Creative Advertising for Atlanta Companies

Creative advertising is more than decoration. It is the idea behind a message and the way that idea is delivered: the words, the voice, the picture, the sound and the structure that make a person notice, understand and remember. A useful way to define the work is by its job. A creative idea succeeds when the right person pays attention, grasps what is being offered and knows what to do next. An idea that makes people laugh but forgets to say what the business sells has done only part of the work.

That definition has practical consequences. It means creativity is not the same as novelty, and it means a plain message, said clearly, can be more creative than an elaborate concept that hides the point. For Atlanta companies competing for attention in a crowded market, creative work earns its keep by cutting through noise, not by adding to it.

Every creative decision flows from one early question: what do you want the audience to do? Visit, call, search, book, buy or simply remember a name? A message designed for one of those actions looks different from a message designed for another, and trying to ask for several at once usually earns none of them.

The second question is why people have not done it already. Perhaps they do not know the business exists, or they know it but doubt it, or they intend to act and never get around to it. Each obstacle calls for a different message, and naming it in plain words keeps the work from drifting into decoration.

People often decide with feelings and then explain the decision with reasons, so effective advertising frequently supplies both: an emotional reason to care and a rational reason to choose. A message with only the first can be charming and forgettable. A message with only the second can be accurate and ignored. Good creative work holds them together in a single, easy-to-grasp idea. Our article on what makes for an effective advertisement covers the essentials, from audience to call to action.

Kirk Donovan treats every advertising message as something meant to make people respond. For creative work, that idea turns an argument about taste into a question that can be tested. Kirk Donovan Enterprises, which he started in 1984, offers creative advertising to companies in the Atlanta area.

A creative brief is a short written agreement about what the work must do. It does not need to be long, but it does need to exist before concepts are discussed, because it gives everyone the same standard to judge them by. A useful brief answers a handful of plain questions.

• Who is the audience, described as a person rather than a category?
• What single response is wanted from them?
• What is the main message, and what gives people a reason to believe it?
• What tone suits the audience and the business?
• Where will the work appear, and what does that medium demand?
• What must be included, such as a name, location, web address or legal line?
• How will the work be judged once it runs?

Disagreements about creative work are usually disagreements about an unwritten brief. Writing it down moves the conversation from “I like it” to “does it do the job.”

Most business owners are not designers or writers, and they do not need to be. The questions that matter are about the audience, not about craft.

• Would the right person notice this among everything else competing for attention?
• Is it clear within a moment who is advertising and what they offer?
• Could a distracted person state the one message afterward?
• Is it specific and believable, or does it rely on vague claims?
• Does it make the next step clear, and is that step easy?
• Would it still work if the clever twist were removed?
• Does it sound like a person talking, rather than an institution?

Remember that the owner is rarely the audience. A concept the owner loves because it is witty may mean little to the customer, and a plain concept the owner finds dull may be exactly what the customer needs. Show the work to a few real customers, and listen for what they repeat back. What they remember is the message that actually got through.

Feedback on creative work is most useful when it points back to the brief. “I don't like the blue” tells a designer little, while “this does not make the offer clear to someone driving past” gives a direction. When reacting to a concept, start with what it does well for the audience, say plainly where it falls short of the brief and describe the problem instead of prescribing the fix. Designers and writers usually have several solutions to a problem and only one to a specific instruction.

Collect reactions from the people who will use or approve the work, but have them reviewed together, so contradictory comments are resolved before the next round instead of being passed along. Ask what the audience would do on seeing it. A concept that survives that question is usually ready, even if it is not what anyone in the room would have designed alone.

Strong campaigns carry one idea across several media and adapt it to what each one does well. On the radio, the idea lives in a voice and in sound, as described under radio advertising. On television, it can be shown, which is where television advertising comes in. On a billboard, it shrinks to a handful of words read in passing, as covered under outdoor advertising. In digital channels it becomes something people can scan, search and respond to immediately.

What stays constant is the core: the same promise, the same tone and a recognizable look or phrase. People rarely see every placement, so repetition across media is what makes a message feel familiar. Adapting each version to its medium, instead of copying the same file everywhere, is what keeps it from feeling out of place. For the full range of creative services, see creative, and for finished commercials and video, see production.

Clever wording tempts every writer, and it sometimes works. More often a plain sentence is stronger: it says what the business does, who it is for and why that matters, in words a customer would use. The test is whether someone reading or hearing it for the first time understands it immediately. Wordplay that needs a second look is rarely given one.

Specifics also persuade better than adjectives. Saying what a business does differently, or what a customer can expect, gives people something to remember and repeat. Words such as quality, service and value describe nearly every business and set none of them apart. Where a claim cannot be supported, leave it out, because an overstated claim damages the credibility of the true ones that sit beside it.

Creative judgment improves with evidence. Before a large spend, try the idea on a small scale. Read a script aloud to several customers, show a layout to people who fit the audience or run two versions of a headline in a small online test and see which draws more response. Vary only one element per test so the outcome is clear, and keep a note of what was learned.

After launch, watch for response rather than praise. Calls, visits, searches and form submissions say more than compliments. Even strong creative wears out, since people who have seen a message many times stop noticing it. Refresh the specific message when response falls or when the offer or season changes, but keep the identity and tone steady so each new piece builds on the last. Marketing analytics describes how to read those signals.

• Starting with a slogan. A tagline written before the message is understood is usually decoration.
• Copying competitors. Similar advertising makes both businesses easier to forget.
• Cramming. A message that tries to say everything is remembered as nothing.
• Letting humor overshadow the business. People recall the joke and forget the name.
• Ignoring the medium. A print layout read aloud on the radio, or squeezed onto a billboard, fails.
• Several calls to action. Asking for everything makes it harder to do any one thing.
• Vague claims. “Quality service” and “great value” describe everyone and persuade no one.
• Designing for internal approval. Work that pleases the office but not the customer.