Clarity vs. creativity
When Sarah and I visited Barcelona in the fall of 2021, we traveled all over the city and saw so much:
A vineyard and winery in nearby Montgat
A Mediterranean Sea beach (my first time)
Fashion studios
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, an art museum in a literal palace at the top of a hill
And, of course, the Sagrada Familia
It's a lot to take in in one trip.
But I also saw something else I didn't expect: an oat milk brand had taken over the entire city.
They were on billboards, but also on buses, bicycles, light posts, and even the back of trucks.
Every ad was quippy and sarcastic, and most of them broke the fourth wall and seemed to be self-aware.
I had just become StoryBrand certified a few months earlier, and heard over and over again that “clear and concise is better than cute and clever.”
Lots of businesses try to be quippy, cute, creative, and clever but totally miss the mark and are confusing instead. Or they have an audience that doesn't respond well to that style of communication.
So when I saw these ads, I believed that clarity was the highest level of achievement for copywriting and marketing.
I saw them and thought “What a waste of money.”
I hadn’t thought about that trip for a while until I read an article from Kevin Lynch, creative director of Oatly at the time of this campaign.
He summed up their brand strategy this way:
“Care about your audience more than you do about yourself. For us, that meant being entertaining took precedence over being informative.
"At Oatly, when we got around to talking about ourselves, we kept the message stupidly simple. Because if you want people to remember your brand, you can only tell them one thing. Unless you’re entertaining about it, in which case, telling them nothing can also work."
Wait... so you can tell people one thing (clarity) and be entertaining?
I can't speak to how much money they made from this campaign.
But what I can tell you is that when I sent this article to my wife, she said “I only remember two things from our Barcelona trip: Sagrada Familia and those Oatly ads.”
And if you asked me to name an oat milk brand, Oatly would be the first one on my mind.
What does this mean for you if you're not a global consumer product brand?
It means that you may just be able to be more creative in your marketing than you think.
Clarity in marketing will help people understand what you have to offer.
But creativity will help you capture more attention and be much harder to forget.
Creativity for you might look like:
Showing up in places where your competitors aren't (online or offline)
Telling good stories
Saying things you believe but others are afraid to say
Trying out video marketing
Sharing content directly from your audience
Being a little cheeky every now and then (if it makes sense for you and your brand)
Getting clear on why you're different than other organizations who do the same thing as you
Letting your personality shine through in your writing
Investing in and committing to your brand's visual style
Hopefully that gets some ideas flowing for you.
And if you need a creative partner to help you bring your ideas into reality, I'm here.
P.S. I can't not use this as an excuse to share this photo of me and Sarah at Sagrada Familia (taken on my dad's film camera):
