This chapter covers creativity – an essential ingredient to any promotion as, to be noticed by the shopper, your promotion must be different, fun, exciting etc. Promotions die if they are not creative. What makes an ordinary promotion outstanding? How do you go about the process of translating promotional objectives into an idea that will achieve behavioural change? You have to be creative. Catch the imagination. This is the art of creativity.
Types of creativity
Creativity is a much-misunderstood word. For some people, it is the opposite of order and structure. It is thought of as the free expression of feeling, of your deepest self. Some talk about creativity as if it is only found in the visual or dramatic arts, such as painting or dance. They have difficulty thinking of the creativity of the engineer or physicist, let alone of the businessperson. This chapter explains how to do it.
In promotions, creativity does not mean free expression, exciting pictures, clever copy or off-the-wall concepts. It means generating the most effective concept possible. In this, it goes back to the original meaning of creation or creativity. Chaucer writes, in The Canterbury Tales, of ‘All things as God created, all things in right order’. Bringing into being the wonders of the world out of nothing was what Chaucer had in mind. On a smaller scale, generating something new where nothing was before is at the heart of creativity. It applies as much to the engineer as to the musician. Order, structure and fitness for purpose are not enemies of creativity, but part of it. If you are going to be responsible for creating a truly effective promotion, you must be really clear about what it is you need to achieve and be capable of imaginative, lateral thinking. If others are to create the promotion for you, then this chapter will help you provide them with the best brief possible.
The target is individual. All promotions, and indeed advertising and PR, communicate with one person at a time, usually the reader of a screen (mobile, laptop, PC), leaflet, poster, mailshot or press or TV advertisement. But they are not atomised individuals: they are people who build their understanding by means of their interactions with friends, colleagues, families and communities. The more specifically you can define your target audience in both individual and group terms, the more precise will be your creative approach and the more effective your promotion.
Diminishing creativity. It is a sad fact of life that, as people grow older, fewer and fewer show signs of creative ability. Research has shown that 95 per cent of children show strong creative tendencies, while only 5 per cent of adults show the same traits. We simply become less good at inventing and developing new and original ideas. This is partly because creativity is the one life skill that has seldom been taught at school or university and partly because our elders and peers stamp it out of us. Remember when you were caught jumping on the settee and told off for doing so? Your mother just saw her child damaging the furniture. You were riding a horse, escaping from the enemy – exercising your creativity.
To create promotions, you do not need to jump up and down on your office chair, however much you might feel like doing so sometimes. You do need to suspend belief and really and truly imagine. Experience shows that the latent creative ability can be liberated in most people. There are many exercises and procedures that can help you become more creative, and later in this chapter we will look at some techniques that can be helpful in a business context. They will help you structure your creative planning to enable you to create a truly great promotion rather than an imitation of someone else’s idea. First, a few case studies to stimulate and enlarge on the essence of creativity.
Creative promotions case studies
Truly great ideas stand the test of time. Osram had produced a new light bulb that lasted four times as long as a normal one but cost only twice as much. It was ideal for use in industry, where bulbs are often changed all at once, towards the end of their life. Not only would the bulbs be cheaper over a period of time, but there would also be considerable savings in labour costs. However, industry was not buying them. Research indicated that this was because the maintenance department purchased bulbs and were usually instructed by finance departments as to the maximum amount they could pay. Maintenance staff were not allowed to suddenly spend twice as much as normal.
The ‘Who do I want to do what?’ question led to the answer. Maintenance and financial staff could only agree to buy Osram if they did so together. The solution was to send the chief accountant a cash box and explain that there was information inside the box on how to save more than 50 per cent on bulb replacement. The key was sent to the head of maintenance, and this fact was also communicated to the financial officer. To read the information inside the box, both the financial and maintenance representative had to meet, and they were then in a position to have a short discussion. Was it successful? Yes. A neat, elegant solution, far more likely to succeed than a simple brochure mailing or trade press campaign. This promotion deservedly won an ISP Grand Prix award.
