How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 33)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part D)

by

Charles Lamson

The Artist Role: Developing and Implementing the Big Idea

The next step in the creative process (continued from last post), playing the Artist's role, is both the toughest and the longest. But it is also the most rewarding. The Artist must actually accomplish two major tasks: searching for the big idea and then implementing it.

Task 1: Develop the Big Idea

The first task for Artists is the long, tedious process of reviewing all the pertinent information they gathered when they played the Explorer role, analyzing the problem, and searching for a key verbal or visual concept to communicate what needs to be said. It means creating a mental picture of the ad or commercial before any copy is written or artwork begun.

This step (also called visualization or conceptualization) is the most important in creating the advertisement. It is where the search for the big idea---that flash of insight---takes place. The big idea is a bold, creative initiative that builds on the strategy, joins the product benefit with consumer desire in a fresh, involving way, brings the subject to life, and makes the audience stop, look, and listen.

What is the difference between a strategy and a big idea? A strategy describes the direction the message should take. A big idea gives it life. For example, a creative brief for a Taylor Guitar campaign contains a strategic brand character statement:

Taylor Guitars---handcrafted from the finest materials to give the sweetest sound.

They could have used that strategy statement as a headline. But it would have been desperately dull for an ad aimed at musicians. It lacks what a big idea headline delivers: a set of multiple meanings that create interest, memorability, and, in some cases, drama. Note the long, provocative, slightly poetic, and very witty headline that Taylor Guitars chose to convey the same strategic concept:

In one pair of hands, a piece of wood can become a living room coffee table.

In another pair of hands, that piece of wood can become the sweetest-sounding guitar.

This is for everyone who has no desire to play the coffee table.

While strategy requires deduction, a big idea requires inspiration. The big idea in advertising is almost invariably expressed through a combination of art and copy. Most ads use a specific word or phrase to connect the text to the visual, like "wood" in the Taylor Guitar ad. Think what this ad would look like without the beautiful photograph of the trees in the background, with just the headline and body copy on an otherwise bare page. It would have saved a lot of money. But it would have greatly reduced the boom factor and lost a lot more money due to low readership.

Transforming a Concept: Do Something to It

Creative ideas come from manipulating and transforming resources. When we take on the Artist role, we have to do something to the materials we collected as Explorers to give them value. That means asking lots of questions: What if I added this? Or took that away? Or looked at it backward? Or compared it with something else? The Artist has to change patterns and experiment with various approaches.

Vitro and Robertson had two concepts to begin with: "guitar" and "music." Looking at the guitar, they noted it was made of wood---special wood. So "wood" became a third concept. Thinking about wood led them to "trees." Interesting notion. But now they had to figure out how to turn these four concepts into a "big idea."

At this point in the creative process, a good Artist may employ a variety of strategies for transforming things. Here are several techniques for manipulating ideas:

1. Adapt. Change contexts. Think what else the product might be besides the obvious. A Campbell's Soup ad showed a steaming bowl of tomato soup with a bold headline underneath: "HEALTH INSURANCE."
2. Imagine. Ask what if. Let your imagination fly. What if people could do their chores in their sleep? What if animals drank in saloons? Clyde's Bar in Georgetown actually used that idea. The ad showed a beautifully illustrated elephant and donkey dressed in business suits and seated at a table toasting one another. The headline: "Clyde's. The People's Choice."
3. Reverse. Look at it backward. Sometimes the opposite of what is expected has great impact and memorability. A cosmetics company ran an ad for its moisturizing cream under the line: "Introduce your husband to a younger woman." A vintage Volkswagon ad used "Ugly is only skin deep."
4. Connect. Join two unrelated ideas together. Ask yourself: What ideas can I connect to my concept? A Target ad showed the rear view of a high fashion-type model clad only with a backpack and a lampshade---the latter wrapped around her middle like a miniskirt. Next to the Target logo the ad said simply "fashion and housewares." To get people to send for its catalog, Royal Caribbean Cruises ran an ad that showed the catalog cover under the simple headline "Sail by Mail."
5. Compare. Take one idea and use it to describe another. Ever notice how bankers talk like plumbers? "Flood the market, laundered money, liquid assets, cash flow, take a bath, float a loan." The English language is awash in metaphors because they help people understand. Jack in the Box advertised its onion rings by picturing them on a billboard and inviting motorists to "Drive through for a ring job." An elegant magazine ad for Parker Premier fountain pen used this sterling metaphor: "It's wrought from pure silver and writes like pure silk."
6. Eliminate. Subtract something, or break the rules. In advertising, there is little virtue in doing things the way they have always been done. Seven-Up became famous by advertising what it was not ("the Uncola") and thereby positioned itself as a refreshing alternative. To introduce its new models one year, Volkswagon used a series of humorous teaser ads that did not show any cars. In one, a shaggy dog sat patiently in front of a fan. He was presumably replicating what dogs do in cars, sticking their heads out the window to catch the breeze. The only difference was he was doing it indoors.
7. Parody. Fool around. Have some fun. Tell some jokes---especially when you are under pressure. There is a close relationship between the ha-ha experience of humor and the aha! experience of creative discovery. Humor stretches our thinking and, used in good taste, makes for some great advertising. A classical radio station ran a newspaper ad: "Handel with care." And speaking of classics, Fila USA  got a rave review from Advertising Age for its "bizarre, absolutely hillarious, and totally cool" spot of a praying mantis racing up a leaf stem in Fila sneakers to escape his murderous mate.

