The role of CREATIVITY emphasised by COVID-19
View(s):If there is o7ne word which goes hand in hand with marketing it’s none other than creativity.
Denzil Perera
It’s the most powerful word a marketer can ever hear and a marketer can ever behold. The need of the hour is to use creativity in the right way for the right purpose to make sure that the creative abilities of humans are utilized to make this world a better place as opposed to making it an unpleasant one. Digitalization process has given the power of creativity to everyone who holds a smart phone in their hand to generate and populate messages in society.
But, how far mankind uses this powerful tool in the right way for the right purpose has a significant impact on the survival and sustainability of mankind. From an era where there were no social media and smart phones mankind has come to where they are today; if a person is in trouble, the immediate reaction from the person next to the one in trouble is to record the tragedy than giving a helping hand? Where did people get the motivation to record a tragedy than giving a helping hand to a fellow human to come out of it is a question that could be only answered probably if we pay attention to certain social media channels which collate like and shares of their fans to increase ratings of the page so that they can make more money from advertising in such pages. We are living in a world where creativity is mostly utilized to provide humor and at times third class humor which is now spreading at an accelerating rate on social media which has no standard and control.
Digital platforms and marketing –
During the pandemic the importance of digital media has come out much stronger than ever. It has enabled brands to reach their audience in a more targeted way whilst saving the advertising money otherwise would have been spent on other media. How can digital media save advertising money? The simple answer is ‘’creativity”.
If the message is encapsulated and encoded in a creative manner, after decoding the message the consumer or the audience would share it with many others saving your reach and frequency budgets and enabling reach and frequency at no extra cost. But I wonder how many brands have actually realized what digital can really do with the brand. The pandemic is demanding brands to be creative in their approach as the resources are going to be limited and the situation can get worse in time to come.
Creativity –
Creativity is one concept which has been misused and miss-handled by many in the world. Humans evolved through creativity and it was the single most important attribute which would differentiate humans from other species and animals. Where humans got the idea of creativity and where it all began is unknown. But it’s pretty obvious that if there was one single attribute of human which paved the way throughout the process of evolution, it has been creativity.
Creativity has been defined by various scholars in many different ways in different books and articles. Defining creativity is not up to me. Nevertheless as brand marketers, having creative instincts and using creativity in the process of brand building would be beneficial as it can give an edge over competition. However with the growth of social media and usage of smart phones, there seem to be many apps and platforms which are providing tools to express ideas in a more creative way than it used to be before. Has creativity been used for the betterment of mankind?
On the one hand we are so fortunate that creativity can add value to your brand or business, and it can add value to your ideas, thoughts and effort but on the other hand it’s sad to see how creativity is used to deceive consumers by certain brands. In almost all forms of marketing such as product development, packaging, labeling, advertising, digital marketing, sales etc. the whole idea of creativity has been abused way too much by brands and consumers both. Not only in marketing but also in all forms of other communication, the senders of different messages seem to have abused creativity in different scales. It is said that the total volume of data created on internet over the last ten years, is ten times more compared to the decade before. How much of it has truly shed light on human lives in a positive manner? As you may see and experience, there are tons of data that has been created in the form of videos and graphics which doesn’t communicate any meaningful message; in fact they are meaningless videos and graphics which provide an instant thrill to the viewer which only consumes the time and energy of the viewer.
Your mobile phone screen can tell you how much of time has been spent on each app or each program in your phone and it’s sad to see how people end up spending hours and hours on social media watching meaningless content which has no substance. When a whole nation spend time on meaningless acts in this nature, how would such nations progress? Where will it all lead to? Where will it all end?
Time has to be spent more responsibly as the times ahead of us are going to be much more challenging than they are today. Covid has sent a very strong message that, the apps which make your pictures look good on social media wouldn’t keep you alive anymore, and the posts which make you feel good on social media is not all authentic and true. Instead they are results of abused creativity.
Corona and Creativity
Planet earth is healing with the pandemic and mankind who always employed creativity in changing plant earth is suffocating. What it all says is that: if the man kind is to survive, they should immediately look for sustainable consumption.
But the eternal problem with mankind is that, what they all seek for are opportunities to produce more and avenues to sell more whereby expecting fellow consumers to consume MORE… the crying need of the hour is to employ creativity of individuals as responsible consumers to heal the world and to help mankind. It is the same for brands and brand owners, to be ethical and honest in preparing the world for a better tomorrow. Failing to read the messages covid-19 has sent would lead to a disastrous outcome which would even be detrimental than another covid-20 or 21.
Best example to cite is how people queued up in front of bars when curfew was lifted. This is where creativity needs to come into the picture and pass a strong message to these individuals about the reality so that they would at least curb their appetite till the pandemic fades away.
Not only consumers but also businesses that are trying to rip people off at this point of time without realizing the fact that extra money earned today will not stand a chance in stopping you from contracting the virus. Hence, helping mankind is all what matters than making a profit out of them in these difficult times.
CREATIVITY which takes peace-of-mind away from mankind, which makes them greedy and envy, which makes them care for no one, and promotes selfishness would mean NOTHING.
Creativity of subtle humor in spreading misconceptions and lies, which spreads evil thoughts and cheap sense of humor, will not last long if we don’t see the danger now itself. The effort of subtle and cheap humor wouldn’t allow mankind to survive. The most precious innate ability of mankind has ever possessed; the true power behind the evolution of humans – creativity has to be utilized for the betterment of the society and for the ultimate survival of all living species. Creativity that isn’t instrumental in this task is of no use.
Hence, the time has come for brand owners and consumers both to ignite the power of creativity for the survival of all living species and the sustainability of planet earth. Failing in this would surely assure the arrival of another pandemic which would hit mankind even harder resulting in end of us.