Chapter 8

creative strategy: Planning and development

Chapter Overview

This is the first of two chapters devoted to the area of creative strategy in advertising. This chapter focuses on the planning and development of the creative strategy. We will examine the concept of creativity and the process that guides the creation of the advertising campaign as well as various types of research and information that can provide input and insight into the creative process of advertising. We discuss the concept of copy platforms that are used to guide the development of advertising campaigns. Attention is also given to various approaches used for determining major selling ideas that form the basis of an advertising campaign.

Learning Objectives

1.   To discuss what is meant by advertising creativity and examine the role of creative strategy in advertising.

2.   To examine creative strategy development and the role of various client and agency personnel involved in this process.

3.   To examine the process that guides the creation of advertising messages and the various research inputs into the stages of the creative process.

4.   To examine various approaches used for determining major selling ideas that form the basis of an advertising campaign.

Chapter and Lecture Outline

I. INTRODUCTION

One of the most important components of an integrated marketing communications program is the advertising message. It will be obvious to students that there are a myriad of ways to convey an advertising message. However, underlying all of these messages is a creative strategy that involves determining what the advertising message will say or communicate and creative tactics dealing with how the message strategy will be implemented or executed. The focus of this chapter is on the development of creative strategy while tactical issues are covered in Chapter 9. Attention is given to the creative strategy development process and various approaches to developing the big idea that will be used as the central theme of the advertising campaign and translated into messages.

II. THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING

The creative side of advertising is one of its most interesting aspects. The creative strategy used to communicate an advertising message is an integral part of the promotional process and is often critical to the success or failure of the campaign. Numerous examples or cases can be cited of how a good creative strategy was an important factor in determining the success of a product or service or reversing the fortunes of a struggling brand. Of course there are also many situations where companies struggle to find a creative formula that works effectively. Figure 8-1 shows the various campaign themes Burger King has used over the past 25 years in to try and give the chain a strong identity in the fast food market. Attention must also be given to the issue of creative versus effective advertising as many ads may be critically acclaimed from a creative perspective but fail to help the sales of the brand. Global Perspective 8-1 provides an interesting discussion of the Golden Lion awards given each year at the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival for the most creative advertising in the world.

III. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY

It is important to examine the concept of creativity, how it applies to advertising, and the challenge marketers face in developing creative and effective advertising.

A. What Is Creativity?—Creativity is one of the most commonly used terms in advertising as those who develop advertising messages are often referred to as “creative types” and agencies develop reputations for their creativity. So much attention is focused on the concept of creativity because the major challenge given to those who develop advertising messages is to be creative. Creativity has been defined as “a quality possessed by persons that enables them to generate novel approaches in situations, generally reflected in new and improved solutions to problems.”

B. Different Perspectives of Advertising Creativity—perspectives of what constitutes creativity in advertising vary. At one extreme are the “suits” or “rationalists” who argue that advertising is creative only if it sells the product or service. At the other end of the continuum are the “poets” who judge creativity in terms of its artistic or aesthetic value and argue that creative advertising must be novel, original and unique. The answer as to what constitutes creative in advertising is probably somewhere between these two extreme positions.

We are concerned with advertising creativity, which refers to “the ability to generate fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to communications problems.” This perspective recognizes that creative advertising ideas are those that are novel, original and appropriate. To be appropriate a creative idea must be relevant or have some importance to the target audience. The “Universal Advertising Standards” (Figure 8-2) used by the former D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles agency in assessing the creativity of the advertising created by the agency should be reviewed as they provide an excellent check list for evaluating creative work.

Professor Notes

IV. PLANNING CREATIVE STRATEGY

Those who work on the creative side of advertising often face a major challenge. They must take all the research, creative briefs, strategy statements, communication objectives and other inputs and transform them into an advertising message. Their job is to write copy, design layouts and illustrations and produce commercials that communicate effectively. Marketers usually hire advertising agencies to develop and implement their advertising campaigns because they are specialists in the creative function of advertising. However, it is important to point out that the development of creative strategy also involves representatives from the client side and other people in the agency as well as the creative staff.

A.  The Creative Challenge—Those individuals who work on the creative side of advertising have the responsibility of developing an effective way of communicating the marketer’s message to their customers. The creative person or team is often provided with a great deal of input and background information on the target audience, such as their demographics, needs and motives, and communication objectives. However, every marketing situation is different and requires a unique approach.

B. Taking Creative Risks—Many creative people in agencies argue that they often follow proven approaches or formulas when creating ads because they are safe and less likely to fail. They note that their clients are very often risk averse and feel uncomfortable with advertising that is too different. It is important to note that companies who have very creative advertising are more willing to assume some risk. However, many managers are more comfortable with advertising that is straightforward in communicating with customers and gives them a reason to buy. Examples of agencies known for taking creative risks, such as Wieden & Kennedy, TBWA/Chiat/Day and Fallon McElligott might be noted. IMC Perspective 8-2 provides a very interesting discussion of the debate over creative versus hard-sell advertising.

C. Creative Personnel—It is a fairly common perception that those individuals who work on the creative side of advertising tend to be somewhat unique and different from those working on the managerial or business side. It is worthwhile to discuss some of the characteristics of creative personnel in advertising and the need to create an environment that fosters, and is conducive to, the development of creative advertising.

