As both contextual and behavioral targeting algorithms become more sophisticated, Brand New World's creative chief argues that no amount of optimization can make you feel.
It's amazing how much more sophisticated interactive ad serving has become in just the past couple of years. Between the influx of new VC money in behavioral targeting and more publisher refinements in contextual and dynamic ad serving, as an interactive industry we truly have an amazing set of providers and tools at our disposal with which to reach the consumer.
But as any smart media person will tell you, the creative execution plays at least half the role in determining the effectiveness of any interactive advertising-- it's the creative that intrigues, involves and hopefully, persuades you to act. This balance between interactive medium and message has been well documented in the noted XMOS advertising study conducted by MSN and Marketing Evolution. If you really want the deep dive on how it works, you can check out the new book "What Sticks" by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart.
My point is, that despite how much more sophisticated the algorithms get at search, contextual and behavioral ad serving, the advertising still has to move you. And that comes down to the kind of creative that makes you feel… not just think.
This means the narrative craft of drawing you in… getting you involved…. and making you react emotionally is just as important online as it is in the craft of the :30 TV commercial. Creatively, this has been the challenge for the banner, the pre-roll, even the next wizzbang expandable rich media application. These units may drive our ad-supported model, but they have not adequately proven their ability to make the consumer feel.
Conversely, too many big name creative directors use this emotional requisite, otherwise known as the "Big Idea," as the holy grail of real advertising currency. My experience with my creative peers is that it's just an excuse to hide behind their lack of knowledge and practice in the interactive space. And this is precisely where creative agencies and cultures go left while our interactive media brethren go right.
By using these sophisticated algorithms for near-real-time metrics and learning, we too are forced into things like dynamic optimization of creative messages -- churning out dozens of copy versions and banner executions for one campaign; changing layouts on the fly and cramming the call to action into the ad from beginning to end -- in many cases before we've even gotten the consumer's attention.
Is this the interactive advertising we are destined to produce? Turning our creative departments into cookie cutter banner factories?
In case you were wondering, there's a reason most creatives opt to work in general advertising rather than succumb to the formulaic methods of Direct Marketing: It's about making someone feel before they act.
As a creative community, it's challenging to see how the increase in processor speed, storage and connections can enhance the way we can make consumers feel online. And there are some great examples of work that really does do so.
Check out:
- http://www.lifecomesatyoufast.com/
- http://imagery.gettyimages.com/gestalt/?country=usa
- http://us.heineken.com/headlines/
... to name just a few.
The bigger task we all face is how to join hands and get great emotive creative, being served to just the right people at just the right time.
We have the technology. We have the talent.
Now we just need the teamwork to do it hand in hand, or should I say, "mouse in hand?"
Alan Schulman is chief creative officer of Brand New World. Read full bio.