Be Brave. Be Effective.
Let’s face it, safe advertising is not effective advertising.
And that’s why most marketing executives and their Agency counterparts would agree with Bill Bernbach, “Safe advertising is the riskiest advertising you can do.” More specifically, safe advertising will not generate greater sales more economically.
In light of that notion, most of these same marketing and advertising executives have an aversion to taking risk. Agreed, it is always better to have a sure thing. Unfortunately, there are two inherent problems with this normal human reaction…
1.) There is no such thing as a sure thing
2.) To get really effective advertising, risk cannot be avoided
Safe advertising rarely makes facts come alive in a fresh, memorable and persuasive way. It rarely makes one ad do the work of ten. It won’t elevate your brand out of the muck and mired swamps of parity, nor will safe advertising make your brand more accepted, believed or urgent.
Create Originality. To create advertising that is effective, it must be original. And to do that, we must be able to step away from reality, because reality is what exists, reality is what has been done before. We must abandon the safe and secure.
Beware! Creating originality is risky business. It involves the art of persuasion and is difficult to formalize. It requires a search that will lead to places that are new and untried; for these are the areas where the biggest rewards await.