Using the unexpected and absurd is the key to being remembered

WRITER and musician Nick Kelly has his own take on what makes ad agency creatives "a little less useless". He says being ignored means nothing and it's damn hard to get noticed these days. Too much information in ads is unwise. Consumers will remember one thing from your ad -- if you're incredibly lucky.

All the stuff that's not the ad's key point damages the impact. Kelly says ad agencies should not underestimate the power of the unexpected, or the absurd. Worrying about your main competitor is dumb. When a company advertises, it leaves its market and enters the communications world where competition is everyone.

Advertisers should forget about logic. Just because you can't explain an idea doesn't mean it's not good. Creatives will learn far more from a factory visit than from an A4 sheet of paper. Ignore tight deadlines. Copywriters and art directors do not come up with ideas, ideas come to them.

Don't rely on people's opinions on issues where they have no opinion. Online is useless. When you go online, you're no longer in communications -- you're in product development. When it comes to getting noticed, the former Fat Lady Sings lead singer is himself no slouch.

He arrived at a recent Marketing Society talk dressed as a rabbit.

He had a point to make, which was, if people could remember one thing from his talk, it would be how hard it is to be remembered.