Creativity, in English, is expressed by "creativity, creativity and idea", which means creation, creation and sometimes "production".
In the 1960s, the concept of "big creativity" began to appear in western countries and quickly became popular in western countries. David ogilvy pointed out: "To attract consumers' attention and make them buy your products, you must have good functions. Unless your advertisement is creative, it will be like a ship that is quickly swallowed up by the night. Ogilvy's "creativity" refers to creativity.
James webb Webb Young's explanation of creativity in The Method of Creating Creativity has been widely recognized in the advertising industry, that is, "Creativity is the complete reorganization of various elements. Creativity in advertising is usually the result of a new combination of people's "general knowledge" of life and events and "specific knowledge" of products.
At present, the word creativity is used very flexibly in China, which is probably because creativity, creativity and concept are introduced almost at the same time in the process of introducing advertising creativity theory, and these three concepts have different directions or specific meanings when they are produced and applied, and are generally interpreted as creativity after being translated into Chinese; It may also be a "creative" idea. After it became popular in China, many people blindly followed suit, resulting in conceptual confusion.
We think: "The so-called advertising creativity is the creative thinking activities of advertisers on the objects of advertising creation. It is a conceptual novel cultural conception that creates a new idea or system through imagination, combination and creation of advertising theme, content and expression form, and sublimates the potential realistic attribute of the advertising object into a concrete object that the public can feel.
The premise of advertising creativity
Advertising positioning is the premise of advertising creativity. Advertising positioning first and advertising creativity advertising creativity is the performance of advertising positioning.
Advertising positioning is to solve "what to do" and advertising creativity is to solve "how to do it". Only by figuring out what to do can we do it well. Once the advertising positioning is determined, how to express the advertising content and style can be determined later. Thus, advertising positioning is the beginning of advertising creativity and the premise of advertising creative activities.
Characteristics of advertising creativity
1. Advertising creativity should focus on the advertiser's title.
Advertising theme is an important part of advertising positioning, that is, "what to advertise". The advertising theme is the center of advertising planning activities, and the advertising work in each stage is closely around the advertising theme, and it is not allowed to deviate or transfer the advertising theme at will.
2. Advertising creativity should be based on advertising objectives.
Advertising target refers to the target of advertising appeal and the target public of all advertising activities. This is the problem of "to whom to advertise" in advertising positioning. In addition to the advertiser's title as the core, advertising creativity must also be based on advertising objectives. "Shooting at the target" and "playing the piano to see the audience", advertising creativity should aim at the advertising target, and express the advertising theme and preparation strategy with the advertising target. Otherwise, it is difficult to receive good advertising results.
3. Advertising creativity should be based on novelty and uniqueness.
The novelty and uniqueness of advertising creativity means that advertising creativity should not imitate other advertising creativity, and people follow suit, giving people a feeling of similarity and mediocrity. Only when the creativity is novel and unique will it stand out among many advertising creativity, thus generating appeal and influence.
4. Advertising creativity should be based on liveliness and fun.
If advertising creativity wants to bring consumers into an impressive, imaginative, interesting and unforgettable realm, it must adopt vivid expression means such as interest, base itself on reality and embody reality, thus arousing consumers' voices. However, the artistic treatment of advertising creativity must be strictly limited within the scope of not damaging the truth.
5. Advertising creativity should be visual.
Advertising creativity should be based on facts, concentrate on concise themes and advertising language, obtain creative materials from appearances, ideas and associations, and integrate vivid quips, poems, music, infectious pictures and photography to form perfect advertising works.
6. Advertising creativity is a combination of originality, relevance and shock.
The so-called originality refers to irreplaceable creativity and a new combination of old elements. Relevance refers to the internal relationship between advertising products and advertising creativity, which is both unexpected and understandable. For example1June, 1996, the advertising prize winner of Cannes International Advertising Festival was Dentsu Youg &；; Rubicam) created the "Volvo safety pin", which everyone will not forget after reading it. As American judge Gary Goldsmith said, "This is an advertisement with only one sentence (a car you can trust)-pure visual creativity. I think some of the best things we have seen are that the information is transmitted quickly and in place, without worrying about thinking or reading. " Therefore, advertising creativity must skillfully combine originality, relevance and shock in order to become an advertising work with profound appeal.
