Evidence proves the future is now - why great creative needs great research

Ever since mass media became mass - and, probably, well before then - we’ve all struggled with a couple of critical questions: what makes an advertisement great? And, if we can source that genius, can we use it to predict future greatness? 

We try to come close to brilliance in a number of ways. We judge and award excellence in advertising with Lions, Effies, Addys, Clios, and a variety of others accolades that spring from peer-to-peer consideration. But we all know that it’s the consumer - not the trophy case - that defines greatness.

In 2011 and beyond, customers will take in advertising along with a burgeoning number of other marketing touchpoints and honor us with their wallets. To win, a brand must define itself in the mind of the consumer with a creative essence that carries the product of service across the marketing continuum; it is precisely this creativity that drives true brand success. In the business of building brand value, the return on creativity (ROC) is too powerful to ignore. Year after year Millward Brown Optimor’s BrandZ Top 100 - a ranking of the world’s most valuable brands - offers evidence of the positive financial impact of great creativity.

Some trends hide just behind the rankings. And, in fact, the studies regularly show that the brands that grew their brand value fastest over a five-year period shared a commitment to brand artistry. Brands that understood the driver of great creativity regularly reaped considerable massive benefits from increased sales, superior pricing power, greater trade leverage, brand loyalty, and resilience in recessionary times.

We strongly believe that creativity helps brands succeed. But, today and tomorrow, creativity and effectiveness will never be seamlessly synonymous. For creativity to connect - for it must reach its full value-generating potential - it must act in service to the brand. Proof is no further away than that most humiliating (and all too common) paradox of a consumer remembering, with delight, a particular piece of advertising... and having no idea of the object of their affection. Call it a great piece of film. Or great art. Or maybe a peer-to-peer award winner. But never call it good advertising.

As always, as we look ahead, it's never a bad idea to take a look over our shoulder for some wisdom to guide us. And it was Jeremy Bullmore, the sage at J. Walter Thompson/London for decades, who advised, "Creativity is the means, effectiveness is the end." So how can we ensure that the means will deliver the desired end in this next generation of consumer-centric marketing?