A new report released this month by comScore highlights the importance of quality creative to the success of an advertising campaign. The data from comScore shows that ad quality is actually the single biggest factor influencing the number of sales generated from a campaign, regardless of medium.

“Based on our years of research in this space, we’ve determined that the quality of the creative is four times more important than the characteristics of the media plan in generating sales,” said Jeff Cox, executive vice president of comScore ARS. “In fact, creative is the single most important factor and accounts for over half the changes in a brand’s sales over time. Getting the creative right is absolutely essential, and yet its importance so often gets minimized in the process of developing an ad campaign. Now is the time for advertisers using digital, as well as more traditional media, to get serious about optimizing their creative on the front end so they don’t get a rude awakening when the ads don’t work and they are left wondering what went wrong.”

Cox also added,

“Though often overlooked, getting the creative strategy right from the start is essential if an advertiser wants its creative execution to actually perform. Doing so will improve the likelihood of achieving a successful campaign that will generate increased sales. A sub-par upfront strategy is a virtual guarantee that the execution is destined for failure.”

The importance of ad quality and a strong creative strategy is something that we here at Hodgson/Meyers have known for some time and one of the reasons why the campaigns we create for our clients enjoy such success.

Even in mediums such as direct mail where pundits loudly proclaim the medium as “dead” Hodgson/Meyers campaigns have successfully met and even exceeded our clients advertising goals. Take, for example, the direct mail campaign called “Fat Cat” that we created for WindStream Communications, one of the nations top providers of phone, high-speed Internet and digital TV services. The “Fat Cat” direct mail campaign ended up pulling in 55% more responses for WindStream than their average direct mail pieces. Proof that direct mail is not dead, but a very effective medium when done right with quality creative.

When Creative Director and Owner Tim Hodgson was asked about the role of quality creative in B2B advertising campaigns he had this to say;

“It may seem superfluous for an ad agency to say that the creative in a campaign is important. That’s like an auto dealer saying, ‘You know, the engine is really important in this car you’re buying.’ But consider the majority of the ‘creative’ that we consumers are bombarded with daily. Makes a person wonder how many agencies actually believe this.

It’s a hard thing to do, i.e. cut through our frenetic audio/visual environment and be seen, heard and, most important, remembered. Really hard. One could argue that just pounding your message relentlessly will work regardless of the creative. (Some cheesy mattress store jingles come to mind.)

And it’s even harder in the B2B space.

It’s one thing to proclaim “Coke tastes good” and show young people jumping around on the beach in an ad. It’s quite another to wrestle with the intricate issues that large and small businesses face and present clear solutions concerning complex products and services. B2B creative must be compelling enough to encourage action and move customers along in the sales process. Motivating business customers takes a thorough understanding of their pain points, as well as insightful creative that drives them to act (think of it as the “engine” in that car mentioned above).”

Tim makes an excellent point about the difference in creative between a B2B product and a consumer based one. B2B often has a more intricate and complex story to tell and the ability to tell that story in a compelling manner often comes down to the creative both from a visual and a copy perspective.

These days, many B2B companies are looking to cut corners and slash advertising budgets but it is clear from the data that when quality creative is sacrificed for lower budgets, it is the return on investment that is affected most. As our clients can attest, it pays to pay for quality creative. Especially when it comes to B2B advertising.

Robert Coats
Senior Search Strategist

In an admittedly non-projectable examination of one household mailbox, “research” shows that, with five pieces of direct mail a day, the average homeowner receives more than 1,500 items of, for the most part, unrequested mail a year.

With so many letters and catalogs destined for the recycling bin, woe to the direct mail that does not immediately capture the reader’s attention. At Hodgson/Meyers, we’ve found that sometimes the best way to put the wow in your DM is to put the meow in your DM.

Enter the Fat Cat.

Illustrating the problem: Here kitty kitty

With service in 16 states in the southeast, Windstream Communications provides phone and Internet packages to business and residential markets. On the consumer side, Windstream often found itself up against more established, yet more expensive cable providers. To help portray those companies as being more costly, we represented them collectively as, you guessed it, the Fat Cat.

A casting call was put out for filled-out felines to…actually PhotoShop magic was responsible for creating the centerpiece character. Gold eyes gleaming and pleasantly plump, the animal quickly caught the fancy of H/M employees, earning such endearments as Phat C, Heavy C and Puff Catty. Not only did Fat Cat stand out as illustrated, he perfectly illustrated how cable companies profit from charging their customers higher prices.

Windstream vs. Cable TV: A tail of five kitties
Originally scheduled to star in a single direct mailing, the Fat Cat so resonated with Windstream—and its customers—that the client requested a series of five pieces to showcase the savings Windstream offered over its competition.

With Fat Cat soaking in a tub of money, one mailer featured the headline: Are you getting soaked by those Fat Cats at your cable company? Another featured the Cat sporting a diamond-encrusted gold dollar sign collar (think of it as feline bling) in front of a private jet with the headline, Is your cable company getting fat off you?

Fat results
Windstream notes that the first Fat Cat mailing pulled 55% more responses than their average pieces. Which shows that Puff Catty was the purr-fect DM solution.

Depending upon the source, it’s been reported that consumers receive on average anywhere from 250 to 3,000 marketing impressions in a single day. Even taking a low figure of 100 impressions per day adds up to 36,500 a year!

So, if you’re an advertiser, how do you stand out? In the case of Hodgson/Meyers client CSG Systems. Inc. – a customer interaction management solution company – the answer was to come out fighting. Or at least to wear boxing gloves.

How to stand out in the direct mail crowd

In touching more than half of all U.S. households, CSG helps companies such as Comcast, DISH and Time Warner with billing and customer interaction solutions. When the time came to introduce a new product offering, CSG wanted to reach approximately 100 key decision makers in the cable and satellite TV industry.

With such a narrow, targeted audience, a direct mail approach seemed the most appropriate vehicle. However, these influential executives are also the same targets of most every other technology company as well. Thus, the challenge became to create marketing materials that would not immediately be placed in the round file, under W for wastebasket.

As the marketing agency for CSG, we needed to think big and think outside the box. In this case, thinking big meant size. And thinking outside the box had to do with thinking about what went inside the box.

Which brings us back to boxing gloves.

Adapt the mail strategy to the marketing strategy

Cable and satellite marketing managers face the never-ending problem of customer churn, people who leave one provider for another. CSG has a way to help providers eliminate churn with a better customer management solution. We recommended sending life-size professional boxing gloves along with product information to the target audience, allowing CSG to figuratively and literally give marketing executives the tools to effectively fight churn.

The sheer size of the direct mail piece (7.5” x 10.5” x 12.5”) received immediate attention. Inside a handsome box, copy and layout framed a personalized message as if announcing a heavyweight championship bout.

Box copy and Everlast boxing gloves were customized with each individual recipient’s name. These decision makers were encouraged to “K.O. churn with CSG customer intelligence solutions.” In so doing, they’d be able to build strong customer relationships, retain subscribers more effectively and enhance the value of each customer interaction.

Big package. Big Idea. In short, a real knockout!

(Customized boxes for the CSG mailer were provided by MasterCraft.)