How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 34)

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Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part E)

by

Charles Lamson

The Judge Role: Decision Time

The next role in the creative process is the Judge. This is when the creatives evaluate the practicality of their big ideas and decide whether to implement, modify, or discard them.

The Judge's role is delicate. On the one hand, the creatives must be self-critical enough to ensure that when it is time to play the Warrior they will have an idea worth fighting for. On the other hand, they need to avoid stifling the imagination of their internal Artist. It is easier to be critical than to explore, conceptualize, or defend. But the judge's purpose is to help produce good ideas, not to revel in criticism. Focus first on the positive, interesting aspects of a new idea. The negatives will come soon enough.

When playing the Judge, the creatives need to ask certain questions: Is this idea an aha! or an uh-oh? (What is my initial reaction?) What is wrong with this idea? (And what is right with it?) What if it fails? (Is it worth the risk?) What is my cultural bias? (Does the audience have the same bias?) What is clouding my thinking? (Am I wearing blinders?)

In an effort to create world-class advertising, Michael Conrad, formerly the worldwide chief creative officer for Leo Burnett and currently the dean of the new Cannes Lions Academy, developed the rating scale shown in Exhibit 1. The agency's Global Product Committee now uses this scale to evaluate every ad before presenting it to a client. Ads that score 4 or below do not get presented. The objective is to develop ads that score 8 and above, and those recieve full agency support. The top rating, world-class, means "best in the world, bar-none."

Exhibit 1

Leo Burnett Global Product Committee's rating scale.

Risk is an important consideration. When the advertising scores a hit, everybody's happy, sales go up, people get raises, and occasionally there is even positive publicity. But when a campaign flops, all hell breaks loose, especially on high-profile accounts. Sales may flatten or even decline, competitors gain a couple of points in market share, distributors and dealers complain, and the phone rings incessantly with calls from disgruntled client executives. Perhaps worst of all is the ridicule in the trade. Advertising pundits say nasty things about the ads in TV interviews; reviewers write articles in Ad Age and Adweek; and even the big daily papers get in their licks. In one article, for instance, The Wall Street Journal panned the campaigns of four high-profile advertisers: Diet Coke, Subaru, AT&T, and American Express. This is not good for either the agency's stock or the client's. And it is how agencies get replaced. So the Judge's role is vital.

If the Artist-as-Judge does a good job, the next role in the creative process, the Warrior, is easier to perform.

The Warrior Role: Overcoming Setbacks and Obstacles

In the final step of the creative process, the Warrior wins territory for big new ideas in a world resistant to change. The Warrior carries the concept into action. This means getting the big idea approved, produced, and placed in the media. Warriors must be bold, sharpen their sword (skills), strengthen their shield (examine criticism in advance), follow through (overcome obstacles), use their energy wisely, be persistent, savor their victories, and learn from defeat.

To get the big idea approved, the Warrior has to battle people within the agency and often the client, too. So part of the Warrior's role is turning the agency account team into co-warriors for the presentation to the client. At this point it is imperative that the creatives finish their message strategy document to give their rationale for the copy, art, and production elements in the concept they are trying to sell. And the message strategy had better mesh with the creative brief, or the valiant Warrior will likely face a wide moat with no drawbridge.

Part of the Warrior's task may be to help the account managers present the campaign to the client. Bruce Bendinger says, "How well you sell ideas is as important as how good those ideas are." To give a presentation maximum selling power, he suggests five key components.

1. Strategic precision. The selling idea must be on strategy. The presenting team must be able to prove it, and the strategy should be discussed first, before the big selling idea is presented.
2. Savvy psychology. The presentation, like the advertising, should be receiver-driven. The idea has to meet the client's needs.
3. Slick presentation. The presentation must be prepared and rehearsed; it should use great visuals and emotional appeals. A good presentation makes people want to do the campaign.
4. Structural persuasion. The presentation should be well structured, since most clients relate well to organized thinking. The opening is all-important because it sets the tone for the entire presentation.
5. Solve the problem. Clients have needs, and they frequently report to big shots who ask tough questions about the advertising. Solve the client's problem and you will sell the big idea---and do it with style.

For clients, recognizing a big idea and evaluating it are almost as difficult as coming up with one. When the agency (or the in-house advertising department) presents the concepts, the client is suddenly in the role of the Judge, without having gone through the other roles first. It is recommended that clients ask themselves five questions: Did it make me gasp when I first saw it? Do I wish I had thought of it myself? Is it unique? Does it fit the strategy to perfection? Could it be used for thirty years?

When the client approves the campaign, the creative's role as a Warrior is only half over. Now the campaign has to be executed. That means the Warriors shepherd it through the intricate details of design and production to see that it is completed on time, under budget, and with the highest quality possible. At the same time, the creatives revert to their Artist roles to design, write, and produce the ads.

The next step in the process, therefore, is to implement the big idea, to produce the ads for print and electronic media---the subject of our next couple of posts.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 392-394*

END