The "Creative" is killing "Creativity"

In a quote that I gave for a certain magazine recently, I mentioned that "The Creative" in advertising is overrated and that needs to change. I thought to qualify this statement a bit more elaborately here.

In the domain of brand communication today - the "creative" is considered the most important element. Everything revolves around the creative. And why shouldn't it be so? So many, brands have become household names just because of the creative.

Who can forget the ministrations of Lalitaji of Surf or the Rekha, Jaya Sushma of Nirma. The hummable Hamara Bajaj or the wonderful BPL Washing Machines. Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai, Zoo Zoos, and the list can go on. OK Sabun, Tandoorusti Ki Raksha, Vimal, Hari Sadu....and many more..

All these creatives are darlings of India and have made the future of their brands, brand managers and of the creative directors too. Here, I am being very generous and actually giving credit of the brand success only to the creative so no one reading this can accuse me of being anti-creative.

But, lets look beyond these successes. For every creative that delighted India there are a thousand that made it to the hate list. Thousands of ads that went into anonymity; thousands of ads that wasted crores of advertising rupees again and again every year. 

Today, Television and Print advertising has almost become a tradition. No one questions why a brand needs TV or Print advertising - the question only is when, what and How Much. Going beyond the traditional is rare.

Dont mistake that I am saying dont advertise.. Do advertise.. but we need to appreciate that the word "Advertisement" has changed since we last reviewed it.

In the days of limited media (thats my fav way of referring to the traditional advertising days) the creative canvas was a "single media". Yes, there was advertising on multiple media but creative in each media was crafted alone. And, each such piece crafted was called the "Creative". We have been so enchanted by the creative as professionals that we didnt even realize when the audience for whom we were making the creative  - lost interest in it.

And, despite repeated studies showing alarming levels of ad-avoidance we still continue to be mesmerized by our own creatives. At times, I feel some brand custodians (this includes brand managers, account & media planners and creatives) are too obsessed and end up creating Innovations (costing multiples of  what a simple creative would have cost) that are surely clutter breaking but also totally meaning less for the consumer. These are what I call "Brand Managers Delights".

So "Advertisement" was about the Brand telling the audiences "I (Brand) will give you entertainment by showing you a creative in this boring media space, but there will be my message in the creative too" and it worked THEN. But, that is what the brand custodians continue to attempt even today when the audience is not dependent upon the Creative for entertainment - the media content by itself is entertaining and absorbing enough. In fact, the same creative is becoming a disruption in entertainment.

Now "Advertisement" is about active engagement of the audience and not just passive viewing/ reading. And, for this active engagement  today we have at our disposal very powerful  media that is targeted, addressable, pull, portable, interactive, measurable, reviewable, expandable, refer-able, mashable, fuse-able, etc besides the fact that advertising messages need not be restrained within the bounds of "ad-break".

The audience too is far more 'available' and hence is open to participation and activation more than ever before.

With such potential media and options available to us to share the brand with the consumers, if we still do not venture beyond the "creative" and dont indulge our creativity in utilizing this multi-dimensional canvass to actively engage the consumers - I think we are limiting our creativity,

The needless, un-investigated, traditional focus on the "creative" is killing "Creativity".