Message Strategies in Advertising

Science vs. Art in Marketing

• Effective marketing communication is a combination of logic and creativity.
• Advertisements translate planning decisions into original, attention-grabbing, and memorable creative ideas.
• Messages should connect with the target audience in relevant and unexpected ways.
• Science (persuasion) and art (creativity) are both essential for effective advertising.

Key Players in Creativity

• Creativity results from teamwork between copywriters, art directors, creative directors, account planners, and broadcast directors.
• Team members collaborate to create concepts, words, and picture ideas.
• The "Three Ps" of innovation should be considered:
  • Place: The physical environment of the agency, office, or workspace affects creativity.
  • Person: How creative individuals think and behave influences the creative process.
  • Process: The actual advertising campaign or creative product itself.

The Role of Creativity

• Creativity is a form of problem-solving.
• In advertising, creativity serves as both a job description and an objective.

The Creative Brief

• The creative strategy phase combines the art and science of advertising.
• A successful marketing communication idea must be creative (original, different, novel, unexpected) and strategic (right for the product/target, meeting ad objectives).
• Creative/message strategy defines what the ad says, while execution is how it's said.
• The creative brief outlines the creative strategy including key execution details.
• The account planner prepares the brief to summarize basic marketing/advertising strategy.
• Account planners give direction to creative teams for creative concept development.

Key points in a creative brief:

• Problem: Clearly defines the issue that advertising can address.
• Target audience: Identifies the audience and key insights about attitudes and behavior.
• Brand position: Defines the brand's place in the market and includes relevant branding decisions.
• Communication objectives: Specifies the desired audience response to the message.
• Proposition/selling idea: Details what motivates the target audience to respond.
• Media considerations: Indicates where and when the message should be delivered.
• Creative direction: Offers suggestions to stimulate the desired consumer response.

Message Objectives (Facets Model of Effects)

• See/hear: Create attention, awareness, interest, and recognition.
• Feel: Evoke emotions and create feelings.
• Think/understand: Deliver information, aid understanding, and create recall.
• Connect: Establish brand identity and associations, transforming the product.
• Believe: Change attitudes, create conviction, and preference.
• Act/do: Stimulate trial, purchase, repurchase, or another form of action.

Targeting

• Targeting decisions are a key component of message strategy.
• Example: The target audience for the "Road Crew" campaign was men aged 21-34 with a high school education in blue-collar jobs
• Research showed the group was responsible for alcohol-related crashes as well as tending to worry about driving home drunk.

Branding and Positioning

• Advertising creates brand salience, making the brand visible, present in the marketplace, known to consumers and relevant to their interests.
• Brand positions and images are built through message strategies and advertising executions.

Message Strategies

• The strategic approach involves considering "Head & Heart" and "Hard & Soft Sell."

Strategic Approach

• Head and Heart:

  • "Head" strategies use rational, cognitive (thinking) objectives.
  • "Heart" strategies use emotional, affective (feeling) objectives.
  • These strategies can refer to both hard-sell and soft-sell approaches.

• Frazer's Six Creative Strategies address message situations, with approaches to message strategy:

  • Preemptive: Using a common attribute/benefit, the brand gets there first.
  • Unique selling proposition: Create a distinct difference for consumer benefit.
  • Brand image: Superiority claim based on extrinsic factors and psychological differences.
  • Positioning: Establishes a place in the consumer's mind.
  • Resonance: Connect with situations, lifestyles, and emotions of the target audience.
  • Affective/anomalous: Emotional, ambiguous messages breaking through indifference.

• Hard Sell: Uses an informational message to touch the mind and create a response.

• Soft sell: Uses emotional appeals or images to create a response based on feelings

• Taylor's Six-Segment Strategy Wheel divides strategies into:

  • The transmission view ("head" strategies): claim-based, transports info, is rational, product-focused.
  • The ritual view ("heart" strategies): image-based, involves sharing and emotion and experience.

Strategic Formats

• Lectures: Verbally given series of instruction in a compact and efficient way using a "talking head."
• Dramas: Deliver funny or serious stories about the world using characters and lessons.

Psychological Appeals

• Use emotional (heart) to make the product attractive/interesting using:
  • Security
  • Esteem
  • Fear
  • Sex
  • Sensory pleasure

Selling Strategies

• These approaches use the head with a rational sales message.
  • A selling premise states the logic behind the offer.
  • Key features/attributes must always be identified.
  • A claim will always focus on product performance.

