TMAI #401:🗽Win Before You Spend: Creative = 65%! -P1

The Marketing < > Analytics Intersect, by Avinash Kaushik

This edition of TMAI Premium is free for Standard edition subscribers.

The last few weeks have been SO exciting in Premiumlandia. Statistical Significance abuse is widespread, and soul crushing. I've shared a one-pager to fix this problem. The belief that there are 4Ps of Marketing is ruining Marketing - boom, fix that. Then, there was the detailed step-by-step guidance on how to deal with the super important Google Consent Mode V2 regulation. The busting of the myth of "Share of Search" metric's value was life-changing (for many :).

You can upgrade to TMAI Premium here. All Premium revenue is donated to charity.

TMAI #401: Win Before You Spend: Creative = 65%! -P1

[ Web Version ]

It's the creative dummy!

If you read either one of my best-selling books, in any of the dozen languages, you will see light hints about the importance of Creative in Marketing's impact.

In my next book, Marketing Analytics: Think Different!, Creative right will be three chapters.

I’m obsessed with Creative.

For a simple reason: 55% - 70% of a Marketing campaign’s success is influenced by the creative! Fifty percent minimum!!

The number varies depending on industry source. From my work, across 14 countries, for 8 business types, the number is closer 65%.

Humbling: Dozens of other things that we spend time on, have just 30% - 45% influence.

Audience definition. The million targeting buttons and levers we have to pull in the ad platforms. Day parting. Geo Tagging. Reach manipulation. Frequency shaping. PMax. Traffic statistics. Deep intrusive tracking of Mobile phones to deliver DOOH triggered by your behavior (WHAT!). Influence factors & drivers analysis. "Personalized" marketing. Real-time reports full of (vanity?) metrics. And, on and on and on... Minority impact on the campaign's success.

Yet, we spend a vast majority of our time on the aforementioned items, and hardly any on the Creative. : (

That changes today. Let's radically transform your impact on Marketing's profitability.

It's the creative dummy!

Winning the 55% - 70% Influence Factor!

Having had the privilege of obsessing about everything Creative, across several billion dollars of media spend, I have so, so, so, so much to teach.

The difference between Creative Concepts & Creative Execution (killer lesson). Creative Pre-Testing (across Messaging, Storyboards, Animation, Rough Cuts, Executions, AI-powered Indexes). The power of learning from learnings. Trust, but Verify. USP. Wear-in, wear-outs. Frequency shaping. Creative quality KPIs - before, during, after. Impact of formats (sizes, shapes, duration, and the killer: cost). Spike and Sustain vs. Spike and Silence. Creative Briefing Process (& Optimization!). Saying less, more often. And, a dozen more!

Winning at something that influential, unsurprisingly, takes effort, smarts, and resilience. Future TMAI Premium editions to unpack these [Marketing] life altering secrets.

The higher order bit: All this work happens before you spend a single dollar/euro/yen. This ensures something rare, you win before you spend. Your CFO will love you.

What is Creative?

The ad you run on YouTube in a skippable format is the Creative. [Skippable ad formats are hard to win, but you can. See the last example in this newsletter.]

The combination of text and images that go out in every email to your Subscribers is the Creative.

The lines of text that comprise your ad on Bing or Baidu is the Creative.

The local real estate agent's ad on the park bench is the Creative.

Your company's Tiktoks posted on their owned channel is the Creative. [Premium members, see TMAI #392: Should you invest in Organic Social? Ping if you can't find it.]

TV. Hulu. Facebook. Billboards. Radio. NY Times. Twitter. Stadium signage. Store window displays. In-store POP displays. Anything owned, earned, paid you are putting in all those places… That’s Creative.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve gone through 200 marketing campaign Creatives to share my assessment. From the patterns I observed, I want to share a handful of lessons you can apply to build long-term impactful Creatives.

Ready to win big before you spend?

Tip #1: Make it clear who paid for the ad!

It is strange that Creative teams, Creative Agencies, can be borderline allergic to “selling.”

In brand Creative, even performance campaigns, this translates into an over obsession with the “story” and being SUPER shy about the company [name, logo, product, relevance].

I appreciate their challenge. The Creative team/Agency feel the pressure to do something super cool to earn the love of the CMO, to win at Cannes, to get a job promotion. An ad that focuses on the customer, product, feels so 1924. For brand Marketing since there is such little accountability anyway, all the incentive is to solve for internal buzz (with c-suite), vs. impact.

My job is to prove to the CFO that the CMO adds incremental business value. Hence, my focus is on ensuring 1. the Creative will be relevant to the media targeted audience, and 2. It delivers incremental sales/brand lift, over time.

Analyzing thousands of Creatives, with several billion dollars of media weight, have helped me learn that it is very helpful if the audience knows who’s paying for the ad!

Otherwise, the Creative team is an expensive hobby for the company to indulge in.

Here’s an example – please click, please watch before you go on.

The ad is 60 second long. Initially, it is a little confusing to figure out what’s going, but once you get the conceit, the message is compelling. And, scary.

