Great marketing requires a balance of strategy and creativity — purposeful ideas bring them together to drive impact.
At the heart of every organization is a purposeful idea. Whether you’re a manufacturing business or a healthcare organization, you exist because someone had a meaningful idea to help people do things better. Of course, your niche can evolve, change or deteriorate over the years. To redefine or reaffirm your purpose, you need to get creative. Or maybe more strategic?
When looking for brand or marketing support, you may wonder: should you partner with an agency known for fresh, breakthrough creative, or one focused on building strategic, results-driven plans?
In the agency world, “strategic” and “creative” have become buzzwords that often get pitted against one another, with perceptions of off-the-wall creative shops versus strait-laced, data-driven strategic communications plans. The truth is you need both — and purposeful ideas are the common denominator to create marketing that moves the needle.
In branding and marketing, creativity and strategy (aka, purposeful ideas) are each series of choices that can and should work in tandem. Just like the heart of your business, purposeful ideas focus on impact for your audience. Whether it’s emotional resonance or hitting campaign KPIs, staying mindful of the goal means that our choices always ladder up to the results we’re trying to achieve.
Even those who understand the strategy and creativity relationship may believe there is always a strict order of operations. While it’s true that strategy is usually the scaffolding for creative direction, creativity should also play a role in shaping strategy: how insights are discovered and articulated is — and should be — a creative process. This is the real secret sauce behind the most effective marketing.
Similarly, creativity isn’t all about aesthetics. Creativity is its own strategy: making deliberate choices and using constraints as opportunities to stand out. Budgets, deadlines and getting results are all realities of doing business, but a good creative team will find a way to make it all work. And sometimes taking creative leaps (that your competitors wouldn’t dare) is an intentional, strategic way to capture your audience’s attention.
Centering your marketing around purposeful ideas ensures that your agency partners remain focused on your bigger mission — and making work that works, long term. Having more context lets us think proactively about your overarching business goals and recommend unique ways to build your brand, reach your audience and convey your value.
Purposeful ideas are the heart of our partnership with Milwaukee Tool, using impactful marketing to keep contractors safer and more productive on jobsites around the world.
Purposeful ideas are rooted in empathy. They align with business goals because they’re designed to meet your audience’s needs. While data is a key part of observing your audience, it's incomplete without human insight. Turning observations into understanding is how we connect marketing to real behavior.
By tapping your audience’s emotional and functional needs, you’ll be better suited to address those needs, build trust and create memorable moments that feel personal and persuasive. Keeping your audience the hero of your marketing through human-centered design methods and effective storytelling techniques, lets us create memorable connections with who you want to reach, which broadens their understanding of your brand and enhances interactions at every touchpoint, keeping you top of mind.
Developed after a comprehensive discovery, our human insight-driven brand campaign for TriHealth increased unaided brand awareness by 13%.
The most impactful ideas require focus, but revamping your brand or marketing approach often requires several initiatives. Having a partner to help position all your communications in line with your bigger purpose is critical for success.
A “single most important thing” ensures any campaign work remains cohesive and aligned with your ultimate business objectives. Too often we see brands get caught up in short-term performance goals at the expense of brand equity. Your agency should be thinking purposefully about short-term goals and how they ladder up to your brand and overall business strategies.
In today’s fast-moving, primarily digital landscape, where every touchpoint serves as a first impression, creating consistency and better experiences across channels (online and in the real world) reinforces brand identity. Over time, every interaction adds up, creating a brand that can weather turbulent markets and maintain a loyal customer base.
Understanding bigger brand goals led us to recommend a strategic pivot for Broan, increasing sales by over 10%, year-over-year.
Given today’s waning attention spans, standing out requires both strategic insight and bold creativity. Every brand touchpoint is an opportunity to engage, inspire and reinforce your message. In an increasingly diverse media landscape, businesses that root their brand and marketing in purposeful ideas will be better poised to stay relevant.
Make no mistake: you can’t rely on lip service. Brand reputation depends on your audience’s lived experience. That’s the foundation of our say it. live it.® brand philosophy. Your brand can’t be created out of thin air: it’s about uncovering, elevating and articulating the best, most unique parts of your business. Focusing on what makes you different — from the inside out — is the surest way to meet an audience who wants what you offer.
By adopting a purposeful ideas mindset, organizations can create proactive brand-building plans that endure, no matter what kind of competitors enter the ring or what happens in an uncertain economy.
This is exactly what we did for Wells, helping them evolve their brand internally and externally after undergoing an acquisition.
Working with an agency that thoughtfully balances strategy and creativity ensures your marketing efforts stem from a clear purpose and remain authentic to how your organization does business. It’s the foundation of success in the attention economy, and ensures that no matter how your business evolves, your marketing will always be a beacon of what you do best.
Interested in learning how we can help your organization? Let's talk.
