Bad Creative. Or is It Bad Planning?
I was recently reading a Mediapost article by Tameka Kee about how so much creative these days, both online and offline, is ineffective. While Tameka also argued that some agencies are doing a very nice job producing compelling, highly effective ads and content, I think it is worth focusing a bit more on what isn't working - and why.
In my opinion, you can blame your creative if you are absolutely sure that your contact plan is optimal. Otherwise, how do you know that certain elements of your plan, such as target audience selection, media placement, timing or day-parting, channel mix, and a host of other elements, are perfectly planned? How do you know if the consumer insights fed to your creative team were accurate and useful? My guess is that you don't always know, so don't be so quick to point the finger when an execution or campaign is not successful.
Recently, I was playing basketball and a fellow co-worker went down with a serious knee injury (actually, a combination of serious knee injuries!). When I was in the office the next day and Googled terms such as "torn patella tendon" and "fractured tibia," I was directed to content areas on About.com and WebMD to learn more about these knee injuries. I usually only pay attention to online display ads when they are highly relevant and eye-catching, but for some reason I was really in-tune with the banners served up to me on these sites each time I refreshed. I kept a running tally of the ads I saw on About.com:
- Mio DigiWalker C230 GPS at Radio Shack
- Verizon High Speed Internet for $12.99/month
- Verizon Camera Phone
- University of Phoenix
- Saturn Astra
- Classmates.com (included Boston copy in the ad, but listed Mesa High School as a local high school)
- AT&T LG Camera Phone
- Claritin
Other than the Classmates.com ad, not one of these ads seemed to be geo-targeted. And, as noted above, it was quite transparent to see mention of Mesa High School in a Boston-based ad. As for the Verizon High Speed Internet banner, I clicked on it to see if Verizon even had service where I worked or lived. Nope. In fact, I eventually ended up at what seemed to be a broken page on the site after entering my zip code. Nice job Verizon!
Alternatively, I thought that maybe I was being served some of these ads within an online ad network due to my surfing behavior and profile points. What perplexed me though, was if these advertisers considered my visitation to sites such as Boston.com, Yahoo! Mail, and ESPN.com, as well as marketing and media properties, reason enough to serve me ads for Claritin or cell phones. Maybe something in my web surfing behavior suggested that these ads were behaviorally targeted, but I didn't see a connection. Or, maybe I'm in the target demographic for these brands. Again, not sure.
What I do know is that most people researching the knee issues I was learning about probably would be more receptive to ads that are much more contextually relevant. An advertiser promoting a product for knee pain relief or a geo-targeted ad representing a local clinic specializing in knee injuries would likely be much more well-received. The better the relevance, the less impactful or effective the creative needs to be. However, combine the two elements and you have a highly compelling combination.
This is a pretty basic example, but it illustrates how creative is only one piece of the puzzle. In fact, some of the ads had nicely designed creative with well-written copy. They just weren't targeted. So, while some accountability can be placed on creative directors, designers, copywriters, and developers for the so-called bad creative, the ultimate success of creative, and, more importantly, an overall campaign, is becoming increasingly dependent on good target insight information provided by account planning or media strategy folks, and, subsequently, pinpoint media placement.
Understanding how the target, whether it is a single segment or multiple segments, consumes information and media, where they do it, how often they do it, and how effective certain channels are at breaking through all of the clutter they are exposed to, should drive much more relevant and specific creative development efforts.
Many firms do an excellent job at strategic planning and developing consumer insights, but simply handing the information off to your creative team often leads to a disconnect. The most original, effective, and targeted efforts these days are developed when there is upfront, cross-functional brainstorming and collaboration between creative, media, strategy, account management, and any other departments that touch the brand.
While we are all hired to handle certain responsibilities within our agencies and for our clients, it would be arrogant to think that our fellow employees do not have value to add in our specific realms of expertise. My recommendation is to stop blaming creative for everything that goes wrong and begin to work collaboratively so that planning and creative concepting/ development operate in tandem.
The combination of your contact plan and creative will undoubtedly improve and you can stop blaming your creative team for everything. Believe me, they will appreciate it!
