Truly creative advertising actually has the potential to inspire. I know some people who are pretty uninterested in branding and brand identity and still comment when they see an interesting commercial. Creative advertisements, however, go beyond interesting commercials. The really creative advertising that gets made ends up being pioneering. Ideas like guerrilla marketing, word of mouth, viral marketing, and others started out as creative, innovative ideas by bright young advertising executives. They started out as risky, pioneering campaigns, and eventually became the bread-and-butter of the advertising industry.
In my line of work, advertising creatively is really important. You see, we sell high fashion clothing in a very competitive market. There are several big designers who market heavily in this particular metropolitan area, so creative advertising is a must. One of the most creative branding campaigns that we have come up with has actually been borrowed from the liquor industry and the tobacco companies. For some time, cigarette and alcohol companies have done raffles, offered giveaways, and held various contests inside of bars at night. We are starting to do the same thing. We have staged guerrilla floor shows showing off some of our products, given out free clothing, and sent out models dressed up in our latest apparel to attract attention to our fashion designs. All of it has generated a tremendous amount of revenue because we are ahead of our competition.
In fashion, after all, image is everything. That is the whole point of the business, and the way that you sell it in the first place. Creative advertising is important for more conventional businesses as well. For example, saturating a neighborhood with unconventional advertisements can get tremendous results. I recently saw a local bar opening up with a pretty creative advertising campaign. Basically, they filled the whole neighborhood with billboards. They were all sizes and shapes. Some of them were on the storefronts, other ones were above the street, and some of them were carried around by billboard trucks. For a week straight, all you saw was the name of the spire. When the bar finally opened, the advertisements abruptly ceased. As predicted, the crowds poured in.
Creative advertising needs not be on such a grand scale. Just having an attractive and captivating logo, a clever slogan, or a well loved personality associated with your product often is enough to do the trick. If it gets results, you have succeeded.
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