Classification of advertising creativity
Advertising creativity can be divided into two forms: abstract creativity and image creativity.
1. Abstract creativity
Abstract creativity refers to the creative reorganization of abstract concepts to express the content of advertisements.
2. Image creativity
Image creativity is to express advertising content through the reorganization of specific image creativity. This kind of advertising creativity reflects the advertising theme by displaying the image, thus attracting the public intuitively.
The application of image creativity can vividly display the specific content of advertisements, which makes people clear at a glance. However, when using image creativity, we should avoid being too simplistic or too visual, which will make the audience feel disgusted.
It can also be divided into
1. Commodity information type
This is the most commonly used type of advertising creativity. It takes the objective situation of advertising commodities as the core, expresses the authenticity and authenticity of commodities, and achieves the purpose of highlighting the advantages of commodities.
2. Comparative type
This type of advertising creativity is to compare the advantages and disadvantages of its own brand products with similar products in a direct way, so as to attract consumers' attention and recognize the brand to buy. When comparing, it is best to compare the contents that consumers care about and compare them on the same basis or under the same conditions. It is easier to arouse his attention and recognition.
The specific application of comparative advertising creativity is comparative advertising. When comparing advertising ideas, we can compare a certain brand or similar products everywhere. Advertising creativity should abide by relevant laws, regulations and industry rules, have a certain sense of social responsibility and social morality, and avoid giving people the suspicion of unfair competition. In China, there are strict requirements for comparative advertising, so we must be cautious when carrying out comparative advertising creativity, and don't provoke unnecessary troubles or disputes.
3. Drama type
This type of advertising creativity can not only promote advertising brand products through drama performance, but also dramatize and plot advertising performance. When using dramatic advertising creativity, we must pay attention to the degree of drama, otherwise people will easily remember the dramatic plot in advertising creativity and ignore the advertising theme.
4. Story type
This kind of advertising creativity is based on stories such as life, legends and myths, and runs through the characteristics or information of brand products, thus deepening the impression of the audience. Because the story itself has the characteristics of self-explanation, it is easy for the audience to understand and make the audience have a joint relationship with the advertising content. When adopting this type of advertising creativity, it is necessary to make an overall plan for the choice of characters, the beginning of events and the overlapping of plots, so as to promote effective advertising themes in a short time and in a specific story. In recent years, many domestic TV advertisements are story-telling advertising ideas, such as "Southern Black Sesame Paste", "Kongfujia Wine" and "Tuopai Wine".
5. Types of testimony
This kind of advertising creativity has two meanings: one is to quote the testimony of relevant experts, scholars or celebrities and authoritative people to prove the characteristics and functions of advertising goods, thus producing authoritative effect. Shaw A. Nazirashvili, a psychologist in the former Soviet Union, said in his "Propaganda Psychology": "People generally accept information from authorities uncritically." This reveals the fact that, other things being equal, the authority effect is more influential and often becomes the first role.
Many countries have strict restrictions on testimony advertisements to prevent false testimony from misleading consumers. First, the testimony of authoritative people must be true and based on strict scientific research; Second, the public's testimony must be based on their own objective practice and experience, which cannot be taken for granted or evaluated arbitrarily.
6. anthropomorphic type
This kind of advertising creativity expresses the advertising goods with an image, making them have some personalized characteristics, that is, using some characteristics of characters to vividly explain the goods. This type of advertising creativity can make the goods vivid and concrete, leave a vivid and deep impression on the audience, and at the same time explain the profound truth with simple and common things to help the audience understand deeply.
7. Similar
This type of advertising creativity is to compare one thing to another to show the characteristics of advertising products. Using this creativity, we must make the information we seek have a corresponding analogy. For example, an advertisement for auto parts products, for example, promotes: "Just like vitamins nourish your body, our products can nourish your car engine."
