303 MullenLowe CSO Asks, “Are You Good Enough to Get Better?”

303 MullenLowe chief strategy officer Jody Elston has pushed back on the assertion that brands can benefit from doubling-down on proven creative, arguing consistency shouldn’t come at the expense of ambition.

Speaking for ‘team refresh’ at SXSW Sydney’s ‘Budget Battle’, organised and moderated by Analytic Partners, Jody and Saatchi & Saatchi managing director Toby Aldred were asked whether to double down on a proven campaign or risk it all with a bold refresh.

Earlier this week, Toby and Andrew Howie asserted good creative is pulled too early for fear of “wearing-out” in spite of performance and budget metrics suggesting otherwise.

But Jody said the discussion shouldn’t be framed as change versus consistency, but as ambition versus complacency.

She asked marketers, “How ambitious are you?”

“I'm not talking about bad refresh, where a new CMO [comes] in and through ego and vanity [wants] to change things up,” she explained.

“Or a brand that’s moved everything into the short-term performance world [at] the expense of their brand … these are not good reasons to refresh.”

When she thinks about a good refresh,“We're holding on to our positioning and our distinctive assets, but we're refreshing for greater emotional intensity.

“Chances are your advertising is dull, so you can hold on to those assets and ramp up the emotional intensity. We can refresh for new cultural context, new media opportunities, markets or audiences … these are all good reasons to refresh, [and] we can absolutely do it within our brand worlds.”

She argued brands can have “radical consistency” in purpose, while remaining ambitious in expression.

“It is too easy to be complacent -- we know over 50% of ads today have a largely neutral response, and I'm talking people not feeling anything, which is the death zone for advertising.”

Long-running, successful brand platforms get away with “disguised repetition”, Jody explained, like Bunnings’ ‘lowest prices are just the beginning’, which remains consistent though new creative and experiential.

“A great takeover of Bunnings [was] Hammerbarn,” Jody said, speaking about the ‘Bluey’ themed brand collaboration, in which a select Bunnings location was rebranded to its ‘Hammerbarn’ analogue from the children’s show.

“[Big brands] could be just running classic advertising, but they're using their assets in lots of really culturally interesting ways… not through being a slave to consistency, but by constantly refreshing. So my argument is that refresh can mean radical consistency.

“The dark side of consistency is matching luggage. We all try to do the right thing in terms of creating content that's fit for [a] channel, [with] data to support that it's more effective, but we don't always have the investment to create content that's fit for [a] channel.

“We don't have to throw everything out, but we can refresh. Maybe you didn't do it in year one, but in year two you can absolutely look at all your different channels and think about how you can refresh within your brand codes.”

Toby noted a compelling statistic from Analytic Partners research: only 14 out of 50,000 campaigns studied actually experience “wear-out”. But Jody argued the choice isn’t binary, especially when most creative isn’t as compelling as it could be.

“First of all, your ads are not multiplying growth,” she said.

“A creative asset needs to start strong to guarantee longevity. There's no point in wearing-in an asset that's dull, and given over 50% of ads are dull, chances are you could be wearing-in a dull asset.

“We know that creativity contributes 70% of ROI lifts. It's the second most important factor after budget, and done well, it can multiply your share of voice 21 times.”

She argued while the exposure effect means repetition is good for brands, human brains are also attracted to novelty.

“We get that dopamine rush when we see new stimuli, and that's really what draws focus and attention. The ultimate play is to build on that from familiarity, and to use novelty to drive attention and pattern interrupt is a great way to do that.

“We can also think about [a] refresh beyond advertising. There's a lot of growth that's not driven by advertising. A great example of this is Steven Marks, the founder of Guzman and Gomez.

“He always [talks] about, ‘Are you good enough to get better?’ Just when they were turning a profit, he decided to make all their chicken free-range, which would absolutely kill their ROI … but he did it because he absolutely believed in offering quality fast food, [tapping] into broader trends and relevance. So my challenge to you is, are you good enough to get better?”