At first glance, it would appear that most marketers don't think promotions and creativity even belong in the same sentence.
 A resounding 77 percent of the 325 respondents to this Reveries.com survey said that most promotions are not based on new ideas. Just two percent said promotions are known for their "creativity."
This one-two punch lands hard. Marketing -- regardless of discipline -- is supposed to be a business of new ideas and creativity. That promotion appears to be the white elephant in the marketing family is inherently disturbing. Even more troubling is the rigid thinking that appears to gird the prevailing outlook.
Promotions, offered one respondent, "should be based on objectives." Absolutely. No argument there. But does that mean they can't also be creative? Of course not, but one gets the sense that many -- if not most of our respondents -- are perhaps a little too comfortable in the belief that new ideas and creativity are all but irrelevant to promotional success.
A similar sort of rigormortis set in around our question about media. It was not surprising that the Internet topped the list of favorite media for promotions (25 percent), followed by in-store (22 percent), with mass media (17 percent) trailing.
Again, the accompanying comments revealed a certain lack of imagination about the potential of media to inspire new ideas and creativity in promotion: "Media don't create ideas; they serve them," said one respondent. "New promotional ideas won't come from mediums (sic); they'll come from new concepts," echoed another.
Really? Well, then, what about Starbucks, for instance? The Starbucks brand is really just one big promotion, and it was the result of a fresh perspective on the potential of retail stores as a medium for marketing -- promotional and otherwise. The notion that media amount to little more than empty vessels for promotional messages could help explain why there is so little creativity in this business.
The outlook turned a little bit lighter, if not brighter, with our open-ended questions. Many of the responses showed that promotion people at least have good senses of humor! Ideation devices mentioned by our respondents included: caffeine, tequila, a crystal ball, sleep deprivation, magic mushrooms, the shower, sushi and "large craniums."
Thirty-three percent of respondents specifically mentioned "brainstorming" as the primary way in which promotion ideas are developed. However, many acknowledged that they don't follow a specific process and rely more on past experiences or even their intuitions for guidance. Many respondents readily admitted to re-hashing or re-constituting old ideas, either their own or those of others.
The dogma that business objectives and creativity are somehow mutually exclusive needs major revision.
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Perhaps most encouraging of all, more than 200 of the 325 respondents picked "favorite" promotions, and the range of responses belied the premise that promotion isn't creative. We had mentions of everything from the S&H Green Stamps redemption program and the secret decoder rings of the '50s, to the more recent "I Found Your Wallet" promotion by Phoneworks.
Of "favorite" promotions cited, "The Guinness Win Your Own Pub" promotion received the most mentions (5), followed by The Barq's "Soviet Union Going out of Business Sale," M&M Color of M&Ms promotion, and the Pepsi Challenge (4 mentions each). McDonald's Monopoly was mentioned three times. Airline frequent flyer promotions were cited 7 times as admired loyalty programs. However, no retailer frequent shopper programs received specific mention.
Creativity be damned? No! The dogma that business objectives and creativity are somehow mutually exclusive needs major revision. Some of the all-time great promotions -- the Pepsi Challenge and, more recently, the blue M&M's promotion -- were just as creative as they were business-building.
Rubbing your tummy while patting your head may not be easy to do, but it sure would help put an end to all of the "monkey-see, monkey-do" in the promotion business today.
Steve Rotterdam is Chief Creative Officer of East West Creative <http://www.ewcreative.com>, a New York City-based promotion marketing agency.
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Are most promotions based on new ideas?
|
| Responses |
Number of
Responses |
Percentage |
| yes |
|
41 |
13% |
| no |
|
250 |
77% |
| don't know |
|
10 |
3% |
| other |
|
24 |
7% |
|
Total
|
325 |
|
|
|
|
Are promotions best known for:
|
| Responses |
Number of
Responses |
Percentage |
| bulding brand image/equity |
|
71 |
22% |
| coupons |
|
16 |
5% |
| creativity |
|
5 |
2% |
| eroding brand image/equity |
|
3 |
1% |
| increasing sales |
|
144 |
44% |
| changing consumer behavior |
|
36 |
11% |
| trinkets and trash |
|
37 |
11% |
| other |
|
15 |
5% |
|
Total
|
327 |
|
|
|
|
In general, which medium offers the greatest potential
for creating new promotional ideas?
|
| Responses |
Number of
Responses |
Percentage |
| direct mail |
|
33 |
10% |
| FSIs |
|
4 |
1% |
| in-store |
|
69 |
22% |
| Internet |
|
84 |
26% |
| mass media |
|
54 |
17% |
| outernet (ATMS, gaspumps, etc.) |
|
34 |
11% |
| other |
|
42 |
13% |
|
Total
|
320 |
|
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