This business of ad creativity: What is it?
This business of ad creativity: What is it?
By S. Vaidyanathan
JAKARTA (JP): The creative department in an advertising agency
is where all the action is. Its importance to an advertising
agency can be likened to that of the heart to the working of the
human body. The keen perceptions and the combined efforts of
thousands of copywriters and art directors give form to and
breathe life into the advertising that agencies around the world
create for their clients.
Somewhere in every product are the seeds of a drama which best
expresses that product's inherent value to a customer. Finding
and staging this drama has been said to be the creative person's
most important task.
Creative people can be described as individuals who, while
being observant about life's little oddities, are themselves
alive to the glamour in a product, although they may be
unglamorous. These creative people have a feel for the inherent
drama in a product without being overly dramatic themselves. They
are hungry for refreshingly daring ideas without losing sight of
believability, and are young in mind with an imaginative flair,
as well as being ambitious.
Eleanor S. Modesto, Unit Head of Citra-Lintas, the agency
ranked number one in terms of creativity of ads (as reported by
Cakram in its March 1995issue) says, : "We try to look for
somebody who is very curious about life ... because advertising
is all about ideas, about a new way of looking at things."
Easy definition
The background profile of a creative department's personnel
does not lend itself to an easy definition. The creative
department is a mixed bag of talent. Many of the creative staff
in agencies here are products of art schools or schools of
journalism. However, it is quite common to encounter personnel
with backgrounds unconnected with creative work.
For example, at Citra-Lintas there are those with an accounts
background. Some senior creative personnel directors also have
backgrounds like architecture or research.
At Matari, some of the people among the creative staff do not
have an art background. They are put through an in-house training
program to provide this knowledge.
Fortune Indonesia goes so far as to recruit staff with no
previous creative experience and imparts training.
A formal university education is not considered mandatory to
success in this field. Most agencies provide in-house training
covering a wide range of information, such as advertising, media,
creative, marketing, leadership and the agency's unique work-
culture. Within the industry itself there are training courses
offered by the PPPI (Persatuan Perusahaan Periklanan Indonesia).
Agencies with international tie-ups also have arrangements
with their affiliates for training their creative personnel
abroad. Moreover, seminars and conferences also provide
opportunities as a training ground.
One of the biggest problems faced by the advertising industry
in Indonesia is its ongoing lack of enough qualified personnel,
particularly copy writers and directors. Expatriates occupy vital
positions in the industry. This is comparable to the situation in
the Philippines some years ago, when it was common to find
directors and cinematographers from Australia and Hong Kong.
Abidin reasons that training in creative skills needs to be
fine-tuned.
What goes on
The story of the planning and execution of an ad campaign for
a product is also the story of the workings of the creative
department in an advertising agency.
Before the creative work begins the strategy is determined.
Strategy is essentially a statement of what the advertising is
trying to do. It is to advertising what the foundation is to a
building.
Although each agency has its unique way of approaching the
problem of strategy-planning, it is common practice to address
the following: the advertising objectives, target, consumer
proposition, justification and tone. The client and the media
planner of the agency are also a part of the creative team in the
planning of strategy stage.
Once the positioning of the product and the basic strategy is
agreed upon with the client, the other creative people like the
commercial artist or copywriter get to work together with the art
or creative director designing the most eye-catching ad possible,
weaving the magic we see on TV with paints and brushes, words and
wit.
Challenges
Creative strategies sometimes have to be reworked because the
market for the product has become stagnant or because the
current positioning is not bringing in the sales as expected.
Sometimes, reworking is also done for other reasons, such as
in the case of Pepsodent, the largest selling brand of toothpaste
in Indonesia. Its positioning earlier was that of a family
toothpaste. However ,with consumers becoming more sophisticated
and choosy, it was felt that the product needed to be more
contemporary in order for this particular toothpaste to retain
its number one position. While keeping the family idea in, the
new ad campaign now spoke of it as a brand that brings research
and technology into play in the production process. The new
element in the campaign that gave this modern variant to the
brand was the "Pepsodent Van". The van symbolizes technology,
changing times, and changing consumer behavior. This creative
strategy was especially adopted for Indonesia.
