The Sunday News
Lennox Nhando
THIS year you have to make every advertising dollar stretch to the max for your business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing above or below-the-line advertising; through-the-line advertising; direct response; brand activation or online advertising.
You have to execute your adverts with creative flair, originality and a high level of professionalism to get maximum returns on your ad-spend. In the short-to-medium term, advertising can be the catalyst to increasing sales by being a measurable volume driver. Examples of this are promotions and adverts with a response device such as a telephone line.
In the long term advertising will help you to create a sustainable business by building your business’ brand.
What are some of the barriers to great advertising? On the client side, it is primarily caused by a lack of advertising nous in the person in charge of the marketing and advertising budget, normally the marketing manager or marketing director in listed companies. Or, the owners thems elves in the case of SMEs. Such clients cause the production of ineffective advertising by failing to produce tight briefs to the advertising agent, based on a sound, well thought-out strategy.
A tight brief will have a clear profile of the target consumer based on insightful research and a detailed profile of the product being advertised, as well as clear advertising objectives and a differentiated product or brand positioning.
Tight briefs give advertising professionals the freedom to create work that is relevant and that speaks the language of the target market. In advertising we talk of “the freedom of a tight brief”.
Only then can we “crack the brief”, that is, come up with an advertising solution, or in ad-speak, the BIG IDEA, that is not only “WOW” and relevant to the target market, but also meets the business objectives of the client.
A bad client will generally treat the advertising agency as a supplier rather than a business partner. This is a big no-no because a client with this attitude will tend to super-impose their narrow thinking over any lateral concepts that the ad-agency might produce. However, if the advertising agent is fortunate enough to have a broadminded client who values the agency’s input as a business partner, they will be empowered to be brave and think out-of-the-box. This inevitably leads to better quality work that drives feet-in-store and keeps the client’s phone ringing.
Such a business relationship will encourage the agency to adopt a more pro-active approach to the client’s business. This means that the advertising practitioners will, for example, pro-actively present any stunning idea they generate that is relevant to the client’s brand without necessarily being formally briefed to do so, if it is for the good of the brand e.g. where a relevant tactical opportunity arises.
Then there are the client marketers with the big egos who get a kick out off coming up with their own adverts and producing them themselves so that they can tell their friends to watch their ads on TV. These adverts are easy to spot to the trained eye.
You notice the absence of a big idea, the poor layout and lack of hyperbole — a complete waste of company funds, shockingly in most cases, with no accountability. These are the heads that should roll in these recessionary times where funds are scarce and downsizing is the order of the day. It is not impossible for a brilliant advertising concept to originate from the client once-in-a-blue moon; however, there is a reason why advertising agencies employ strategic planners, account managers, media strategists and media planners/buyers, and, most importantly copywriters, art directors and designers to make sure clients receive a professional and effective solution.
On the advertising agency side, there should be a higher level of professionalism and value adding to ensure that the industry remains relevant and competitive.
We must produce work of the highest standards. The advertising practitioners listed above should have a passion for brands and advertising otherwise they will not produce ‘kick-ass’ work.
We must always exceed the client’s expectations so that both the client and the target market will expect to be “wowed” every time we produce new material for them.
We must remember that clients are not communication experts. Therefore they will sometimes go to the ad agency with pre-conceived ideas about what the advertising solution should be. They will, for instance, brief in a billboard when the billboard is not the best medium for the communication problem concerned. The complexity of the message might only be effectively communicated in a media that allows for more copy like a newspaper ad, unlike the billboard which is a fleeting media that you drive past quickly and therefore is suitable for very short messages.
Advertising agencies should have the professionalism to go back and present the client with the right solution supported by a rationale explaining the change in direction. By all means present the client what they briefed, but then also present an alternative concept that re-invents the brief. Unfortunately some agencies just take the money and run by just giving the client what they asked for when it’s not necessarily the best option for the brand. Consistently going the extra mile will shift the client to value our creative input in the same way they value that of Accounting firms or management consultants.
Besides the fulfilment of seeing a wonderful piece of advertising flighting on media for which you have authorship, there are also various local and international awards that recognise outstanding work in advertising. There is also the small matter of the fame and publicity for both the client’s brand and the ad agency that is part and parcel of being recognised at advertising awards ceremonies.
It is not just about awards; excellent ads not only stand out, but also entertain and intrigue the customers into processing more information about the product or brand being advertised. This then elevates them to becoming desirable content that the consumer looks forward to seeing or hearing or both. Mediocre ads have the opposite effect — they alienate the consumer and make them switch off or change channel. This negativity at times rubs off on the brand.
The advertising professional must also believe in and consume the product or brand they are advertising. Sometimes you gain valuable insights on the product when you interact with it regularly. Using hyperbole in advertising will help to highlight the positive attributes of the product. The quality of the product is crucial because the product must deliver on the promises communicated by the advert. If it doesn’t, great advertising will kill a product that fails to deliver at the point of trial.
We are now finished with the festive season when the consumer was literally bombarded with all sorts of brand communications. Therefore, if your advert was not clever enough, humorous enough or innovative enough, it was just lost in the clutter of advertising messages that the average Zimbabwean was exposed to daily in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, posters, internet, you name it.
So your New Year’s resolution must be that you invest in great advertising that will make your brand stand out and get more than its fair share of the consumer’s mind.
The writer has Diploma in Advertising with Specialisation in Copywriting from the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA) School of Advertising, Johannesburg Campus. He also holds qualifications in Strategic Planning for Advertising and Direct Marketing. Extensive experience in advertising primarily in South Africa on a wide range of blue-chip clients. Broad experience on Pan-African brands.