Case study 13 – Sheraton Securities
Another elegant solution involved, of all unlikely things, a wellington boot. Sheraton Securities wanted to attract commercial property agents to visit their greenfield development site. These agents are inundated with similar requests and are regularly sent brochures and inducements. Sheraton chose to personally deliver one left wellington boot to 50 selected agents. They then advertised in the trade press, ‘What possible use is one wellie?’, stating that the other boot was to be found on their development site. This humorous and off-beat approach succeeded in bringing the agents along.
There are established hotels in Manchester and the Ramada, on opening, was just not reaching its targets. Of the many ways of promoting hotels, one of the best is to encourage positive recommendations from existing guests. How, though, can you do that? The bizarre solution was to put a plastic duck in each bathroom and tell the guests, by means of a tent card, that they could keep the duck. Alternatively, if they wished, they could have it sent anywhere in the world in its own special crate for only £2.50 plus postage.
This promotion not only succeeded, but made a profit. The cost of the duck and crate were far less than £2.50, and hundreds were sold to intrigued guests. This promotion won a European sales promotion gold award. It has also been used extensively since. The plastic duck was found in a Saigon hotel in 2009 by the author.
Case study 15 – Cherry Blossom
How would you go about sampling thousands of consumers with a new shoe-cleaning pad? Cherry Blossom must have considered door-to-door sample drops, banded offers and all the other techniques. The one they used, however, was to link with the Boy Scouts, who at that time cleaned people’s shoes outside supermarkets during Bob-a-Job week. Simple, cheap and a winner of several awards.
Case study 16 – Shell’s ‘Make Money’
Many people still remember Shell’s ‘Make Money’ promotion in the 1960s in which customers collected halves of banknotes. They could redeem them for their face value if they collected both matching halves. Obtaining that elusive matching £10,000 banknote half became compulsive, driving out any thought of visiting a competing petrol station. This promotion has been run several times in the UK and throughout the world. It works – it works again and again, and it has been copied over and over. It must be a great promotion.
All these promotions have a number of things in common. They are engaging. It is not immediately obvious what they are trying to achieve (the objectives are not showing). They were original when they were first implemented. They are very carefully targeted. The promotions’ creators all clearly identified ‘who it was that they wanted to do what’.
The Osram promotion clearly identified that the company wanted the accountants and the maintenance people to meet and discuss the benefits of the new bulb. The developers wanted agents to come to their site. Ramada wanted people to tell their friends and business acquaintances about the new hotel. Cherry Blossom wanted people to try the new product and feel warmly about the company. Shell wanted people to come back to its petrol stations rather than visit those of its competitors.
It is this clarity of the promotional objective and of the definition of the target audience that they all have in common. Once that is in place, humour, excitement, style, graphics and copy can be introduced in an appropriate way to enhance the overall offering to the customer.
What has clarity of promotional objectives got to do with creativity? Essentially, it is the key to success! Briefs to creatives often state that the objective is to increase sales by X or to increase distribution by Y. These are marketing objectives, not promotional objectives. A promotional objective is the answer to ‘Who do I want to do what?’ Remember that promotions are about changing behaviour. Setting the right objectives is often truly creative.
Thinking creatively – Who do I want to do what?
Very often, a marketing objective will turn into a number of different promotional objectives as you ask the question, ‘Who do I want to do what?’ This is not a problem unless you try to achieve them all by the same promotion. Note that we are talking here about a promotion and not a promotional theme. You may decide on a theme that has several different promotions, targeted at different audiences. Different people in the distribution chain will be motivated in different ways. The wholesaler, the retailer and the consumer all need to be attended to. Also, the same theme can be worked through different promotions over a period of time.
Brief 4.1 describes a worked-through example to illustrate the method.
BRIEF 4.1. Generating more sales creatively. A typical brief, one that is often proposed by brand managers of lager beer, is ‘We want to generate sales of X cans during Y period. Our target market is C1/C21 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25’.
Have you ever met a C1/C2, or indeed anyone ‘aged 18 to 25’? The group contains postgraduate students, marketing managers, soldiers, lathe operators, nurses, car mechanics, musicians performing classical and heavy metal music, teachers, truck drivers, jockeys, farm workers, photographic models and so on. How can you possibly attract all members of such a diverse group? The only thing they have in common is that they visit pubs and off-licences and like to drink lager. Think of them as a sociological category and you will end up with a bland promotion. Alternatively, although not a bad promotion by any means, you will focus on the single thing they have in common, receiving lager as an incentive – 10 per cent extra free and buy five, get one free are standard promotions in this market. But is that the best that you can do?
