“Even the most sophisticated media strategy can be ruined by bad creatives.” A harsh verdict and yet the truth in the highly competitive advertising market. The success of a campaign no longer depends only on cleverly designed media plans, but to a large extent on the quality of the creatives. But why is that so? And what options are there to solve this problem during campaign planning?
“It is not enough for a message to reach the recipient. It must thim too!”
Creatives that are poor in quality are usually due to one of the following three reasons:
Uninspired implementation
Let's be honest: A large part of the advertising that reaches us throughout the day is absolutely boring, uninspired and not worth the click or look at and is rightly lost in the daily flood of advertising. Simple product photos, 0815 stock images or the same standard template for every creative - that's not how you reach users anymore. Dare and stand out!
Too complicated
But the exact opposite can also prevent campaign success: Campaigns that are too complicated. The time that users spend with the corresponding advertisement is more than scarce, so that an idea that has been thought through too broadly will not spark the majority of users. The motto should be short, crisp & original.
Lack of agility
An underestimated yet very present factor for campaign failure is a lack of agility. Some companies simply lack a basic understanding of the various advertising platforms. No matter how good a campaign idea and media strategy are, they can still ultimately fail due to poor quality adaptation to the respective marketing channels. However, external support can work wonders here. But how can these stumbling blocks be avoided when developing future campaigns? There are also three clear guidelines for this, which marketers can use as a guide.
Relevance, Innovation, and Automation
Be relevant. To achieve this goal, it is important to create a triad of good material, personalization and the right approach. Good starting material is ideally a moving image that presents the product or service to be advertised skilfully and in compliance with the CI. Personalization and the optimal time to reach out can be solved using special formats such as dynamic ads, in which users receive advertising based on their interests. Be innovative. The innovative power of creatives is another point that must be taken into account. This primarily involves intelligent use of data and the integration of new technologies - whether for better playback or the dynamization of new formats such as digital out of home. Use the technical options that are currently available so that users engage with your brand in a new way! Be agile & automate. The last important point is automating creatives. However, there are two things to consider. On the one hand, automation can no longer be confused with the excessive “templating” of some providers. In addition, automation in this sense should not be taken one hundred percent literally. Although there are options, such as the already mentioned dynamic ad formats, which come very close to automation, in principle, high agility in implementation is the magic word here. Formats must be quickly adapted to different platforms and needs. If the required capacities and the corresponding knowledge about the various platforms do not exist in-house, agencies and specialized service providers are a good solution to implement agility and automation. However, there shouldn't be too many “players” involved - otherwise the desired agility quickly dies out in coordination processes.
Media planning & creation hand in hand
For the best possible campaign results, it is essential that media planning and creation work together from the start. This is the only way to ensure that special platform knowledge is used in a targeted manner and that adaptations are implemented without loss of quality. The holistic organization of creation and media planning combined with relevance, innovation and automation are therefore the key factors for campaigns to develop their full potential.
