Almost five years since his first appearance on Inside Marketing, industry legend Mark Ritson is back, the ink barely dry on the multi-million euro sale of his highly successful mini MBA programmes in marketing, brand management and management.
He’s still running the show, much to the relief of aspiring students, many of whom come from Ireland each year, he tells Winterlich.
Ritson was also back at Cannes Lions this year, his second time, with a presentation entitled The Creative Dividend – Advertising that Pays Off. In it he made the case for fewer but longer running ads with emotional appeal, pointing out that creativity, when done right, is a significant driver of growth.
Ads wear in, he told delegates, not out, arguing that by pulling them too soon, brands are leaving return on investment on the table.
Working with data from Andrew Tindall of global marketing research and effectiveness company System 1, his Cannes presentation identified three fundamental drivers of effectiveness, the first of which is emotion.
“We’ve known for a long time that pressing the emotional button gives you a massive impact in terms of not just of ad effectiveness but profitability from ads. So, the more emotional, the better,” says Ritson
The second is the importance of distinctive brand assets, and the codification required within them that make an ad work. “Tindall’s work is very clear here. In a 30 second ad, the magic number is seven,” he explains.
“You want seven of your distinctive brand assets repeated, somehow, within the frame, so that 100 per cent of the market knows who the ad is from.”
The last vital ingredient is…
