• by September 6, 2001

There are so many factors that come into play when evaluating and measuring online advertising's success and efficacy.

Some of them include Objectives, Role for Communications, Strategy, Target Audience, State of the Market, Level of Competition, Brand Health, Offering, Offer, Creative messaging, Media rationale, Site selection and the list continues.

Their ever-changing evolution and interdependence makes it really difficult to accurately make "apples-to-apples" historical comparisons across multiple campaigns and initiatives (although somehow we continue to do so).

But one thing is a constant: the need for creativity and the role that it plays in the communications process.

Agencies are built around - and indeed owe their existence to - creativity.

Creativity is part of everything we do. It's present in our media plans - from the site selection to the types of solutions we invest in and execute. It's a major part of the strategic development process and campaign architecture. It is certainly factored into the post-campaign reporting and analysis.

But it's the "creativity of the creative" I want to concentrate on in this article - the good ole fashioned stuff between the 468 and the 60 (or any other existing numerical combination); the magic that copywriters, art directors and wizards (what we call a hybrid art director and technology guru) produce based on a one-page instructional recipe (the creative brief).

I often get the feeling that creativity tends to get overlooked online, generally at the expense of new technologies or unit sizes. Perhaps part of the problem is that we've been led until recently by technology-focused people, as opposed to consumer-blooded marketers and creative communications-professionals. If only there was a "Creativity Inside" logo and jingle, instead of just redirects and 1x1 transparent pixels.

I've seen enough work out there to suggest that creativity is perhaps the best kept secret of Internet Advertising. A secret so good in fact, that nobody knows about it. David Ogilvy once said, "unless your campaign contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night." How true this is when placed in context of a piece of real estate 1/10 the size of the screen or less.

The Internet has given us a completely new platform to inject a new dimension of creativity into everything we do. Rich media and new sizes assist us with our task, but at the end of the day, it's creativity that makes the difference.

IBM got it with their circa-1997/8 Enliven-powered e-business banners. Jack Daniels on Playboy.com thought and executed literally out the box.

Punch/Shock/Tease/Indoctrinate/Intimidate the Monkey did not (although a colleague of mine points out that the thinking behind the idea was creative. Perhaps. But any advantage gained from this would have been short-lived as the rest of the world jumped on the bandwagon. Anyone want to take a stab at who the original advertiser was?)

Which brings us to the X10. They recently changed their message to reflect a more illuminating insight, "your own private detective...feel safe. Feel secure." Now if only they targeted parenting and family-oriented sites, instead of everyone everywhere. Either way, I'm only 5,442,130 exposures away from making that elusive purchase.

The problem with these examples however, is that they're overused. We're all bored talking about them. But in this industry, we hold on to what we can get our hands on. We need more examples; more case studies; more success stories.

Sure we have our own industry events and award shows, but we should be even more aggressive about evangelizing the great work and the thinking behind it. Nielsen//NetRatings highlights the most impressed banners, but they don't showcase the most impressive banners. We need to circulate these creatives and share the fine work that's all dressed up right now, but is still searching for somewhere to go.

The truth of the matter is that if we ever want our industry to step up to the plate, we're going to have to get noticed and remembered, create an emotional connection and reward the consumer's attention by delivering a relevant message in a meaningful way. Creativity can help.

I'd like to end this article by inviting you to share with me your top 5 interactive ads/campaigns. I'll list the 5 most popular in an upcoming follow-up article. If you have to think hard, that's part of the problem, I guess...

- Joseph Jaffe is Director of Interactive Media at TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. His primary focus is to highlight interactive's value and benefit to meeting his clients' business and branding objectives.