How Creativity Can Help Your Brand Stand Out

1. Creativity battles boring

A golden oldie is Old Spice. It was “your Dad’s grooming brand”. Then it rebranded with a bang, and came up smelling of roses for a new generation. ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ leveraged humour to create a viral sensation and the product flew off the shelf.

Every now and then you see brands challenging conventions, creating controversy or simply doing something nobody has done before. Tesla put a car in space. Van Damme did the splits on two moving Volvo trucks. And Cadbury’s managed to persuade a gorilla (then Phil Collins for the music) to play the drums. We’re subjected to 1000s of marketing messages every day, so cutting through creatively is paramount to capture your customer’s attention. Whether it’s advertising, email marketing, on your socials or at events, rather than fit in, think about how you can use creativity to stand out.

2. Creativity drives brand memorability

Right. Remember your favourite ad? Take a sec. See. There’s a memorable image. A sound. Something imaginative. That’s originality doing its thing to stop you in your tracks. Irn-Bru outsmarts and outsells Coca-Cola in Scotland. How? By being irrerverant in a way that resonates with the Scots. For the fraction of the marketing spend.

You need to remember that not all potential customers are ready to make a purchase. Building brand recall is an incredibly effective way of cementing your brand in the minds of your customers (no matter where they are in their buying journey) – so when they do reach the ‘consideration’ or ‘purchase’ stage, they’re predisposed to your brand and actively seek out your service or product.

It’s worth noting that industry stats show that around 50-80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand they recognise. The upshot? Creativity helps your brand build a name for itself.

3. Creativity creates relevance

Creativity enables brands to stay relevant by responding to cultural trends, technological advancements, and societal changes. Brands like Lego have used creativity to reinvent themselves over time, expanding from toys to video games, digital experiences and even movies.

Perhaps the greatest example of this, was the box office smash hit of last year, Barbie. Its pink advertising was a masterclass in marketing, activations and cultural relevance. It showed up on Airbnb, gaming, food, and so much more. But don’t just take my word for it. According to Forbes, Mattel calculated the revenue boost from the Barbie movie to be around $125 million. Barbie doll sales were up 14%. And the movie itself was the highest-grossing film of 2023, pulling in a staggering $1.446 billion worldwide.

4. Creativity makes connections

Yes, consumers buy products, but they also buy into experiences and feelings. Nike showed up recently at the NYC marathon in a clever way, reinforcing its motivational brand positioning and decades-long brand idea ‘Just do it’. And IKEA make the wonderful, everyday. An incredibly clever positioning that puts them right at the heart of everyday, family life.

Brands up until the dawn of digital, used to talk at consumers. Now brands have the opportunity to create dialogue. If you’ve got your social listening headphones on, you can find out what your target audience like, what they don’t like, what’s landing with them, and what they really desire from you as a brand. This is our bread and butter at saintnicks. We can help you and your brand distill this insight into a creative campaign that creates conversation with your customers.

5. Creativity cuts through

There’s more channels, content and choice than ever before for consumers. But creativity will always help you stand out from the crowd.

In fashion, Alexander McQueen turned his shows into stunts. In music, Daft Punk wear disguises. In art, Banksy shredded his work. In the brand world, Red Bull jumps out from a crowded energy drink market by being extremely adventurous, and taking their brand to bold spaces (and places) others wouldn’t dare.

By being different, you can create brand distinctiveness. Be the first to do something, and you’ll always be remembered for it.

6. Creativity fosters trust

People are always more likely to reach for a brand they’ve heard of. In the same way, we go to places, restaurants and bars our friends have recommended. The trust is there. Word of mouth, starts with the what your brand has to say for itself. And most importantly, how it says it.

John Lewis’ ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ brand positioning is a great example of a brand that has used their positioning externally, to communicate a promise to customers. Or take, Lloyd’s Bank ‘By Your Side’, Vodafone’s ‘Together We Can’, or Toyota’s ‘Built For A Better World’. All brands who have used their strap-lines to communicate intent and build trust.

Findings from Adobe’s new Future of Marketing Research Series shows that trusted brands really do reap the rewards when it comes to consumer engagement and advocacy. According to the report, 71% of UK consumers buy more from a brand they trust, 61% recommend the brand, 40% leave positive reviews online, and 41% will sign up to the brand’s loyalty programme. As you can see, when it comes to a building trust, creativity can speak volumes.

7. Creativity attracts advocates

Creativity empowers brands to tell stories that align with their mission and values. These stories inspire advocacy and loyalty, transforming customers into brand ambassadors. Sometimes you can even get the influential people to promote your brand, for free. When I was a Creative Director at Jameson Irish Whiskey one of the Marketing Directors noticed an opportunity. Music artists were calling Jameson out in their lyrics and we turned it into an opportunity. We created one-off uniquely designed bottles for the artists. Ones they literally shared with their millions of followers. We did this for Fontaines DC to the biggest rapper in India and we put ourselves right at the centre of culture.

8. Creativity simplifies complexity

Dave Trott, the ad legend used a great metaphor to convey that ‘less is more’. Throw lots of balls (messages) at people and the chances they catch any of them are slim. But throw one ball, directly at them, and you’ve a much better chance of them catching it (your actual message).

This is something we see all too often and especially in B2B marketing. Before you bombard your customers with “everything-they-might-ever-possibly-need-to-know-about-your-product-or-service” – stop and think about where they are in their buying journey. What is it they want to know in this moment? Sometimes it’s important to hold the detail. There’s a time and a place for that. Normally further down the buying journey when intent to purchase is high.

Take Western Global for example – the UK’s largest fuel tank manufacturer. With so many product features and proof points to communicate, they needed to keep it simple. We needed to show the extreme lengths they go to to make their products. How? By dramatising their product development process with the Extreme Test Series. By doing so, we were able to bring one product proof point to life per test, in a completely disruptive way. Something that immediately differentiated them against their competitors and reinforced their ‘Readymakers’ proposition.

9. Creativity builds strong brand identities

A brand’s identity is part of its DNA, encompassing its values, personality, and promise to consumers. Creativity plays a crucial role in crafting this identity. It’s more than just a logo or tagline. It encompasses the entire perception of what the brand represents, and how it shows up. Think Apple’s minimalist aesthetic, Nike’s distinctive swoosh or Coke’s iconic bottles. Every aspect of a world-class brand’s creative identity—from its product design to the last three feet in retail has creativity at its heart.

10. Creativity boosts your bottom line

Perhaps most importantly of all.

A study by Lucidpress showed that maintaining a consistent brand across all platforms can potentially increase revenue by up to 23%. So staying true to a central unifying campaign idea generates better results over time. The more recognisable your brand is to your customers, the more effective your tactical advertising campaigns will be.

This was true for Dove. Their Campaign For Real Beauty transformed Unilever’s fortunes. Back in 2004 when the campaign was first launched, the results were staggering—within six months, sales of Dove’s firming products increased 700% in Europe, and in the US, sales of the products featured in the ads increased by 600%. As relevant today as it was then, the campaign has since been running in various creative iterations for more than 20 years. The creative transcended the product and created a higher societal purpose. That’s the true beauty of Creativity.

The end

But not for creativity. Quite the opposite. Kantar and WARC evidence has proven that creative ads generate more than four times as much profit. Today, with the rise of digital, people powered creativity is more important than ever.

Do you want to take your brand further?

Drop me a line and let’s chat about how we can take your brand further, to a place that’s more memorable, meaningful and magnetic.