It is an unfair ask since I've linked to the company's YT channel above, but, ponder if under normal circumstances if you would know who paid for the ad.

47% of the value of a video campaign is delivered within the first three seconds. Most people never make it beyond the first few seconds (or flip to their phone). I requested you watch the whole thing, nearly the entire audience won't.

That significantly problematic re business impact, as the company’s name appears for 1.5 seconds, at the 58.5^th second of a 60 seconds ad.

[Note: Having watched the ad 5 times, I still don't know what the company has to do with the problem on display.]

And this is not just for US companies, and for complexly told stories.

Here’s an example from Australia – please click and watch before you go on.

It is a lovely story. It has a great hook. It drags a bit in the middle as the ad is too long (120 seconds), but you are not bored. Like me, you also smiled at the punchline.

Was it clear to you who paid for the ad?

Will you remember the name?

I had to watch the ad again, and force myself to be on the lookout for the advertiser’s name and relevance.

In my analysis, unrelated strong emotional stories have a harder time delivering a connection to the company.

It is not helpful that the Creative team is making us work so hard. We have to live the strong emotional story, compute the connection to the company, and then remember the name of the company and forget the story!

Try a shorter version of the same ad. Tighter. Chances you’ll refer to this as the Footy ad vs the advertisers name? Very high.

It seems insane to say this, but let me:

Please, please, make it obvious that your company is paying for the ad!

Here’s a good example, from Greenpeace.

The ad’s got a good hook. The name Greenpeace first appears at 19 seconds, it stays on the screen for 11 seconds, and the last four seconds in a gigantic font.

I like this ad. You might not. It is not important. What matters is that it is clear who paid for the ad, like it or not… The Creative is effective.

There are a thousand ways to solve the problem, hey, we paid for this ad.

One that was consistently effective for us: A small, but clearly visible, brand name, persistently on screen.

Tatari’s found the same thing, here’s their graphic making that same point:y.

When you look at your company ads, flat (display, text, images) or interactive (video), is it crystal clear who paid for the ad?

Tip #2: Ad Length: Your secret weapon.

It excites Creative teams, Creative Agencies, to build mini-movies.

To add layers, textures, and complexity, to prove their creativity when it comes to storytelling. To wow their internal stakeholders. To solve for the incentives the CMO has set for them.

One manifestation of this is looooooong ads.

I cannot emphasize this enough: There is no data to suggest that audiences are waiting with a bated breath to watch your three-minute story. And, even less, nine parts of your movie told in three-minute chunks, over months using “sequenced targeting.”

We have lives. We have to work, we have to clean dishes, we have to worry about our country. We have children, they have a cold so they have to stay home, one of them is prepping for the SAT. Our parents need attention (our mothers demand it!). We have spreadsheets to complete, we have to plan our next vacation, our plants need watering, our garage needs a major sweep, and the windows were last cleaned in 2021. And, that’s 10% of what’s taking up our mind share. Imagine how much is in there filling up the 100%.

Respectfully: It is exceedingly difficult for me to care about you, your company, your movie, or your desire to win a Cannes Lion.

Do you want results? Please get to the point, faster.

Here’s an example, 3 minutes and 15 seconds – watch the whole thing.

It starts off strong. I played football for my state in India, I can relate. 20 seconds in, it is as if the Agency took a cloning tool and stamped it over and over and over again. For an additional 175 seconds! It gets boring fast. Really fast.

Two more examples: Seattle one (1:28). Seattle two (1:00).

[Sherlock Tip: If you see 416k Views, with 10k Subscribers, and 447 Likes… The Views were all from Paid purchases. Especially, when you see Zero comments – also a hint re Creative quality.]

In their affection for mini-movies for Brand campaigns, there is one extremely crucial detail CMOs, Creative Directors miss [and, not entirely their fault as trafficking media comes much later]…

In blue, you can see that attention does not necessarily increase with ad length.

Regardless of ad length, you need the same frequency and duration to get to minimum wear-in (amount of repetition it takes for your ad to sink in and, for a little while, plant in someone’s memory).

The rate, red font, for each ad length is different – the longer the ad slot, the more you have to pay. [Bonus it is very difficult to find ad slots for 3-min mini movies online or offline.]

Translation: The budget you need to deliver Brand Lift from longer ad lengths is 2x - 5x more!

If you have the money great, accept that the efficiency will be atrocious, and go for it!

The above numbers come from our work. You don’t have to trust me. Please go get yours.

All I ask is that you present the final table to your SVP of Global Creative & Brand Identity BEFORE she/he starts ideation for the next campaign’s creative. It just might reduce your Creative costs by 10x AND deliver significantly higher business impact.

I want to be clear about this: Mini-movies can be good stories.

Here’s a great one, 2:33, from the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport. I was hooked from the start, and the end… well you’ll see. You'll still need lots of budget to get to media minimums.

Here’s a heart-warming ad, 5:27, from Chevy. At my age, it deeply resonates.

There’s a 60s version that’s even more effective.

