Inside Effectiveness.
Client success is driven by agencies no longer looking to "take a risk," but rather brand consistency that creates meaningful emotion and unique ideas, according to the panellists at the Advertising Council Australia's Inside Effectiveness event in Sydney.
The panel discussion focused on enduring effectiveness, exploring how brands can move beyond short-term metrics to build sustained value.
WARC APAC managing director, Rica Facundo, told the panel that taking a risk is no longer the way to describe creativity to marketers.
“We're always describing creativity as bravery, taking a risk,” Facundo said.
“But should that be the language we use for creativity? So many things now are uncertain. If you're going to your senior stakeholders and saying, ‘You should be brave and take this risk’, they're probably going to step back.
“The buying mindset that we should be cultivating is imagination, conviction in differentiation.
“Are we inadvertently putting ourselves on the back foot when we're seen taking creative risk and creative leaps?”
Suncorp EGM brand and marketing, Mim Haysom, said that a risky idea is one that doesn’t align with the organisation’s purpose or strategy.
“If there's work that is in service of the brand, the customer and it's making me feel something, then I'll buy it,” Haysom said.
“If I don't feel something, that's a higher risk for me, because it means it's not going to be effective or efficient.
“I want you to scare the hell out of me, to make me either wet my pants laughing, cry with emotion, because if I don't feel something and people online don't feel something, then it's wasted.
“But it can be hard. It's easier to start with a blank sheet of paper and do something really interesting.
“It's so much harder to refresh and recreate interest in an existing platform, but it's worth it, because the impact is so much more.”
BMF chief strategy officer, Christina Aventi, said that it’s about a balance of fresh and familiar ideas.
“Consistency makes it sexy,” Aventi said.
“It's not about being fixed all the time either. Some agencies use the glass versus clay model, but even with consistency, you need to freshen it up.
“It's about striking the right balance and being clear about your definition around the brand. If it's a creative asset, being clear about what you can change and what you've got to evolve.
“It depends on your brand as well, how mainstream, populist you are versus challenger.
"It's about coherence, particularly in a world of distributed identities, how it shows up in social and creative is taken on board.
"It's about making sure it feels cohesive.”
But Facundo said that consistency is not the same thing as same-ness.
“Consistent campaigns demonstrate that they're actually better for your bottom line. What is sexier than more money for your brand and stakeholders?” Facundo said.
“Consistent is sexy because it's a constraint, which can be really exciting.
"How you say the same thing multiple times in different ways for different audiences.
"If you've done your research and your strategy is right and have an enduring brand platform that enables you, It's both creatively sexy, but also financially sexy.”
It's about setting those expectations at the start and having clear intentions, according to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood senior manager, integrated marketing, Steph Garner.
“We often talk internally about the feeling of being uncomfortable. When we've got a brave idea in front of us, we want to make sure we'll buy it to start with,” Garner said.
“It’s about aligning with the thing we loved about it in the beginning.
“We as an organisation need to be very deliberate. We need ideas that resonate and touch people, ensuring that we maintain that sense of novelty, but also the baseline of consistency.
"Being brave and not taking foolish risks.”
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