The Creative and Message Strategy

1. The Creative and Message Strategy

2. Define creative marketing communication and explain how it leads to a Big Idea • Describe the characteristics of creative people and their creative process • Discuss key creative strategy approaches • Outline the key parts of a creative brief

3. Art and Science of Creative • The ROI of effective advertising • Relevant, original, and has impact • The Big Idea (content idea) • Implements the advertising strategy so that the message is both attention getting and memorable • The Creative Leap • Jumping from the strategy statement to an original idea that conveys the strategy in an interesting way

4. Creative Thinking • Free association • Creates the juxtaposition of two seemingly unrelated thoughts • Divergent thinking • Uses exploration to search for all possible alternatives • Analogies and metaphors • Used to see new patterns or relationships • Right-brain thinking • Intuitive, nonverbal, and emotion-based thinking

5. Creative Roles Copywriters and art directors develop the creative concept and draft the execution of the advertising idea The Creative Person In advertising, creativity is both a job description and a goal Creative Characteristics Problem solving Ability to visualize Openness to new experiences Conceptual thinking Creative Thinking

6. Where the art and science of advertising come together A Big Idea must be Creative Strategic Creative strategy What the advertisement says message strategy Creative execution How it is said Creative Strategy

7. Message Objectives • Perception: create attention, awareness, interest, recognition, and recall • Cognitive: deliver information and understanding • Affective: touch emotions and create feelings • Persuasion: change attitudes, create conviction and preference • Transformation: establish brand identity and associations • Behavior: stimulate some form of action

8. Head and Heart Strategies • Two basic approaches to translating message objectives into strategy • Hard- and Soft-Sell strategies • Hard Sell: touches the mind and creates a response based on logic • Soft Sell: uses emotional appeals or images to create a response

9. Head and Heart Strategies • Most advertising messages use a combination of two basic literary techniques to reach the head or the heart of the consumer • Lectures and Dramas • Lecture: a serious instruction given verbally • Drama: relies on the viewer to make inferences

10. Drive Perception Attention and awareness Interest Memory Drive Cognition These messages get consumers to learn about products by focusing on a product’s features Facets of Creative Strategy

11. Touch Emotions Highlight psychological attraction of the product to the target audience through emotional responses Persuade Appeal Selling premises Conviction Facets of Creative Strategy

12. Transform Product Branding Image advertising is used to create a representation in the customer’s mind Associations Drive Action A signature that serves to identify the company or brand Also serves as a call to action if it gives direction to the consumer about how to respond Facets of Creative Strategy

13. Straightforward Demonstration Comparison Problem solving/Problem avoidance Humor Slice of Life Spokesperson Teasers Shockvertising Message Approaches

14. Creative brief Prepared by the account planner, summarizes the marketing and advertising strategy Vary in format, but must combine basic strategy decisions Strategy Decisions The problem The objectives The target market Positioning strategy Type of creative strategy Selling premise Execution suggestions Planning and Managing Creative Strategy

15. Message execution The form in which the ad’s message is presented Message tone Reflects the emotion or attitude behind the ad Global campaigns Require ad work that addresses advertising objectives and reflects the positioning strategy Usually desirable to adapt the creative execution to the local market Planning and Managing Creative Strategy

16. The Go/No-Go Decision • Assess the effectiveness of the ad’s creative features • Structural analysis • Copy testing

17. Copywriting • Explain the basic style used for copy writing • Describe the various elements of a print ad • Explain the message characteristics and tools of radio advertising • Discuss the major elements of television commercials • Discuss how Web advertising is written

18. Copywriting: The Language of Advertising • Four types of ads in which words are crucial • If the message is complicated • If the ad is for a high-involvement product • Information that needs definition and explanation • If a message tries to convey abstract qualities • Copywriter • person who shapes and sculpts the words in ads

19. Copy should be as simple as possible Should have a clear focus and try to convey only one selling point Every word counts; space and time are expensive Practical Tips Be succinct Be single-minded Be specific Get personal Keep a single focus Be controversial Be original Use variety Use imaginative description Advertising Writing Style