8. figurative
Metaphorical advertising creativity refers to the use of metaphor to describe or render the characteristics of advertising products or services, or to explain profound things with simple and common reasons, so as to help the audience understand them deeply, make things vivid and concrete, and give people a vivid and profound impression. Metaphorical advertising creativity can be divided into three forms: metaphor, metaphor and metonymy.
For example, the advertisement of the Royal brand whisky uses metaphor, and the advertisement declares that it is "pure and smooth, like velvet". The advertisement of Sani Boerrigter Cosmetics Company's powder cake uses metaphor to promote its own powder cake: "Gently open the lid and beauty will fly out". A foreign home appliance company used metaphors to promote the simplicity of its microwave oven. Its slogan is: "My cat roasted a fish in a ×× microwave oven".
9. exaggerated type
Exaggeration is "deliberately exaggerating and trying to expand or narrow the description of objective people and things for performance". Exaggerated advertising creativity is to reasonably render the characteristics of goods or services on the basis of objectivity and truth, so as to achieve the purpose of highlighting the essence and characteristics of goods or services. Using exaggeration can not only attract the attention of the audience, but also achieve better artistic effect.
10. Humorous
"Humor" is the use of witty, humorous and concise language. When using humorous advertising creativity, we should pay attention to: the language should be healthy, pleasant, witty and subtle, and should not be vulgar, boring, glib and bitter. Use elegance and humor to express the theme of advertising, not general witticisms and glib words.
1 1. suspension type
Hanging advertisements is to mobilize and stimulate the psychological activities of the audience through suspense or speculation, so that they produce a series of psychology such as doubt, tension, longing, speculation, worry, expectation and joy, and continue to extend, thus achieving the effect of solving mysteries and asking questions.
12. Imagery type
Image is the image in a person's mind. It is a combination of some subjective, rational and intentional psychological states and objective, real, visible and perceptible perceptual symbols. It is a perceptual image permeated with subjective feelings, intentions and intentions. Image advertising creativity is the product of the organic combination of people's mood and objective things.
When using image-based advertising creativity, sometimes a lot of pen and ink is spent to express the spirit, that is, "image", and the final theme statement seems to be weakened. In fact, for the audience, they can understand its connotation, that is, "meaning." There is an inherent logical relationship between the mind and the image, but it is not described in the advertisement, so that the audience can taste the image and understand the inner meaning. It can be seen that imagery is actually a surreal way to express the theme.
13. Lenovo type
Association means that the different connections of objective things are reflected in people's brains, forming the connection of psychological phenomena. It is a process in which the experience of one thing causes the memory of the experience of another seemingly unrelated thing. There are many ways of association, which can be the association between things close in time or space; Establish a connection between things of opposite nature or characteristics; The connection between things with similar shapes or contents; Establish associations between things that have a certain causal relationship logically. For example, Ada advertising company in Taiwan Province Province's advertising creativity for Addias sneakers:
Advertising title: "Catch the mouse and shoot-two-color leather-soled super basketball shoes"
Advertising picture: a pair of sports shoes and a kitten.
Advertising text: "When catching mice, cats run, hurry, turn and jump until they catch mice. The whole process is so flexible and agile, which is closely related to its padded sole.
Similarly, an excellent basketball player can perform sprint, cut, emergency stop, turn around, jump shot, goal and other continuous actions beautifully. In addition to personal physical strength and training, an ideal pair of basketball shoes is essential.
In the above-mentioned advertising creativity, the title of "catching a mouse and shooting" and the picture of "a sports shoe and a kitten" seem to be "irrelevant", but the advertising creative personnel skillfully use association to connect them, giving people a novel and wonderful feeling. On the other hand, if the content of "cat and mouse" is removed, the only thing left in the whole advertising creativity is to have a pair of good basketball shoes to play basketball. No matter how good these shoes are, the advertising effect is definitely not as good as the social effect produced by the original advertising creativity.
