And the Winner is?

1. And the Winner is?

3. Creating an Advertising Strategy Strategy: A word of military origin, refers to a plan of action to achieve a particular goal

4. My Favorite Strategy Quote “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter, Harvard Business School

5. Homework

6. Hard Work

7. Intense • All the work you do for all your classes now • Double it • Focused on your brand (every day) • Two weeks off vs. four months • You’ll take one

8. Exciting • You’ll learn things you never knew • You’ll have more fun than you ever imagined • You will grow • You will become renaissance men and women (no shit)

9. Wouldn’t it suck… • If you did all that and… • Your strategy was boring? • Your strategy didn’t break new ground • Your strategy didn’t make creative people say: “I’m so excited to work with this brief!”

10. Odds Are That Will Happen

11. Unless You Join Me!

12. Our Pledge • Repeat after me: • I will never, ever write a crappy brief • I will never, ever let my competition outwork me • …outthink me • …outinspire me

13. I am the Shit! And I always will be

14. Tip # 1 • Imagine (always) that you are the creative receiving this brief. • Does it help or hinder? • Is it boring or exciting? • Is it clear or muddy? • Single-minded or complicated?

15. Tip #2 • Sheehan’s third law will help every step of the way

16. Tip #3 • Simplicity comes from complexity (weird huh?) • Simplicity that does not is called ignorance (or stupidity)

17. Hunting and gathering

18. Complexity Transformation Device

20. This Class in a …

21. Core Questions • How will your product stand out in the marketplace? • Why should consumers choose it instead of a competing brand?

22. Page 13 “You can’t locate your target market until you know what you’re selling exactly, but you can’t know what exactly you ought to promise until you locate a target market and decipher its needs. Nor can you create an effective strategy until you analyze the marketplace positions your client’s competitors occupy and successfully differentiate your client’s product from theirs.”

23. We are going to know everything there is to know about • The Product • The Consumer • The Marketplace

24. And I mean everything!

25. Step One: The Product

26. Homework • Due Next Class • Two-page summary of everything you know about WD-40

27. How to Learn • Find out what’s in it, how it works, what it does • Call the 1-800 number • Surf the Web • Ask local dealers, merchants • Find out what people think (talk to some hard core users) • Learn who its competitors are and what they do (think broadly about this one) • Visit the factory!

28. Questions to ask • What is its greatest strength? • What do people have against it? • Why is this more than a commodity? • Who are the competition, exactly? • How does it fit into people’s lives (when do they use it)?

29. Old and effective

30. New and effective

31. Who am I?

32. Cliff Freeman “In the greatest, soundest, most creative advertising, the theater revolves around the product… Advertising that isn’t really about the product is almost always self indulgent crap.”

36. Let’s give these guys some big ideas

38. Steps • Product insights/competition • Target/target insight? • Sell (proposition)?

39. What’s wrong with this? • “64 calories of crisp, refreshing beer with a lemonade twist”

40. Steps • Product insights/competition • Target/target insight? • Sell (proposition)? • Creative Twist?

41. Big Idea of the Day