Controversial Marketing Hot-Take #3

In October of last year, I thought of starting a series of posts on 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀. I posted one a day for four days straight. This was the third one.

“𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜.”

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 #𝟯

We obsess about optimizing any aspect of our media buys, but most creatives are evaluated in very controlled environments and then “trafficked and forgotten.” We should be more rigorous in the creative development and methodical in their optimization.

𝗔 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗷𝗼𝗸𝗲, 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 – People half watching the TV don’t have the voice over of the Creative Director. Neither do those mindlessly scrolling their feed or running to catch their train. Reviews and pre-testing are valuable, but not as much as the reaction from real people in mundane environments.

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 – In-flight creative management is often limited to pausing and throttling low-performing assets. Creatives are mostly delivered before the flight, using no in-flight performance data to inform conception and production. Media is constantly optimized after the campaign launches. Why is it not the same with the creatives?

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 – The brightest and most advanced marketers shot multiple scenes and have a modular approach to video production. They use real-time data to create new iterations based on performance. Don’t hire Don Draper for your next production; hire Mr. Beast.

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲s 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝟰𝟳% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝟬% 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 – We spend a massive amount of time and resources optimizing all aspects of our media buys and use sophisticated measurement approaches to evaluate the ROI. When was the last time you monitored the effectiveness of your creatives and assessed the opportunity cost of running abelow-average assets?