Marketers are the architects of creativity, not bystanders

As an industry, we often shy away from talking about the important role marketers play in nurturing creative ideas for their brands. Perhaps it is the risk of being seen as the ‘pretty-pictures department’, not as serious business leaders, or in deference to our creative agency partners for whom this is the heart of their business. Though it can be damaging to the reputation of a marketer if creativity is perceived to be the only lever at their disposal, the evidence of the impact creative ideas can have across all touchpoints in the consumer experience is persuasive. Creative ideas are commercial growth drivers.

Recognising that one of your roles as a brand marketer is as creative architect for your brand is important. You must take time to work out and articulate what your brand aspires to creatively, alongside the work you do to unlock the biggest consumer opportunities for growth.

Creative aspiration

There is a continuum for effectiveness when it comes to creative work. James Hurman and Peter Field’s Creative Effectiveness Ladder is a good framework for thinking about what to shoot for. The most ambitious brands will aim to be enduring icons. To achieve this means developing a flexible creative idea which may last for years and address the different jobs your brand needs to do. Think about Mastercard, All State Insurance, M&Ms, Snickers, Dove and so forth.

Your creative aspiration is likely to reflect your brand’s ambition and the nature of your organisation. We hear a lot of calls for boldness and creative bravery, but what your brand needs and what your organisation values may be different. These are important questions to address – they speak to what’s possible and desirable.

Creative ideas are part inspiration, part strategy, part luck and part formula.

It helps to demystify creative ideas in your organisation. At its worst, creativity is marketing’s Wizard of Oz. It can seem like smoke and mirrors, and some marketers may fear saying the wrong thing. After all, you are buying something which is intangible until it’s been produced and, by then, with sunk costs and the effort expended, it can seem too late to turn back.

In truth, great creative ideas are part inspiration, part strategy, part luck and part formula. It’s not an affront to say it’s a formula – such is the case of the creative ideas of the best bands, TV series and artists. One of the things we must do as creative architect is to discover that formula, work out its boundaries and rules, understand how to be true to them and allow them to evolve over time without ‘jumping the shark’.

Even with all the available learning about what drives the most effective creative, it can be hard to use it in the moment. It’s not like you can say “I’d like a brand-centred, relevant, emotive, engaging, easy-to-understand idea which will work in different channels, and address a variety of present and future opportunities for growth,” and magically make it happen. Instead, you must create an environment which fosters creativity.

Long-standing ideas

You need a long-term vision for your brand, a grasp of the breadth of jobs your brand needs to do, strong brand positioning grounded in consumer insight, and a strong visual identity that goes beyond distinctive brand assets into visual codes, with a deliberate aesthetic sensibility possessing the power to convey cultural meaning. You must select agencies with the capability to create work with the tone and style your brand needs to succeed, and provide them with clear direction from which they can ideate. You will be adept at managing ambiguity and shifting from the big picture to the micro level, sweating the details while retaining objectivity to see things through your audience’s eyes.

Creativity is marketers’ last legal unfair advantage – and I don’t mean advertising

Developing a long-standing idea may require skillful use of consumer research. It helps to have a great qualitative research partner comfortable with fledgling ideas. Advertising pre-testing can play a role in understanding an individual execution – a good pre-test result is the outcome of a strong process, enables optimisation and helps you regain some of the brutal objectivity that can get lost in the process. It should not be a reminder, too late in the process, of the fundamentals, and nor will it replace the need for a clear strategy upstream.

Remember your responsibility inside your organisation. Think less about ‘managing stakeholders’, which sounds combative, and more about how you create belief and patience, and nurture curiosity and learning. A fully flexible creative vehicle does not fall from the sky but needs space to develop, albeit it can start from the seed of a single powerful execution.

Being great at this requires a particular level of self-awareness. You must be fully present but also able to get out of the way. The best marketers act in service of the brand they work on, respectful of its past, and set it up for a future beyond them. You must avoid creating work that reflects your own sensibilities and tastes, and instead focus on amplifying that which is enduring in a brand’s essence, so it resonates with culture and the audience. This is a real art.