Task 2: Implement the Big Idea

Once the creatives latch onto the big idea, they have to focus on how to implement it. When Vitro and Robertson suddenly thought "trees" and connected that idea to "guitars" and "music," they then had to translate that concept into a tangible ad. This is where the real art of advertising comes in---writing the exact words, designing the precise layout. To have a sense of how advertising creatives do that, we need to understand what art is in advertising, how artistic elements and tools are selected and used, and the difference between good art and bad art.

In advertising, art shapes the message into a complete communication that appeals to the senses as well as the mind. So while art direction refers to the act or process of managing the visual presentation of the commercial or ad, the term art actually refers to the whole presentation---visual, verbal, and aural. For example, the artful selection of words not only communicates information but also stimulates positive feelings for the product. An artfully designed typeface not only makes reading easier, it also evokes a mood. By creatively arranging format elements---surrounding the text with lines, boxes, and colors, and relating them to one another in proportion---the art director can further enhance the ad's message. Art also shapes the style of photography and illustration. An intimate style uses soft focus and close views, a documentary style features unusual angles or blurred action images.

In short, if copy is the verbal language of an ad, art is the body language. TV uses both sight and sound to involve viewers. Radio commercials use sound to create word pictures in the minds of listeners. The particular blend of writing, visuals, and sounds makes up an ad's expressive character. So while the quality may vary, every ad uses art.

In advertising, balance, proportion, and movement are guides for uniting words, images, type, sounds, and colors into a single communication so they relate to and enhance each other.


The Creative Pyramid: A Guide to Formulating Copy and Art

Depending on the product category and the situation, the creative pyramid is a model that can help the creative team convert the advertising strategy and the big idea into the actual physical ad or commercial. Based on the cognitive theory of how people learn new information, it uses a simple five-step structure (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1

The creative pyramid offers a simple guide for establishing copywriting objectives.

The purpose of much advertising copy and design is to either persuade prospective customers to take some action to satisfy a need or want to remind them to take the action again. In a new-product situation, people may first need to be made aware of the problem or, if the problem is obvious, that a solution exists. For a frequently purchased product, the advertiser simply has to remind people of the solution close to the purchase occasion. In either case, the advertiser's first job is to get the prospect's attention. The second step is to stimulate the prospect's interest---in either the message or the product itself. Next, it is important, especially for new products to build credibility for the product claims. Then the ad can focus on generating desire and finally on stimulating action. These five elements should be addressed in just about every ad or commercial. We will deal with each step briefly.

Attention

An ad or commercial is a stimulus. It must break through consumers' physiological screens to create the kind of attention that leads to perception. Attention, therefore, is the first objective of any ad and the fundamental building block in the creative pyramid. The Artist may spend as much time and energy figuring out how to express the big idea in an interesting, attention-getting way as searching for the big idea itself.

The attention step is critically important to triggering the ad's boom factor. Print ads often use the headline as the major attention-getting device. The copywriter's goal is to write a headline that expresses the big idea with verve. Usually designed to appear in the largest and boldest type in the ad, the headline is often the strongest focal point conceptually as well as visually. Many other devices also help gain attention. In print media, they may include dynamic visuals, unusual layout, vibrant color, or dominant ad size. In electronic media, they may include special sound effects, music, animation, or unusual visual techniques.

Some factors are beyond the creatives' control. The budget may determine the size of the ad or length of the commercial. And that may influence how well or quickly it penetrates consumers' screens. Similarly, a TV spot's position in a cluster of commercials between shows or an ad's position in a publication may determine who sees it.

The attention-getting device should create drama, power, impact, and intensity. It must also be appropriate, relating to the product, the tone of the ad, and the needs or interest of the intended audience. This is especially true in business-to-business advertising, where rational appeals and fact-based thinking dominate.

Headlines that promise something but fail to deliver in a credible manner will not make a sale. Ads that use racy headlines or nude figures unrelated to the product often lose sales because prospects cannot purchase the item that first attracted their attention.

Interest

The second step in the creative pyramid, interest, is also extremely important. It carries the prospective customer---now paying attention---to the body of the ad. The ad must keep the prospect excited or involved as the information becomes more detailed. To do this, the copywriter may answer a question asked in the attention step or add facts that relate to the headline. To maintain audience interest, the tone and language should be compatible with the target market's attitude. As we discussed in an earlier post, the successful ad resonates.

