Everyone loves the CREATIVE, but often the MEDIA makes it so much better...
What people see is the creative. The reason they see it is the media. The best work often comes from the 2 working together. Here, lets review some great executions, many of which went hand in hand!
The two are intertwined and need one another.
If you set up all the reach planning, media formats, audience targeting and distribution in the world, it is to little avail if the creative output that people see, with the message, does not work. No consumer looks at an average ad and thinks, well I bet that was well planned for maximum reach?
Conversely, and more to the point of this write up, like Peter Field quipped, what use is it to build a cathedral in the middle of a desert? Great creative needs to be seen, with the right message by the right people in the right places at right time. Nobody comments on a creative ad they haven’t seen and thinks how great it is!
The media is typically the vessel or mechanic for the message and the creative. The distribution engine set apart from the creative it is distributing. But often the medium or placement itself is part of the message, as well as the context, woven into the creative execution for maximum impact. The very best things come from media and creative getting a seat at the table early doors, and delivering an integrated advertising masterclass. This usually works much better than a creative shop doing a lovely poster, which is passed to media agency after the fact to paste on a wall or board near you.
Why am I sharing this?
2 reasons. Firstly, I work with both larger media and creative agencies who are keen to connect the tissue more on these subjects, whilst also leading marketing for nimble start-ups and SMEs who naturally bring the ideas of creative, message and media execution together in a package. Wherever people are on this journey of ‘already there’ or ‘we want to get there’ there is no denying the obvious truth that together is better.
So much so this became the core of my 2nd reason to share this. I did a guest lecture last year to University of Lincoln’s Creative Advertising Students. As a media guy by trade who has evolved (I like to think) into a marketing strategist and generalist, I see the value of all sides; but with my media heartland in mind, wanted these untethered creative young minds to see the importance of where the words and images end up and how, not just what was created…
SOME FAVOURITE EXAMPLES
I do not have the effectiveness data on all of these, nor am I dictating a strategic approach for your brand, but I hope some of these can inspire some thinking. Health warning, lots of images from a presentation I did though the work is sadly not what I can take credit for, I just love to see great work and have to share. So enjoy…
The Context as the message
To warn you, there’s quite a few outdoor ads here. Despite the dumps that econometrics can often take on this channel, it is also proven to drive fame, long term brand growth and shorter term awareness. With this in mind, why not make them amazing? Sometimes known as ambient OOH, I am fascinated by the way brands capture the unique layout/aspect of a site. Like above, Well done Leo Burnett (creative) and OMD (media) for collaborating on this. Perfect use of cylindrical IMAX real estate to showcase a tantamount 1,734m2 Big Mac, an icon and distinctive brand asset of the fast food chain.
Also - for the launch of their original series Good Omens, Amazon Prime had placements at Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime St and Euston and tweaked the message by locations for example
Having worked with the power brand that is Samsung, I know how keen they are on regional insights and comms laddering up to RTBs of product and global strategy. Above are examples I found of promotion by region, from fancy digital screens, to unlocking insights of water damage and road safety.
The Context & Placement reaffirming the message
Kudos to VCCP and all those involved; this excellent campaign by O2 gained the Drum’s coveted OOH campaign of the decade. Utilising a seemingly broken OOH format with appearance of a cracked screen, this activation really delivered the context of the message. Again creative on its own would not be enough here.
Love this one in particular, Good Org CIC, a community company in York tackling homelessness. They would obviously have more limited resources than global telco companies, but a simple poster placed in an atypical location (i.e. typical places where homeless may be) was well thought out, provocative and led to greater awareness and volunteer sign-ups.
Love this spot in the wild by copywriting lecturer and author Andrew Boulton at his local Petrol Station in Nottingham. The DVLA giving off true Orwellian energy at the pump with the perfect placement, everyone needs fuel; tax shirkers included.
I loved this from Mother London when IKEA opened up their environmentally friendly store in Greenwich. Utilising Public Transport ad spots and data points, they were able to reinforce the environmental benefits of walking. Media making the creative work to the nearest metre!
What I love about print advertising so much is the ability to align the creative with the editorial. There has been some errors over the years, but when they get it right, it does deliver a fun and direct nature for the comms. Sekonda in The Sun next to write-ups of duplicitous politicians. Well done Lucky Generals/News UK.
Remember, you don’t have to be a big creative agency to deliver smart creative. The above has never been in the wild, but one of Andrew Boulton’s Creative Advertising students literally turned things on its head, and created the perfect print ad with a smart pun and in the upside down context.
The challenges of digital - and the opportunity
The thing is of course, that provocative, exciting advertising online is hamstrung by formats and perception. For example, takeover of an Out Of Home site is cool, a takeover of a home page can be annoying. Therefore, it is about capturing context for the smartest moves, and being sympathetic to scrollers/readers’ attention.
More reactionary and momentary granted, and can be executed poorly if not careful, but moments like this, capturing the context of the cultural moment whilst maintaining a distinctive asset such as the returning slogan, Specsavers nail it.
As part of this, it was great to see a fun use of media budget, promoting user generated content to reinforce human faux-pas to pivot to their product need.
Speaking of Specsavers, the creative plus media Masterclass
To mark the end of Covid campaign hibernation, Should’ve gone to Specsavers came back last year with a best-in-class creative and media alignment - that really did nail the humourous tone of voice through all comms and formats…
An integrated masterclass between Specsavers’ own in-house team (The Agency) and media from MG OMD, with a supporting cast of Talon Outdoor, Channel 4 and ITV, they were able to pull off some real coups…
As you can see, some perfectly imperfect Print and OOH placements respectively, along with the social stuff mentioned, and some in-game placements they really nailed this brand re-awareness piece. However, my favourite part of this is the ITV and Channel 4 part. Rival media houses, they basically swapped scripts for their broadcasts/idents and started to read out the other channels’ viewing line-up, a perfect nod to the need for Specsavers as well as, for the purpose of this, a great example of creative and media, or should I say MediaS, working together
TO CLOSE
This is by no means the typical how-to or strategy that Front Of Mind readers like to read, but the idea of this is to reaffirm GREAT things happen when creative and media work together. To get to the true marcomms nirvana of right message in right place to right people at the right time, it is always your best shot. Most of the examples are from larger organisations and separate agencies. But if you are reading this as a small business or CMO, know you’ve an advantage; you can probably use this as a thought starter, and integrate all your ideas on one page today. See where it takes you. Enjoy, there is lots of fun to be had!
SA
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