Before you go any further, have you spotted the flaw in the description given? An assumption was made and this is always a mistake. ‘Who’ was assumed as existing lager drinkers. Perhaps the promotion might target wine drinkers. Never assume anything. In the case of Ramada, the normal action would have been to advertise to people who book hotels. The problem in that case is that these people are all over the world and do not see the same media. It would have been an impossibly expensive strategy.
Who? The first task is to answer the ‘who’ part of the question. In our lager example we can list:
• existing drinkers of the brand;
• lager drinkers who buy other brands;
• ale drinkers;
• wine drinkers;
• people who vary what they drink;
• home drinkers;
• pub drinkers.
However, this list only describes the group in relation to their drinking. They have many other characteristics. They may be further categorised as:
1. amateur pop singers;
2. fashion followers;
4. golfers;
5. classical music devotees;
6. … and many others.
What do we want them to do? Once we have decided the ‘who’, we must define ‘what we want them to do’. The list might be as follows:
1. existing drinkers of the brand: suggest it to friends;
2. lager drinkers who buy other brands: switch brands;
3. ale drinkers: switch to lager, our brand;
4. wine drinkers: try lager when it’s hot weather;
5. people who vary what they drink: be consistent, drink our brand;
6. home drinkers: go to the pub;
7. pub drinkers: take some home.
It is possible that some groups will have exactly or nearly the same ‘what’ as others, so it might be possible to use the same promotion. For example, the same mechanic may well work with ale drinkers and drinkers of other brands. Already we can see the opportunity for creatively engaging these different sorts of people in different ways. Now we have the ‘who’ and the ‘what’, it’s time for the real creativity.
The creative bit! Let’s study the second list of amateur pop singers, fashion followers, tennis players and the like. Remember that any one of the people in these categories may also be in one of the other categories. We have, therefore, the grounds for 35 possible promotional objectives, and the lists are by no means exhaustive. Let us take just one example: tennis players who vary their drinks. We can now start to build a picture of real people and work out how to motivate them. We know they are under 25. We know they drink a variety of things. We know they play tennis and are likely to visit the club bar. The answer to the question ‘Who do we want to do what?’ is therefore ‘We want tennis players who are not consistent in their choice of drinks to try our lager once a week in their club after their game’.
Now we can begin to devise a worthwhile promotion for these people. We can imagine them as flesh and blood, coming in from the game, looking for a drink. We can imagine the place and the time of day. We can picture their friends and the things they will be talking about. It is far more real, far more focused, than trying to attract that sociological category, the C1/C2 person between 18 and 25.
A number of ideas immediately present themselves for encouraging tennis players who are not consistent in their choice of drinks to take a lager once a week after their game. A chance to play tennis with a celebrity? A discount on tennis kit? The chance to collect something for the club? However, tennis players are just one of our groups. A similar process will lead to similar thoughts about the classical music devotee who never drinks at home and the amateur pop singer who normally drinks beer.
Who else?
Having categorised the consumers, it is worth looking at the intermediaries – at the publicans, managers of off-licences and super-markets, cash-and-carry buyers and the rest. Like the consumers, they are immensely varied.
Let’s assume that the tennis club idea proved a basis for a promotion themed on sport and leisure and designed to offer a range of celebrity sports opportunities. Now go back to our tennis club and develop the trade dimension of the promotion. Consider the bar steward. He will now become the ‘who’. The ‘what’ might be ‘To suggest a cooling lager is best after a game’. It being a club, there may also be another ‘who’ – the committee, which might have to give permission to allow the promotion to run. Should the club be given the opportunity to host the celebrity events or another incentive?
Meeting the marketing objective with the promotional objective. If you follow this method of identifying ‘who’ and ‘what’ in Brief 4.1, you will quickly devise hundreds of different promotional objectives. This is delightful, but you are unlikely to have the time to work them all up into full promotions – and you could not afford to run them all anyway. You need only work through those promotional objectives that are most likely to achieve the marketing objective. To do this requires careful assessment of the extent to which your promotional objectives will grip the underlying marketing objective.
