Creativity is a means to effectiveness- Michailidis
By Zion Rufus
For clients and agencies today, creativity has become an important driver of efficiency when it comes to weathering and getting ahead of some unprecedented changes currently facing the advertising industry.
Data measurement firm Nielsen in its report on what is important when it comes to advertising effectiveness, shared that creativity provides 47% of the total sales impact, and while the equation today involves several factors, good creativity is still the most important element.
Similarly, according to Ascential-owned research company, WARC, a good creative will drive fame, because people are more likely to talk about it and share it. It is also more likely to get mainstream press coverage, all of which are SOV multipliers, and as well create price premiums over time by establishing notions of quality, which decrease price sensitivity.
WARC said: “Creativity is most effective when it is distinctive, emotional, novel, well-branded and has some longevity.”
Fielding questions on the importance of creativity in an interview with MARKETING EDGE at the ongoing Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, Dimitri Michailidis, Global Director, Brand & Creative Effectiveness at AB InBev explained: “One is a means to the other. Creativity is a means to effectiveness. When creativity is deployed or put against the right objective, strategy, or problem, and when it is pure and authentic (not watered down because of fear or because of maybe the wrong problem), then it becomes one of the most powerful levers to create an effective outcome.”
Michailidis revealed that over the years, AB InBev, which bagged the Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness at this year’s Cannes Lions for its US beer brand Michelob Ultra’s ‘Contract for Change’, has continued to embed creativity into the core of its business, and leveraged data and innovation to deliver creative business solutions that answer real needs, and drive consumer, community and commercial impact.
He said: “It is an entire culture that we built to try to make sure that creativity was not kept down, that we instead tried to elevate creativity. The first thing we did though that is easy to summarize is we decided that we needed to be more creative. We knew what we didn’t know, so we made a decision that we have to elevate our creativity.”
In March, Cannes Lions announced AB InBev as this year’s Creative Marketer of the Year. The award, presented during the Cannes Lions Festival, honors the company as a brand that has amassed a body of Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, and has established a reputation for producing brave creative and innovative marketing solutions.
Last year’s Cannes Lions awards, which were given for work from 2020/2021, saw AB InBev amass an outstanding haul of 40 Lions; two Grands Prix, two Titanium, nine Gold, 10 Silver and 17 Bronze Lions in total. Over the past few years, some of the standout work has included Budweiser’s ‘TagWords’ in Brazil, Corona’s ‘The Match of Ages’ in Mexico, Bavaria’s ‘Tienda Cerca’ in Colombia and Michelob Ultra’s ‘Contract for Change’ in the US, which won the PR Grand Prix and a further eight Lions including a Titanium.
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