Sometimes a globally recognized brand can have a different
positioning in different markets because of differences in
formulations. Whereas in India, a personal hygiene product such
as Lifebuoy is positioned as a sportsman's soap, here in
Indonesia it holds the position of a toilet soap.
Banks as a category, began presenting a challenge to
creativity when the government relaxed controls and allowed them
to become more competitive. Banks were suddenly put into the up-
scale category of clients for ad agencies. The creative concept
had to take note of the banks' new image as providers of services
that went beyond being merely cash dispensing or storing. Today,
Banks are conscious of concepts like image-advertising.
Idea sources
Most consumer products advertised in Indonesia make use of
creative concepts from within the country. Agencies servicing
multinational clients however make use of concepts from outside
as part of a global campaign for a global brand.
Ken Sudarto of Matari states that over 90 percent of his
company's ads are created locally. However, he adds that as long
as concepts conform to the local customs, traditions and values,
ad agencies are allowed to borrow from the outside.
Indra Abidin of Fortune says that sometimes short-term
considerations such as ready availability of materials may
necessitate taking concepts from the outside. Other reasons could
be considerations of efficiency or cost. This is particularly
true of products or services having a worldwide market. He cited
the example of Cathay Pacific to illustrate the point.
McDonald's, on the other hand,is an example of an
internationally recognized restaurant, which makes use of
internationally established values of tone and mannerism and
adapts them to suit local tone and color. The creative concept
for McDonald's Paket Hemat was the result of such an adaptation.
However, Abidin adds, by regulation, there is a holiday period
of about a year before the foreign content must become local.
Pharmaceuticals and most food products are bound by this
regulation. Exceptions are airlines and automotive firms.
Creative departments often look for strategy ideas in the
culture around them, but to come up with something typically
Indonesian is often challenging. The creative concept for Citra
Beauty Lotion is an example of local culture being tapped to sell
a beauty product.Citra means image. When an Indonesian bride
prepares for her wedding day, she undergoes a ritual called lulur
in which a herbal scrub is given for 30 days to produce a very
smooth skin. The color produced is described as kuning langsat .
The use of Citra lotion, while eliminating the inconveniences of
the ritual, assured the same effect almost instantaneously,
retaining the fragrance achieved through the ritual.
Ideas are also borrowed from other well known brands in a
different product category. Cuddle in most parts of the world is
recognized as a brand of fabric softener. The idea that bears are
cuddly was used to project softness for the product. In
Indonesia, the bear is associated with a range of baby-care
products. In implying an association between the cuddliness and
softness of bears and the softness of babies, a transition was
made from the world of fabric softeners to baby-care products.
Failed strategies
Even the most painstakingly executed creative strategies can
sometimes fail to produce the anticipated results. The case of
Mirabella, a brand of cosmetics in Indonesia, illustrates the
point. The product's unique selling proposition was determined to
be its comparative price-advantage. Market leaders in this
category at that time were priced higher. Accordingly, the
campaign was launched. Five thousand billboards across the
country announced the launch. Ads were also placed in the print
media, including the most up-market magazines. This succeeded in
arousing brand-awareness in a very short time. However, the
strategy did not succeed in its second, most important objective:
that of winning and retaining a large share of the market. One of
the reasons was that the campaign did not identify the target
segment properly. This was because, while it appealed to the
lower income groups through outdoor publicity and the upper
income groups through the fashion magazines, exclusivity was
assured to neither. Today, it has finally found its own level in
the overall market.
To be effective, an ad should be original. This does not mean
that it has to rely on deception or be different just for the
sake of being different. An ad should be at once refreshingly
daring, while at the same time rooted in human nature. It should
be fun to look at, listen to or read. It should possess a high
degree of believability while remaining focused. An ad is
considered to have done its job well if it motivates high
consumer awareness and boosts sales.