Creative Splurge in the Digital Domain

Creative Splurge in the Digital Domain

• August 12, 2021
• By Admin

What is a communication creative supposed to do?

In the new age of Digital communication, a huge section of the resources handling digital communication fail to objectify the purpose of Brand Communication. This includes resources across the table…client and digital agency.

The issue stems from the fact that the client starts the digital agency negotiation by saying – how many posts will you do per week. Well, many agencies succumb to this situation and get into the disastrous loop of creating and posting as much possible. Unless it is a new service or a new product proposition or it is a frequently encountered brand experience, new creatives every 3 days or new creatives every week or even every month may actually cause more harm than good for the brand. Forget about the science and the core marketing principles. Just the fact that the client is paying for creatives and the efforts for posts, every time there is a new creative, is the first point in case.

Leaving aside a launch that has a range (apparel) or may be a product range that needs exposure during high sale season (multi-product e-comm portal, fashion products, etc) or for products/services providing a new experience very often (tv serial/OTT), the only time a frequent schedule works, is for new-consumer experience (different people sharing experience on a food outlet, sharing experiences on any product for that matter).

With the growth of digital demand and many clients perceiving that digital is a cheap way to achieve marketing objective, the client often end up with digital tool-smiths handling the marketing activities. The foundation of a brand communication The Brand Key, Building The Salience based on the Brand Properties, etc, or whatever is required for an ideal brand communication, features nowhere while churning out creatives for the digital domain. Actually, the starting point – the Briefing Process has become a weak link in creating brand communications. (Refer to my earlier article https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6807856454129856512/

Clients with a stronger DNA of marketing and those who consider Digital Communication as a part of marketing communication with similar benchmarks as for any other marketing platforms, are very careful about not diluting the core Brand properties with ‘feel good’ creatives. They still believe that a creative meant for marketing communication is not only to feed the digital hungry community but primarily for meeting brand objectives.

Well it was the slow adaptation by the creative shops functioning in non-digital domain and late integration of a digital mind in their team that had facilitated opening up avenues for digital creative shops. The traditional creative shops are now either tuning themselves up or getting out of business. The Digital creative shops must integrate Marketing brains to remain relevant in the marketing communication domain.