How Important is Creativity For ROI?

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "How Important is Creativity For ROI?" addresses what appears to be an afterthought among numerous brands and marketers when looking for ways to improve ROI in the age of the pandemic, or for that matter, improving ROI in general.  The consensus today is that Americans are trying to return to normal before the pandemic is over, and it's fueling a surge. That said, there are a host of marketing initiatives taking center stage to shore up profits.  They include:

• Moving to AI tools to improve buyer personas identification and creation,
• Increasing investments in social media content,
• Debating brands usage of TikTok videos,
• Navigating influencer marketing,
• Improving personalization strategy development,
• Creating content that resonates with the B2B community,
• Strategic Partnerships, and
• Narrowing product focus

The overall objective driving these efforts is to increase ROI, regardless of the available tools.  Whether you are using tools or creative genius, the all-inclusive denominator is the creative spirit.  To that extent, and for this post, we will limit our review of creativity to advertising content.

The True Agency notes that "Repetitive, predictable, monotone B2B work is everywhere you look — although we wouldn't blame you if you hadn't noticed.It's often said that "millions are wasted on B2B ads that people scroll past every day, without so much as a glance of the eye. If people can't recall your B2B creative, your ROI may suffer."

Our Quote of the Day: "We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. […] And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself."
— Greta Thunberg, Climate Change Activist

What People Remember

When people can't recall marketing, it does not necessarily mean that the offering was unappealing.  It may mean that the creative is unmemorable.  Maybe it didn't speak to their emotion. Or, they may have missed it because it did not pull them in or address an immediate need.  The term "content marketing" came of age several years ago, thus delineating the idea that to capture a prospect or consumer's attention, the communication would need to speak to their desires, interest, and needs directly.  The modern brand and marketing world continues to hold content marketing in high regard, and that concept is locked in.

Thanks to AI and machine learning and the resulting data mining initiatives from those efforts, we now understand there is either a connection or the lack thereof with sales targets and their resultant responsiveness.  However, we learn that content marketing will only get the brand so far in the engagement ballpark.

We know that people remember stories much better than data points or numbers.  We have discovered that people remember visual creativity at an 80% clip on average and text, around the ten percentile range.  That's a significant difference!  Naturally, there will be variations on those numbers depending on several variables, depending on which data vendor is behind the analyses.  However, the numbers we are presenting here appear to have profound marketing implications, dating back to 2018.  The data from 2018 suggests the following:

• People remember 10% of what they hear
• People remember 20% of what they read
• People remember 80% of what they see

This phenomenon is due to the way the human brain processes visual cues versus the written language.  Interestingly enough, the book China Megatrends, The 8 Pillars of a New Society, authored in January 2010, forecasted that the globe is moving towards visual learning over text-based instruction for the foreseeable future.  We are now at that precipice, and the numbers suggest it would be more efficient to create marketing communication messaging based on visual creativity.

Creative Tools Impact

With the continuing progression of creative artwork and design tools, digital graphic artists can create and design creative visual content for several mediums, from television to newspapers, magazines, outdoor, the internet, social media, email marketing, and direct mail.  They can deliver content for just about any situation that requires creative content, from the boardroom to the consumer.

Interestingly, a graphic designer can create unique visual communication content for numerous output types, including print, digital, and video content.  The challenge requires creating visual communications that accurately tell the brand and product story memorably since we now understand that 80% of folks remember what they see.

Therefore, we contend that a brand has a better chance of attracting new prospects through visual communications, i.e., "data visualization," over and above "monotone B2B work" that often goes unnoticed and lacks generating a noticeable response.

Data Visualization

Data visualization has many usages even beyond targeting consumers and prospects. For example, through data visualization, a business can identify energy waste and promote friendlier environmental designs or innovative building concepts.  Data visualization can also have an impact on the following internal operational concerns:

• Risk Management
• Cost Tracking and Reduction
• Investments Analysis
• New Business Opportunities Identification
• Assessing Value for an Acquisition
• Tracking Project Progress with Scorecards
• Tracking your Website Performance
• Planning the Launch of a New Product
• Evaluating the Efficiency of a Manufacturing Plant
• Budgeting and Allocation of Company Resources

While primarily overlooked in the scheme of marketing strategies and tactics, the Net-Net Creative visual concepts represent a massive opportunity for brands to position themselves for increased ROI.  Given the sheer volume of people who will remember a quality visual message, it's better to draw from the 80% potential instead of the 10% who recall text-based communications.  As we continue to move toward a pandemic-free society, brands must take the bull by the horns and move creative visual communications to the forefront.  We hope you found value in this post, and thanks for reading "How Important is Creativity For ROI?"

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