It's The Ads, Stupid

Last week, in a post called "What Is Good Creative And How Do I Get It" we said

Creativity is what happens after the strategy is done. Creativity is the process that transforms a strategy into a terrific ad.

A great example is the Dos Equis campaign, "The Most Interesting Man In The World." According to Ad Age, for the first half of this year, Dos Equis sales grew 17%, while the category (imported beers) dropped 11%.

The strategy was about as generic as you can get.

..."establish a distinctive, desirable and premium identity as evidenced by significant growth of key brand-tracking measures," which would, in turn, be "different from other brands," a "cool brand" and be "worth paying more for."

In other words, the same as every premium beer brief you've ever seen.

The creative team has taken a turd of a strategy and turned into a terrific, effective campaign.

You can talk all you want about metrics, and media, planning and strategy. Advertising is still about the ads. And the ads are still about creativity. And great creative is still the best strategy.