A presentation to a group of marketing students with a few examples, and statistical support from an academic study.

1. October 1, 2011

2. Presentation Outline
 My version of good vs. Poor creative
 Why good creative can make a
difference
 Relevance and divergence
 An example using radio
 Divergence does not always work
 Pakistan study
 Final words

3. Good vs. very ordinary creative
 The first two examples are dull. The
Reagan spot created by Hal Riney is full
of emotion.
 Liberal Party of Canada
 Conservative Party of Canada
 Ronald Reagan

4. Cluttered media environment
 Exposed to advertising in every aspect of
our daily life. It was already cluttered and
then we added the internet and mobile
devices to the mix. What do you think it is
like to be a media buyer now?
 Need to cut through the clutter and deliver
the message
 Need to be memorable
 Need to give the consumer a reason to buy
your product and not your competitors

5. Entertain/Educate/Persuade
 Need to entertain the audience to be able
to deliver your message or to get their
attention
 Need to make the audience think to have
the most impact
 Need to understand your audience and
what appeals to them. If you are not the
target audience your opinion may not be
relevant.
 Effective advertising needs strong creative

6. Impact of Good Creative
 Dan Weiden co-founded the advertising
agency Weiden and Kennedy
 Built the Nike brand
 Recently developed the Old Spice tv spots
 Dan Weiden

7. Relevance and Divergence
 Creativity in advertising needs to have
relevance and divergence
 Needs to be relevant to the target audience
 Divergence (present an idea in a novel,
different or unusual way)
 When consumer involvement is low or ad
clutter is high it is difficult for an ad to get
noticed. To achieve this goal the ad must be
frequently repeated or include “colourful,
moving, novel, unexpected, or affect-evoking
stimuli”. (Greenwald and Leavitt 1984)

8. Divergence
 “Divergent ads should be more
challenging to decode and interpret than
convergent ads and thus require more
elaborate processing to achieve
understanding” Smith and Yang 2004
 In other words creative ads work by
making the target audience think. If you
make someone think they are more
likely to remember, and be impacted by,
the message

9. Need to Make the Audience Think

10. Creative Brief
 Client: Big Rock Brewery
 Product: KOLD lager
 Target Audience: 18 to 24 year old men
 Key Product Features:
 Brewed with glacier water
 Easy drinking lager style beer
 Kraft brewery manufacturing process
 Product is new
 Key Product Benefits:
 Lifestyle
○ KOLD drinkers are cool

11. Potential Radio Script
 Voice Over: Introducing K O L D, KOLD beer from Big Rock
A great tasting beer that is easy to drink and quenches your
hard earned thirst
It’s brewed from fresh glacier water by the award winning
brewmaster at Big Rock Brewery
A great lager style beer that will bring your friends around
and keep them coming to your place to keep themselves
KOLD
KOLD is now available at your local liquor store, your
favourite pub and selected restaurants
So remember the next time you’re thirsty and are looking for
a great cold beer ask for a KOLD beer from Big Rock.
This gets the message across but it is very dull.

12. “No Question”
 SINGERS: K-O-L-D all beer radio.
 JERRY: I’m Jerry Lagerfeld and you’re listening to K-O-L-D all beer all the time. Let’s go
to the phones.
 WARREN: Ah, hi Jerry it’s me Warren.
 JERRY: What’s your question Warren?
 WARREN: Ahhh, no question.
 JERRY: No question you have nothing to add to the intellectual discourse concerning the
complex role beer plays in our society today. Or no question KOLD is my favourite brew?
 WARREN: The second one?
 JERRY: Good call Warren.
 SINGERS: K-O-L-D
 JERRY: Brought to you by KOLD — the genuine glacier water beer from Big Rock.
 Play “No Question” Radio
This spot delivers the same information but in a much more interesting and engaging way.

13. “Elliot” Radio Script
 SINGERS: K-O-L-D all beer radio.
 JERRY: You’re listening to Jerry Lagerfeld. Hello caller.
 ELLIOTT: Hello Jerry, Elliott here.
 JERRY: Hey Elliott.
 ELLIOTT: I’m serving rack of lamb with a garlic demi-glaze and I was
wondering what wine would you recommend?
 JERRY: Sorry Elliott, this is K-O-L-D all beer all the time. You could try K-
R-A-P the all wine station but I recommend serving your friends some
KOLD beer before they kick your gourmet ass. Let’s pause and reflect.
 SINGERS: K-O-L-D
 JERRY: Brought to you by KOLD — the genuine glacier water beer from Big Rock.
 Play “Elliot Radio”

14. Not Just Divergent
 Creative concepts developed just
because they are divergent do not work
 The Taco Bell Chihuahua dog tv
commercials were popular but sales did not
respond. Once the spots were taken off the
air sales trended upward again.
 Taco Bell TV

15. Thoughts on this Ad?

16. It’s Also Not Just About the
Creative
Media buying can be as important as the creative.

17. Pakistan Study
 Empirical investigation of the
Association between Creative
Advertising and Advertising
Effectiveness in Pakistan
 Interesting study because the growth of
tv channels grew exponentially towards
the end of the last decade in Pakistan
Mahmood, Zahid, Wasid Ahmad “An Empirical Investigation of the Association between Creative Advertising and
Advertising Effectiveness in Pakistan” March 2010

18. Pakistan Study
Growth in TV Channels 2002 to 2008
120
100
80
60 No. Of TV
Channels
40
20
0
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Mahmood, Zahid, Wasid Ahmad “An Empirical Investigation of the Association between Creative Advertising and
Advertising Effectiveness in Pakistan” March 2010

19. Pakistan Study
 Study tested award winning tv ads in
single and three ad exposures
 Based on recall they tested the
participants for brand attitude and
purchase intent.
 Found that for three exposures creative
ads “developed significantly more
favourable brand attitude and greater
unaided brand recall than control ads”
Mahmood, Zahid, Wasid Ahmad “An Empirical Investigation of the Association between Creative Advertising and
Advertising Effectiveness in Pakistan” March 2010

20. Pakistan Study
 Conclusion for the study was
that, “creative advertisements are really
more effective than conventional ads
and bestow value to the advertised
brands”
Mahmood, Zahid, Wasid Ahmad “An Empirical Investigation of the Association between Creative Advertising and
Advertising Effectiveness in Pakistan” March 2010

21. Final Words of Advice
 It is often much easier to avoid risks and prefer what
is comfortable and familiar
 Do not equate creative that relies on shock value
with good work
 An understanding of how divergence works in
advertising is a good platform to work with creative
people to develop great creative
 Great advertising creative stays on strategy and
remains focused on building brand strength and
purchase intent
 Give your advertising a chance to work. You need to
run an ad at least three times for it to have real
impact