Research shows creativity key to drawing customers
I BELIEVE it is time to go back to basics and look at what marketing and advertising is supposed to be grounded in – the power to make people do or think something.
That power is fundamentally rooted in one thing – creativity.
You don’t believe me?
Harvard Business Review has conducted two great pieces of research, one into the role of creativity and emotion in customer experiences (CX), and the other into how creative advertising improves sales.
The results of those researches prove the importance of creativity in human connection.
With creativity and emotion central to nourishing customer experiences, it makes me wonder if creativity is the ‘C’ in CX.
Of course, the customer will always be at the centre of any business, but without creativity, businesses may not have any customers to begin with.
Proper creativity is something digital advertising has struggled with for a long time, but insights uncovered as part of the CX revolution will put an end to that.
Leading global digital publishers are leading the CX revolution in digital advertising.
They place creativity, and the customer, on a new, higher pedestal – and to make business decisions based on creativity and impact, rather than click through metrics.
Improved customer experience is at the forefront of digital change – a change which is founded in strong research into how humans interact with visual information and advertising formats.
Quality is finally trumping quantity – and it speaks volumes on how customer experience is starting to drive all aspects of the marketing mix.
How customers experience a digital ad varies from overlooking it entirely, to having a significantly improved perception of the brand or product they have seen. On a screen, an environment where visual is everything, the case for creativity makes itself.
Creativity is the determinant factor in how long someone will engage with an advert.
There is a widely accepted correlation between time spent consuming an ad and ad recall, a crucial step in brand and product discovery.
Nielsen research shows online adverts are a good tool for influencing brand engagement and opinion, particularly for recall and message association.
But the degree of positive brand impact largely depends on the strength of the ad itself, pointing back to the importance of creativity.