If you delve into research a bit, you'll see that there are many well-known and lesser-known brands that have shown just how creative marketing campaigns can be. These are brands that did something different, leveraged human habits and ways of perceiving messages, and captured attention. Capturing attention, amidst the sea of information and competition, is the biggest challenge for marketing teams today.
We don't know if you've ever thought about the other side of the story, but wouldn't it be interesting to know the number of creative campaigns that remained in the drawer due to a lack of courage? Creating a creative campaign may not even be the most challenging part of this process. Much of it comes down to having the courage to release such a campaign to the public.
Here, we'll mention three cases where this courage wasn't lacking, making these perfect examples of how a creative campaign can save the day.
Creative Campaigns and Brands that Showed It Can Be Different
The first example comes from Rory Sutherland's book "Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense" We highly recommend the book because it might show in the best way how creativity can and should be utilized in everything we do. He mentions a campaign for a drug called Night Nurse..
How does the story go? Scientists were tasked with creating an effective and potent cold and flu remedy, and they succeeded. However, there was one side effect: the drug caused drowsiness. Fearing that such a warning would undoubtedly affect sales, scientists were already tasked with figuring out what to change so that this side effect wouldn't occur. Then the marketing team came to the rescue. They reframed the narrative and named the drug Night Nurse, explaining that it's a nighttime medicine to be taken before sleep. Nothing changed in the drug or its side effect; what was considered a side effect that could scare off customers became an advantage of the drug. Not only will you feel better, but you'll also sleep better. Investment in a creative campaign - none.
Utilize What's Inherently Human to Create a Creative Campaign
The other two examples come from Jonah Berger's book "Contagious: Why Things Catch On.", We recommend this book as well because it leads to slightly different thinking and message creation based on our psychological determinants, habits, and behaviours.
One example he mentions is the introduction of McDonald's McRib offering. Convinced it would be a burger everyone would go crazy for, it was made available throughout America in all McDonald's restaurants, and it was a complete failure. Demand for it was incredibly low, and the only option left was to remove that burger from the menu. Before that happened, one of the marketing team leaders wanted to try something new. They decided to make the burger available in a limited version in only a certain number of cities. Afterward, it would be available in another city, and so on. The demand became incredible! People were now so crazy about a burger they couldn't have that they developed apps where they would inform each other where the burger was available. Interesting, isn't it? Investment in a creative campaign - none.
You Can Be Creative in Anything
We'll mention the next campaign just to confirm that you can be creative about anything. For example, the "Will it Blend" campaign by Blendtec is one of the most creative campaigns for a product that, in itself, isn't the most creative. It was a blender whose advantage was its power. Compared to other blenders, it was more expensive, and the message needed to convey that the reason for this was its quality.
With a limited budget, the campaign began by filming videos in which they put various objects into the blender, and the device easily turned them into dust. One of the most viewed videos was posted 13 years ago, in which they blended an iPad. The video received an incredible 19 million views. Do you know the cost of a 30-second advertisement on television in a program watched by 19 million people? Neither do we, but it amounts to millions of dollars. Investment in this creative campaign - almost nothing. Investment here refers to all the various products they blended, but compared to advertising costs, it's negligible.
Creativity doesn't have to be limited to branding or sales campaigns. We live in a time when people are attracted to something new and creative , and they have the desire and the means to share it with the whole world. If you lack inspiration in this area, we highly recommend the two books mentioned. They will make you think differently. If you're looking for daily inspiration like this, follow the Brilliant Ads profile on LinkedIn.They might collect creative ideas from all around the world in the best possible way. We particularly like this creative way of handling negative criticism :)
