Cracking the Ad Code »

Jacob Goldenberg is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He is a leading expert on creative thinking and product development and has taught courses and workshops in inventive thinking for hi-tech companies and marketing organizations in both Israel and the United States. He has also worked with companies such as Scitex, Intel, Motorola, Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Ogilvy & Mather, and Rapp & Collins.

Amnon Levav is Managing Director at SIT (Systematic Inventive Thinking) and has more than 20 years' experience in software consulting, architecture, and development.

David Mazursky is an internationally acclaimed marketing expert and a prolific author. A professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is currently Chair of the Marketing Department, and Director of the K-Mart Center for Retailing and International Marketing.

Sorin Solomon is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Chair of the EU Commission Expert Group on Complexity Science.

Unlocks the secret of inventing new creative campaigns and presents practical tools to allow quick production of successful creative ideas.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Inventing tools that support advertisers in generating ideas 1

Can creativity be defined and quantified? 2

Creativity: An academic perspective 3

Looking for a method in the creative madness 8

Effectiveness of creative ads 10

A brief outline of the tools 13

Fusion 14

Closed World 15

1 Unification 18

Where do ideas come from? 18

Prisons that set you free 19

The constraint of the medium 20

Paradox: Mixing constraints with daring 20

Definition of advertising media 22

Using the medium 22

Two approaches to using Unification 28

Approach 1: Exploring the medium to serve the message: Getting more out of an existing medium 28

Instructions for use 33

Approach 2: Content creates form: Recruiting a medium in the environment of the message 34

Instructions for use 37

How can we benefit from resources in the environment of the medium? 39

Instructions for use 40

And some for the road 41

2 Activation 43

Gluttons for attention in a noisy world 43

The message is tuned out before it is spoken 43

Defining the tool 44

Other examples that prove the rule 45

You can't ignore what you create 46

When is Activation useful 47

Activating imaginations 52

Benefits of using Activation: What it provides 54

How to apply Activation 56

Taking advantage of the medium 59

And some for the road 62

3 Metaphor 63

Splitting metaphoric hairs 63

Getting it in one shot 63

The Metaphor tool 64

Distinguishing art 67

How to effectively create a metaphoric ad 68

An example: Options open to the advertiser 73

Going all the way - fuse all three 74

Brand advertising 77

Brand recognition79

Instructions for use 80

And some for the road 81

4 Subtraction 83

Minimalism wins creative results 83

When subtraction is an addition 83

How Subtraction highlights the message 84

Subtraction can be used on any element - and partially 86

Instructions for use 87

Unintuitive thinking 89

And some for the road 96

5 Extreme Consequence 97

Avoiding cliche - and still highlighting a product's promise 97

Consequence replaces promise 97

Instructions for use 102

Thinking process for presenting a minor trait 105

Provide a new approach to a product 105

Instructions for use of Extreme Consequence, using a minor trait 107

And some for the road 108

6 Absurd Alternative 109

Focus on the benefit - not the product 109

Generous irony in absurd situations 109

Thinking processes for using the tool 111

Additional uses for this tool 115

Instructions for use 116

When the product should be in the ad 116

And some for the road 119

7 Inversion 120

In marketing - there's nothing to fear but fear itself 120

The Inversion alternative 121

Absurd situations make it real 122

Using Inversion on our old standbys 123

Thinking process 125

When to use minor trait Inversion 131

Generosity 132

When to use Inversion 133

Instructions for use 133

And some for the road 133

8 Extreme Effort 137

What to say when you have nothing to say 137

Two types of scenes 137

When to use the tool 140

Instructions for use 142

And some for the road 144

9 Attribute-Value Mapping 145

The three questions 145

The difference between an attribute and a value 146

Added value of defining the value - the next step of the process: Beginning to seek new messages 147

A few examples: Are these advertisements based on attribute or value? 148

Why don't people do what they know is right? 149

The connection between attribute and value 151

Distinguishing between attribute and value levels 153

What the AV Mapping offers 155

How to build your own Attribute-Value map 156

And some for the road 161

Photograph Credits 162

Index 165