May 27 2008 | posted by John Woodberry | comments [0]

Why are the best advertisements so often those that never get used? What happens to the excitement and drive that wins the creative pitch but ends with unexciting advertising that fails to create the desired objective?

Perhaps the starting point is to remind ourselves the three reasons why we are advertising and marketing a product or service in the first place:

• One, increase sales.
• Two, increase sales.
• Three, increase sales.

It does not matter whether the campaign is corporate or response generating, ultimately it is always about increasing sales.

When it comes to the product itself, huge amounts of research, energy, prototypes and money are expended in getting it to the market. All the risks are taken into consideration. Everything is meticulously planned. The product has the USP’s that will change our lives for ever, in fact, we will not be able to carry on our lives without one. (I think you get the picture).

There’s only one snag. Nobody has heard about it - and by the time the client has torpedoed the advertising concepts, it is true to say that nobody will hear about it. So where can the whole process go so horribly wrong?

Hours and hours of marriage wrecking work is spent honing and crafting the creative visuals. Finally the creatives are lovingly presented to the client. The concepts are great but they just need a couple of salvageable tweaks. The creatives are re-submitted, not quite as strong as the original but none the less still good.

More corrections ensue and by now the campaign is not as strong, less thought provoking but still, not bad. Further amends are required because the chairman’s wife hates blue and she also suggests some alternative headlines. Copy amends continue and by now we’re plugging holes in the creative but the water is pouring in faster than we can bale it out.

The client has taken all the risks in the development and finance of the product and by the time it comes to the creative concepts slowly decides to play safe. The creatives sink along with the client’s expectations and we are now in danger of simply not being noticed in the media.

[It is not always down to the client, of course. Sometimes there are very good reasons to torpedo the creative. Quite simply they may be good but off strategy or described as ‘too clever’. Or by the time the creative has been presented the brief may have changed anyway.]

But too often a great creative idea gets blown out because the client needs to play safe.  The key is trust - the client needs to know that the agency really understands the market. This trust can only be reached if the client and agency work together, take the time to get to know each other and respect each other’s different fields of expertise.

At CIB our creative approach has always been to offer a creative choice that answers the brief but also pushes the creative boundaries.

So take the plunge, let the agency do what is does best, risk the exciting concepts, be noticed and increase those sales.