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Fueling Campaign Creative

Kishore Karumbaiah 1 Stories

Monday February 20, 2017 , 4 min Read

Fueling Campaign Creative

Content to Creativity : Effective campaign combines the best of both worlds

Advertising is an information, with hundreds of brands out there, constantly trying to push their messages. What comes out of this, is an information overload. To stand out of this clutter, creative concepts too need to stand out. Yes, this would sound like stating the obvious. In advertising, unique creative concepts are hygiene, if you would want your brand to succeed.

What you will be reading, is not about how to come up with creative ideas, but, how different things can aid creation, reinforce a concept and help brand connect with the audience in an unique, believable and engaging manner.

Getting out the right message :

Let’s start with the Single Minded Proposition (SMP). It’s important to discuss the SMP in times of advertising driven by technology. We live in times that clearly offers us great marketing tools. But we often get carried away by the plethora of choices out there to reach your consumer and forget what you wanted to say in the first place. Let’s get the basics right first. First, the messaging then the tactics. A focused brand message that can bring out a reaction or emotion is what can take a campaign from being good to great.

Data is 'fuel' for any campaign

It’s not just about the right messaging. It’s about how you tell the story. This is where Data comes in. We’ve heard it in numerous meetings, seen it in thousands of marketing literature - the role of data. What does it really mean? Does data means knowing there’s a cluster of people wanting your brand? Or how many people have responded positively or not to a marketing piece. Data is not just numbers giving you results of a hackneyed marketing stunt.

Data is an information leading us to insights quite effortlessly, which can fuel a brand campaign. For instance, you sell a bike to the young on style and performance, not just on mileage. Data tells us that it’s more motivating for a young customer to see the bike as attractive and powerful. Now data suggests to sell the same bike to a mature audience based on value for money features.

Reinforcing the creatives

Data gives a campaign longer shelf-life, different ways of talking to the audience, who exactly should the brand turn its megaphone towards and much more. Data has enabled creatives to reinforce the SMP with more stories to tell, insight led stories to target specific audiences and thereby creating stronger bonds between the brand and the viewer. The data part was on how marketers can customize an ad based on the audience, and tell them what they want to hear. Marketeers can even build campaigns around it. For example a global study by Dove found out that only 2% of the women find themselves beautiful. This lead to their longest running and most successful campaign - Real Beauty, which won all the awards as well. This, data can play an integral part in building a campaign.

The evolution of programmed creativity

Now we are seeing an evolution. How different things over times have made the campaign stronger. We have the messaging, the communication strategy, who we need to talk to. The question remains how do we get to them in the most effective manner. In a digital world, creativity too needs to evolved. Stepping up means programming creativity. What does that mean, Programmed Creativity? Giving variations to a creative based on customer journey and adapting the communications to match them. Not to forget using the right technology platform to reach them. Did that tickle your fancy? It should.

What programmatic creativity offers us is one of those James Bond cars that has all the right tools and weapons to get one through any tough situation. The dynamic banners, the programmatic ads, re-targeting ads all become the different knobs and the variations in communications/thoughts become the weapons. In short, programmatic creativity is enabling brands to have conversations with its audience in the truest sense. It’s not the same line that the brand is throwing out there. It changes with the audience who you are talking to. A Hello can become a Hi or a Wassup. The creative iterations a brand can have is virtually unlimited by being programmatic.

So what can really fuel a campaign? None of the above can fully fuel a campaign on its own. They all need to come together. A focused messaging from insightful data that can be iterated based on customer journeys. Creativity must work with technology to bring out meaningful, customized and relevant campaigns.