There are a number of questions to ask about each of your promotional objectives and the initial promotional ideas that go with them:
1 Is the particular audience a reasonable proportion of the total or can the idea at least be attractive to a wider group of people?
2 Is it likely to be achievable within the budgetary, legal, timing and other constraints that you face?
3 Does it lend itself to simple, clear expression to the trade and to consumers?
In this case, we may conclude that these tennis players form too small a group to be significant, but that there is an opportunity if we add them to a range of other active club sports.
Be clear about who and what! The process of devising a promotion is far from over when you have a flipchart or white board covered with possible promotions. However, to try to be creative without attempting to answer the ‘who’ and ‘what’ will usually result in promotions that are less effective than they could be.
In the case of the Ramada promotion, long before ducks or anything else were considered, it was realised that, mainly owing to budget limitations, the ‘who’ would be the guests and the ‘what’ would be telling their contacts about the hotel. It was as simple as that. The statement of the promotional objective in that case and in many others is creative in itself. In this case, the creative process then had to find a way of getting guests to talk about the hotel. Business hotels are not something one normally talks about – except in negative terms – as they are fundamentally similar across the globe. A true creative leap was required. It was realised that one thing all guests do when they are in a business hotel room is to grab some relaxation time, often by taking a bath or a shower. We should catch them while they are relaxed and are likely to be receptive.
Brainstorming (now called thought showering!) is useful. Could we put a waterproof joke book by the bath? A bathroom karaoke kit? Something useful? Humour seemed appropriate and, eventually, along with boats came that deeply loved creature of children’s baths, the duck. Brainstorming is not the only technique used. To devise good promotions, you need to use a range of creative techniques.
Creative techniques
Here are five creative techniques that are particularly useful in moving from ‘Who do I want to do what?’ to an effective promotion:
1 Listing. As we have already seen, making lists is a very useful technique. It was a straightforward process to list all the different types of young lager drinkers, for example. Lists help you order your thoughts and show up any gaps. They do have one disadvantage, which is that it is often difficult to see the connections between items on a list, and particularly on several different lists. One way round this is to use the largest sheet of paper you can find and draw lines to show these connections. For example, you could link rugby players and golfers as people who would be members of a club and therefore involved with bar stewards.
2 Mind maps. Another way of showing connections is not to write a list, but to draw a ‘mind map’, which is a formalised way of connecting ideas. Take a sheet of paper and start with one idea. It could be anything related to the subject, for example ‘wine drinker’. Then draw a line from it. Along that line write connected ideas, for example ‘sophisticated’, ‘educated’ and ‘travelled’. From each of these words draw other lines, and write the words that occur to you. For example, from ‘travelled’ you might write ‘airline tickets’, ‘currency’, ‘passport’ and ‘duty-free’. Keep on doing this, and the interconnected ideas stay together. Connections also appear that will not at first have struck you. For example, ‘duty-free’ brings you back to ‘wine drinker’. Is there a promotional idea in that? Mind map software programs can help here.
3 Thought showering (the old brainstorming). Once you have really defined your chosen, practical promotional objectives, you may then decide to brainstorm. Brainstorming is not meant to be a woolly general discussion. Set the objective for the session very clearly and ensure everyone understands it. For the Ramada promotion, it was ‘What can we put in a bathroom, in a business hotel, that will amuse the guests and encourage them to mention how good the hotel is to the person who booked it and to colleagues?’ and the related one, ‘Is it also possible to provide something that would act as a constant reminder to the guest?’ It is useful to spend just a few moments on a warm-up exercise to get people into the right frame of mind. Perhaps you could examine where else the session could have been held that would increase the creativity level. The best hotel in the world? The most beautiful? Then imagine you are there. There are no right or wrong answers in a brainstorming exercise. It is important that people are not allowed to feel foolish or they will cease to contribute. They may have that brilliant idea lurking in their heads just waiting to pop out. Use affirmative expressions such as ‘Yes, and …’ rather than ‘Yes, but …’, let alone ‘No, because …’.