L4。 Abstract type
Abstraction is a category corresponding to concreteness. It is a qualitative stipulation implied in the concrete image. Abstract expression in advertising creativity is one of the main trends of modern advertising creativity activities. In other words, in the creative expression of modern advertising themes, more and more advertisers and advertising companies do not pay attention to the performance of specific images of advertisements. In some cases, it is more expressed through abstract connotation. Once this kind of creativity is shown to the public, it is difficult for people to understand intuitively, but once it is integrated with thinking, it will be found that advertising creativity is really extraordinary. Advertising creativity is not limited to the types listed above. There are also explanations, declarations, warnings, questions, conclusions, emotions, rationality, news, realism and so on. , which can be used for advertising creative activities.
Advertising creativity principle
Innovative thinking, or creative thinking, refers to the unique thinking that people can constantly ask new questions and come up with solutions to problems in the process of thinking. It can be said that any thinking that can come up with new ideas, create new things and find new methods belongs to innovative thinking. Innovative thinking must be used in the process of advertising creativity. To this end, we should grasp the following principles:
Impact principle
In the dazzling array of newspaper advertisements, in order to attract people's attention quickly, we must put the promotion of visual tension in the first place when advertising creativity.
Photos are common visual content in advertisements. According to statistics, in economically developed countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan, 95% of graphic visual advertisements use photography. In the 1 13 China Advertising Festival held in Kunming in October, 2006, 14 of the 16 advertising works that won the gold, silver and bronze awards in the plane category (corporate image) used photography. In particular, the four works that won the gold medal fully combined photography with computer post-production, which expanded the vision and expression of advertising creativity, had a strong visual impact and left a deep impression on the audience.
Principle of novelty
Novelty is an eye-catching mystery of advertising works, and it is also a law that cannot be ignored in advertising creativity. With a sense of freshness, advertising works can be ups and downs, and the peaks and peaks are protruding and fascinating; With freshness, the advertising theme can be deepened and sublimated; With novelty, advertising creativity can fly away from naturalism and fly to a higher level.
In advertising creation, due to inertia and the mindset formed by inertia, many creators climb a slide in a complex thinking field, which seems to be "familiar with the door", but in fact it can only push the wheels of thinking to move inertia and "wear new shoes and take the old road". This kind of advertising works often cause readers' visual numbness and weaken the communication effect of advertisements.
Inclusive principle
What attracts people's attention is the form, but what touches people's hearts is the content. Unique and eye-catching forms must contain thought-provoking and profound contents to attract people to take a second look. This requires that advertising creativity should not stay on the surface, but let the "essence" appear through "appearance", so as to effectively tap the readers' deep desires.
Good advertising creativity is to skillfully combine familiar things to achieve novel communication effects. The establishment of advertising creativity, the selection of materials around creativity, the processing of materials and the post-production of computers are all accompanied by the scrutiny process of image thinking. The purpose of reading is to make advertising works accurate, focused and shining.
Permeability principle
The best feeling of people is moving.
Nothing is more touching than affection. The change of readers' mood will inevitably lead to the change of attitude, just as the steering wheel turns, so will the car.
Excellent advertising creativity often aims at "moving people with emotion". For example, a half-page public service advertisement "Have you considered them?" The picture is based on the eyes of two rural children who are eager to study and the dilapidated tables and chairs in the corner of the classroom, holding up the ten thousand yuan hospitality invoice that has been audited and reimbursed, causing readers a strong psychological * * *. It is not easy for farmers to earn a penny, but some people spend a lot of money on entertainment. If each of us saves one yuan, more poor children can realize their learning dreams. This public service advertisement won the first prize of a provincial news award in 2004 because of its accurate emotional expression and appropriate appeal.
Principle of simplicity
Newton said, "Nature likes simplicity." Some expressions that reveal the universal laws of nature are extremely simple. In recent years, the internationally popular creative style has become more and more simple and lively.