[2024 Insight for Creative Directors: For max impact, reverse your process. Don't make a 6-min mini-movie, and then cut it down to 15s, 6s. It is very hard to retain the beauty of your creative expression. Instead, build an effective 6-second ad. Now, a 15s version. Then, if absolutely necessary, 30s. Then, build longer than 30s, if you have a massive media budget.]

Tip #3: Creativity matters.

Doh!

In the US, every insurance company ad basically the same ad with different colors/spokesperson/animal. Car companies? Ditto. I’ve been so bombarded with cell phone ads, I know one of the carriers is promoting a free Samsung S24, I just can’t remember if it is Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile.

Creativity matters.

If your Creative Agency can help it, accessible creativity matters even more. [See the “we have lives” paragraph above.]

Here’s an example:

You’ll likely remember it. Chances are high, you’ll tell 284,580 people about it.

Yet, companies have such a hard time being creative.

In part because of my carpal tunnel pain, I really care about my keyboards. [Love my Kinesis Advantage2.] Hence, it was with immense glee that I watched Edie say “I’m literally the OG of Keyboards” in the first five seconds of the ad!

Nine seconds in… where’s the creativity? And, there are 155 seconds to go!

Reflect on the language in the ad, the accessibility of the ad [as in accessible, interesting, to all people who use laptops – if not humanity]. The intention is not for it to come across as just another shilly ad for a laptop, sadly it does.

You don’t need to take my word for it, look at the Subscribers | Views | Likes balance. See the sad pattern mentioned above?

[Alt: Edie’s journey to being an “OG of Keyboards” might have made for a great mini-movie! She is such a great role model for me, for you, for everyone. Yet, it seems the M team could not look away from their own reflection in the mirror.]

Here’s another one to test. It is 3:48 long. Did you manage to watch all 228 seconds of it, on a busy day? Did you remember five bits, in the information overload?

The problem is not the length, it is the (lack of) creativity on display.

This Nissan ad is 4:08:33 long! Yes. Four hours!! It is meant to evoke just how long a all-electric Nissan Ariya will drive.

Subscribers 451k | Views: 19m | Likes: 63k! | Comments: 3,961. Oh, my.

[Note: This might sound weird, a lot of times I have the ad playing in a tab as I work. Nice focus music!]

Read the comments. People are praising the creativity (ad, music, car, person, sunshine). They are recommending Nissan’s Marketing team get a raise! When have you seen thousands of positive comments on YT?

Now, get ready for a creativity confetti cannon to go off!

How excited are you about Cleaning & Janitorial supplies? How about Labels and Packaging Tapes? Boring! Right?

Wrong.

Let Signet Australia show you what creativity in brand marketing looks like: Canmaster Smash.

“We challenged our team to transform our otherwise beige packaging products into unrecognisable one-of-a-kind couture pieces. In the spirit of Christian Dior, Coco Chanel.” :)

One min version: New Season Packaging Fashion Show.

The super creative behind the scenes.

One of the secrets to success with Brand Marketing is long term commitment to your creative concept – rare in a world where Marketers feel intense pressure to move from concept to concept every quarter [well before any Creative wear-in has been achieved, with CFOs blind to the colossal waste in creative costs]. Here’s a 30-sec, Canmaster Smash ad, from FIVE years ago!

So… You can be super creative, with the most “boring” of products. You don’t have to stretch and tell esoteric “stories” and forget your company, products, customers. You can do Brand Marketing that drives Performance [Did you notice the product codes?]. You can build Creative that easily transcends formats and works across all surfaces [billboard, below]. You can have fun, have an attitude.

How well did these ads do?

I don’t have the Outcome metrics. Here are the Activity metrics: 400% better than YT “Skip Ad” average, +212% better VTR, cost 1 cent (AU) per view. Similar Activity performance on Facebook and news.com.au ads. Very positive sign that if Activity metrics are outperforming than chances are higher that Outcome metrics will also delight.

Checkout their site: signet.net.au. Integrated with the Brand campaign.

I do a lot of Brand Marketing. With some of the coolest brands in the world. I’m jealous of Signet.

Creativity, matters.

Next Week.

We continue our journey with three more tips, and a whole lot of inspiration from around the world.

Oh, oh, oh, before I forget… Also next week, my absolutely favorite Brand campaign of the year… It’ll change how you think of impactful Brand Marketing. And. It’s B2B!

If you are not a Premium subscriber, don't miss out.

Bottom line.

After living in metrics, reports, dashboards, data pukes, and algorithms, models, statistics, and Adoble Analytics, Facebook Adcenter, Tableau, and DSPs, Pmax, Ad Stacks… Isn’t it liberating to realize it all matters so little?

And, joy-inducing to realize that even if you shift half your time to Creative, you can foundationally shift profitability?

I really, really, want you to redirect your career in Marketing to OBSESS about creative. Influence the 65% success factor.

Riches and glory await.

Carpe diem.

-Avinash.

Committed to investing in your professional growth?

Upgrade to TMAI Premium here - it is published 50x / year.

[Subscribe] | [Web Version] | [Unsubscribe]

©2022 ZQ Insights | PO Box 10193, San Jose, CA, 95157, United States of America