Creative Advertising that is truly effective inspires people to take action. The action that people take is at the direction of the advertiser…scary but true. I know some people who professed to not be interested in branding and brand identity. Yet, these same folks would comment when they see an interesting commercial. But creative advertising goes beyond interesting commercials.
The really creative advertisors are the pioneers and risk takers in their field. Ideas like guerilla marketing, one-on-one marketing, viral marketing, tell-a-friend marketing, and others stared out as risky campaigns. Now they are the bread-and-butter of the advertising industry.
In what I do, advertising creatively is really important. I see to it that my diverse range of clients get their ads noticed. Even within my family, for example, my sister sells pet clothing in a competitive market. There are several big designers who market heavily in her metro area so creative advertising is a must. One of the most creative branding campaign that she did was borrowed from another industry — liquor and tobacco. You see, liquor and tobacco companies learned the power of giveaways, contests, and raffles inside bars at night. She used that form of advertising and and staged guerilla floor shows to show off some of her products. She gave out free clothing, sent out pet models dressed in her latest garb to draw attention to her latest fashion designs.
Her advertising tactic generated a ton of traffic and revenue putting her way ahead of her competitors. In fashion, image is everything. That is the whole point of that business. But creative advertising is also important for more “conventional” businesses too. For example, saturating a neighborhood with unconventional advertisements can get excellent results. I recently saw realtor type signs all over my town. What struck me was the message on the signs. I expected to see “Open House” or “House For Sale” or something like that. Rather, the sign said, “It’s coming…” or “Watch for the event this Sunday…” I was intrigued.
For a week straight, all people saw were these signs. When Sunday came, the signs pointed to an address. A number of the signs even directed people towards the address by being strategically placed. Curious, I drove along and followed the signs. Guess what I saw at the end? — a church! The signs were leading me to a new church!
Creative advertising need not be on a grand scale to work. Just look at Google PPC ads. These are small ads whose goal is to entice people to click. Clicking is the desired action of the marketer who created those ads. Once someone clicks, they are led to a landing page. The advertising on the landing page has a different goal. It may be for the visitor to buy a product. Or it may be for the visitor to opt into a mailing list. Or something else, — it doesn’t matter. If the marketer got his intended results, he has succeeded.
To learn more about creative advertising, I recommend that you read these marketing books. They are classics that are still used by smart advertisors today.