A good advertising creative expression method includes three aspects: clarity, conciseness and proper structure. The essence of simplicity is exquisiteness. The simplicity of advertising creativity can be refined not only in thought but also in form. Simplicity does not mean that you don't need to conceive, and clever conception does not mean unfathomable. It is often the goal that media advertisers desire when they are creative.
In short, an innovative and simple advertising idea with impact, profound content and touching people's hearts needs imagination and thinking first. Only by using innovative ways of thinking, obtaining extraordinary creativity, breaking the "constancy" of readers' vision and combining feelings with scenes can we arouse the poetry of advertising works and achieve extraordinary communication effects.
[Editor] The key to advertising creativity
What we call innovative thinking is to strengthen some characteristics of thinking, such as the divergence of observing and thinking about problems from multiple angles, the separation of linking and comparing the problems to be solved with other things, the dialectic of thinking process, the openness of thinking space, the initiative of thinking subjects and the originality of thinking results. Among them, creativity is the most representative feature of innovative thinking and the key to advertising creativity. Because the unique thinking characteristic in the process of creation is the originality of innovative thinking.
Originality of innovative thinking
"Pen and ink should follow the times", so should advertising creativity. People's aesthetic taste keeps pace with the times, sublimates with life, and pursues originality with personality. The birth of advertising creativity with the spirit of the times has experienced four links: context-enlightenment-epiphany-verification.
1. Context is the generating environment of advertising innovative thinking.
Before advertising creation, we should have a thorough understanding of the relevant conditions and restrictions of the design object and try our best to devote ourselves to thinking activities. In the process of advertising creativity, the more passionate you are about the problems you think about, the higher your enthusiasm for trying.
2. Enlightenment is the information link of advertising innovative thinking.
When advertising creativity is deadlocked, it is difficult to find a new image from other art forms and related disciplines, form a complete and clear new creativity, and then "translate" it in its own design language after repeated brewing.
3. Epiphany is the inspiration of innovative thinking in advertising.
In layman's terms, the relevant knowledge and information are immediately highlighted after being recombined in the human brain, and there is a feeling of "suddenly enlightened". Just like lighting a lamp in a dark theater, it illuminates some sporadic audiences and scenes, and a vivid image appears.
4. Verification is a process of multi-angle analysis of advertising innovative thinking results.
Through this process, it is verified whether the advertising creativity touches the readers' heartstrings, whether the performance of the creativity is clear, whether the creativity leaves the readers with room for imagination and so on.
To tap the creative potential, we should focus on originality.
Wonderful image advertisement, public service advertisement, cordial and natural. They are rooted in people's consciousness and touch people's souls, making people unforgettable for a long time. Whether it is the search for advertising creativity, the screening of perceptual information, the clever use of incentive conditions, or the emergence of design inspiration, it is inseparable from the practice of tapping creative potential.
Innovative thinking focuses on the individual in expression and reflects the uniqueness of things through the special image of the individual. Therefore, in order to be original, advertising works must strive to create new images from different sides and individuals, profoundly reflect the universality of things, and reveal the objective essence and laws.
This leads us to use photography to express the idea of "moistening things quietly and benefiting endlessly" We use the most familiar elements in life: newspapers, springs, young and middle-aged white-collar workers, to create a "strange" scene through partial replacement, and to stimulate people's cognitive interest with "defamiliarization".
Creativity runs through the practice of advertising creativity.
Serialized image advertisements and public service advertisements can enlarge the image of brands in readers' minds. Among the creative elements of the series of image advertisements and public service advertisements, there is one same element-"vividly" expressing the "single theme" under the established goal. The theme of every advertisement must be "single", because we firmly believe that an advertisement can express a theme most effectively, and only in this way can it get attention in the market.
The image advertisement with the creative point of "moistening things silently and benefiting endlessly" is the premise for readers to understand the meaning expressed in this advertisement instantly. If the protagonist is too young, it may make people mistakenly think that the newspaper is a "Youth Daily"; If you choose the protagonist with silver hair, you may be suspected of being an "old annual report". So we define the protagonist as a mature and thoughtful person between the ages of 30 and 40.
