Why Conservative Direct Marketers Should Embrace Wildly Creative Ideas

The following post is submitted by Robert Rosenthal from Freaking Marketing.

What I’m about to say may bug some of you, but I’m going to say it anyway.

If you’re like most direct marketers, the concepts you’re running are mediocre at best. And they could be costing you a lot of money – even if they’re dirt cheap to produce.

At our direct marketing agency, we’ve tested unusual concepts against common ideas – like the “pieces of the puzzle” visual near the top of this entry – and tracked the results.

In spreadsheet after spreadsheet, we’ve seen that unconventional creative ideas often whup so-called tried-and-true creative directions.

But to win in split-run tests, those new ideas can’t simply be different. They’ve got to be relevant, captivating, smart – and responsive.

As David Ogilvy said, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”

Fortunately, advertising creativity isn’t a black art. Just about every successful creative team has a methodology. We call ours “controlled chaos.”

We start by sending a client questionnaire. We study the client’s marketing history – and their competition. We do one-on-one interviews with people inside and outside the client’s organization – and comb through every interview.

From there, we collect lots of ideas. We empty our brains of what’s expected. We look at the problem from a variety of angles. When it’s time to present ideas, we only show stuff we believe is potentially great.

When a client has a “control” approach – something that’s been running successfully – we recommend a head-to-head test. Whatever wins continues to run. It’s that simple.

As direct marketers, we aren’t supposed to rely on speculation, opinions, and biases. In our marketing communications discipline, it’s all about actual dollar votes.

And because this is marketing communications, it pays to pay attention to the communications end. In fact, it may be the source of your greatest triumphs.

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Robert Rosenthal is founder of Mothers of Invention, an 18-year-old direct marketing agency that’s created record-breaking campaigns for dozens of clients. His blog is Freaking Marketing.