Should a Business Create Art?

At a content marketing workshop I was teaching for a nonprofit organization last week, an attendee asked, “When might a business create content with no business value?” Aside from the obvious joke answer  – “Isn’t that the way most businesses operate these days?” – it’s a fascinating question.

“Do you mean content for social corporate responsibility?” I asked.

“No. Content that’s created just because it’s good for the soul. You know, like art.”

CMI’s definition of content marketing says that the purpose of content marketing is “to drive profitable customer action.” Could a business ever justify creating content simply for the artistic exercise?

I think so.

In the 19th century, the philosophy of art for art’s sake took root, divorcing “true art” from the productive function. Bohemians argued that art should be created simply for the experience in creating it without requiring an audience to validate it.

This view had its detractors. For example, French novelist George Sand, with whom I normally agree, critiqued the art-for-art’s-sake movement, saying, “If there is in my soul any good or noble sentiment, it is my duty to find an adequate expression to convey it to as many souls as possible.” In other words, art needs an audience.

Creating art for an audience isn’t a foreign concept in business. Businesses have been commissioning art for as long as they’ve been around. We can see modern examples such as Wall Street’s Fearless Girl statue commissioned by State Street Corporation. If you believe that connecting emotionally with an audience is good for business, you’ve made a case for content marketing as art.

Would a business ever want to create art for art’s sake, though, with no expectation of connecting with an audience? What if there were no motivation other than to create an experience of creativity. Would a business ever want to do that?

I think so.

Because creating art is ultimately an act of collaboration. It fosters dialogue and teamwork, something that companies routinely spend tens of thousands of dollars to cultivate. You’ve probably taken part in some kind of corporate team-building exercises, such as people falling backwards into each other’s arms, walking over hot coals, or playing three lies and the truth.

What if your company budgeted for art-related exercises for their own sake? Even if the direct products of the exercises never found an audience, you can imagine your content teams’ capacity for creative work shooting through the roof. It might turn out that what’s good for employees’ souls is good for your business. Creating something with “no business value” from time to time might be the very thing that enables your business to deliver more value.

It’s your story. Tell it well.

 

Robert Rose
Chief Strategy Officer at The Content Advisory
As the Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory, the exclusive education and consulting group of The Content Marketing Institute, Robert develops content and customer experience strategies for large enterprises such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Oracle, McCormick Spices, Capital One, and UPS.

Robert’s book, Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing was called “a call to arms and a self-help guide for creating the experiences that consumers will fall in love with.” For the last three years, he’s co-hosted the podcast This Old Marketing, with Joe Pulizzi. It’s frequently a top 20 marketing podcast on iTunes and is downloaded more than a million times every year, in 100 countries around the world.
Robert Rose on LinkedinRobert Rose on Twitter


Author: Robert Rose
As the Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory, the exclusive education and consulting group of The Content Marketing Institute, Robert develops content and customer experience strategies for large enterprises such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Oracle, McCormick Spices, Capital One, and UPS. Robert’s book, Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing was called “a call to arms and a self-help guide for creating the experiences that consumers will fall in love with.” For the last three years, he’s co-hosted the podcast This Old Marketing, with Joe Pulizzi. It’s frequently a top 20 marketing podcast on iTunes and is downloaded more than a million times every year, in 100 countries around the world.

2 Comments

  • LOVE this, I have often pondered what wonderful things we as a marketing community could do with all the resources at our disposal, instead of just cranking the handle on another annoying retargeting campaign for the 1.5% click through rate – if we just slid a couple of percent of budget into something that we couldn’t measure, that we did for the creativity, that we could be proud of.

    And YES I agree, unless you were negatively affecting the brand, I don’t think it would be business value neutral – it would have value, maybe not measurable in this data led, attribution culture in which we operate today, and not just to uplift the souls of marketing creatives tired of the hamster wheel (although Robert that is a worthy mission)- but something else we couldn’t measure – someone smiles. Someone associates that smile with you. No attribution, just the generosity to give the world a thing and I think that will pay you back, whether you intended to or not.

    Oh.. and I feel a bit of a dreadful capitalist, guilty of banging on about ART in marketing being Awareness, Revenue and Trust… 🙂

  • This is a fascinating question; and here’s another way to ponder it: How and when does business value kick in?

    Take the Google Doodle for example. In the beginning, it was cute artwork. Now it’s part of our culture.

    Same goes for corporate architecture. When the Johnson Wax company commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design their headquarters, was that decision made for business value? Probably not. They could have spent less. But look how that building has become revered office space. Today it’s a tourist destination. Tours are free, but the halo effect for the brand has to be worth something.

    Maybe part of the answer to the question is be true to yourself and the business value may follow. And if it doesn’t that’s okay too. That’s my 2 cents, anyway.

Comments are closed.