“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” ~David Ogilvy
Your brain plays tricks on you. If it didn’t, your head would explode. Every moment of every day, you are surrounded by more sensual stimuli than your nervous system can possibly handle. Fortunately, you have a cognitive filter built into your gray matter that subconsciously selects what you see and hear. That’s good for your brain, but potentially bad for your advertising. (Many women would claim that husbands have exceptionally fine-tuned cognitive filters. Many men would say they need one to survive!)
It is absolutely essential your brand messages break through cognitive filters, and that can only be done by creatively applying a deep understanding of human psychology. Smart creativity sells.
Most ads I see do not even rise to the level of forgettable. They are invisible. Even many ads that get noticed are not remembered because, while they may be entertaining, they fail to sell products or services.
Advertising geniuses are truly rare, but sorely needed. The intense creativity we cultivate is strategic and deadly effective. We must be absolute masters at penetrating cognitive filters and getting into the hearts and minds of our intended audiences. We are persuasive pirates swarming the decks of the brain to plunder public mindshare. This level of creative expertise, combined with data-driven analytics and market research will sell any marketable product or service—without fail.
You can keep doing ads the way you’ve always done them, hoping for results. But invisibility and guesswork have spelled the death of multiple thousands of ad campaigns, products and even brands.
Timeless Cognitive Interruption techniques are just one topic Kelly will be teaching to members of SWIG Lounge: The soon-to-be-launched paid subscription service of Intrepid’s www.SWIGofBranding.com, a service that will improve your marketing results and ultimately, your bottom line.
Kelly Walker, M.S. is the Host of A Swig of Branding, Creative Director for Intrepid Marketing, and a Senior Copywriter with over 20 years experience. He has masterminded scores of high-profile brand identity projects, written hundreds of ads and taught college-level marketing and copywriting courses
(Photos above | left: Interior Camouflage by Desiree Palmen | right: Zebra by Desiree Palmen)