The writer and designer must lead prospects from one step to the next. Research shows that people read what interests them and ignore what does not, so the writer must maintain prospects' interests at all times. One way to do so is to talk about their problems, their needs, and how the product or service will answer them. Copywriters use the word you a lot.

There are many effective ways to stimulate interest: a dramatic situation, a story, cartoons, charts. In radio copywriters use sound effects or catchy dialogue. Television frequently uses quick cuts to maintain interest.

Credibility

The third step in the creative pyramid is to establish credibility for the product or service. Customers today are sophisticated and skeptical. They want claims to be backed up by facts. Comparison ads can build credibility, but they must be relevant to customers' needs---and fair.

Well-known presenters may lend credibility to commercials. 

Advertisers often show independent test results to substantiate product claims. To work, such "proofs" must be valid, not just statistical manipulation. Advertisers and agencies must remember that many consumers have extensive product knowledge, even in specialized areas.

Desire

In the desire step, the writer encourages prospects to picture themselves enjoying the benefits of the product or service. Essentially, they are invited to visualize.

In print ads, copywriters initiate visualization by using phrases like "Picture yourself" or "Imagine." In TV, the main character pulls a sparkling clean T-shirt from the washer, smiles, and says "Yeah!" In radio, the announcer says, "You'll look your best."

The desire step hints at the possibilities and lets the consumer's mind take over. If prospects feel they are being led by the news, they may feel insulted, resent the ad, and lose interest in the product. In some cases, writers maintain this delicate balance by having a secondary character agree with the main character and prattle off a few more product benefits. 

In print advertising, the desire step is one of the most difficult to write (which may be why some copywriters omit it). In TV, the desire step can simply show the implied consumer experiencing the benefit of the product. Ever notice how cosmetics advertisers almost invariably show the happy life that awaits their product's user?

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Action

The final step up the creative pyramid is action. The purpose is to motivate people to do something---send in a coupon, call the number on the screen, visit the store---or at least to agree with the advertiser.

This block of the pyramid reaches the smallest audience but those with the most to gain from the product's utility. So the last step is often the easiest. If the copy is clear about what readers need to do and asks or even nudges them to act, chances are they will.

The call to action may be explicit---"Call for more information"---or implicit---"Fly the friendly skies." Designers cue customers to take action by placing dotted lines around coupons to suggest cutting and by highlighting the company's telephone number with large type or a bright color.

With today's technology, it is important to not only ask people to act but facilitate their action, through either a toll-free phone number or an attractive Web site. In relationship marketing, the ad basically enables people to select themselves as being interested in a relationship. Then the market can use more efficient one-on-one media to develop the relationship.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 384-392*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 32)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part C)

by

Charles Lamson

The Creative Process

The creative process is the step-by-step procedure used to discover original ideas and reorganize existing concepts in new ways. By following it, people can improve their ability to unearth possibilities, cross-associate concepts, and select winning ideas.

The new generation of advertising creatives will face a world of ever-growing complexity. They must handle the challenges of integrated marketing communications (IMC) as they help their clients build relationships with highly fragmented target markets. They will need to understand the wide range of technologies affecting advertising (computer, hardware and software, electronic networking, high-definition television, and more). And they will have to learn how to advertise to emerging international markets. To do this, they need a model that handles many situations simply.

Over the years, many notions of the creative process have been proposed. Although most are similar, each format has unique merits. In 1986, Roger von Oech published a four-step creative model used today by many Fortune 100 companies. It offers flexibility for fact-based and value-based thinkers alike. Von Oeche describes four distinct, albeit imaginary, roles (Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior) that every art director and copywriter has to personally take on at some point in the creative process:

1. The Explorer searches for new information, paying attention to unusual patterns.
2. The Artist experiments and plays with a variety of approaches, looking for an original idea.
3. The Judge evaluates the results of experimentation and decides which approach is most practical.
4. The Warrior overcomes excuses, idea killers, setbacks, and obstacles to bring a creative concept to realization.

The Explorer Role: Gathering Information

Copywriters and art directors thrive on the challenge of creating advertising messages---the encoding process. But first they need the raw materials for ideas; facts, experiences, history, knowledge, feelings.

Taking on the role of the Explorer, the creatives examine the information they have. They review the creative brief and the marketing and advertising plan; they study the market, the product, and the competition. They must seek additional input from the agency's account managers and from people on the client side (sales, marketing, product, or research managers).

Develop an Insight Outlook

In advertising, it is important that when creatives play the Explorer role, they get off the beaten path to look in new and uncommon places for information---to discover new ideas and to identify unusual patterns. Vitro and Robertson might have hiked into the wilderness to spark a new idea for Taylor Guitar. Or they could have opened a book on national parks and experienced the same flash of insight.

