‘Creativity - the Holy Grail in advertising’

Ruwanthi Abeyakoon

BRAND BUILDING: Advertising is not brand building. That is the role and function of Public Relations (PR), Managing Director/Chief Strategist of Cameron Pale & Medina, Jayantha Sittampalam said at a seminar yesterday.

The seminar sponsored by Cameron PR exclusively for super brands, was built on Al Ries’ seminal work `The fall of advertising and the rise of PR’ to learn vital lessons from the success and failures of global brands and explore how they can be applied in the context of local Super brands.

“Advertising is for brand maintenance. PR is a natural place for the new, different and original and it is for

 building a new brand. Brands such as Microsoft, Google, Red bull, Linux, Starbucks Coffee were built using PR,” he said.

He pointed out that advertisements are an attempt to sell and that they are one sided. “Creative advertisements are new, different and original.

“Many things that lose their functional purpose turn into art forms. Advertising has also fallen into a ring of art.

“Creativity and creative awards have become the Holy Grail in advertising,” Sittampalam explained. Speaking on `Category-led Marketing: An Inclusive Communications approach’ he said inclusive communications involves all publics to deliver seamless communications that build and sustain perceptions.

“Inclusive communication considers communication to consist of direct, indirect and non-verbal communications.

“It also includes produces action plans and implementation methods for category-led marketing communications,” he said.