Key takeaways:

• Advertising is competitive and you need to set your campaign apart by including creative elements.
• Harvard Business Review says that high measures of creativity are a good predictor of buying behaviors in advertising.
• Creativity adds originality to your ads, boosting them above the mainstream.
• You can grab your audience’s attention with a unique take on the same old idea.
• The storytelling element of creative advertising makes it more compelling.
• Your audience is made up of visual creatures who love seeing ads with artistic value.

Creativity is a part of human nature – so it makes sense that audiences respond to creativity in advertising. We don’t want to be bombarded with the same old ideas and concepts. At some point, audiences just stop responding to ads that are deemed too generic and stale.

If you want your ad dollars to go to good use, then you have to be creative. There’s no way around it. Audiences want to see ads that have artistic value, are original, and that grab their attention by telling a story. A shampoo ad that shows the product being used in the shower has utility, but it’s also been seen 1,000 times before and does absolutely nothing to differentiate itself from the competition.

When you put creative thought into it, you’re elevating your ad campaign above the vast majority of the competition. According to Harvard Business Review, high creativity measures are predictive of buying behavior, yet so few companies make an effort to prioritize creativity. The HBR study showed that only 11 out of 437 ad campaigns scored over 5 on a creativity scale of 1 to 7.

If you’re on the fence about creative advertising, you shouldn’t be – there’s plenty of evidence that this is what customers want. Check out these four reasons why creativity in advertising is so important for your campaign’s success:

1. Creative advertising is original

Arguably, originality is the most important reason to set your ads apart with creativity. People take notice of original content and they respond in a way that they simply don’t when they’ve already seen the concept too many times.

Originality may sound subjective, but there’s an objective way to assess it. Harvard Business Review defines originality in advertising by asking these questions:

1. Is it “out of the ordinary?”
2. Does it turn away from stereotypical thinking?
3. Is it original?

A unique ad takes you by surprise and moves you to consider familiar concepts in a brand-new way. Its focal point is its uniqueness and ability to make you think “wow, that’s new.”

2. Creative advertising is attention-grabbing

According to the Nielsen Normal Group, the first 10 seconds on a web page are the most critical for content viewership. If you can keep the viewer’s attention beyond those 10 seconds, the chances are a little better that they’ll stick around until the end – but they’re still not great. Beyond 30 seconds, the curve starts to flatten out and viewers are more likely to stay and pay attention.

Humans are pummelled by visual content from every angle in this world of nonstop advertising. The consequence is that our collective attention span isn’t what it once was.

Part of the answer is to publish shorter ads, but that’s not really the answer. The true answer is that you have to capitalize on those first 10 seconds and grab the viewer’s attention from the very start.

Creative advertising is automatically more visually interesting than generic advertising because it offers something that your audience hasn’t seen before. Maybe it’s a new concept or an interesting image, but either way, it’s compelling enough to catch their eye and keep it there.

3. Creative advertising is story-based

Storytelling combines purpose and art to tell a narrative, and it’s a staple of creative advertising. The story is half the point in any good ad – you’re looking to appeal to your viewer’s pain points and journey with them to find the solution.

It’s important to convey features and services, sure. That said, creative ads convey a feeling that’s bigger than listing the benefits of a product. Envision a medication ad that isn’t filled with jargon and side effects, but simply shows a woman with a chronic health condition living her life with joy and power.

That’s her story, and it’s the story of every target customer who watches that ad. Creative advertising is all about building connections and making the viewer feel that you’re telling their story, not just any story.

4. Creative advertising is full of artistic value

We’re visual and verbal creatures. It’s no wonder that audiences respond so well to ads that are beautiful visually and in terms of dialogue or monologue.

There’s a lot that goes into judging the artistic value of an ad. What makes an ad artistically valuable instead of merely high production? The deciding factors can include:

• The concept
• The presence of thoughtful visual, verbal, and auditory elements
• The quality of dialogue
• The choice of color palette

Still, much of that seems subjective at first glance. Harvard Business Review assesses artistic value by asking these questions:

• Is it visually or verbally distinctive?
• Does it make ideas come to life graphically or verbally?
• Is its production artistic?

Start a scroll-stopping creative advertising campaign

You can win hearts and minds with creativity in advertising, but it takes the right growth-focused approach to make the most of your campaign. That means partnering with the right performance advertising agency to capture your fair share of the market.

Hint: That’s us, Model B. We’re driven by creativity rooted in data and technology. That means smart media management that mixes science and art with growth, helping you challenge the competition and boost your revenue.

Our team of expert media strategists and creatives know how to shape your media strategy for the results you crave. Our effective creative advertising campaigns help you drive growth, boost conversion rates, and capture your audience.

Now’s the time to propel your company and team to greatness. Book a meeting today so we can kickstart your creative advertising campaign and get you killer results.