The Creative Side & Message Strategy

• Effective Advertising is a combination of Science and Art
– Creative Dimension Art
– Strategic Dimension Science
• Ideally an ad
– Needs to contain a persuasive message that convinces people to take action
– Must make a relevant connection with its audience and present a selling idea in an unexpected way

• “Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
– Stephen Leacock (Canadian Humorist)
• “Creative without strategy is called art; creative with strategy is called advertising.”
– Jeff I. Richards (Advertising Professor)
Relevant
Effective Ads
Original Impact

• Big Idea
– Idea is a new combination of thoughts
– New combinations comes by seeing new relationships
– Metaphors and analogies are great way to create relations
– Taking the creative leap!
– Creative concept that implements the advertising strategy so that the message is both attention grabbing and memorable
– It is expressed visually and verbally to express the complete thought
– Looks at things from a different, unobvious perspective
• Example: Got Milk Campaign
– Big Idea: People drink milk with certain foods and if it is unavailable, then they get frustrated

• Creative Idea
– A new combination of thoughts
– A thought that comes from placing 2 previously unrelated concepts together
– No one else has thought of it before
• Copycat Advertising!
– The original sin
• 80% Pakistani ads
• 50% American ads (John Eimy, Advertising Expert)
• Challenge
– Original + Interesting ideas (esp. for boring products)

To Do Not To Do
• Unexpected Twist
• Unexpected
Association
• Catchy Phrasing
• Play on Words
• Analogy / Metaphor
• Familiar & Strange
• The Common
• The Look-Alike
• Cliches
• The Tasteless

• A process of jumping from the strategy statement to an original idea that conveys the strategy in an interesting way
• Moving from the safety of a predictable strategy statement to an unusual idea that hasn’t been tried before
• Also called Creative Risk
• Copy Testing is done to control the risk

• Common technique is to use unusual association
– Strategic idea Tire durable and dependable
– Creative leap takes to family protection
– Creative Idea Baby sitting in a tire
• See the problem in a novel and unexpected way
Techniques
– Free Association
– Divergent Thinking
– Analogies and Metaphors
– Right Brain Thinking

• Creative Aerobics
• It’s a thought starter/idea generating process
• Head (Rational) and Heart (Emotional) appeals
• 4 Steps
– Facts
– New names
– Similarities
Left brain
Create names for the products look for similarities between dissimilar objects
– New Definitions Thanda boley to

• Creative people are high risk takers, original thinkers and creative problem solvers
• Independent, Assertive, Self Sufficient, persistent, Powerful egos, don’t care about opinions, have inborn skepticism and strong curiosity
• Creative Director and Team
• Creative Leap- Idea
• Art Director
• Creative Leap-Execution
Characteristics
• Problem Solving
• The Ability to Visualize
• Openness to new experiences
• Concept thinking

• How to get an Idea
• It’s a difficult process as requires lot of reading, study, analysis, testing, debates, discussions, traveling, meeting different people, watching movies, TV shows etc by creative people
• Steps:
– Immersion
– Ideation
Dig out everything about problem
Think of all the possible ways and develop as many ideas as possible
– Brainfog
– Incubation
– Illumination
– Evaluation
• Brain storming may give up relax and let subconscious think
Light bulb on and idea comes will it work as per strategy

• Creative Art
• Strategy Science
So a big idea must be
– creative (Original. Different, Novel and Unexpected)
– Strategic (right for the product & target, meets the advertising objectives)
• Advertising Creativity is about solving the communication problem

• Creative Strategy or Message Strategy is what the advertisement says
• Message Objectives
– What you want the message to accomplish
• Facet Model for message/advertisement effectiveness
– Perception Create Attention, Awareness, Interest,
Recognition and recall
– Cognitive
– Affective
– Persuasion
Deliver information and understanding
Touch Emotions and create feelings change attitudes, create conviction and preferences
– Association
– Behavior establish brand identity and associations
Stimulate trail, purchase, re-purchase,
• Head and Heart Strategies
• Hard and Soft Sell Strategies
• Lectures and Drama

• Objective
– Attention & Awareness
– Interest
– Memory
Stop
Pull
Stick
• Not only advertising have to stop (get attention) and pull
(create interest), it also has to stick (in memory)
• Techniques
– Shockvertising
– High Contrast
– Storytelling
– Jingles
– Clever slogans
– Colors, shapes, key visuals & brand characters

Messages that drive Cognition
(Information Strategy)
• Objective  Understanding
• Techniques
– Claims / Straightforward
– PODs & features
– Long copy ads / Infomercials

Messages that Persuade
(Persuasion Strategy)
• Objective  Attitudes; conviction & preference
• Techniques
– Selling premises
– Comparison
– Demonstration
– Problem-Solution/Problem Avoidance
– Slice of life
– Testimonials
– Endorsements
– Interview / audience involvement

Messages that touch Emotions
(Emotion Strategy)
• Objective  emotions, liking
• Techniques
– Humor / Comedy / Satire (Ufone)
– Sex & fear appeals (Motorazr)
– Fantasy & surrealism
– Song & dance

Messages That Transform a Product into a
Brand (Brand Strategy)
• Objective  Associations, brand meaning
• Techniques
– Brand characters
– Image & lifestyle ads
– Simple identity cues

• Objective  Trial, purchase, etc.
• Techniques
– Call-to-action
– Price ads
– Reinforcement / Reminder ads