20. Advertising Writing Style • Tone of voice • To develop the right tone of voice, copywriters write to the target audience as if they were in a conversation • Grammar • Copywriters must know the rules of grammar, syntax, and spelling, though they will play with a word or phrase to create an effect • Adese • Formulaic advertising copy • Brag-and-boast copy

21. Display copy Elements readers see in their initial scanning Body copy Elements that are designed to be read and absorbed The Headline Key element in print advertising Conveys the main message Works with the visual to get attention and communicate creative concept Copywriting for Print

22. A good headline will attract those who are prospects The headline must work in combination with the visual to stop and grab the reader’s attention The headline must identify the product and brand, and start the sale The headline should lead readers into the body copy Direct-action headlines Indirect-action headlines How to Write Headlines

23. How to Write Other Display Copy • Captions • Have the second-highest readership and serve an information function • Subheads • Sectional headlines used to break up a large block of copy • Taglines • Short, catchy, memorable phrases used at the end of an ad to complete the creative idea

24. Slogans Repeated from ad to ad as part of a campaign or long-term brand identity effort Can also be used as taglines Slogan Techniques Direct address A startling or unexpected phrase Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration Parallel construction Cue for the product Music How to Write Other Display Copy

25. How to Write Body Copy • Body copy • The text of the ad • Primary role is to maintain the interest of the reader • Lead paragraph • The first paragraph of the body copy • Where people test the message and see if they want to read it • Closing paragraph • Refers back to the creative concept and wraps up the Big Idea • Call to action

26. All media in the print category all use the same copy elements The way these elements are used varies with the objective for using the medium Newspapers Copy does not have to work as hard to catch audience’s attention Straightforward and informative Writing is brief Print Media Requirements

27. Magazines Better quality ad production Ads can be more informative and carry longer copy Directories Use a headline that focuses on the service or store’s personality Little space for explanations Print Media Requirements

28. Posters and Outdoor Primarily visual Words try to catch the consumer’s attention and lock in ideas An effective poster marries words with visuals Product Literature Also called collateral Used in support of an ad campaign Typically a heavy copy format Print Media Requirements

29. How to Write Radio Copy • Must be simple enough for consumers to grasp, but intriguing enough to prevent them from switching the station • Ability of the listener to remember facts is difficult • Theater of the mind • The story is visualized in the listener’s imagination

30. Voice Music Sound effects Radio Guidelines Keep it personal Speak to listener’s interests Wake up the inattentive Make it memorable Include call to action Create image transfer How to Write Radio Copy

31. How to Write Television Copy • Moving action makes television so much more engaging than print • The challenge is to fuse the images with the words to present a creative concept and a story • Storytelling is one way copywriters can present action in a television commercial more powerfully than in other media

32. Video Audio Voice-over Off camera Other TV Tools The copywriter must describe all of these in the TV script Tools of Television Copywriting Talent • Announcers • Spokespersons • Character types • Celebrities

33. Planning the TV Commercial • What’s the Big Idea • What’s the benefit • How can you turn that benefit into a visual element • Gain the viewer’s interest • Focus on a key visual, Be single minded • Observe rules of good editing • Try to show the product

34. Planning the TV Commercial • Copywriters must plan • Length of the commercial • Shots in each scene • Key visual • Where and how to shoot the commercial • Scenes • Segments of action that occur in a single location • Key frames • The visual that sticks in one’s mind

35. Scripts and Storyboards • Script • The written version of the commercial’s plan • Prepared by the copywriter • Storyboard • The visual plan or layout of the commercial • Prepared by the art director

36. Writing for the Web • More interactive than any other mass medium • Copywriter challenged to attract people to the site and manage a dialogue-based communication experience • Banners • Most common form of online advertising

37. Web ads Create awareness and interest in a product and build a brand image Focus on maintaining interest Other Web formats Games Pop-up windows Daughter windows Side frames Writing for the Web

38. Global Environment • Language affects the creation of the advertising • Standardizing copy content by translating the appeal into the language of the foreign market is dangerous • Use bilingual copywriters who can capture the essence of the message in the second language • Back translation