How Copy and Art Go Hand in Hand in Today’s Visually Driven Marketing World

By: Carolina Levy

There are a couple of different opinions on this area about what is more important in an ad, copy or visuals? In today’s marketing industry, there is no way you can give one more importance than the other.  You need both to build a powerful brand. Confucius’ famous saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words,” can be considered the starting point of this discussion.

A Picture’s Worth

Since most creative directors started as art directors, and most art directors see their job as creating a unique visual, they ended up believing that visuals are more important than words. Therefore the picture would be created before the words.

Another common mistake is to believe that the photo by itself can gain the market’s heart. Even though it can be very powerful and attractive, if the message in the ad is not right, the consumer won’t be able to relate to the brand announced.

The Power of Words

Words have the power to make people believe in something, believe in a concept that can represent the brand and possibly create some type of self-recognition or empathy.

Most copywriters believe that the right choice of words is what makes the campaign valuable. Without words, the campaign has no meaning. Often times the consumer can be misleading or confused without the proper explanation. But at the same time, visuals are what calls people’s attention to the ad. Both ideas have to be aligned with a great campaign

A Great Campaign

As written by Al Ries in “Creative Strategy Importance: Visual or Verbal”, “It’s like asking what’s more important in building a house, a hammer or a nail? Both have to work together. The best hammer in the world is useless if the hammer misses the nail. And the best nail in the world is useless unless there’s a hammer to hammer the nail in.” The hammer is visual and the nail is the words.

In a great campaign, you would have a strong visual with a right choice of words. Like in the campaign from De Beers, there is a strong visual of an engagement ring and the headline “Diamond is forever” creating the whole idea of the happy ending, forever kind of marriage.

If you notice, everything in the campaign is tight together. The visuals are representing what the message is trying to communicate and gives you the idea of luxury, modern and classic: all the ideas that a woman would want to be represented by.

So not only do you have the message that comes straight from the headline, but also the ideals that are in subconscious when you see the image that was related to the campaign.

To be able to create that combination between words and picture, first you need a good strategy to back it up the creative idea and make the consumer perceive the value of your product.

Step 1:

On a campaign, the first strategy to be discussed is the message that the campaign is trying to achieve. It’s not that words are more important, but it needs to come first. The strategy behind the campaign is what defines the base that will be used to create the headline: what type of message are you trying to pass to this specific target audience?

Often times there is a disconnection in the campaign if the process was done backward.  For example adding a female photo to a male oriented campaign. Unless you have the sex appeal, your audience won’t be able to relate to the product.

Step 2:

The following step, once the strategy and verbal are set, is to create the impactful and unique visual. Unique visuals represent a unique product development. Some logos are recognized just by its different design.  To be able to achieve this point, your brand has to achieve a position of marketing leader. People will only recognize your brand if they see the value given to it.

For example, the societal impact that Louis Vuitton has in Tokyo. Even though the brand is very expensive, the status attributed to the brand reveals desirability to be part of that specific group of the society. So the logo leaves the idea that the brand is an icon that represents a good economic status.

Marketing Industry

There is a lot of advertising being exposed to the consumer, and in order to stand out, the campaign needs to be flawless. What lacks in the marketing industry nowadays is the combination of nail and hammer. Most companies have achieved a great deal with their visuals but the written message is often missing.  What the advertisers can do to revert this scenario is to pay more attention to their consumer, do more research and create a better strategy that incorporates message and visuals.