The Creative and
Message Strategy
• 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
2/50
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
4/50
Creative Thinking
• Creative Roles
– Copywriters and art
directors develop the
creative concept and
draft the execution of the
advertising idea
• The Creative Person
Creative Characteristics
• Problem solving
• Ability to visualize
• Openness to new
experiences
• Conceptual thinking
– In advertising, creativity
is both a job description
and a goal
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Creative Strategy
• Where the art and
• Creative strategy
science of advertising
– What the
come together
advertisement says
• A Big Idea must be
– Creative
– Strategic
– message strategy
• Creative execution
– How it is said
6/50
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
9/50
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
10/50
Facets of Creative Strategy
Touch Emotions
• Highlight psychological
attraction of the product
to the target audience
through emotional
responses
Persuade
• Appeal
• Selling premises
• Conviction
11/50
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
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Straightforward
Demonstration
Comparison
Problem
solving/Problem
avoidance
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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
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Strategy Decisions
The problem
The objectives
The target market
Positioning strategy
Type of creative
strategy
Selling premise
Execution suggestions
14/50
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
15/50
The Go/No-Go Decision
• Assess the effectiveness of the ad’s creative
features
– Structural analysis
– Copy testing
16/50
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
17/50
Copywriting:
The Language of Advertising
•
Four types of ads in which words are crucial
1.
2.
3.
4.
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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
18/50
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
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Practical Tips
Be succinct
Be single-minded
Be specific
Get personal
Keep a single focus
Be controversial
Be original
Use variety
Use imaginative
description
19/50
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
20/50
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
21/50
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
22/50
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
23/50
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
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Slogan Techniques
Direct address
A startling or
unexpected phrase
Rhyme, rhythm,
alliteration
Parallel construction
Cue for the product
Music
24/50
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
25/50
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
26/50
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
27/50
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
28/50
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
29/50
How to Write Radio Copy
• Voice
• Music
• Sound effects
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Radio Guidelines
Keep it personal
Speak to listener’s
interests
Wake up the inattentive
Make it memorable
Include call to action
Create image transfer
30/50
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
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Video
Audio
Voice-over
Off camera
Other TV Tools
The copywriter must
describe all of these in
the TV script
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Talent
Announcers
Spokespersons
Character types
Celebrities
32/50
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
33/50
Planning the TV Commercial
• Copywriters must plan
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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
34/50
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
35/50
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
36/50
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
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Games
Pop-up windows
Daughter windows
Side frames
37/50
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
38/50