The Creative and Message Strategy

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• 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

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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

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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

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Creative Thinking

• 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

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Creative Strategy

• 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

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Message Objectives

1. Perception: create attention, awareness, interest, recognition, and recall

2. Cognitive: deliver information and understanding

3. Affective: touch emotions and create feelings

4. Persuasion: change attitudes, create conviction and preference

5. Transformation: establish brand identity and associations

6. Behavior: stimulate some form of action

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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

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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

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Facets of Creative Strategy

Drive Perception• Attention and awareness• Interest• Memory

Drive Cognition• These messages get

consumers to learn about products by focusing on a product’s features

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Facets of Creative Strategy

Touch Emotions• Highlight psychological

attraction of the product to the target audience through emotional responses

Persuade• Appeal• Selling premises• Conviction

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Facets of Creative Strategy

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

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Message Approaches

• Straightforward • Demonstration • Comparison• Problem

solving/Problem avoidance

• Humor• Slice of Life • Spokesperson • Teasers• Shockvertising

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Planning and Managing Creative Strategy

• 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

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Planning and Managing Creative Strategy

• 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

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The Go/No-Go Decision

• Assess the effectiveness of the ad’s creative features– Structural analysis– Copy testing

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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

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Copywriting: The Language of Advertising

• Four types of ads in which words are crucial1. If the message is complicated

2. If the ad is for a high-involvement product

3. Information that needs definition and explanation

4. If a message tries to convey abstract qualities

• Copywriter– person who shapes and sculpts the words in ads

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Advertising Writing Style

• 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

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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

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Copywriting for Print

• 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

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How to Write Headlines

• 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

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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

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How to Write Other Display Copy

• 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

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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

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Print Media Requirements

• 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

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Print Media Requirements

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

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Print Media Requirements

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

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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

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How to Write Radio Copy

• 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

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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

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Tools of Television Copywriting

• Video• Audio• Voice-over• Off camera• Other TV Tools• The copywriter must

describe all of these in the TV script

Talent• Announcers• Spokespersons• Character types• Celebrities

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Writing for the Web

• 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

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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