And the Winner is?
Strategy: A word of military origin, refers to a plan of action to achieve a particular goal Creating an Advertising Strategy
My Favorite Strategy Quote “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter, Harvard Business School
Homework
Hard Work
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
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)
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!”
Odds Are That Will Happen
Unless You Join Me!
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
And I always will be I am the Shit!
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?
Tip #2 Sheehan’s third law will help every step of the way
Tip #3 Simplicity comes from complexity (weird huh?) Simplicity that does not is called ignorance (or stupidity)
Hunting and gathering
Complexity Transformation Device
This Class in a …
Core Questions How will your product stand out in the marketplace? Why should consumers choose it instead of a competing brand?
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.”
We are going to know everything there is to know about The Product The Consumer The Marketplace
And I mean everything!
Step One: The Product
Homework Due Next Class Two-page summary of everything you know about WD-40
How to Learn Find out what’s in it, how it works, what it does Call the 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!
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)?
Old and effective
New and effective
Who am I?
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.”
Let’s give these guys some big ideas
Steps Product insights/competition Target/target insight? Sell (proposition)?
What’s wrong with this? “64 calories of crisp, refreshing beer with a lemonade twist”
Steps Product insights/competition Target/target insight? Sell (proposition)? Creative Twist?
Big Idea of the Day