Von Oech suggests adopting an "insight outlook" (a positive belief that good information is available and that you have the skills to find and use it). This means opening up to the outside world to receive new knowledge. Ideas are everywhere: visit a museum, an art gallery, a hardware store, an airport. The more diverse the sources, the greater your chance of uncovering an original concept.

Know the Objective

If people know what they are looking for, they have a better chance of finding it. Think about the color blue. Now look around you. Note how blue suddenly jumps out at you. If you had not been looking for it, you probably would not have noticed it.

Philosopher John Dewy said, "A problem well stated is a problem half-solved." This is why the creative brief is so important. It helps define what the creatives are looking for. The creatives typically start working on the message strategy during the Explorer stage because it, too, helps them define what they are looking for.

To get their creative juivces flowing, most copywriters and art directors maintain an extensive library of advertising books and trade magazines. Many also keep a tickler (or swipe) file of ads they like that might give them direction.

Brainstorm

As Explorers, the art director and copywriter look first for lots of ideas. One technique is brainstorming, a process (conceived by Alex Osborn, the former head of BBDO) in which two or more people get together to generate new ideas. A brainstorming session of sudden inspirations. To succeed, it must follow a couple of roles; all ideas are above criticism (no idea is "wrong"), and all ideas are written down for later review. The goal is to record any inspiration that comes to mind, a process that psychologists call free association, allowing each new idea an opportunity to stimulate another.

Von Oech suggests other techniques for Explorers: leave your own turf (look in outside fields and industries for ideas that could be transferred); look at the big picture (stand back and see what it all means); do not overlook the obvious (the best ideas are right in front of you); do not be afraid to stray (you might find something you were not looking for); and stake your claim to new territory (write down any new ideas or they will be lost).

The Explorers job is to find new information that they can use when they take on the next role: the Artist, which will be discussed in the next post. To be effective explorers, they must exercise flexibility, courage, and openness.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 382-384*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 31)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part B)

by

Charles Lamson

How Creativity Enhances Advertising (part i)

Through the powerful use of imagery, copy, and even humor, creativity enhances advertising. But what exactly is creativity or the creativity process? What is the role of creativity in advertising? And where does creativity come from?

What Is Creativity?

To create means to originate, to conceive a thing or idea that did not exist before. Typically, though, creativity involves combining two or more previously unconnected objects or ideas into something new. As Voltaire said, "Originality is nothing but judicious imitation."

Many people think creativity springs directly from human intuition. But as we will see in the next couple of posts, the creative process is actually a step-by-step procedure that can be learned and used to generate original ideas.

The Role of Creativity in Advertising

Advertisers often select an agency specifically for its creative style and its reputation for coming up with original concepts. While creativity is important to advertising's basic mission of informing, persuading, and reminding, it is vital to achieving the boom factor.

Creativity Helps Advertising Inform

Advertising's responsibility to inform is greatly enhanced by creativity. Good creative work makes advertising more vivid, and many researchers believe vividness attracts attention, maintains interest, and stimulates consumers' thinking. A common technique is to use plays on words and verbal or visual metaphors, such as "Like a rock," "Fly the friendly skies," or "You're in good hands." The metaphor describes one concept in terms of another, helping the reader or viewer learn about the product.

Other creative techniques can also improve an ad's ability to inform. Advertising writers and artists must arrange visual and verbal message components according to a genre of social meaning so that readers or viewers can easily interpret the ad using commonly accepted symbols. For example, aesthetic cues such as lighting, pose of the model, setting, and clothing style can instantly signal viewers nonverbally whether a fashion ad reflects a romantic adventure or a sporting event.

Creativity Helps Advertising Persuade

The ancients created legends and myths about gods and heroes---symbolic for humankind's instinctive primordial longings and fears---to affect human behavior and thought. To motivate people to some action or attitude, advertising copywriters have created new myths and heroes, like the Jolly Green Giant and the Energizer Bunny. A creative story or persona can establish a unique identity for the product in the collective mindset, a key factor in helping a product beat the competition.

Creativity also helps position a product on the top rung of consumers' mental ladders. The higher form of expression creates a grander impression. And when such an impression spreads through the market, the product's perceived value also rises.

To be persuasive, an ad's verbal message must be reinforced by the creative use of nonverbal message elements. Artists govern the use of these elements (color, layout, and illustration, for example) to increase vividness. Research suggests that, in print media, information graphics (colorful explanatory charts, tables, and the like) can raise the perception of quality for some readers. Artwork can also stimulate emotions. Color, for example, can often motivate consumers, depending on their cultural background and personal experiences (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 The Psychological Impact of Color (Click to enlarge)

Creativity Helps Advertising Remind

Imagine using the same invitation, without any innovation, to ask people to try your product again and again, year after year. Your invitation would become stale very quickly---worse, it would become tiresome. Only creativity can transform your boring reminders into interest, entertaining advertisements. Nike is proof. Several commercials in a Nike campaign never mentioned the company name or even spelled it on the screen. The ads told stories. And the only on-screen cue identifying the sponsor was the single, elongated "swoosh" logo inscribed on the final scene. A Nike spokesperson said the ads were not risky "given the context that the Nike logo is so well known." We are entertained daily by creative ads---for soft drinks, snacks, and cereals---whose primary mission is simply to remind us to indulge again.

