Advertisements follow us wherever we go. The biggest challenge faced by marketers today is to attract the audience and secure a place in their memory. Creativity is the answer to this challenge. In a layman's words, creativity can be understood as "Approaching the problems and identifying solutions for them in a different way." It is human nature to get enthralled by creativity, and this fascination of audience is what all advertisers strive for. Harnessing the immense pull of creativity can be the secret mantra to successful advertising. Creativity can be defined in many ways, as varied as the means open to a creative person. It has no generally accepted definition. It has often been discussed in terms of `four facets of creativity' (Altsech, 1995; MacKinnon, 1987; Kneller, 1965).
Creativity is a quality possessed by ad makers that enables them to generate novel approaches, generally reflected in new and improved solutions to problems. A customer is the raison d'être for an advertisement. The ultimate aim of any advertisement is to stimulate the sales, directly or indirectly and the dimensions of advertisements should help the advertiser to attain this. Creative advertising is the order of the day, today it is a necessity for existence, rather than serving as a tool to give competitive edge. This situation is developed in this portentous way, because of competition, increasing awareness among audience and more choice available to the audience. Today's audiences are better informed, and there is always somebody to provide them with that specific need that they have.
Gone are the days when customers forcefully watched uninteresting advertisements. A powerful tool to catch the eye of the audience and turn them to listen to the advertisers is creativity. Creative ads attract the audiences naturally, as it is human nature to be interested in new things and get attracted to novel ideas. Thanks to the improved technology and the remote control, today, the audience is better informed and has a wider choice in forms of different channels. This has forced the copywriters to turn to creativity to attract and interest the audience. This is easier said than done, because the audience is being bombarded with loud and attractive messages from all directions. The otherwise obscure process of advertising is gaining trasnsparency, resulting in elevating the expectations and hence putting a pressure on copywriters.
A lot of research has been undertaken to understand the intricacies of the delicately complex audience behavior. Research suggests that getting attracted to new ideas is basic human nature. In childhood, we all have given priority to learn new things, rather than remaining satisfied with what we have learnt. Sadly though, this creative ability dwindles with age. The more older we get, the more rigid boundaries we set, the fascination remains however.
The first step in winning over the customer is to attract him. Considering that the customer is exposed to lots of channels and with technology at his command, this is not an easy task. Promotions are creative ideas developed by the company or its ad agency. The best rated ads are those that harness the power of creativity to spellbind the audience. The mix of right ingredients ensures that the audience is pleased with the ad. A successful ad is one that the audience recollects in pensive mood with a smile. Repetition is boring and fails to retain interest of the customer. Contrary to the days of ad of `Washing Powder Nirma', now the story board keeps changing everytime an ad appears. This helps in meeting the ever demanding customer, who undoubtedly is the king. Companies have to thus consider the cost of creating and airing varieties of ads. |