Professor Notes

V. THE CREATIVE PROCESS

A number of advertising people have argued that creativity in advertising is best viewed as a process and that creative success is most likely when some organized approach is followed. While most advertising people reject and/or resist attempts to standardize creativity or develop rules or guidelines to follow, most creative people do follow some type of process when approaching the task of developing an advertisement. There are several models or approaches to the creative process including those of James Webb Young, a former creative vice president at the J. Walter Thompson agency, which is similar to the approach of English sociologist Graham Wallas. Young’s model of the creative process contains five steps:

1.   Immersion

2.   Digestion

3.   Incubation

4.   Illumination

5.   Reality or verification

Wallas suggests that creative thought evolves in four stages:

1.   Preparation

2.   Incubation

3.   Illumination

4.   Verification

A. Account Planning – To facilitate the creative process, many agencies now use account planning which is a process that involves conducting research and gathering all relevant information about a client’s product or service, brand, and consumers in the target audience. Account planning plays an important role during creative strategy development by driving the process from the customers’ point of view. Planners work with the client as well as agency personnel, such as the creative team and media specialists, to discuss how information they have gathered can be used in the development of the creative strategy as well as other aspects of the advertising campaign.

B. Inputs to the Creative Process: Preparation/Incubation/Illumination—These models of the creative process offer an organized way of approaching an advertising problem. Both models stress the need for preparation or gathering of background information that is relevant to the problem as the first step in the creative process. Various types of research and information can provide input to the creative process of advertising at each stage. There are numerous ways the creative specialist can acquire background information that is relevant to the advertising problem. Some of those discussed in the text include:

1. Background research—informal fact-finding techniques and general preplanning input. Various ways of gathering background information might be discussed.

2. Product/service specific research—this involves different types of studies such as attitude, market structure and positioning, perceptual mapping and psychographic studies.

3. Qualitative research input—techniques such as in-depth interview or focus groups with customers or ethnographic studies. IMC Perspective 8-3 discusses how many large advertising agencies conduct branding research and have developed proprietary models to identify how consumers connect to their clients’ brands.

C. Verification/Revision—The purpose of the verification/revision stage of the creative process is to evaluate ideas that come from the illumination stage, reject any that may be inappropriate, and refine those that remain and help give them final expression. Some of the techniques used at this stage include:

·  Directed focus groups

·  Message communication studies

·  Portfolio tests

·  Pretesting of ads in storyboard or animatic form

Professor Notes

VI. CREATIVE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

The creative process of advertising is guided by specific goals and objectives and requires the development of a creative strategy or plan of action for achieving the goal. Creative strategy development actually begins with a thorough assessment of the marketing and promotional situation and a determination of what needs to be communicated to the marketer’s target audience. Creative strategy should, however, also be based on a number of other factors that are stated in the creative or copy platform.

A. Copy Platform—A copy platform provides a plan or checklist that is useful in guiding the development of an advertising message or campaign. This document is prepared by the agency team or group assigned to the account and may include creative personnel as well as the account coordinator and representatives from media and research. The advertising manager and/or the marketing and product manager from the client side will also be involved in the process and must approve the copy platform. An example of a copy platform outline is shown in Figure 8-3 of the text.

B. Advertising Campaigns—Most advertisements are part of a series of messages that make up an advertising campaign, which consists of multiple messages, often in a variety of media that center on a single theme or idea. The determination of the central theme, idea, position, or image is a critical part of the creative process as it sets the tone or direction for the development of the individual ads that make up the campaign. IMC Perspective 8-4 discusses how the Miller Brewing Company has been struggling to develop an effective campaign for its Miller Lite beer in recent years.

C. The Search for the Major Selling Idea—An important part of creative strategy development is determining the central theme that will become the major selling idea or big idea for the ad campaign. There are several different approaches that can be used for developing major selling ideas and as the basis of creative strategy. Some of the best known and most discussed approaches include:

1.  The unique selling proposition—this concept, which was mentioned in the opening vignette, is described in Rosser Reeve’s Reality in Advertising. It’s three characteristics include:

·  each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer

·  the proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer

·  the proposition must be strong enough to pull over new customers to your brand

2. Creating a brand image—some competing brands are so similar it is difficult to find or create a unique attribute or benefit so the creative strategy is based on the development of a strong, memorable identity for the brand through image advertising.

3. Finding the inherent drama -Leo Burnett believed advertising should be based on a foundation of consumer benefits with an emphasis on the dramatic element in expressing these benefits.

D.  Positioning—the basic idea is that advertising is used to establish or “position” the product or service in a particular place in the consumer’s mind. Various approaches to positioning a brand were discussed in Chapter 2 (pp. 52-55) and might be reviewed again here.

These approaches to determining the major selling ideas discussed above are very popular and are often used as the basis of the creative strategy for advertising campaigns. These creative approaches represent specific “creative styles” that have become associated with some of the most successful advertising creative minds and their agencies. However, it should be pointed out that many other creative approaches and styles are available and are often used in advertising. Some of the creative styles associated with more contemporary advertising visionaries such as Lee Clow of TBWA/Chiat/Day and Rich Silverstein of Goodby Silverstein & Partners are worth noting. The challenge to the creative team is to find a major selling idea and use it as a guide to the development of an effective creative strategy.