Creativity Puts the "Boom" in Advertising

Successful comedy also has a boom factor---the punchline. It is that precise moment when the joke culminates in a clever play on words or turn of meaning, when the audience suddenly gets it and guffaws its approval.

Good punchlines are the result of taking an everyday situation, looking at it creatively, adding a bit of exaggeration, and then delivering it as a surprise. Great advertising often does the same thing.

In advertising, though, the boom does not always have to be funny. It may come from the gentle emotional tug of a Hallmark Cards commercial, or the breathtaking beauty of a magnificent nature photograph for Timberland shoes. In a business-to-business situation, it may come from the sudden recognition of how a new high-tech product can improve workplace productivity. In short, the boom factor may come from many sources. But it always requires the application of creativity.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 377-379*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 30)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part A)

by

Charles Lamson

Formulating Advertising Strategy: The Key to Great Creative

Let's look at the advertising (or creative) strategy Vitro and Robertson developed for Taylor Guitar. Then we will see how they translated that into a message strategy and a big idea, and, finally, into effective ads.

Advertising strategy consists of four elements: the target audience, the product concept, the communications media, and the advertising message.

What is Taylor Guitar's target audience? Taylor's target audience comprises consumers, and centers of influence. Resellers (or retailers) are Taylor's primary market---that is who the company sells to. So Taylor definitely wants them to see its advertising. Because Taylor guitars are handcrafted from the highest quality of materials, they command premium prices. Therefore, the primary target audience also includes a segment of the retailer's customers---serious musical enthusiasts who play acoustic guitars and are willing to spend $2,000 to $5,000 for a superior instrument. Professional guitarists typically circumvent the normal distribution channels, so there was no reason to include them in the target market. However, they may act as centers of influence (or key influentials), in which case they would be a secondary target audience for the advertising.

What is Taylor Guitar's product concept? Taylor's acoustic guitars are top-quality, handcrafted musical instruments made from the finest woods available. They are designed and constructed differently from other guitars, which gives them a unique, distinguishable sound quality---a certain ring in the tone---that customers like. In other words, there is something special about a Taylor guitar that makes it worth more.

What  communications media does Taylor use? The company has a small budget and uses limited media. It advertises in special-interest consumer magazines targeted to well-defined segments of the guitar enthusiast market. The magazines offer high-quality reproduction and color and are read by members of the trade as well as professional musicians. The company also produces high-quality brochures and price lists that detail the instruments' features and construction.

What is Taylor Guitar's advertising message? In its simplest terms, message strategy is determined by what a company wants to say and how it wants to say it. Although Taylor was well-known in the trade for ts quality guitars, the word was not filtering down to the larger guitar-buying public. The goal (or message objective) was to get prospective customers to ask for the Taylor name when they shopped for a guitar. To accomplish this, the ads had to exude an aura of quality. So the agency creative team chose a message strategy that was simple yet thoughtful, entertaining, credible, and most of all, distinctive.

The agency and client team must understand and agree to these four elements of the advertising strategy---target, product, media, and message---before any creative work begins. In most agencies, the account management group is responsible for developing the advertising strategy. In some large agencies, account planners spend a great deal of time researching the market. Then they compare the advertising strategy with input from, and the approval of, account management. When the strategy-development task is completed, the account people prepare a creative brief to communicate the strategy to the creative department.

Writing the Creative Brief

With the overall advertising objectives and strategy determined, the account managers (or often, account planners) write a brief statement of the intended advertising strategy. The creative brief serves as the creative team's guide for writing and producing the ad. In some agencies, it may be referred to as a copy platform, a work plan, or a copy (or creative) strategy document. Regardless of the name, it is a simple written statement of the most important issues to consider in the development of the ad or campaign: the who, why, what, where, and when.

• Who? Who is the prospect in terms of behavioristic, geographic, demographic, and/or psychographic qualities? What is the typical prospect's personality?
• Why? Does the consumer have specific wants or needs the ad should appeal to? Advertisers use two broad categories of appeals. Rational appeals are directed at consumer's practical, functional need for the product or service; emotional appeals target the consumer's psychological, social, or symbolic needs.
• What? Does the product have special features to satisfy the consumer's needs? What factors support the product claim? How is the product positioned? What personality or image (of the product or the company) can be or has been created? What percieved strengths or weaknesses need to be dealt with?
• Where and when will these messages be communicated? Through what medium? What time of year? What area of the country?
• Finally, what style, approach, or tone will the campaign use? And generally, what will the copy say?

