Featuring:

Jay Pattisall, Principal Analyst

Show Notes:

Brand experiences are starting to look like houses in a cookie-cutter subdivision. It may be a very good house, but it’s not differentiated. And for brands, that’s a huge risk to affinity and loyalty.

On this episode of What It Means, Principal Analyst Jay Pattisall discusses his talk at Cannes Lions about the need to reinvest in creative. Betting on the promise of martech, CMOs went full tilt into tech. While martech has delivered gains and advancements, it wasn’t the panacea some thought it would be.

Meanwhile, creative budgets shrunk and agency relationships were severed. The result is a lot of brand experiences that look and feel the same, meaning, customers don’t see your brand as distinct from your competitors’. Reinvesting in creativity, especially creative design, can strengthen your brand narrative and engender real loyalty. Adding creativity to your mobile app, for example, can make it more of a delight to use.

Marketing leaders need to step up to the plate for creativity. It’s been too easy to quantify it as a cash outlay and a prime target for cost-cutting. But the risks in this approach are apparent. Kraft Heinz dramatically reduced its advertising budget, a move that ended up sending its share price into freefall.

None of this means you should stop investing in tech. Instead, focus on finding the right balance. To make this easier, Forrester has created an ROI model for agency creativity that helps clients find what blend will benefit your firm the most.