At a recent awards show, we were fortunate to bring home a few more Best This and Best That trophies, but the polite applause was soon replaced with whispers throughout the ballroom: "Our clients don't really want great creative;" "We get good awareness and message recall scores. That's what counts. Why waste your time doing 'cool stuff'?"

Why do great creative -- insight-driven ideas that tell the story in surprisingly new ways? It's an age-old question that haunts writers and art directors who want to bring that spark and excel in their craft. It tortures account folks who want to do the right thing (but…). And it confounds "metrically responsible" clients (who still find themselves around the water cooler on a Monday talking about the new Bud Light ad).

Doing great creative doesn't always seem to make sense. Sure, maybe it will grab attention, but safer, good-enough creative gets the product message across, too. So is great really that much greater? Great creative also challenges "proven" customer comfort zones. Everyone knows kids, puppies, celebrities and larger, more frequent logos score better.

But great creative exudes confidence. It sends the message that you are sure of who you are as a brand. And confidence is a powerful pheromone for sales. There was an article in Cosmopolitan that asked women what they found most attractive in a man. The top answer wasn't good looks, a good body, intelligence or a great job (thank goodness). It was self-confidence. Why? Because you can trust someone who's confident. You can't always trust boasters and claim-makers, but you can trust someone who is confident enough to follow his own fearless path.

Great creative subconsciously says you have news -- something fresh to say, not the same old answers. And it says this news is big enough not to hide it. I always wondered about my grandma's couch. The fabric had a bold William Morris pattern, but it was hidden beneath a shield of semi-opaque plastic, which kept it safe from stains and grandsons and sent a message about who my grandma was. The same goes for brands.

Great creative tells your customers you're not simply competitive; you're pulling away from the pack. If you satisfy yourself with look-alike ideas and execution, how can you expect the world to see your message as anything better? Especially if they flip by it thinking they've seen it before.

Great creative intrigues. It gets them wondering what's next and drives them to see what else there is about your brand. A single piece of communication has been likened to a link in a chain. No one piece is going to close the deal. But the more you get your customer to seek, the deeper they get with your brand, and the deeper the relationship. So you need to build in those ongoing delights that only great creative can provide. After all, you can't get someone to come hither without a come-hither look, can you?

Confidence, news, momentum, intrigue: These are just a few of the hidden strengths of great creative that won't pop up in a focus group research recap. So the next time a creative faces a brief and a blank page or a client faces the typical range of "safe" to "risky" concepts, trust your instincts. Trust your first impression. If it's "Wow, that's striking, that's different, that'll wake them up," don't run from it. Because with great creative, "risky" may just be "safer."

Bruce Rooke is CCO at GSW Worldwide