In order to express the action of "moistening things silently with words", an almost exaggerated posture of "drinking water" was adopted, and a word "thirst" was written with concentrated pen and ink, which came from life and was higher than life. When shooting, the hero was asked to unbutton his coat. The coat blown by the wind, like the wings of a butterfly, indicates the soaring newspaper industry. When shooting the scene of drinking drinks, we poured out the bottled drinks and replaced them with mineral water. The protagonist in the work "drinks" with relish, and the characters' expressions are natural and vivid. The smooth spring water solidified by shutters looks like a pearl, which makes this work highly generalized.
The moral of this image advertisement is that newspapers with strong credibility, large amount of information, lively layout and fresh style nourish readers' hearts. The theme sentence "Words moisten things silently and benefit endlessly" is integrated with this work, which plays a role in setting each other off. On June 5438+February 2, 20061day, this newspaper published this image advertisement in full page, which was widely praised by readers.
The practice of advertising creativity makes us realize that "creativity can only be achieved through integration". Unique advertising ideas are usually just regular combinations. We should not mystify advertising creativity. The key is to use innovative thinking to synthesize conventional things into "novel, unique, culturally interesting and attractive" advertising works.
"Chain effect" is conducive to improving the effectiveness of advertising creativity.
Advertising innovative thinking has a "chain effect". In the practice of advertising creativity, when one idea after another appears, the first idea will inevitably stimulate and induce the following ideas, just like setting off firecrackers, lighting one will cause a series of explosions. This continuous and sudden feature will inevitably have a strong impact on advertising creativity.
A good way to test whether the idea of running a newspaper is effective is to see whether it has convincing topic sentences, which can narrow the distance with readers.
Ideas are sublimated through communication. How to brand the reader's memory with an intuitive image of "responsibility makes reputation"? After constant consideration, we feel that the forms of "responsibility creates credibility" and "relay running" can be well matched and sublimated through "transmission". Communication is dynamic rather than static, active rather than passive. Transmission is dedication, transmission is communication and transmission is service. Choosing "delivery" can make the concept of "responsibility creates credibility" pass from person to person and from person to person, and keep pace with the times.
There are two methods of relay running: "up pick" and "down press". When shooting, we chose the "pick-up" style of "palm backward, tiger's mouth down, hand behind your back, just catching". Hubei Daily people, who take "responsibility to create credibility" as their responsibility, have shown great vitality in their inheritance.
The image advertisement of "Responsibility Makes Credibility" vividly shows the theme that newspapers stick to tradition, strengthen credibility building and Qi Xin work together to build a harmonious society through the concise and novel picture of "relay between men and women", and also connects the present and future of Hubei Daily Newspaper Group.
Green is the symbol of spring and life. With green as the background, it expresses the warm and harmonious atmosphere of the newspaper group. Put the carefully rolled newspaper in a large area of green, and "responsibility creates credibility" is set off vividly, resulting in a huge ideological capacity. Diagonal composition makes the picture more dynamic and has strong visual impact.
Through the brief explanation of the above cases, we can see that the success of advertising creativity is not accidental or on a whim. The premise of triggering the "chain effect" of advertising innovative thinking is to broaden your horizons and learn to synthesize the basic knowledge you have learned, so that you can have a creative foundation. At the same time, we should keep up with the trend of combining photography with advertising, be good at knowledge transfer, and transfer one knowledge to another knowledge field, so as to make a breakthrough.
To sum up, we summarize the creative experience of our series of image advertisements and public service advertisements into a 14-character formula: "We can be creative if we can integrate, and we can break through if we can transfer."
Any kind of advertising creativity is "one-time consumption". To improve the creative penetration of image advertisements and public service advertisements of provincial party newspapers, we must focus on the word "creativity". It is necessary to temper with innovative thinking and stir with emotional nectar. Creativity can make advertising works shine with wisdom through photography creation and computer polishing, bring association and enlightenment to readers and play harmonious notes for society. Not all novel and unique advertisements can work, but what works must be novel and unique advertisements.