Clicks and Creativity
Agencies and companies often use click rates to measure the success of campaigns.
Irmela Schwab from M&K spoke to Almut Becvar, Christoph Everke, and our founder Sacha Moser about whether this might be too short-sighted, or if it could even mean that the creativity that makes brands great could fall by the wayside.
You can explore the insightful interview on M&K
Or you read it here.
Genuine creativity pays off.
A loudspeaker on animal testing? You’d have to come up with an idea like that! Sacha Moser came up with it when he was watching his cat at home, listening to the sounds of his surroundings with pricked ears. The CEO of creative agency Foundry had just won the account of electronics manufacturer Sennheiser and didn’t hesitate for long: he staged the global “Tested in the Wild” campaign with wild animals from all over the world. His feeling that his flash of inspiration could also inspire others did not deceive him. The agency won gold at the Swiss film award Edi. for the TV commercial and the documentary on the Ambeo soundbar, and was recently allowed to realise the second creation “Hear More” – this time with people and how sounds shape their emotional well-being. An intriguing question that has already received a lot of positive feedback. Moser, whose agency has offices in Zurich, Berlin and New York, knows: “Genuine creativity pays off.”
Doesn’t the click currency deprive creativity of its breeding ground?
Campaigns like Sennheiser’s, which break new ground, stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, it is often common practice in the industry to look for quick, purely quantitative measures of success, especially success KPIs such as clicks and likes, because they supposedly reflect the taste of the masses. On the other hand, isn’t there more to it than that in order to really anchor yourself in people’s minds? Doesn’t the click currency deprive creativity of its breeding ground? “When was the last time you told your friends about an advertising campaign?” asked the renowned daily newspaper NZZ some time ago.
Playing it safe with clicks
Such debates have been popping up again and again since everything can be measured, counted and adapted to user wishes in real time. This is also due to the advertising companies, who play it safe by insisting on quick click successes to evaluate the performance of their brand. But do they really do this?
Almut Becvar has a clear opinion on this: “Although clicks and likes are easy to measure, they rarely reflect the real, long-term success of a brand,” says the creative director and partner at Studio Riebenbauer in Vienna. Such short-term KPIs reveal little about the actual loyalty to the brand. Nor do they provide any reliable information about the return on investment. Instead of quick click KPIs, the creative prefers long-term brand building as a success factor for efficient advertising. In her opinion, this is achieved above all by “campaigns that promote sustainable growth, strengthen brand loyalty and build up a dedicated community of brand lovers who identify with the brand’s values”. Becvar has been a board member of the CCA Creativ Club Austria since last year. The CCA Venus Award is Austria’s most important creative prize, which honors the best ideas in the communications industry, and the jury of experienced creatives, strategists and industry experts focuses on creative excellence. In other words: How unique and innovative is the idea? Does it bring new perspectives or approaches? But the technical quality of the implementation and its impact on the target group also play a role.
Apple: Think Different
These insights do not come from the creatives and the jurors of the CCA Award alone – they are based on many years of experience in the advertising business in the advertising business. There is Apple, for example, with the “Think Different” campaign. With the development of a brand for visionary and courageous people who question conventions and and want to change the world, founder Steve Jobs had succeeded – to bring Apple out of the crisis and turned it into a cult brand. Today, being one of the most valuable companies in the world. For Becvar, one thing is clear: “Anyone who manages to find their creative voice also increases turnover.” Sophisticated campaigns therefore create emotional connections that are more sustainable than purely rational approaches.
“How unique and innovative is the idea? Does it bring new perspectives or approaches?”
Differentiation through creativity
Sacha Moser also confirms this: “In oversaturated markets, where there are far too many offers for similar products with similar functionalities and prices, it is important to differentiate.” During the years he worked at Young & Rubicam in New York, the Foundry boss learned a lot from the American sales talent at the Fortune 500 companies, which are known as the 500 companies with the highest revenue. He uses Google as an example. Moser explains that the search engine initially came in seventh place, but quickly overtook the competition. The decisive factor for him was the UX design in combination with a colourful logo. “Google’s design was simply worlds more creative than that of its competitors,” he judges. Of course, short-term clicks are also important to build awareness – but it is creativity that creates real connections.
“To Düsseldorf? Never.
When the era of e-scooters began, Moser’s agency was tasked with positioning the US brand Lime as a market leader. To do this, he focused on the personal stories of users – with a lot of humour that stuck in people’s minds. Lime put up posters in Cologne, for example: “To Düsseldorf? Never.” Moser’s success is based on two observations: firstly, users exchanged ideas about the funny messages and even came up with new words. Instead of “wir fahren Roller”, they said “wir gehen limen”. And secondly, Limes later became a coveted bride: the brand was taken over by competitor Uber.
The powerful mobility provider seemed to believe that Lime’s brand advantage could no longer be caught otherwise.
Qualitative feedback
The question of how to determine the effectiveness of a creative strategy also drives the “Creative Strategy” community at LinkedIn. One marketing expert advises that, in addition to clicks, surveys and votes, qualitative feedback should be obtained above all. This reveals the emotions, motivations and perceptions of the audience. Measuring the effectiveness of a campaign is not a one-time thing, but rather an ongoing process. Other experts in the forum add that creativity takes time. Quite simply because it does not always produce an immediate reaction that can be measured. As strong as an emotional connection can be, it doesn’t always have to find immediate expression.
Even clicks have their justification
Nevertheless, short-term click KPIs can provide important conclusions for those responsible. Advertising can be tested and further developed based on rapid user feedback, which is how Christoph Everke proceeded when he created the 2021 Christmas campaign “The Wish” for Penny. At four minutes long, the film was clearly too long for online, says Everke: “Social media experts strongly advised us to shorten the commercial.” In the end, he dared to show the creation in its unusual length because his team and Penny believed in the story. In the commercial, a mother wishes her son back to his youth during the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead of letting school slide, drinking too much, and suffering through his first heartbreak, her child simply stayed at home during the crisis. That clicked! “The story worked for the entire four minutes,” says Everke happily. “The click-through rate was more than 30 percent, and the view-through rate of people who watched the film in its entirety was similarly high. On average, the bounce rates are much higher.”
During the test run, however, the creative director also realised that he was wrong with one assumption: who the target group was. “We had expected the film to primarily interest younger target groups. But the click-through rate was also very high among their parents,” says Everke. As a result of this insight, which of course primarily affected the media strategy, the film was then increasingly placed in environments frequented by adults. This is also where it caused the most tears. One mother wrote on social media: “As a mom who lives with three teenagers under one roof, I cried more tears than I have in a long time. A great message.” And, yes, in addition to the click rate, other KPIs were also right: More than 51 million people watched the story. The organic reach was just under 70 percent. In total, the film achieved around 173,000 interactions – on YouTube alone, the interaction rate was 253%.
AI versus team walk
Everke and his team won several creative awards for the film, including three Golden Lions in Cannes. But it wasn’t just the continuous measuring that encouraged the advertisers on their path; they also gathered extensive information in advance and, as with every campaign, they pored over studies and analyzed figures to get to the bottom of the current zeitgeist and the needs of the respective target groups.
Recently, artificial intelligence has also been involved in trend research. Everke uses it to get an initial overview of topics and to be inspired by insights and ideas. Although AI can support the creative process, it cannot replace a creative exchange, says Everke. “When we go for a walk as a team, we come up with really good ideas,” says the Creative Director of Serviceplan Neo. Creativity is, by definition, the ability to create something that is new and useful. It is a profoundly human achievement that is difficult to grasp.