Advertising Primer 5: Advertising Strategy

Many advertisers struggle to find the precise messages that will maximize the effectiveness of their ads. They blindly stab at solutions using various ad copy and formats, constantly shooting from the hip and hoping each new hunch will net them a bigger audience response. Unfortunately, gut-based ad strategy rarely works, and thus effective advertisers know they must take a more calculated approach.

Good advertising strategy begins with a well-written creative brief or copy platform. These are essentially variations of the same idea: putting on paper the details of what you are selling, who you are selling it to, and why they should buy from you instead of your competition.

Creative briefs and copy platforms inform copywriters, creative directors and designers as they create the actual advertisement. Maybe more importantly, these documents help the advertiser to precisely define their product and it's market so they can accurately direct the people who will produce their advertisements. Even the best creatives will rarely craft effective ads without a clear and complete understanding of the products they are advertising and the goals of the advertiser.

The creative brief will typically cover these key areas:

1. Objective: What are the goals of this advertisement/campaign? What are the specific desired outcomes? How will those outcomes be measured?

2. Target Audience: What group or groups is the advertiser trying to market to? What are their existing feelings about the product? What are their likes/dislikes? What matters to them? Are there any issues that should be handled carefully, or topics that should be avoided?

3. Positioning: How does the product compare to the competition? What are the differential advantages?

4. Message: What one thing should people remember about the product? What is the "Big Idea" behind the ad? What is the focus of sale?

• Message Details: What are the selling points behind the message?
• Message Supports: What are the facts that support the message? Are there studies, surveys, testimonials or reports that can be cited in the ad?

5. Creative Strategy: What is the best way to deliver the message to the audience? What sort of creative execution will be the most effective? What types of appeals: Emotional? Informational? Persuasive? Awareness? Will there be primarily a promotional or brand-image emphasis? What will be the tone or voice of the ad?

In addition, a creative brief will often detail the following production/scheduling issues:

• Required Items: What statements, logos, addresses, legal text or other information must be included?
• Schedule: When does the ad need to be finished? How many revisions are appropriate?
• Approvals: Who will give final authorization for the ad?

Legendary ad exec David Ogilvy said, "Give me the freedom of a tight briefing." A short creative brief is not necessarily a good brief, but the more concise and relevant the information, the easier it will be for producers and designers to understand the message and how to convey it clearly to the intended audience.

Some content for this series was derived from course notes from Introduction to Advertising, UC Berkeley Extension.