Using context in creative

In marketing, we are all too often too quick to shrug and allow 'sufficient' or 'passable' creative because, after all, of the subjective nature of of clients' and creatives' judgements.

Yet the most effective messaging is rarely about the message only, the clever headline only, or the graphics only. It is more broadly all those things, always as they are used within a specific context. Delivering the unexpected means communicating the unexpected, in an unexpected way, in an unexpected place. Saatchi and Saatchi got it right with this ad for flea and tick spray:



Look carefully. This is an enormous advert on the floor of a transporation hub in Indonesia. The 'fleas' are passers-by, many unaware of their role in the ad itself.

Large format floor ads have been done before, but this one is the first I have seen that combines the impressive graphic impact of large-scale installations in an unexpected way, in this case where passers-by are integral to the message. Without them, the image is incomplete. Place this same image on a postcard or in a trade advertisement, it communicates the same message, but offers no interaction, no imact, and builds no affinity for the brand.

"Art" remains subjective, but "context" is objective. Recognizing this makes good creative easier to recognize, easier to sell, and builds credibility for marketing and advertising as measureable and accountable. As ad legend David Ogilvy is quoted as saying, “If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative.”