Is it Time for a New Look?

Are you getting a little tired of your current ads? Think they need a little more oomph, a new layout, or a colour change? Does your logo make you feel indifferent? You might think it’s time to make a change. Refresh things a little bit. Liven things up again. Or, you might want to stop and put yourself in your clients’ shoes.

Just because you’re bored doesn’t mean your audience is.

I’m frequently asked how often creative needs to be updated. “We’re running 30-second commercials on radio station X for the next eight weeks. How often should we change our ad?” “We’ve been running the same campaign in this magazine for six months. Don’t you think we should change it up a little?”

Creative—whether it’s a logo, ad, website, or e-newsletter—does not have a predetermined shelf life. Your creative needs updating if your target audience has changed, if the characteristics of your target audience have changed, or if your message has changed. The question really is: Are you conveying your key messages to your target audience?

Your current creative may be very effective. You’ve heard your commercials on the radio for eight weeks but that doesn’t mean your customer has. And, just because you’ve been looking at your print campaign for six months doesn’t mean your potential client has. I bet the Campbell’s Soup marketing team is tired of red labels, but blue soup cans probably won’t make me load up the next time I go to the grocery store.

Change your creative when it’s no longer effective—not when you’re tired of it.