You can’t have missed the fact that it's Cannes Lions week. People have been blogging and tweeting nonstop about how great the talks and presentations have been this year, and also how it’s great to meet new people and make contacts. Cannes is all this and more; and especially some fantastic parties and the subsequent serious hangovers.
But at the centre of Cannes Lions is the advertising competition and at the heart of that event is creativity. And creativity matters; not just for the festival itself, or for the agencies or even the advertising industry but for the clients – the advertisers.
Creative advertising engages consumers and changes their viewpoint about a brand, a company or a cause. But creative advertising also works; and it works better than non creative advertising at building brands and changing viewpoints over the long term.
Following on from Peter Field’s study 'The Link Between Creativity and Effectiveness' (IPA, 2011, Peter Field). Dominic Twose and Polly Wyn Jones of Millward Brown conducted their own survey, publishing their findings in Admap November 2011. They used a base of 251ads from 91 brands.
From the report summary - ‘’While creativity cannot be defined or prescribed, its effects can be measured, and creative ads tend to be enjoyable and involving, and different to other advertising. They tend to stimulate an emotional response. Effective ads also tend to generate these responses – and they are also likely to be well branded.’’
The full article from Admap can be found here. It makes enlightening and interesting reading.
So when you see photos and hear reports of Cannes Lions delegates in compromising situations (usually from the infamous gutter bar) in the early hours of the morning, don’t be too hard on them. They’ve probably been working hard for the past year back in their home cities. And some of them have also managed to produce great work that’s moved hearts and minds, been effective and by the way; made money for their clients.
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