A Dull Category Doesn’t Have to Mean Dull Ads

With spring in the air, many of us are revisiting those resolutions made in the dark days of January to get fitter, eat more healthily or learn something new. But somehow excuses creep in as to why you can’t do what you intend to… not enough time, the facilities aren’t available... the list of excuses is easy to write! And this is true of the creative development process as well.

Our observation is that perceived blocks can be in place when creating new advertising campaigns: “it’s a new campaign, it’ll take time to bed in”, “we are a small brand, we won’t cut through against brands with more money” or, at times, “this category is really dull it’s really hard to do interesting advertising in it”.

In this new thought piece, we unpick the challenge of how to develop creative ads in dull categories. Samira Brophy and Hazel Freeman discuss the topic, sharing examples of successful ads that have beaten the dull category challenge and providing supporting facts and learnings from our decades of communication experience across multiple categories.

Discover our framework for success in transforming dull-category-adversity into a creative opportunity.