CREATIVE: THE CHAINS ARE OFF Jeff Billig, Creative Director

The beauty of creative is ultimately in the eye of the client. Some love adherence to best practices. “Do what’s worked in the past.” Others insist “if we’re doing the same thing, we have no advantage” and strive for work that redefines the category…that bests the best practices. But we all want “better” results. The good news is the financial and technical barriers to producing “better” creative have never been lower; new opportunities for building your brand and sales are there if you want them.

The medium is the experience.
And the experience is the message. Whether you’re reaching your prospect through traditional print, broadcast, digital, social or mobile, it’s a different experience for them. While the brand message should be the same, the execution probably shouldn’t be.

Data everywhere.
With all the data available, there’s a tendency to keep your nose down and follow the numbers. The creative opportunity lies in translating non-proprietary data and analytics into market insights that are proprietary and actionable.

Quality control.
With more personalized work going out faster, in more configurations, and in more mediums, the ever-present bugaboos of creative, production and trafficking errors can quickly take on pandemic proportions. Without a serous QC strategy, you’re agency is carrier.

Copy vs content.
There’s an old saw: content tells and copy sells. Malarkey. The reason for the content on your site, post, or blog is to sell your brand. And good copy should always give useful information. Case closed.