertisement. Take Innocent Smoothies for example. They portray an image that appeals to a wide range of people, promoting sustainability and community – two very positive themes. Their brand values are reflected throughout their campaigns, so they seem to be exactly what they say they are: innocent. Simple, cute, loveable promotions which leave consumers feeling like they can trust the brand.

In fact, following Innocent Smoothies’ rebrand in 2017 which aimed to enhance the brand’s loveable, nurturing image, the UK’s biggest chilled juice rebounded from a previous £700,000 loss to an £8.5 million profit. Thanks to new recipes, a redesign and successful creative campaign, the business grew exponentially.

MEDIA SPEND

Advertising which is creative requires less media spend because it is more likely to be shared organically – increasing the opportunities for audiences to see the ad. This is particularly true on social media, where a like or a share from a friend buy dianabol online is far more valuable than paid promotion, due to the way algorithms prioritise content in the news feed. However, it’s also true of offline channels, where disruptive formats can get earned coverage online too. For example, our interactive OOH campaign for the launch of Amazon’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime was picked up and shared across various social platforms, because of its disruptive nature. Posters in tube cars personally challenged members of the public to see if they have what it takes to join the CIA, asking them: “How Jack Ryan are you?” The campaign was picked up and retweeted by various members of the public, including Executive Producer at Yahoo Finance UK and Freelance Journalist at Wall Street Journal, Lara O’Reilly, achieving authentic reach beyond paid media; Mission accomplished.

PLAN OF ACTION

It’s for these reasons that we encourage clients to think of creative, production and media as one. Creativity shouldn’t just be the responsibility of those with ‘creative’ in their job title, it should be a collaborative process which works towards the common goal of creating disruptive work which genuinely cuts through. The more creative brain power there is, the more effective the campaign.

OUR CREATIVE AGENCY

At Don’t Panic, we evolved from content creators into a creative advertising agency, and use the values we held dearly as content creators to guide us through our creative work today. Since our transformation into a London-based creative ad agency, we’ve used our unique ways of working to create memorable and effective creative campaigns for charities and brands including: The Wildlife Trusts, Greenpeace and Oxfam, as well as Spotify, Netflix and YouTube.

Fancy making a creative campaign?

Curating top class creative campaigns isn’t easy, but that’s why we’re here to help. At Don’t Panic, we don’t just talk the talk – we’re busy walking the walk too. To see our work, click here, or if you’re after an attention-grabbing campaign of your own, click here.