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Marketing research by Nielsen has firmly established that most consumer decisions are memory-based—you just remember favorite ads and brand campaigns. They’re funny, clever, on point and thoughtful.
Creativity can entertain, delight and inspire. But it’s the long-term investment in a strategic approach that can move and maneuver brands and their behavior, especially during a time of chaos. Brand behavior that can create value, change paths and populate the ever illustrious “white space” with instinctive and shareable stories.
The ongoing battle for consumer attention
In an always-on, real-time world, the fight for relevance and distinction is getting harder to win. As the aperture of acceptance widens, so are the expectations of consumers and the rules of engagement in consumer-brand interactions.
No one is waiting for brands to do anything for them anymore. Brands don’t need to empower; they need to enable, be activated in very tangible ways and motivate participation.
The challenge lies in embracing conflict and flux and leveraging this to power ideas forward.
Natalie Gruis, head of strategy, international, TBWA\Neboko
Each consumer action carries its own set of data points. There are always channels, routes to market and experiences to be explored, each with a differing set of needs, desires and wants. A successful journey to creativity relies on finding the patterns, best expressed by the Chinese general, philosopher Sun Tzu, known for the Art of War and the famous saying: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
Creative chaos
Harnessing chaos (and more so uncertainty) can be an uncomfortable starting point as it represents the polar opposite of the structure and order we try to create. As more connections are forged, we need to transform more and more disconnected data sets into relevant and distinctive intelligence to unlock new opportunities and create a clear roadmap for growth.
The challenge lies in embracing conflict and flux and leveraging this to power ideas forward. Ideas built from strong strategic insight that embrace chaos create beautiful pathways and opportunities that disrupt behavior. This creates new value propositions and relevance for brands.
Can the unexpected unlock new ground for growth? In short, yes.
Strategic chaos itself is not unexpected. It is incredibly intentional and at its best, can be the catalyst between the status quo and a more desirable future state.
Chaos is around every corner. This year we’ve seen the Covid-19 pandemic lead to a shortage of fizzy beverages (and crumpets!) as rising gas prices crept up unexpectedly and led to unexpected consequences. Who’d have thought to draw a line between a collapse in carbon dioxide supplies and shortages in food production, meat preservation and pharmaceutical supply?
It helps us to create platforms that inform how a brand behaves and inspires new audiences in an ever-changing cultural context. The world is at an inflection point and it’s increasingly important for brands to have a point of view that they’re willing to make intrinsically part of their brand story.
It is no longer about what we say, but what we do. And with issues as broad as racial injustice, inequity, the climate crisis, the slow endings of a global pandemic and geo-political uncertainty featured in world headlines on a daily basis, brands need to operate within a new paradigm where the old rules and orders are disintegrating fast. There is an opportunity upside of the chaos, thriving on disruption and giving brand purpose the power to create impact and achieve growth.
But make no mistake. Despite what it may sound like, strategic chaos itself is not unexpected. It is incredibly intentional and, at its best, can be the catalyst between the status quo and a more desirable future state.
Data is at the core
Data gives us insights that can move ideas forward because it helps us to identify where value will come from. When we talk about chaos and change, it’s not just about real-time pivots: it’s how insight can reframe a brand by identifying new opportunities to create value in people’s lives.
Airbnb is a good example. It has been able to truly tap into the human experience of travel through “Live Anywhere,” the message that reframed travel and our expectations from it forever. With this insight, Airbnb expanded its proposition with a shift from offering homes to experiences, which has become a marker for an entirely new business model that’s deepened the brand promise. It created new ways for both the brand and business to live up to this today.
PepsiCo-owned Gatorade leveraged the insight that what you put into your body can have a greater impact on your performance than what you put on it. This unlocked a shared value between the brand and audience which broadened the narrative for Gatorade to speak to the intangibles of sport, moving them into a new brand neighborhood alongside the likes of Nike and Adidas.
Expanding the creative canvas
The industry clearly has a long and rocky path ahead of it. Chaos—whether fast and abrupt or happening over time—recognizes the shifting needs and wants of consumers, alongside expanding data sources and experiences, that make up a brand’s narrative and role in people’s lives.
The creative may be what we remember of a campaign, but it’s the strategic, long-term view of how we can harness chaos that helps us identify correlations between different sources of input to build an instinctive and compelling story. And it’s this approach that uncovers unexpected ways to look at a situation or problem to unlock new ways to shape the work with insight.
As we learn to work with chaos and find connections in the flow of data to create patterns that reimagine what the future could look like, we inevitably expand the creative canvas…and opportunities to create revenue.