4 The village. A very useful technique is to define all the types of ‘who’ and, in your imagination, people a village with them. Imagine the houses they would live in, the places they would meet, the resources they would need, where they would go for fun and where they would shop. Then aim your promotion to appeal to the village. Think how the villagers would react to it and how it would come up in their conversation. If it does not appeal to most of the villagers, you probably need to redefine your objectives or run more than one promotion.
5 Being someone else. If you feel you are not capable of solving the problem creatively, imagine someone you think could. Imagine a great artist – say, Picasso – or think about the most imaginative person you have met in your life. Then in your mind ask this person what he or she would come up with. A variation of this is to mentally take six people out to dinner and ask them what suggestions they have. Imagine a series of different people, the different perspectives they would have on the question and how they would discuss it among themselves. Why not even imagine one of the ‘villagers’ and ask him or her?
Practice makes perfect. Thinking about promotions can be turned into a party game, perhaps for use on long car journeys. Think of a product category known to you and list all the brands in it. Then assume an objective and a set of mechanics and match the two together. Examine the following list of confectionery brands and promotional offers:
|
After Eight |
Free Levi’s jeans to be won |
|
Yorkie |
Win a racehorse |
|
Jelly Tots |
Free Mother’s Day lunch to be won |
|
Dairy Box |
Win a holiday in LA |
|
Toffee Crisp |
Win a visit to Legoland |
|
Drifter |
Win a mountain bike |
|
Lion Bar |
Win a day out in a tank |
Are they well matched? No. Why not give them a better matching, and then see if you can think of even better promotions to encourage repeat purchase for each of these brands?
Making the most of your idea
Deciding on your mechanic and theme as the answer to the ‘Who is it we want to do what?’ question is an important step. Now you must make it work well.
There may be some pitfalls you need to identify. In the case of the Ramada duck, it was recognised that, if it was left in the bathroom with no explanation, it might look as though the room had not been cleaned properly. People who took the duck, something the Ramada wanted them to do as a reminder of the hotel, might feel guilty. If they did so, they would be unlikely to carry the message about the benefits of the Ramada hotel in Manchester.
The problem was solved by printing a small tent card that introduced the duck and explained that it could be taken home or posted anywhere. The duck was also given a distinctive personality and distinctive packaging. Named ‘Reggie’, he was supplied with a specially constructed cardboard ‘crate’.
In the case of Sheraton Securities’ wellies, the different sizes of feet had to be taken into consideration.
It is essential to identify problems and practical difficulties, such as ensuring that a sales representative’s car can carry sufficient quantities of your latest creative brainwave. More positively, you also have the ability to polish and extend the creative idea. However, beware of so extending the idea that it becomes impossibly complicated.
BRIEF 4.2. Non-promotional creativity! Mazda ran a competition that offered the chance to win a holiday. The stages involved required some imagination. Consumers were enticed by teaser ads in a newspaper, and directed to another and bigger ad; there, they were asked to identify an island, then they had to go to their local Mazda dealer and identify three other photographs, identify another ‘special photograph’, complete an entry form and, should they so wish, phone a London telephone number for a clue. The persistent motorist would, however, have noticed that nowhere did a Mazda car appear, and at no stage did the Mazda dealer play a part in the promotion. Creativity? Not of a promotional kind.
The golden rule is to keep it simple and keep it relevant. The duck crate is an example of a simple extension that enhanced the promotion, yet the promotion would still have worked without it. That promotion was later extended further by putting the duck on Christmas cards and providing star staff with duck merit badges.
When you devise a promotion, be aware of what is current. You can often create far more interest about the activity at little extra cost. Linking in with a current fad can work.
BRIEF 4.3. Golden Wonder crisps once offered embroidered jeans patches showing the Wombles. This was just as the characters became famous and as jeans patches became fashionable. It seemed that everyone was eating crisps all day judging by the response.
Be especially careful if you promote overseas. It is vital to know the traditions and expectations of your foreign consumers. In developing countries, cigarettes are often sold singly as ‘sticks’. Thus, any promotion using packet tops in such countries will benefit only the retailer. When you find a promotion that can be extended in many different ways, you know you have a winner. It is always worth polishing and extending an idea until you have bled it dry.
