Chapter 8: Creative strategy: Planning and Development

Layout:
LO1 Describe the role of creative strategy in advertising.
LO2 Identify inputs to the creative process.
LO3 Describe the development of creative strategy.
LO4 Examine approaches to developing the major selling ideas that are used as
the basis for an advertising campaign.

Slide 3:
One need only watch an evening of commercials or peruse a few magazines to
realize there are a myriad of ways to convey an advertising message. Underlying
all of these messages, however, are a creative strategy that determines what the
adver- tising message will say or communicate and creative tactics for how the
message strategy will be executed. In this chapter, we focus on advertising
creative strategy. We consider what is meant by creativity, particularly as it
relates to advertising, and examine a well-known approach to creativity in
advertising.
We also examine the creative strategy development process and various
approaches to determining the big idea that will be used as the central theme of
the advertising campaign and translated into attention-getting, distinctive, and
memorable messages.

Slide 4:
Advertising can be used to create images or associations and position a brand in
the consumer’s mind. Many consumers who have never driven in a BMW
perceive it as “the ultimate driving machine,” or as this ad states “joy is the all.”

Slide 5:

Slide 6:
What Is Creativity?
Creativity is probably one of the most commonly used terms in advertising. Ads
are often called creative.

Different perspectives on creative advertising.

Manager's point of view: (Advertising is considered innovative only if it sells
products—innovation and prizes are by-products)
Advertising is only creative if it sells a product.
Advertising is a promotional tool used to convey a favorable impression to the
market.
Risk-averse and want to advertise more conservatively.

Creators view: (Ads are creative if they're unique and innovative—things that can
cut through the clutter of competitors.)
Creative advertising in its artistic value and originality.
Advertising is a means of communication to promote their aesthetic views and
personal career goals.
Maximize the impact of your message.

Slide 7:
Factors that determine creativity
Creative advertising: (Creativity in advertising is the ability to generate fresh,
unique and relevant or relevant ideas that can be used as solutions to
communication problems.)
The ability to generate new, original and relevant ideas that can be used as
solutions to communication problems.

There are two main determinants of creativity—divergence and relevance, which

will be explained in the pages that follow.

Slide 8:
Divergence: is the degree to which an advertisement becomes novel, different, or
unusual.

Includes the following elements:

Uniqueness—Advertising elements are rare, surprising, or no longer common and
obvious.
Flexibility—Ads contain different ideas or move from one perspective to another.
Build—Ads that feature unexpected or ending details and expand on basic ideas
so that they become more complex, complex, or complex.
Aggregate—Ads that combine, connect, or blend often unrelated objects or ideas.
Artistic value—Ads with artistic word-of-mouth or attractive shapes/colors.
There are other ways to achieve differentiation in creative advertising
development, such as through the use of humour, imagination, emotion and
imagery.

Slide 9:
Relevance: The degree to which the elements of an advertisement are
meaningful, useful, or valuable to the consumer.

Includes the following elements:

Relevance of the ad to the consumer—the ad contains performance elements
that are meaningful to the consumer. Advertisers can use celebrities that
consumers identify with, music they like, or visuals and performance techniques
to capture their interest and attention.

Brand Relevance to Consumers—The advertised brand of a product or service is

of personal interest to the consumer. Relevance or relevancy may also be
considered in terms of the extent to which the ad provides information or images
relevant to the brand.

Slide 10:
The determinants of creativity continue
Findings from several studies on advertising creativity:
Have an impact on consumer feedback across different stages of the feedback
hierarchy.
- Attract more attention to the advertised brand, higher level of memorability,
greater motivation to process information and deeper level of processing.
- Distinction achieved through novelty/uniqueness and/or elaboration is
particularly important.

Slide 11:
Figure 8-1 ( để cái hình dô )
This slide presents the findings from a study that related the five creativity factors
to purchase behavior, conducted by German professors Reinartz and Saffert. As
noted, campaigns that combined originality with elaboration had the greatest
impact followed by those combining originality with artistic value. Although all of
the creativity factors had a positive impact, elaboration was the most powerful
followed by artistic value while synthesis was least important.
slide 12:

slide 16:
One of the most popular approaches to creativity in advertising was developed by
James Webb Young, a former creative vice president at the J. Walter Thompson
agency. Young said, “The production of ideas is just as definite a process as the
production of Fords; the production of ideas, too, runs an assembly line; in this
pro- duction the mind follows an operative technique which can be learned and
controlled; and that its effective use is just as much a matter of practice in the
technique as in the effective use of any tool.”34 Young’s model of the creative
process contains five steps:
1. Immersion. Gathering raw material and information through background
research and immersing yourself in the problem.
2. Digestion. Taking the information, working it over, and wrestling with it in the
mind.
3. Incubation. Putting the problems out of your conscious mind and turning the
information over to the subconscious to do the work.
4. Illumination. The birth of an idea—the “Eureka! I have it!” phenomenon.
5. Reality or verification. Studying the idea to see if it still looks good or solves the
problem; then shaping the idea to practical usefulness.

