This first appeared in the AdNews Annual 2018. Buy the special issue as one-off here or support AdNews by subscribing here.
As part of the AdNews Annual 2018, celebrating 90 years of AdNews, we featured a range of perspectives from brands, leaders and top marketers, to share what creativity means to them and how important it is. We also asked some to throw in a future–gazing thought or two on how advertising could shape out in the next 90 years.
RedBalloon, owned by Big Red Group, was founded in 2001 and has 100 staff across Australia and New Zealand. We hear from Big Red Group co-founder and CMO Naomi Simson.
Creativity in advertising is about evoking emotion and trust, without being superior or too clever. If it is to do its job it needs to inspire and leave the consumer uplifted or thoughtful. A good creative campaign lives in the customer's shoes, speaks in their language, and leaves them feeling a little more emotionally connected to the brand.
Advertising has such a big role to play in the shaping of our society and folklore. (We all remember ads from our childhood — does anyone else remember V05 shampoo?). Great creative work honours what it is to be human. What it is to be passionate, thoughtful, emotive and connected to something other than ourselves. All humans want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Great creative starts a movement. Whether it’s fine design, quirky concepts or inspirational ideas — ultimately, it’s all about adding value, colour and inspiration to humanity whilst inviting people to participate with your brand. Creativity is about connection.
This first appeared in AdNews in-print
In 2019, creativity will be all about building trust and relevance to different people at different times. It’s almost impossible to have broad appeal across demographics with one concept. What inspires a millennial audience is unlikely to have the same impact on a baby boomer. What we will see more of is the personalisation of creative ideas using AI; delivering those creative ideas when, where and how the consumer wants it. 2019 will be the year of consumer power. Brands can no longer arrogantly speak of themselves; they need to be adaptable and provide personal user experience and customised content on the fly for different audiences.
I look back to the 1987 Apple Knowledge Navigator Video and see that everything in this futuristic (for its time) video is now very much a reality. I find it really very hard to imagine what advertising or the promotion of goods and services is going to look like in another 90 years. The Internet Of Things is becoming pervasive, as are digital assistants, blockchain, and AI. These combined will deliver us unfathomable opportunity, however, creativity, design and ingenuity, won’t be automated or replicated. Effective marketing will always be about building relationships, and true relationships don’t happen machine–to–machine. They are the product of people and our unique creativity. Even with first–hand knowledge of marketing, AI technology via the BRG Marketics (Albert AI) business, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of how transactional and repetitive parts of the the marketing mix will shift. We must remember that although these tools are incredibly powerful and they are here to stay, great creative is amplified, not replaced, by such technology.
RedBalloon online ad
See more Annual Perspectives from these people below:
Vegemite marketing manager Matt Gray.
Clemenger executive chairman Rob Morgan
Tourism Australia CMO Lisa Ronson
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