1. Advertising is more of an art than science
An Average CEO in a developed country like Canada sees that ads hardly contribute to the
bottom line. Over the past 20 years, ad budgets have been reduced in favor of promotions.
Today, the effectiveness of advertising as a brand building tool is being questioned as never
before.
The only way out of this quagmire would be to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that
advertising works, that it's worth investing in. But as soon as you set about proving something,
you enter the domain of science. That entails setting up an experiment, taking note of all the
variables, carefully monitoring the results, then repeating the experiment several times to be
sure your results hold up - science.
If advertising is a battle between the right and left sides of the brain, it seems the right, rational
side is the one currently under the spotlight. With the need for all parts of the marketing
equation to be measured, categorized and proven, it seems the profession once ruled by
intuition and gut feeling, is increasingly governed by hard facts and a focus on ROI. And nothing
gives a more solid backing than science.
Marketing science isn’t anything new, but it is certainly gaining traction. From behavioral
economics, neuro-marketing techniques and university research such as the University of South
Australia’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science’s science of making ads – and the
promise of making ads better - is very much in vogue, especially with marketers.
Ads are facilitated by science to enhance creativity, to reduce wastage of unwanted reach.
Although, despite at a very niche stage, with art occupying the driver’s seat, science is
increasingly becoming an equal brother of art in this ad industry. Old Spice is a classic example,
where art was equally supported by science by testing the creative idea.
Thus, the bottom line, as per me, is that with more and more scientific tools available to test a
creative idea’s reach and effectiveness, it is not merely an art. It has become a combination of
art and science.