Researching creativity Making ideas stronger or safer? For Admap Conference on Creativity in...

27
Researching creativity Making ideas stronger or safer? For Admap Conference on Creativity in Advertising March 2001 GRAVITY

Transcript of Researching creativity Making ideas stronger or safer? For Admap Conference on Creativity in...

Researching creativityMaking ideas stronger or safer?

For Admap Conference on Creativity in AdvertisingMarch 2001

GRAVITY

GRAVITY

Creative research not a new topic, but a hot one

• Idea development expensive: effort and emotion

• Research stressful for all stakeholders

• Could be done better

• We decided to do some research….

GRAVITY

Contributors around 70 companies including..

• First Direct

• Euro RSCG

• HHCL

• Diageo

• St Luke’s

• WCRS

• Corporate Edge

• Publicis

• Lowe

• Watford College

• Coley Porter Bell

• Camelot

• Ogilvy

• Van den Bergh

Research and planning, but also creatives and designers

GRAVITY

It’s a fair cop!

Research is biased....towards the familiar

Why?

GRAVITY

Why do we do research?

Delayingtactic

Delayingtactic

Research BriefResearch Brief

Sanity check

Sanity check

Confidence boost

Confidence boost

Gauging internal climate

Gauging internal climate

Real desire to understand/know

Real desire to understand/know

Issue consolidation

Issue consolidation

Abrogation of responsibility

Abrogation of responsibility

Has research been promoted to its level of incompetence?

Box tickingBox ticking

GRAVITY

What does research really offer?

Ideally, it’s an aid to making stronger decisions not just safer ones

Inspiration Confidence

Stronger Saferor

X

GRAVITY

RESEARCHER

“Would things be different ifyou were rewarded for

marketing awards?” CREATIVE

“What marketing awards?

Creative tension?

Or divergent objectives?

Creatives get kudos, pay rises etc. from creative awards. However, if a client’s share of

market goes up by 2%, they may not even know.

GRAVITY

Creative viewpoint on research

Black Hole

FrustratedIsolated

Shielded

Disenfranchised

No control

It’s personal!

Exposed

Manipulated

JudgedUninterested

GRAVITY

Creatives hate research so ...

Less useful ideas emerge from the research

Little/no creative involvement in developing stimulus material

Idea is often not represented in the best possible way

Idea is more likely to have problems in research

Effectively we’re sending their ‘babies’ out in rush baskets, when they could be in Sherman tanks

GRAVITY

StrategicIntention

ResearchBriefing

ExecutionCreativeIntention

A frequent issue...

The missing links can leave researchers testing stimulus materials rather than exploring ideas

GRAVITY

Agency planners are torn

• Between enthusiasm for creative work

• ...and being the voice of the consumer

This is the point in the idea development process when the team relationships are stress-tested

GRAVITY

Researchers are worried

• That clients will think they’re on the side of the agency...and

• ...the agency will think they’re on the side of the client

• In trying to avoid this they forget that they should be on the side of the idea

– making the most of all the thinking that’s gone before

GRAVITY

The magnetic attraction of the obvious

• What do respondents think they’re doing?

– Representing their peer group

– Critics

– Helping clients make sensible decisions

• Articulating thoughts about creativity is difficult

– Easy to close down ideas - make things safer

– Not so easy to respond freely

– Or push ideas forward, make them braver

GRAVITY

Are we asking the right question?

• Rarely explore finished work in research

– especially qualitative

• Difficult to ask ‘Does it communicate/motivate...?’

• More realistic and more relevant to ask ‘Does this have the potential to communicate/motivate...?’

A subtle difference, but an important one; the difference between testing and development

GRAVITY

What kind of answer are we looking for?

• Need discipline in analysis

• Depends on the brief

– If it says ‘challenge’ then respondents should be ‘challenged’

– Discomfort can be the right answer

• ‘Liking’ is only important if it’s part of the strategy

GRAVITY

Some basic thoughts….

GRAVITY

The ingredients of motivating communication

Rational U.S.P. Emotional U.S.P.

Rational U.S.P.s are less dependenton creative impact than emotional

- but how many real ones are there?

GRAVITY

Creative work competes in two ‘environments’

CommunicatingBrand Promise

Market environment

Achieving saliency

Creative environment

Vital to identify and value the source of potentialsaliency, not just the message

GRAVITY

The communication spectrum: soap ad example

Declared

Deduced

RationalEmotional

‘Says it cleans betterin the v/o’

‘Looks clean’‘Doesn’t seem very hard work’

‘The setting makes you think of clean-ness’

‘Says being a goodmum is important’

‘Seems like a really good mum’

‘The whole ad has a really cosy, motherlyfeeling’

GRAVITY

The communication spectrum

Declared

Deduced

RationalEmotional

Difficult to declare ‘we are honest’ credibly

Some communication is much stronger when deduced

Exploration of deduced communication with unfinished work is limited - the expertise of the Creatives is vital in making the

jump from idea to execution

GRAVITY

The communication spectrum

Declared

Deduced

RationalEmotional

Exploration of deduced communication with unfinished work is limited - the expertise of the Creatives is vital in making the

jump from idea to execution

GRAVITY

Challenging the process

GRAVITY

Working with brave ideas

• Housewives in Pinner don’t understand new ideas?

– If it’s that new, speak to leading edge consumers as well

• We can make consumers familiar with the ideas before the research

• We can recall them when they’ve had a chance to absorb

• We can give them frames of reference so while it may seem brave and new, it’s not incomprehensible

• We can use collusion to separate message from vehicle

GRAVITY

Stimulus Material Rarely Stimulates

• Designs, ads etc. are meant to stimulate

• The representation of them for research needs to stimulate too

Make sure consumers ‘get’ the idea, then give them the tools to discuss it

meaningfully

GRAVITY

Change the ownership structure of the research ..?

• Creatives are the users of creative research

• Perhaps they should help define the brief?

– take control of the fate of their ideas

– take responsibility if good ideas get lost

GRAVITY

Turn the whole thing on its head?

• Research agency write down how they think the ideas work before the research starts

• Meet the creatives and discuss the ideas and the best way of putting them across

• Ask the creatives what they want from the research

• Tell the respondents the intention before showing them the ideas

• Debrief the creatives first so they have time to think

• Reward the research agency on the success of the project not just the research