This article has been written by Girija Menon pursuing a Diploma in Content Marketing and Strategy from Skill Arbitrage.
This article has been edited and published by Shashwat Kaushik.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Creativity and content, in a way, go hand in hand. It’s like words that connect to a picture or drawing, making sense of the frame and spinning a story around the characters in the frame, bringing them to life. So much like the fairy tale books, all of us have been enamoured as kids. The characters actually, at a certain point, begin to talk, leading to a conversation- the thrill every child experiences.
Content when creatively structured and marketed is used in every industry to make a pitch and make a sale, on the way leaving an impact that ensures the customer goes looking for the product that somewhere has stuck in their mind. The mind remembers colours, visuals, words, quotes, anecdotes, and personalities and uses them as a thread to buy or use a product. In today’s world of consumerism, impression makes a big impact both for the seller and buyer. The buyer is king and the scales are always tilted to attract, generate, retain, and multiply clients.
Popular mediums and strategies used by them
Design and advertising as the words in a way self-define their line of business and spell creativity from beginning to end. Design and advertising firms have great methods to build brand authority and leverage the brand to attract clients.
Some of the popular mediums and strategies used by them can be summed up as follows:
Visual storytelling
The eyes, ears, and mind work in synergy, the outcome is etched almost effortlessly in an individual. Visual communication with matching content, great tunes, maybe with a celebrity touch, and great script is a lethal combination that rarely can go wrong. A story using these ingredients as an infographic, a video film, or an interactive platform leaves a lasting impression. Every hand today holds a device, the reach of good content catches up like wildfire or in today’s terms viral fire.
Illustrating portfolio projects
Work done successfully ought to be showcased for the world to appreciate and applaud. Projects of Design and Advertising firms usually work with a rainbow of shades, colours, structures, shapes, tones, and variations. Placing them together on a canvas to create impressive and creative masterpieces will engage a potential client. More than a film, what happens during the making of that film is what we humans love to watch and hear. Similarly, highlighting the challenges, mess-ups, and rectifications process and eventually showing the world the outcome is in a way advertising the company’s capabilities to deliver only the best.
Awareness content
Being aware in today’s world is half the battle won, both as seller and buyer. Buyers, today, have access to information that can make or break a deal. Hence, when Design and Advertising firms position themselves as information givers, hold informative seminars and Q & A sessions, share usage guides, or share the company’s vision and expertise that will add value or solve problems of existing / potential clients it’s taken very positively.
Interactive sessions
One-on-one or in groups. When a company gives time one-on-one, the client feels prioritized and important. Information shared and doubts cleared in a way bring the potential client one step forward at becoming a sure-shot client.
Group sessions – when the company engages in games, quizzes, debates, virtual experiences, and webinars, this helps understand many viewpoints (both as buyer and seller), and when views are aired in the group the positives uplift the brand exponentially. It can work the other way too. However, when a brand is confident of its stature/equity, this kind of group session always and will take them to a larger target client space.
Collaborating and partnering
Like the merging of two rivers, when design and advertising firms partner or collaborate with other complimentary businesses or influencers, they reach audiences that would not have been possible if they played the game alone. A partner would collaborate only when they know a brand is worth their time and money and when the name is good, it is a win-win situation for both. Influencers influence and influence if on the right track will always make great business sense.
User contribute content
When a user is given a chance to give their feedback in a creative way to the design and advertising firm, they work as a boost to the contributor and a brand-enhancing activity for the firm. Involving users in content, challenges, or interactive sessions, especially when they are given screen time, to be seen and heard viz-a-viz the brand, one (the firm) goes back satisfied with the exposure and the other (the user) goes home with a gift, prize, certificate, photograph which may be with a celebrity – but most of all a high and allegiance to the brand.
Stimulating campaigns
Emotions play a big role in stirring the preferences of a person towards a product, service, or anything that money can buy. When design and advertising firms develop campaigns that catch the attention of a client going the emotional route, the impact is deep and lasting. The connection just builds up and if continued on the same lines it can become the face of the brand
There are umpteen examples where Design and Advertising firms use the above formulas to launch products, consolidate their position, hold on to the market share, or just hover in the minds of people.
Few examples of international brands
Few examples of international brands whose Design and Advertising firms have helped them reach the top, stay there, and grow:
- Nike uses athletes to promote their shoes. Big names in the sports world associate their names with Nike, which speaks volumes about the quality of the shoes
- KFC adapts to the local palette and market, whichever country they set up the chain.
- McDonald and fries the logo, the taste, and the indulgence. Even a healthy body craves it at some time or the other. They give consumers what they want, maintaining their brand and catering to the youngest and the oldest in a family with lip-smacking ease
- Apple has become the topmost brand by using all of the above strategies. It’s a status symbol to use an Apple product – everything else just follows, and they keep up their promise of keeping the user on top in terms of technology. The rest follows.
- Ben & Jerry’s Ice Creams. Ice-creams are ice-creams, yet when it’s Ben & Jerry offers its frozen treat in different countries to suit the taste of that country, it makes this pair demand space in your freeze.
In India too we have many and to name a few
- Amul – The Taste of India. A tag line that goes places. The advertisement for current affairs in every field is very skilfully portrayed with puns intact (Helmed by Rahul DaCunha, copywriter Manish Jhaveri, and illustrator Jayant Rane) can never be missed in advertisements – print and visual media and also the huge billboards across the country. The morning toast is not the same without Amul butter.
- Nykaa – touched the hearts and souls of women from head to toe. Using mixed strategies, they are the top of the options when women think of fashion or beauty.
- Reliance Jio – A big name, a big founder, and a big budget. Jio offers the best deals and then makes it a much-needed service that will not go down in your list of must-haves, yet keeping costs affordable.
There are many more, and the tackling of an Indian heart and mind is done beautifully by content creators who work on the design and advertising of a brand. Indians are intelligent and aware people, simple, yet indulgent. A great mix that has the potential to be tapped from all corners.
In a society that thrives on consumerism, if a brand does not use the right Design and Advertising firm to leverage creative content to boost their product or service, it’s not wrong to say they won’t survive for too long. The competition is so strong and cut-throat that if you do not give it your 500% or rather not up your game as compared to your competition, it’s like going back to the drawing board to start from scratch.
Conclusion
To conclude, a great analogy if seen from the right perceptive puts this story together. A car’s body, the best model, shade, and name are no good, if what’s inside is not as good as the quality the name stands for. Also, if the components within are not in perfect synchronisation, the output promised will certainly fail the basic test. Hence, a brand has to work from the outside to the inside and the other way around. To do that you need a driver/individual in the driver’s seat to move it, speed it up, and accelerate according to the road ahead, taking care of warning signs, signals, speed breakers, and weather conditions.
A product, service, or brand requires a good driver to help manoeuvre it on the platforms that are in plenty out there. Design and advertising firms are those good drivers, and when they use content that connects, creative content, and content that conveys the truth and genuinely of the brand in a way that leaves a lasting impact. The leverage it gets only looks upward – directly proportional to the profits, added value, and popularity of the brand.
Creativity has been around for ages and will be around forever. Its approach, texture, shapes, and strokes may change but its core remains unique, original, and inspirational.