Slide 17:
Young’s process of creativity is similar to a four-step approach outlined much ear-
lier by English sociologist Graham Wallas in his classic book The Art of Thought.
1. Preparation. Gathering background information needed to solve the problem
through research and study.
2. Incubation. Getting away and letting ideas develop.
3. Illumination. Seeing the light or solution.
4. Verification. Refining and polishing the idea and seeing if it is an appropriate
solution.

Slide 18:
Account planning is the key process in managing a client account. This process can
be divided into the following steps:
Conduct research and collect relevant information about customers: Before
planning, we need to research and collect information about customers. This
helps us better understand the needs, wants and consumption behavior of our
customers.
Identify the target audience: Based on the collected information, we need to
clearly define the target audience of the account

Account planners: They must be knowledgeable about customers,

products/services and brands, and provide advice and support to decision makers
during the planning process.

Responsible for Research: Account planners are responsible for conducting

research during creative strategy development.

Slide 19 – 27:
The Elements that inform the Creative Process, including the Prepare, Incubate,
and Illuminate stages, play an important role in generating creative ideas.

Here are the key factors:

Background research: Conduct thorough research to gather relevant information

about a product or market. This helps build a strong foundation for creative
thinking.

Product- or service-specific research: This includes gathering detailed information

through research conducted by customers about the product or service as well as
its audience. targeted customer.

Qualitative research: an important factor in the account planning process. It is a

research method that focuses on gathering and deepening understanding of the
opinions, views, beliefs, and feelings of individuals or groups of people.

Slide 28-29:
The Verification and Modification phase of the Creation process is very important.
First, we evaluate and discard the inappropriate ideas. Then we refine the
remaining ideas to make sure they're better and aligned with the goal.
Techniques such as focus groups, communication studies, and portfolio testing
are used to verify and revise ideas. Viewer feedback is also used to measure
performance.
Storyboard is an important tool, presenting the visual layout of the ad. Animatic, a
video tape combined with sound, is also used to bring ideas to life.

Slide 30-31:
- Advertising campaigns
Most advertising is part of an advertising message or campaign, which is a set of
marketing communication activities. The theme for an advertising campaign is
often expressed in terms of reducing the main idea to a few words or a brief
sentence. A set of related, coordinated marketing communications that focus on a
single topic or idea. Slogans are a key element in brand identity as they can
enhance a brand's image, aid in brand recognition and recall, and help
differentiate it in the minds of consumers, thus contributing to brand value. Note
that while a brand name and/or logo can't literally say much, taglines can bridge
this gap and say something about the image of a product or service. b

- Campaign theme
The campaign theme should be a strong idea, as it is the central message that will
be conveyed in all other advertising and promotional activities.
Express through slogan or tagline.
Slogans often appear in every advertisement and are often used in other forms of
marketing communications to serve as a reminder and to reinforce the marketer's
brand message.
The summary line succinctly represents the company or brand's position and the
message the company is trying to convey to the target audience.
- Advertising campaigns continued
+ Slogans:
Should be simple, engaging and predictable.
Connect with consumers emotionally.
Unusual and new to attract people's attention
Many companies do not use them
+ Campaign theme:
Try to develop campaign themes that span many years.
Be guided by specific goals and objectives.
Creative strategy statement outlined in creative copy or background.
Try to develop campaign themes that span many years.
Be guided by specific goals and objectives.
Creative strategy statement outlined in copy or creative background.
Slide 33:
This slide can be used to discuss the creative brief, which specifies the basic
elements of the creative strategy. The brief may also be called a creative platform,
work plan, creative blueprint, or creative contract.
Just as there are different names for the creative brief, there are variations in the
outline and format used, and in the level of detail included.
Recently, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the trade association that
represents more than 600 of the leading advertisers in the United States,
published a report titled “Better Creative Briefs” that provides guidelines for
developing effective briefs.
The creative brief is usually developed by an account representative and/or
representative assigned to the account. The adverting and/or marketing and
brand managers from the client side ultimately approve the creative brief, and it
then becomes the roadmap to guide the creative process.
Several studies indicate that there is a gap in the information that creative
personnel need to develop effective advertising and what they are being
provided. This points to the need for better communication between clients and
agencies.

