Advertising Mixture of Art and Science Essay

Advertising allows us to communicate a salient message to a large group of consumers faster than any other form of communication. It allows us to truly connect with the consumer; it gives us an opportunity to develop an ongoing relationship between the consumer and a brand. At its best, advertising will create a sense of urgency for the consumer, awareness often honest and accurate that there are products, places, styles or sensibilities that cry out for action or attention. Advertising is a compendium of all communications that consumer sees, feels, touches, hears, smells, and so on. If they are walking through a store, the packaging on particular product is advertising. If they are at home, the direct mail they receive in their mailbox, the e-mails and pop-ups on their computers, or the images they see on television are advertising. The logos on the NASCAR autos or even the t-shirts with every name known to mankind are advertising Advertising A Mixture Of Art And Science: Advertising is a fine balance between art and science. The science part of it is consuming information, but the true challenge is translating these facts into a relevant strategy, into an original, creative execution, and generating the right communication stream. Explanation: Advertising is a mix of science and art. Most companies approach marketing problems in the same way we all do a certain level of copy testing, using qualitative and/or quantitative research techniques. That is the science side of it. The art is in the ideas. It s in being able to see something that others don t see and to develop creative ideas around it. There s a lot of art to that. There are some fundamental rules which successful advertising must follow. First, need to understand the brand which about to take on. Ask questions such as: What are its core equities? Who are the brand s consumers? From there, we need to understand the consumers and observe how that brand fits into their lives and their day-to-day routines. Once we have got that, we can develop a strong, critical consumer insight. Then marry that insight with the core equities of the brand. That way the insight becomes brand-centric. After that, provide a strong creative brief that helps the creative understand the brand, the arriers the brand might face, and exactly what it is that the advertising should do. In reviewing the creative s ideas, it is important that keep in mind whether they really deliver on the marketing strategy. We need to set aside our own tastes and put our self in the consumer s shoes, because nine times out of 10 you aren t the target consumer anyway. Ask, Will this idea connect to the consumer? Once we ve completed the review, take the ideas to the client. WE have to listen to the client, because its job is to protect the core equities of the brand. The client needs to feel comfortable, but also needs to judge the idea the way you did will it connect? You need to cut through the clutter, engage the consumers, and persuade them to take an action or purchase the product. At the end of the process, we need to get the results and learn from them. If the process worked well, understand what made it successful and keep it going. To succeed in the advertising business, we must be able to see opportunity in the abstract and then, you must make it real. Advertising is a part art, part science, and perhaps even a greater measure of discipline. If you don t have a disciplined approach to developing a strategic platform, it will be impossible to produce quality material over a long period of time. The essential tactics for this type of disciplined approach are many: Hiring, training, firing, strategy development, creative development, media development, account service, research; how you follow up with your clients on a day to day basis; the processes you use within your agency; the financial discipline you have within your company; how you approach developing a real partnership with the client; how you approach developing an understanding of their products or services. So, discipline isn’t something that s nice if we have time for it; it s mandatory. We can t just wing it. In years past, advertising agencies have had the reputations of being free-thinking, free-wheeling, free-spending bastions of creative largesse where folks think, do and create great things all day long. But anyone who has worked in the business knows that the creative part is the figurative tip of the iceberg: It only represents about 10% of what we do. The rest of the time is spent learning, researching, understanding, and massaging information so that we can actually deliver a message that makes sense and produces results. Conclusion: Advertising has been described as something that interrupts someone s attention long enough to be able to sell them something. Fundamentally, you are imposing yourself intruding upon someone s time and finding a way to connect with a passive mind in a very brief period to help inform or intrigue with something that has value to that person. That’s what advertising is. The art relates to the entertainment qualities, which are there to capture interest. The science is in the ability to understand what you are going to do when you have those two or three seconds of attention. The science involves having an understanding of people and human nature; understanding the qualities of a product, a brand, a category, or a specific offering and being able to frame it properly.