What's the key to a marketing hit: an original sound or the same old tune?

The Beatles struck a chord with the right combination of originality, creativity and innovation – a lesson that marketing creatives should bear in mind

The Beatles collecting a silver award.
‘The Beatles realised that innovating was a continual process, and that process was at times stressful.’ Photograph: Chris Ware/Getty Images

The Beatles weren’t that good when they first formed.

Don’t take my word for it, Paul McCartney said in a recent radio interview: “We obviously weren’t that good. We were formulating it all.”

Record producer George Martin agreed. “When I first met them, they really couldn’t write a decent song. ‘Love Me Do’ was the best they could give me, yet they blossomed as songwriters in a way that was breathtaking.”

They became great because they worked at it. I’m not talking about that 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell has written about, though there’s no question that all the time in Hamburg helped. But if it was just down to putting the hours in, then Gerry and the Pacemakers would have become global icons. They were from Liverpool, managed by Brian Epstein and they too toured the Hamburg club scene; in fact, they stayed longer than the Beatles. Gerry and the Pacemakers focused on what worked, they wrote some huge hits and had three number ones in a row. But to shake up the world, the Beatles knew they were going to need a little something extra. Originality.

When Paul, John, George and Ringo were told how something was supposed to be done, they would deliberately do it differently, as George Martin explains: “The Beatles were always looking for new sounds, always to a new horizon and it was a continual and happy strain to try and provide new things for them. They were always waiting to try new instruments, even when they didn’t know much about them.”

Innovation is a continuous process

The Beatles realised that innovating was a continual process and that process was at times stressful. They would beat the shit out of an idea and in doing so they turned their souls into works of musical majesty. Success was a by-product of their original endeavours.

And here is the crux of the issue: originality, creativity, innovation, however you want to describe it, is a continuous process. It’s not something you flirt with once in a while or dip your toe into. This is true if you are in a band or building a brand – originality is the key if you want any kind of long-term success.

Let me be clear, originality isn’t about starting from a blank page and reinventing yourself time and time again. On the contrary, it’s about saying the same thing over and over again in fresh new ways, using new modern idioms.

Only a confident brand can do this. First it has to stand for something and then it has to build a team around it full of confident people that are able to effectively communicate that point of view to the world.

Now is about the point where I should write about two or three examples of companies where some valued originality and others focused on what works – but instead I will give you the names of 20 companies and I will let you decide which is which: Blockbuster, Netflix, Borders, Amazon, HMV, Spotify, Burton, Uniqlo, Norton, Kawasaki, Ask Jeeves, Google, Hi-Tec, Nike, Rover, Mercedes, Apple, Amiga, Woolworths, Walmart.

Creative people are fans of big data

Another challenge we face is the buzzword of the year: big data. Contrary to popular belief, creative people are fans of big data – used correctly it is a wonderful thing. It can provide greater insights into people and their habits creating a better-informed strategy, which makes our job more focused and a whole lot easier.

The virtues of data are obvious, but most of the data isn’t being used in the right way. Much of it is useless, and much of the good data isn’t being analysed properly or it’s being used to make lazy conclusions.

The problem is when data is used to identify what has worked in the past and the conclusion becomes we should do more of that. An idea is then based on previous success. You may find success in imitation, but it’s short-lived.

Big data isn’t a new concept; they had big data back in the 1960s. Millions of people bought the Beatles album Help! and all the data said people wanted more of the same. The Beatles knew this, however, they chose to ignore the data and gave the world their album Rubber Soul.

Of course, an easier path to take is to conform, to do what has worked in the past and continue doing it, but that’s not a wise path to take. Many have walked it and for time it’s very pleasant, but after a while things don’t look so rosy, in fact, the views look decidedly sour.

So next time you are faced with the question of originality or focusing on what works, ask yourself what would Paul, John, George and Ringo do?

Sam Ball is the creative director at M&C Saatchi

