By Rayomand J Patell
I come from a generation of creatives who believed it was permissible for their work to be high profile but best suited for themselves to be in the shadows.
So in that spirit I hope for what I write to reflect my deep love for Advertising, for Creativity, for my Creative fraternity, for my Advertising fraternity (yes even the Planners), for those who have gone before us, for those who are emerging and above all, try my best to inspire you to get in to work on a Monday with all guns blazing.
Pre-mumble done, let’s get down to the business at hand. I feel like Eminem in the new video who emerges through a portal in 2024 and goes all SMH.
And this is why. Just to be clear:
“Digital” is not Advertising
“Social” is not Advertising
“TV” is not Advertising
“Radio” is not Advertising
“Print and Press” are not Advertising
“On Ground” is not Advertising
“Mobile” is not Advertising
“AR, VR, the Metaverse etc” are not… you get the drift.
All of these are mediums.
Only Advertising is the discipline of Advertising. Where over a century of knowledge of how it works, to achieve a measurable, consistent outcome has been arbitrarily and wilfully abandoned. Where between each client and a consumer, stands an Agency proud and tall, to find how to bridge their worlds in the most persuasive, charming and effective way.
How did we lose this simple plot?
At the entrance of the Ferrari museum is a quote by old man Ferrari himself. “Aerodynamics are for those who cannot build engines.”
In much the same way, harping about the ability to measure things is for those who have forgotten or never learned the discipline of Advertising and can’t build a powerful brand.
Whether you’re doing large format outdoor or a tiny performance banner, the Economist certainly knows how to maintain a consistent brand tone of voice and visual appearance.
Why don’t the rest of us follow suit?
Even D2C brands or Tech-first platforms that insist on getting a certain number of users first ultimately have to get their act together on what all that functionality means as a brand to their users. Because playing on functionality alone renders you fungible and a sitting duck for someone to replace you.
The first set of D2C brands who invest in defining what their brand is, who understood that while they’re changing a distribution system, will be well on their way to be the new brands of the future a la present day Unilever.
Those who go back to the first principles of Advertising and understand how to have a powerful idea that works beautifully across mediums, how to deploy those mediums in an integrated manner, how to do comms planning, these will be the brands that will be unstoppable. And also, very very profitable.
To have a divide between “brand” and “performance marketing” and “mainline” and “digital” reeks of myopia in the extreme. And yet, here we are.
Clients and entrepreneurs who seek to make a real difference to their fortunes should evaluate their partners for understanding of the Advertising discipline rather than love for any one medium. The biggest brands play ball across everything. No matter what new medium shows up, they evolve to harness it for the brand.
And for my Agency side friends, regardless of your particular role in your agency, unplug from the matrix and see the 360 degree picture. If all you see is fragmented work from different organisations, reach out and try your hardest to change it. Challenge the status quo. Rebel together across organisations. Your clients will thank you.
I dream of a world in which we love Advertising as a discipline again and understand how it harnesses different mediums across the board, to build the strongest brands for B2C, B2B, D2C and any set of alphabets du jour.
If we get our fundamentals right, we can get to getting the Creative right and for those who love to measure things, it’s well proven that any good creative campaign has brought about disproportionately higher sales. Yes, sales. The ultimate effect of having a strong differentiated brand.
I hope you enjoyed ploughing through this, till we meet again next week for another dose of inspiration.
Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.