The creative brief identifies the benefits to be presented to consumers, but it does not cover execution. How the benefits will be presented is the creative team's job.

Procter & Gamble and Leo Burnett use a simple creative brief with three parts.

1. An objective statement. A specific, concise description of what the advertising is supposed to accomplish or what problem it is supposed to solve. The objective statement also includes the name of a brand and a brief, specific description of the target consumer. For example: Advertising will convince serious guitar players that the Taylor guitar is a distinctive, high-value instrument and persuade them to consider it the next time they are in the market for an acoustic guitar.
2. A support statement. A brief description of the evidence that backs up the product promise; the reason for the benefit. For example: Support is that Taylor guitars are hand crafted from the finest woods available, which gives the instrument a distinctive, sweet sound.
3.  A tone or brand character statement. A brief statement of either the advertising's tone or the long-term character of the brand. Tone statements are short-term emotional descriptions of the advertising strategy. Brand character statements are long-term descriptions of the enduring values of the brand---things that give the product brand equity. A tone statement might be phrased: The tone of Taylor Guitar advertising should convey beauty, quality, sophistication, and value, with just a touch of good-natured humor. On the other hand, a brand character statement might be phrased: Taylor Guitars---handcrafted from the finest materials to give the sweetest sound.

The delivery of the creative brief to the creative department concludes the process of developing an advertising strategy. It also marks the beginning of the next step: the advertising creative process, in which the creative team develops a message strategy and begins the search for the big idea. After writing the first ad, the copywriter should review the copy platform to see if the ad measures up on the resonance and relevance dimensions. If it does not, the team must start again.

Elements of Message Strategy

The creative team is responsible for developing creative ideas for ads, commercials and campaigns and for executing them. From the information given by the account team (in the creative brief) and any additional research it may perform, the creative team develops the message strategy. This may actually occur before, during, or after the creative process of searching for the big idea.

The message strategy (or rationale) is a sample description and explanation of an ad campaign's overall creative approach---what the advertising says, how it says it, and why. The message strategy has three components:

• Verbal. Guidelines for what the advertising should say; considerations that affect the choice of words; and the relationship of the copy approach to the medium (or media) that will carry the message.
• Nonverbal. Overall nature of the ad's graphics; any visuals that must be used; and the relationship of the graphics to the media in which the ad will appear.
• Technical. Preferred execution approach and mechanical outcome, including budget and scheduling limitations (often governed by the media involved); also any mandatories---specific requirements for every ad, such as addresses, logos, addresses and slogans.

Because all these elements of the message strategy intertwine, they typically evolve simultaneously. Language affects symmetry, and vice versa. However, the verbal elements are the starting point for many advertising campaigns.

The message strategy helps the creative team sell the ad or the campaign concept to the account managers and helps the managers explain and defend the creative work to the client. Of course, the message strategy must conform to the advertising strategy outlined in the creative brief or it will probably be rejected.

In the development of message strategy, certain basic questions need to be answered: How is the market segmented? How will the product be positioned? Who are the best prospects for the product? Is the target audience different from the target market? What is the key consumer benefit? What is the product's (or company's) current image? What is the product's unique advantage? At this point, research data are important. Research helps the creative team answer these questions.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 373-377*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 29)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process

(part A)

by

Charles Lamson

The Creative Team: The Authors and Encoders of Advertising

In the marketing communications process,` a source encodes a message that is sent through a channel to be decoded by a receiver. The source is multidimensional, comprising a sponsor, an author, and a persona. In advertising, the encoding of messages---the conversion of mental concepts into symbols---is the responsibility of the creative team. While the client is the sponsor of the advertising, the creative team is the author.

Each member of the creative team plays an essential role. The team's copywriter develops the verbal message, the copy (words) within the ad spoken by the imaginary persona. The copywriter typically works with an art director who is responsible for the nonverbal aspect of the message, the design, which determines the visual look and intuitive feel of the ad. Together they work under the supervision of a creative director (typically, a former copywriter or art director), who is ultimately responsible for the creative product---the form the final ad takes. As a group, the people who work in the creative department are generally referred to as creatives, regardless of their specialty.

The creative team's taste, talent, and conceptual skill determine an ad's overall character and its ability to communicate.

The next couple of posts will focus on the creative process: where it comes from, how it is developed, and how it relates to a company's marketing and advertising strategy. But to get a proper perspective on creativity, we need to understand the characteristics of great advertising. What is it? Where does it come from?


What Makes Great Advertising?

We have all seen ads we love, and we have all seen ads we hate. The ads we love we refer to as "great." And it is only greatness that we are concerned with here. But what do we really mean when we say an ad is great?

This is a very important question, since research indicates that "ad liking" has a tremendous impact on "ad success." No wonder, then, that agencies want to author, and advertisers want to sponsor, ads that people like. But is liking all that is required for an ad to be great?

