Creative departments are responsible for developing the creative concepts and ideas that form the basis of an advertising campaign. This can include everything from creating a tagline or slogan, to designing a visual look for a campaign, to developing a storyboard for a television commercial.
With the development of smart targeting technologies, the table returns to a discussion that has kept quite a few people in the advertising industry on their toes: what is the specific role of creativity in marketing processes? How much should brands allocate to it, as opposed to targeting and moving consumers to venues, which could most likely generate successful business.
Imagine the following scenario:
A brand – a retail chain for example – defines its relevant audience as a 40-year-old male who lives in the north part of the city and experiences hair loss. He is extremely interested in natural beauty products, and has purchased hair products last year for a total of $1,000. It is also evident that this man downloaded that retail chain’s app and pops into digital natural products stores once a week.
The retail chain holds this person’s social profile and knows his needs and purchasing habits. So, all this retailer needs to do is send him an offer to buy a relevant product – now. Perhaps coupled with an attractive incentive.
What’s going on here?
Relevance – check
Intention to Buy – check
Purchasing Power – check
Category Passion – check
A perceived need – check
There is no need for creativity and fireworks
Just reach the right person, at the right time, with the right information and product.
Some would say this is an extreme segmentation / information / reaching scenario.
Maybe, but we are not far away from this stage, platforms such as Facebook and Google are already monitoring us to the very end. And what’s more, social networks such as Facebook, invite us to produce highly segmented campaigns using their dashboard without any need for professional creative.
Facebook is, in my opinion, the most significant standard-bearer of the approach that minimizes the weight of traditional creative in the marketing process.
Social networks rely on small-medium businesses as its growth engine. It invites them to create a streamlined, efficient and simple advertising activity without the need to hire creative people or an advertising agency. In the not too distant future, targeting and reaching the individual customer level will be the norm. That is when the discussion on the value of creativity compared to reaching and targeting will be resolved.