Slide 35:
The Search for the Major Selling Idea
An important part of creative strategy is determining the central theme that will
become the major selling idea of the ad campaign. As A. Jerome Jeweler states in
his book Creative Strategy in Advertising:
The major selling idea should emerge as the strongest singular thing you can say
about your product or service. This should be the claim with the broadest and
most meaningful appeal to your target audience. Once you determine this
message, be certain you can live with it; be sure it stands strong enough to remain
the central issue in every ad and commercial in the campaign.

Slide 36:
It is difficult to pinpoint the inspiration for a big idea or teach advertising creatives
an easy way to find one.
This big idea should attract the consumer’s attention, get a reaction, and set the
advertiser’s product or service apart from the competition. There are myriad ways
that creative per- sonnel can approach the search for big ideas and how to
execute them. However, over the years sev- eral classic approaches have
emerged that can guide the creative team’s search for a major selling idea and
the development of effective advertising. Among the four best-known approaches
are the following:
• Using a unique selling proposition.
• Creating a brand image.
• Finding the inherent drama.
• Positioning.

Slide 37:
Unique Selling Proposition The concept of the unique selling proposition (USP)
was developed by Rosser Reeves, former chair of the Ted Bates agency, and is
described in his influential book Reality in Advertising. Reeves noted three
characteristics of unique selling propositions:
1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words,
not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertise- ment
must say to each reader: “Buy this product and you will get this benefit.”
2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not
offer. It must be unique either in the brand or in the claim.
3. The proposition must be strong enough to move the mass millions, that is, pull
over new customers to your brand.

Slide 38:
Creating a Brand Image: In many product and service categories, competing
brands are so similar that it is very difficult to find or create a unique attribute or
benefit to use as the major selling idea. Many of the packaged-goods products
that account for most of the advertising dollars spent in the United States are
difficult to differentiate on a functional or performance basis. The creative
strategy used to sell these products is based on the development of a strong,
memorable identity for the brand through image advertising.
The key to successful image advertising is developing an image that will appeal to
product users. This is often done by associating a brand with certain symbols or
artifacts that have cultural meaning. For example, Marlboro became the leading
brand of cigarettes by using advertising that associates the brand with the
cowboy, who is perceived as rugged, individualistic, and a symbol of freedom and
independence. Many fashion brands build an image by using ads that feature
attrac- tive models and visual appeals that convey psychosocial associations and
feelings such as sexy, stylish, glamorous, and sophisticated. Advertising for bebe
embodies many of these image characteristics as a way of building an emotional
connection with young women who are interested in style and fashion (Exhibit 8–
18).

Slide 39:
Finding the Inherent Drama: Another approach to determining the major selling
idea is finding the inherent drama or characteristic of the product that makes the
consumer purchase it.
The inherent drama approach expresses the advertising philosophy of Leo
Burnett, founder of the Leo Burnett agency in Chicago. Burnett believed that
there is almost always something about a brand that separates it from all other
brands and keeps it in the marketplace. Some of the more famous ads developed
by his agency using the inherent-drama approach are for McDonald’s, Maytag
appliances, Kellogg’s cereals, and Hallmark cards.

Slide 40:
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. Positioning is done for
companies as well as for brands. Many of the top brands in various product and
service categories have retained their market leadership because they have
established and maintained a strong position or identity in the minds of
consumers
Since positioning can be done on the basis of a distinctive attri- bute, the
positioning and unique selling proposition approaches can over- lap. Positioning
approaches have been used as the foundation for a number of successful creative
strategies.
Positioning is often the basis of a firm’s creative strategy when it has multiple
brands competing in the same market.

slide 41:
The USP, brand image, inherent-drama, and positioning approaches are often
used as the basis of the creative strategy for ad campaigns. These creative styles
have become associated with some of the most successful creative minds in
advertising and their agencies.
The challenge of developing creative advertising that captures the attention of
consumers and impacts them has clearly become even greater with the
proliferation of new media.
Be adaptable to be used across various media. We haven’t come close to figuring
out how to use all these new-media opportunities and most clients are very
conflicted about what media they should use and why.

Engage consumers and enter into a dialogue with them. However, marketers will
continue to challenge their agencies, as well as themselves, to find innovative
ideas and creative solutions for advertising and other forms of marketing
communications.