Whether the "ad" is a billboard, a page in a magazine, a TV or radio spot, or a hot new Web site, great ads do have certain commonalities. We can probably lump most of these characteristics into two dimensions of greatness: audience resonance and strategic relevance.



The Resonance Dimension

To resonate means to echo, reverberate, or vibrate. It also means to boom, ring, or chime. And that is what a great ad does with the audience. It rings their chimes. It echoes in their ears. It reverberates and gives them good vibes. It resonates.

Why? Because of the boom factor.

When a cannon goes "boom," it gets your attention---right now! The same is true with an ad. It is the surprise element---the "aha," the "gee," or the "wow." But in advertising, it not only gets your attention, it catches your imagination. In this sense, it is like great art. It invites you to stop and think about the message. In fact, often it does not tell you as much as it invites you to tell yourself.

In a Taylor Guitar ad, they juxtapose the image of a box with a musical instrument. They are both made of wood. So they are the same, but oh so different! We recognize this at an instinctive level, and we are left to think about it. More important, we associate the profundity of the question with the company that thinks to pose it. We like it, and we respect Taylor for it. The ad resonates.

Other ads may resonate for different reasons. In some of the classic cases, it is simply the headline that resonates---so much that it becomes a part of our daily lexicon. Memorable classics include California Milk Processors' "Got Milk," and Budweiser's "Whassup?!"

Negatively originated motives, such as problem avoidance or problem removal, provide the foundation for many great ads. These resonate with the audience by being highly informational, by offering relief from some real or perceived problem (FedEx's "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."). Other motives are positively originated as consumers seek sensory gratification, intellectual stimulation, or social approval. Here, ads may achieve greatness by being transformational, using positive reenforcement to offer a reward ("Be all you can be.").

Unfortunately, most ads, whether they are informational or transformational, fail to resonate with the audience. Why? Because they lack a "big idea" or they fall down in the execution. The copy may be uninspiring, the visual may be less than attractive, or the production techniques used may be low quality. From the consumer's point of view, these ads are just a waste of time.

From the advertiser's point of view, ads that do not resonate are a terrible waste of money. In fact, for them the greatness of the advertising is in the "bang per buck." Great ads give their sponsors much more advertising effectiveness per dollar spent. Given this reality, isn't it amazing how much money invested in ads that are simply not great?

The Relevance Dimension

The second dimension of great advertising is strategic relevance. An ad may get you to think, but what does it get you to think about? A classic example is the old Alka-Seltzer ad "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." It captured everyone's imagination, but it reinforced the wrong feeling---the feeling of the problem (overeating) rather than the solution (Alka-Seltzer). The agency lost the account.

While the text and the visual carry the ad message, behind the creative team's choice of tone, words, and ideas lies an advertising strategy. When the ad is completed, it must be relevant to the sponsor's strategy, or it will fail---even if it resonates with the audience. In other words, it may be great entertainment, but not great advertising. Great advertising also has a strategic mission to fulfill. In fact, strategy is the key to great creative work.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 371-373*

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How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 28)

Sponsorships and Events (part B)

by

Charles Lamson

While there are many avenues and events available for sponsorship, most of them are grouped into six categories: sports; entertainment; causes; the arts; festivals, fairs, and annual events; causes, arts and culture; and venue marketing. 

Sports Marketing

Sports marketing includes everything from the Olympics to NASCAR racing to professional athletic leagues. Companies do not have to be big multinationals to reap rich rewards from sponsorships---if they do it properly.

By buying the rights to serve Gatorade on the sidelines of professional basketball and football games, that brand has received more credibility than any television ad could provide, at a fraction of the cost. During every game, TV cameras show pros drinking the product in big Gatorade cups. And it is clear that they are doing it because they want to, not because their agent told them to.

In hotly contested markets, the giants in their fields fight over sponsorship rights. Nike battles Adidas, Coke spars with Pepsi, Kodak runs up against Fuji, and Visa struggles against American Express. This has certainly contributed to the rising costs of sponsorships. 

Many sports events are strictly local and threfore cost much less while giving the sponsor closer access to attendees and participants. Firms with modest event-marketing budgets, for example, use options ranging from local golf tournaments and tennis matches to surfing contests.

An increasingly popular promotion is the company-sponsored sports event. The event can serve as an effective focal point for an IMC (integrated marketing communications) campaign if it ties the company to the local community hosting the event as well as to the regional or national audience. But without a concerted effort to tie an event to other marketing communications activities like a currently running ad campaign, the money spent on sponsorship is generally wasted.

Some companies associate their names with existing events. Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, Sony, and T-Mobile, for instance, are the "gold" sponsors of ESPN's Winter X Games and regularly renew their sponsorships (2005).

