Page 33 - AdNews Magazine May-June 2022

www.adnews.com.au | May - June 2022 33
realise that we were going through, was when we actually came back and saw each other again.
“The feeling that we got from each other was that we'd forgotten the energy that we create and give to each other
“This was probably why we were so lethargic and tired all the time.”
Matt Lawson: “You need people and so do I. That's probably true of most creative people. We usually do things for an audience and when that audience is taken away and hidden even behind a screen, it drains the energy out of all rooms.
“You will think of better ideas when you're happy and people make you happy. Although we’ve had quite a prolific couple of years, it is much easier when you can intermittently see people.
“But there are benefits to being out of the office. And this was echoed by a few creatives. When I look at work that I'm proud of over my career, I go: Hammock, hammock, beach, fishing, walking to work, walking to work, walking to work, hammock. Hammock, hammock, hammock.
“It's rare that a breakthrough has been made in a cubicle or in an open-plan office. And I'm more just talking about the lone thinking, not group thinking.
“We had time to just be away from the office and think the best way we thought possible. That was liberating.
“People are looking for something more real and authentic.” Sharyn Smith, Social Soup
“We've got a more of a flexible, hybrid culture now. You don't have to go back into the office if you don't want to.
“It's up to us to try and under- stand how we think best. It's hard to institute formal guidelines for ideation ... between these hours and they happen in this exact way.
“I think that sense of freedom will breed greater creativity. But, as Mills said, you miss the magic of just interacting with people and there's real energy that comes from that.
“There's also learning by osmo- sis from each other. There's a joy that brings great ideas. Fun as a fundamental for thinking of good ideas is so important. At the very least, if you haven't thought of any- thing, at least you've had fun.
will your message be motivating and relevant to your consumers?
If you have a rational message, ensure that what you have to say
is something that your audience cares about. What are the key drivers for your brand? Lean into that and be clear and single-minded about it. And if your message is something you think is important, but is not of high relevance to consumers yet, your ad will need to demonstrate why they should care.
Time to think, plan,
test and learn
Many clients we work with these days have a lot of pressure on them to work with tight budget, impossible goals and limited time frames. The average lead time for ad development used to be 6-9 months. Now, for many, it seems
to be 6-9 weeks. It makes it really difficult to have time to think through the strategy, insight and planning with these pressures attached. It is also rare that the first creative idea will be the best one. We see that often the best ideas come from an iterative process
of development and test & learn. This can’t happen if we only give our creatives a few days to achieve this. We need to start our planning sooner and give everyone the space and time to get it right.
Georgia Phillips, COO, Luma Research
Making a great ad is not easy. Only around a third of ads work - so think of all that money and time that is wasted making sub-standard ads.
In the past it didn’t matter
so much. Budgets were big, marketing managers were led by their gut and campaigns weren’t as easy to measure.
But the world has changed.
It started with the GFC and has been amplified by COVID. Every marketing move now needs to
be measured, quantified and scrutinised. Budgets are low and everyone is required to do more with less. If we can’t get the ROI we need, we could lose our budget or worse, our jobs.
This has placed a huge amount of pressure on creative agencies to pull an ‘advertising rabbit out of a hat’ and with minimal time and cost. It is near impossible.
So what are some of the things we can do to help with the process? Here are four fast facts to help:
A good brief
The best ads are those that have a clear and tight brief. If the agency is going to make an ad which moves the dial for the brand, they need to know what is required. All too often we see communication briefs that just say ‘to build sales’ but have little insight into how or
why. If you don’t know what your ad is trying to say or do, should you really be advertising?
Find the Human truth / insight
We see the best ads are the
ones which are based around
a real insight or human truth. They address a pain point or communicate something about the brand which everyone can relate to. Often the insights in creative briefs are just facts or anecdotes, but what we really need to do is puzzle our way through a few sources of data
or observation to get to an underlying behaviour or belief to underpin our creative idea. This is the lynch pin which holds it
all together – if we get this right, everything else falls into place to ensure our ad will be relevant to our consumers.
Right message, right creative and right media
For many clients and agencies, a
lot of effort is put into the creative concept, but little focus is given
to the messaging and how this might ladder across the campaign and channels. If you start with addressing the human truth, this part will fall into place more easily. But the main thing to consider is