Many people think in order to be effective with creativity in your advertising, you have to have a complex ad campaign with a big budget. Although having deep pockets helps get your campaign idea out to more people, the underlying message still needs to hold strong regardless. Whether it gets out to an audience of millions, or a small number of people in your database, the messaging shouldn’t be affected by smaller or larger budgets. We always preach here that a focused message is really the key to a great campaign. Building ideas around that message just makes the creativity shine even brighter.

Back in school, one of the golden lessons I was taught about effective advertising was the “KISS” method (Keep It Simple Stupid). You may be familiar with this, but the KISS method basically preaches that keeping your message simple will have a more effective result than getting too complex. Studies show that people spend mere seconds with your ad efforts in magazines, postcards and commercials, so you have to make sure what you want noticed is memorable in a quick and simple fashion.

Here are a few examples of very effective campaign ideas that just took a simple message and added just that little bit of creative touch that takes it to “Brilliant!” status.

Rona Paint is a Canadian paint company. In an effort to market their paint recuperation and recycling campaign, they decided to piggyback off of Apple’s worldwide iPod campaign. The new iPod Nano campaign touts the various bright colors the new generation has available. The Apple campaign is very colorful and incorporates images of wet paint splattering and dripping with various colors onto the different iPod Nanos. Rona took a very familiar ad campaign and added a little creativity to exemplify their message… not to mention, in a very cost-efficient way. See it here. (Note: the French writing says, “We Collect Leftover Paint.”)

We all know the Hard Rock Café. Whether you like their image or not, you have to give credit to their newest campaign imagery. Staying true to the “KISS” method and their image, they took the legendary hand gesture for rock music, and in a very simple and creative manner, summed up everything they needed to say, without using a single word (minus the logo of course). Pure genius … I deem this campaign as “Brilliant.” [Ad Sample]

This has to be one of my all-time favorite rivalry ads. As many big brand names compete to show how much better than their competition they are (i.e. Coke vs. Pepsi, Microsoft vs. Apple, Energizer vs. Duracell), sometimes a simple returned message mixed with a little creativity can win the fight. Audi made a bold marketing move to call out BMW with their new A4 model. On a billboard in California, they basically put the car up with the headline, “Your Move, BMW.” Not to be outdone, BMW purchased the billboard across the street and fired back a bullet that left Audi speechless. The billboard was thought out in every detail. White car on black backdrop vs. black car on white backdrop. Comparable class of vehicle. Continued theme of chess. Audi will definitely think twice next time.

This may be a shameless plug, but I want to show that even smaller budgets on a local level can benefit from this. One of our clients, Holman’s of Nevada, a Las Vegas-based technology company that provides business technology solutions to the AEC community, needed a direct mail campaign to help boost paper and ink sales. With a little creativity, we worked on an ad campaign that physically showed the problem people were having – running out of ink in mid-print. Being proactive and creative, the postcards addressed a strong message and instantly generated calls for Holman’s within days of delivery to consumers. [ POSTCARD SAMPLE]

Jef I. Richards summed it up best, “Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising.” With that, close the door, clear your mind, put on those brainstorm caps, and come up with your brilliant message to wow the world.

There are several occasions when I see or hear about an idea or invention and I just sit back in awe and say, “that is freakin’ brilliant.” The concept is usually so good that I literally get the chills, immediately followed by a bit of disappointment caused by the realization that I should have, but didn’t, come up with that idea first.

Although this can happen with things like the iPhone or the Aston Martin, it usually gets me most when I see a print ad or television spot. I usually always say afterwards that I would like to meet that person and shake their hand for being, as they say in the Guinness commercials, “Brilliant!”

As an undergraduate I remember contemplating switching majors from the dental route to marketing/advertising. I took a road trip to San Diego to think the career switch over. Along the way I saw a billboard for the redesign of the new Volvo. It was a teaser campaign with a silhouette of the new redesign, wrapped with the words “REVOLVOLUTION.” Volvo was evolving its design and image, and one word explained the whole story. Simple yet powerful … and definitely brilliant! That ad stuck with me for years. The same symptoms were present … the chills, the disappointment and the desire to meet that creative person. I knew then I would love to do advertising for a living and hopefully someday could have the same effect with my messaging on someone else’s brand.

One of the most recent spots that struck me in a similar fashion was the new Snapple spot. Snapple had huge success as a tasty all-natural fruit juice in the early 90s and built its campaign around the tagline, “Made from the best stuff on Earth.” The new spot is simple, fast, witty and just what Snapple needs to help rebrand and reintroduce the drink. Taking the leverage of its previous successful campaign, they are marketing their new products with the concept that they have found “better stuff.” What can be better than the best stuff? Even better stuff! They have earned “Ehsan’s brilliant stamp of approval.” A handshake awaits the creative director.

These few examples remind me of how powerful a brand message can be and the emotions that arise from it. When coming up with the message, it is definitely a collaborative effort between the marketing company and the client. The message needs to be clearly defined, and a strong communication needs to occur initially between the team before any creative is developed. You have to remember, the message guides the creative, not the other way around.

There is a spot we always discuss internally that shows strong creative with bad messaging. It is a Super Bowl spot that ran several years back for a company called EDS. This Ross Perot owned-company goes through this long sequence of cowboys and their family tradition of herding cats. It is interesting enough to keep you intrigued, but then it tries too hard to connect the creative with its messaging. After your minute of investment, you are let down and still have no idea what services the company really offers. The same mistake was made with their next spot. So much for learning from your mistakes.

Bottom line, keep messaging on task and use creativity to make it memorable and strike emotion. Remember, a team effort and strong communication will make this a success. And if you do that, I may just want to shake your hand and call you “Brilliant.”

If you have examples of ads you like or commercials gone bad, please comment below.

Ehsan Kaveh is an Account Executive at Imagine Marketing.
Contact Ehsan at ekaveh@imnv.com