For as much intelligent, strategic thought that goes into the creation of a worthwhile ad it still amazes me how one moment of obtuse overanalyzing can ruin a perfectly good ad. We generally have less than two seconds to get a consumer’s attention and get the message across. We know this. Our clients know this.  And yet when presenting ad creative the meetings often go like this:

1. The client looks at the ad and has a natural reaction (usually positive because of our kick ass work) much like a consumer would – they’re not thinking they’re just reacting to it naturally.

2. We’re happy and relieved and talk about how much we love it, too (because our work is so kick ass).

3. THEN the client sits and stares at the ad and starts discussing its contents (while we pray they won’t go into overanalyzing hyperdrive).

4. After pouring over the ad some more the client starts to bring up “what if’s” and “well did you think about this…” questions and scenarios.

From here there’s a back and forth about these “what if” concerns. We try hard to convince everyone that the target audience will be spending 1.2 seconds looking at this ad. And that in that time they’re certainly not going to take 5 minutes pondering some vague deeper meaning, like how an ad for fabric softener could really mean that someone is just plain lazy. At the end of the discussion, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Unfortunately when we lose, the creative suffers. Just imagine if that had happened to a huge brand, like Nike (click to image to enlarge).

As an agency we have very specific and strategic processes in place to be sure every piece of creative that we produce isn’t just interesting to look at, but an effective ad that will resonate with the target audience. So when we go through the process of creating an ad only to have someone (who most likely does NOT fit the target audience profile) decide they think a consumer might be offended or may not understand the simplest of concepts, well it just breaks our little marketing hearts.

Bottom line: ads need to make it into circulation based on their merit from the target audience’s perspective, not your’s, your mom’s and Uncle Sam’s. Think before you overanalyze.

This morning, our account executive Anna shared with us a piece she read from Advertising Age. The piece, entitled “Why Metrics are Killing Creativity,” really hit home to those of us in the ad world.

Don’t get us wrong; metrics definitely have a place of importance in the ad world. We are realistic, we know our clients have to measure success somehow, to see a return on their investment. But it becomes tough when we’re ONLY thinking about numbers. When metrics inhibit taking risks or executing strategic creative because we’re not considering anything but how many impressions, leads, clicks, conversions, etc. we’re going to get, we’ve become sorely misguided.

While numbers can’t be everything, neither can creativity: don’t do it for the sake of doing it. This is where strategy comes in. Having a cool ad is one thing. Having a fresh, big, new campaign that is targeted at your audience and will resonate with them on an emotional level is another. The latter, if done with strategic purpose, can (and will) deliver the numbers and metrics that we rely on. But to get there you have to put the metrics aside and step outside of the numbers box.

And as much as metrics has become the norm for measuring success, we cannot and must not deny the emotional aspect of branding. Emotional connections are what cause people to identify with brands. Its the break from the norm, the challenge of convention, that stays with consumers. Not the numbers.