I’m a Creative Director, but what does that mean? Well, it means that I attempt, and most of the time succeed, to find a creative and effective solution to advertise and/or market a product or company.
This job is new to me. I’ve been a graphic designer most of my professional career, but have found it to be something I’ve grown fond of. I like meeting with the clients, learning about their product and researching how to bring their product or company to the market. Succeeding in this brings me personal and professional satisfaction.
Budgets, of course, have always been in the background of every launch and marketing plan. Now that the economy has taken a turn for the worse, how does a company pursue its dreams of being an industry leader?
Creativity.
Creativity does not come from huge budgets, CGI effects and A-list actor cameos. It comes from pure thoughts, professional research and ingenuity of the writers. If there’s a good script and solid design that zeroes in on the target research, there is no reason an advertising campaign has to cost a whole lot of money. In fact, some of the best ads I’ve seen on television don’t cost a whole lot of money to execute. The ones that rely on large budgets and special effects are a crutch to make up for lack of ingenuity. I’m not saying all big budget productions are bad, but they’re being used in lieu of solid concepts. I see this in all facets of media – over done graphic movies, pop commercials and this meritocracy epidemic has even trickled right down to local mediums.
Recently, I was privileged to take part in a local ad competition. I found this dilution of creativity in the category television ads that cost over $10,000. While I was observing an ad played to the judges, their reaction was, what could cost $10,000 in this ad? It involved poor acting, no special effects, a minimal set and a generic message. In fact, I almost witnessed anger from the judges-it seemed we were like-minded. Obviously, the ad agency was overcharging the client for the work done. This only gives ad agency and creative shops bad reputations for being overpriced and overall not caring about the clients’ best interest. They understood that, good judges.
Boom or Bust.
In a conservative economy your competition is doing exactly what you are thinking about doing. That is, more than likely, you’ve decided to cut your marketing budget, cut unnecessary personnel and hunker down for the storm. I’m telling you to do the opposite. Yes, it’s kinda like putting your hand in the tiger cage to grab a $10,000 bill. Your instincts are telling you not to and the reward may be worth it. If your competition isn’t advertising, you’ve got the perfect opportunity to saturate the market with your message and product. Now, don’t blow your budget on overpriced productions. Make sure the message is clear, creative (to capture attention) and on mark.
People in a recession are still spending money. They are just redirecting their cash and assets to more of a survival mode. Here’s some observations I’ve noticed lately in advertising:
- Banks – Are advertising more money market accounts or conservative savings practices, and the ones that have money are promoting mortgages hard, due to their conservative lending practices before the recession.
- Car Companies – Buy a car, lose your job, return the car; weird but true.
- Retail Stores – Really focusing on maintaining the status quo at a cheaper price for products.
Overall, it’s not about dropping your prices. It’s about sending a message that you have a service or product, that either a person cannot live without or can save them money. In the advertising world we help determine budgets, keep the focus on the message and weed through a large amount of advertising mediums and buy only where you get the maximum impact for your dollar in a completely unbiased manner.
It’s my job and privilege to deliver that message to the masses. My joy comes from helping my clients succeed by having them take that first step and risk to be daring. It costs a lot more to can a fresh idea than it does to cut it and serve it raw. And I’ll leave you with that food for thought.