Has creative been an afterthought in your marketing?

Advertising Week just wrapped up in New York and something said by one of the speakers there makes an excellent point. As reported in MediaPost’s MediaDailyNews, Babs Rangaiah, the director of global communications planning at Unilever (Lipton, Hellman’s Dove, Axe), said if the creative does not drive demand, a strong media plan is not likely to save the day.

Rangaiah is responsible for media planning across all Unilever brands in the U.S. He said if the creative appears banal, it's time to yank the media spend and use it somewhere else. "We have to penetrate the culture," he said. And the way to do that is through ads that effectively jump off the page or out of the screen. Top-notch creative is even more important in a fragmented world. As a creative director, I couldn’t agree more. And how often do a creative director and a media planner agree on anything?

Mr. Rangaiah’s statements underscore how it is more important than ever to craft a sharp message. A message that is carefully crafted to truly differentiate your product may require an assertive push, rather than a pile driver, to penetrate the consciousness of your target consumer.

Think of it this way – that 30-second TV spot or quarter-page print ad costs the same regardless of what occupies the space. Why fill it with something bland? Or worse, something that comes off as if you’re talking to yourself? This applies equally to consumer and business-to-business campaigns.