Creative Strategy: Planning and Development

“At the end of the day, we are in the business of taking basically parity products and by virtue of understanding the audience, by virtue of human insight and intuition, by virtue of creating new ways to communicate both rationally and emotionally, we create brand distinctions. That is what creativity in advertising is all about.”

– Allen Rosenshine, BBDO chairman emeritus

Creative advertising (aptly explained by the quotation) can be seen as a combination of creative strategy and creative tactics. Where creative strategy constitutes deciding what the advertising message wants to convey while the creative tactics deal with how the advertising message is to be executed. Being creative though is a challenge since the consumer reaction cannot be gauged and the impact of the ad in terms of sales cannot be estimated. 

Young'd Model of Creative Advertising 

Models of Creative Advertising

Experts view the creative advertising process to be exactly like an assembly line- organized, sequential, controlled and efficient. One of the models for the same is the Young’s model which consists of 5 stages:

      1.       Immersion

      2.       Digestion

      3.       Incubation

      4.       Illumination

      5.       Verification 

Graham Wallas Model of Creative Advertising

The model was developed by English sociologist Graham Wallas and is composed of the following steps:

Graham Wallas' model of Creative Advertising

      1.       Preparation

      2.       Incubation

      3.       Illumination

      4.       Verification

These models are useful since they offer an organized approach to advertising problem solving. 

These models however have the disadvantage of not explaining how the data for the process is to be collected. 

For this purpose, Account Planning is being used which is the process of conducting research and gathering information about the client’s product or service.  The following image depicts some of the sources from where background research for the product can be done.  

Sources of Background Research for the product/service

Creative strategy development:

Most ads are part of a series of messages that make up an IMC or advertising campaign, which is a      set of interrelated and coordinated marketing communication activities that center on a single theme or idea that appears in different media across a specified time period. 

Advertising Campaign

A campaign theme should be a strong idea, as it is the central message that will be communicated in all the advertising and other promotional activities.

Basic elements of a creative strategy according to the copy platform are:

1. Basic problem or issue the advertising must address.

2. Advertising and communications objectives.

3. Target audience.

4. Major selling idea or key benefits to communicate.

5. Creative strategy statement (campaign theme, appeal, and execution technique to be used).

6. Supporting information and requirements.

Flow of information in the market: 

Flow of Information in the Market 

A major issue that arises is how to get inspiration for coming up with a creative idea and to cash is on the same.

There are basically 4 techniques for this: 

Sources of Idea Generation

Conclusion: 

The advertising message is as important as the strategy developed for the execution of the same. There are innumerable cases where the message has been good but because of poor execution the strategy has failed. There are also cases depicting vice-versa. The classic example being that of Burger King who changed their theme so often that their franchisees also lost faith in the brand. 

Thus as important is the advertising message, equally important is the strategy or the tactic used to execute it or bring the message to the target audience.