But controversy often swirls around big sports sponsorships. The most controversial practice is ambush marketing, a promotional strategy nonsponsors use to capitalize on the popularity or prestige of an event or property by giving the false impression that they are sponsors. Ambush marketing techniques like buying up all the billboard space around an athletic stadium, are often employed by the competitors of the property's official sponsor. Fuji did this to Kodak in Nagano. One of the reasons this works is because people are often confused about who the official sponsors actually are---again, the problem is clutter. Just because a company advertises on the Olympic broadcast, for instance, does not mean it is an official sponsor. Ambush marketers take advantage of this.

Sports marketing is now a worldwide phenomenon. In Latin America, sponsorship of soccer teams has grown dramatically. In Argentina alone, it rose from $820,000 to more than $25 million in 2000. Out of 20 Argentine soccer teams, 17 now have official sponsors. The largest local sponsor is Quilmes beer, which paid $3 million to have its logo on the shirts of the country's most popular team, the Boca Juniors.

Entertainment

After sports marketing, the largest area of sponsorship is entertainment, which includes things like concert tours, attractions, and theme parks. For instance, numerous attractions at Disneyland and Disney World, are sponsored by major corporations such as GE, AT&T, ARCO, Kodak, and Carnation.

Brands even sponsor entire tours. The Vans Warped Tour has a rotating lineup of many bands with multiple stages and compounds sponsored by other companies, like Eastpak. Booths and tents at the festival provide ample targeted-marketing opportunities for cosponsors like Wells Fargo and Vagrant Records.

Festivals, Fairs, and Annual Events

One of the largest annual events in the state of Michigan is the National Cherry Festval in Traverse City. Held every year around the Fourth of July, it boasts an impressive lineup of events and promotional activities that drives both attendance and sponsor visibility. Events include, band parades, races, concerts, tournaments, an antiques show, an air show, Native American exhibits, and much more. Among the official sponsors Pepsi, Ford, Toyota, Intel, BankOne, and Sony.

Similarly, annual events such as business-to-business trade shows attract large numbers of sponsors as well as exhbitors because of the economics of being able to talk to prospects and customers in the same place at the same time.

Sometimes, the competition to sponsor an event even comes from within the same company. The Florida Renaissance Festival, for instance, received calls from three AT&T entities inquiring about sponsorship availabilities. Two calls were from different departments and the third was from one of AT&T's agencies. The festival ultimately signed with the phone company's Hispanic marketing department.

Causes

Sponsorships of charity events and educational institutions is a tried-and-true PR activity that often fits with the IMC strategy of mission marketing. A number of large corporations (including Chevrolet, AT&T, American Airlines, Pepsi, and Kodak) cosponsored the Live Aid concerts, for instance. 

A vice president for corporate relations at one large event sponsor, referred to mission marketing activities as "enlightened self self-interest." People appreciate the fact that the business does not really get anything tangible out of them to put in the bank.

Health care marketers such as hospitals, HMOs, and managed-care companies are increasing their sponsorship activities. 

Arts and Culture

Symphony orchestras, chamber music groups, art museums, and theater companies are always in desperate need of funding. What that means is that this is still a relatively untapped area, and it provides outstanding sponsorship and underwriting opportunities for both national and local firms interested in audiences on the highest end of the income scale.

Unfortunately, this group is likely to be hardest hit by any legislation aimed at ending tobacco sponsorships. For instance, the Gallaher Group, Northern Ireland's largest cigarette manufacturer regularly donates about a million pounds (U.S. $1.5M) to the Ulster Orchestra, the flagship of the arts in Northern Ireland. In the face of government plans to curtail tobacco advertising and sponsorships, the Association for Business Sponsorship for the Arts gave Gallaher its highest award for outstanding corporate citizenship, citing it for investing in the cultural life of the committee in which it operates.

Venue Marketing

Finally, an area not covered by IEG's report is venue marketing, a form of sponsorship that links a sponsor to a physical site such as a stadium arena, auditorium or racetrack. In 2000, for instance, the Great American Insurance Company made a good name for itself by offering the city of Cincinnati about $75 million over 30 years for the naming rights to the baseball stadium on the Ohio River. The city accepted the offer and since 2003, the Cincinnati Reds have played at the Great American Ballpark.

Likewise, Denver has Coors Field, and Charlotte North Carolina, has Ericson Stadium, Candlestick Park in San Francisco is now Monster Park. And SBC has put its name on San Francisco's baseball park. But what happens when sponsors with naming rights become a liability? When Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, the Houston Astros shelled out $2.1 million to buy back the naming rights to Enron Field. In 2002, the Astros found another sponsor, and Minute Maid Park was born.

Venue marketing is changing the economics of professional sports. Sponsorships help pay for stadium renovations and upgrades and may assist the home team in defraying the high cost of leasing. Many teams keep the money from their stadium luxury suites, stadium advertising, naming rights, and food and beverage concessions. Under the new economic rules, big stadium revenues are essential to signing big-name players and staying competitive.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 352-355*

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