Once you have your promotional concept, there is a lot of work to be done to turn it into an effective operational plan. For this you need suppliers (the subject of Chapter 5) and an effective implementation strategy (the subject of Chapter 12). In doing so, though, never forget the importance of the original idea: one that can extend and extend, one that is elegant and simple, one that you are really proud of. You will hear a voice in your head asking why no one has done it before. You will begin to fret that there must be something wrong. Don’t worry. If you have followed the steps above you will have created a memorable promotion that will succeed. Congratulate yourself.
Innovation as an extension of creativity
This literally means doing something new. It can also be inventing a totally new use for an existing product.
Case studies
This chapter has been full of examples of creative promotions. Many are from high-profile consumer fields. The two case studies that follow demonstrate that promotional creativity can be found on fairly sticky wickets – in promoting intellectual property law and in promoting an ageing car.
Intellectual property is a dry, complicated but increasingly important branch of law. Most companies – not least promotion agencies – need to think very carefully about who owns the ideas, trademarks, designs and copy that their staff and subcontractors create. The trouble is, drawing up the necessary contracts is something that can always be put off until tomorrow.
The leading legal firm Eversheds wanted to promote their ‘Intellectual Property Health Check’. An ordinary brochure would not have broken through the apathy. Instead, they sent a simple letter accompanied by a piece of wood with a hole drilled through it, marked with the Eversheds logo. They offered a prize for the best answer to two questions. What is it? And what intellectual property rights apply?
The engagement of leading businesspeople with the questions was enormous. So too was the response. The object (which turned out to be a wine bottle holder) was genuinely intriguing. The follow-up letter contained winning solutions, an analysis of no fewer than five intellectual property rights that could apply to it and an invitation to arrange a ‘Health Check’.
Eversheds deserved to succeed with this promotion. Simple and to the point, it showed that even lawyers could be creative!
How exactly did Eversheds answer the ‘Who do I want to do what?’ question?
Rover was faced with the question of what to do to stimulate sales of the ageing and much-loved Mini (it has happened again since then!). Sales were to long-established customers who were declining in number. Could the Mini appeal to a younger generation who might not know it was even available? Potential customers needed to be made aware that they could still buy one, and that Rover’s enormous range of options meant that they could virtually design their own.
The solution was found in an interactive internet site with a monthly competition to design your own Mini with real and fantasy features. Designs were entered on a gallery, where visitors to the site voted for the best design. The winner was rewarded with Mini merchandise, and winning designs were posted on a special page. Everyone won the chance to turn his or her design into a game and download it as a screensaver. Like any good website, it constantly changed. Developments included a walk-round film and a concept car section. These helped it to be one of the top 10 UK sites and to be voted Microsoft’s site of the month as well as winning an ISP (now IPM) award. It was voted commercial website of the year in the UK Yell awards and best automotive site by New Media Age.
In its first 4 months, the site received 3 million hits, 5 per cent of them turning into brochure requests. The promotional mechanic of a design competition proved effective in engaging people with the Mini and with the differential advantage it had over newer cars: the capacity to design your own.
Think about the ‘village’ of visitors to this website. What other products and services featured on the internet would they like?
What promotions could you devise to encourage them to visit your own company’s website?
Summary
Creativity is about finding effective solutions. It requires the ability to think laterally and imaginatively, which can be developed with practice. There are several techniques that can be used, including mind maps and brainstorming.
Creative promotions arise out of close attention to the question ‘Who do I want to do what?’ Once the process of answering this question is begun, hundreds of possible promotional objectives emerge. A really good idea can be versioned and developed in many ways.
Self-study questions
1. What are some of the leading techniques for developing creative ideas?
2. How would you go about answering the question ‘Who do I want to do what?’ for a day at a theme park (Legoland? Alton Towers?):
• Over 55s
• Hen or stag parties
• A group of solicitors
Note
1 C1/C2 is part of the ACORN system for classification of the population into approximated Social Grades with its six categories A, B, C1, C2, D and E. It is a socio-economic classification produced by the ONS (UK Office for National Statistics).