This cartoon follows this theme of the Marketing Strategy post a couple weeks ago. Jennifer Nelson shared a comment on that post that struck a particular chord with me: “If you can’t invest the time in developing and aligning on a good brief, why should your company invest (potentially) millions of dollars in A&P to execute it?”
In marketing planning, we focus carefully on ROI calculations based on previous campaign results. X media spend = Y volume lift. Yet creativity is the more overlooked part of the equation. The actual creative briefs are often given significantly less attention.
Denny Haley, retired BBDO chief creative officer, put it this way: “Creativity is a force multiplier, the better the work, the higher return on your investment.”
This idea of creativity as force multiplier is particularly important in today’s social media world. But you will rarely find it on a marketing planning spreadsheet. In practice, the process of creating a campaign is like the Mark Twain quote about laws and sausage: it’s better not to watch them being made.
In 2001, I remember everyone in marketing sharing “Truth in Advertising”, a 12-minute viral video that illustrates that process. All of the characters involved in creating an ad say exactly what they feel. A quick warning that the language may not be safe for work.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away one signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. I’ll pick one comment. Thanks!)