Other Rational Customer-Focused Strategies:

• Benefit: Describes what the product does for the user.
• Promise: States the benefit the user will get from the product.
• Reason why: Explains the logic behind the purchase.
• Unique selling proposition (USP): A benefit that is unique and important to the user.

Other Message Formulas:

• Straightforward message
• Demonstration
• Comparison
• Problem solution/avoidance
• Humor
• Slice-of-life
• Spokesperson
• Teasers
• Facets Model is used in identifying:
  • Get attention
  • Create interest
  • Resonate
  • Create believability
  • Are remembered
  • Touch emotions
  • Inform
  • Teach
  • Persuade
  • Create brand association
  • Drive action

Creative big ideas

• Original ideas formed from mentally combining pieces and relevant fragments.
• Concepting is the process of creating a new ad idea.
• The Big Idea: Creative concept that becomes focus.
• The "Road Crew" campaign name and the "Beats driving" slogan are both points that support clear communication.

The ROI of Creativity

• According to the DDB agency- an effective ad:
  • Is relevant for it's audience
  • Is original, fresh novel and unexpected
  • Has Impact and leaves an impression

The Creative Leap

• Divergent/"right-brain" thinking explores possibilities rather than using logic.
• Enourages thinking "outside the box".
• Is when a predictable strategy jumps to unhead of territory

Aspects of Highly Creative People

• They tend to be assertive and internally driven and self sufficient ad diciplines, taking risk,
• They pay less attention to group standards and their own skepticism and curiosity
• Are typically good: at solving problems, visualisation and with both conceptual views and new experiences

How to get an idea

• BBDO agencies can offer these steps
  • Immersuion- learning bout the problem through reasearch
  • Ideation: Looking at different problems from new angles
  • Trainfog: Don't give in to the urge to quit if you struggle at first
  • Incuabitoon: Let the subsconsious work on it
  • Illumination: Look for ideas when relaxed and doing something else
  • Evoluation: Does the idea work, is it strategy

Brainstorm

• A group of no more that 10 people work together to create more ideas than one person can come up with alone.
• Maintain positivy and defer udgement, do not distract and take note of everything.
• Once all avenues are extuasted, picking the proper ideas is much easiert

To increase the likely hood of creating a great idea, try

• Using "What if?"
• Unexpected assosciation
• Make it obvious
• catchy/ unexpected phrasing
• Playing with words
• Metaphors
• Twisted, exaggerated or familiar things
• To prevent unoriginal/ low brow ideas, don't copy and don't be tastless

Managing Creative Strategies include Extension, Adapting & Evaluation

• "Legs" are what happens when an umbrella concept has potential
  • Adapation is key: Campaign standardisation should only happen if the target and objectives are closely alligned.
  • Executions may require a new culture or target audience
  • It must be clear if a copy needs testing if its "on strategy" - If the copy is effective and engages a target audience, its good copy
• Narrative/ Claim strength and effectiveness
• Copytesting: - Is a method to evalyate copies - be warned of copies that are "too creative" because this can effect memorability of the produt its self

Copywriting

• Advertising benefits heavily from the visual aspect but this greatly compliments crucial words. It is most imporatn in - complicated texts that require explanation and a high understanding of the target audience - Ads that try to convey abstract qualities through explantions and high involvement

• Copywriting is both the shapring and sculpting of maretin comminications

• It is effective in english or even literature bacgrounds with adaptable voices

Names are important!

    - In marketing communications, the brand and company name are the most important
    - These names of products should promote "freshnes" Mr DIY, farm fresh, 7 eleven

Advertisments benefit from simple use and directly adressing a tightly focused text

• Tone of voice and grammar are importatn tools
• Tighter writing = more understood writing
• Remember to make a brand unique and original

Strategy Imperative

• The straetry statey starts wirh the chent brief or with planners from agency
• Evy very weel wiritten copy needs to sing stratehy and deliever an audiace
• the copy needs to effectiovelsy achieve its stated goals

The production chain of print copy in order is displays, and then bodies of work

• The headiness are what gives the main message, in a manner of a visual concept - Targets is attatched to the best profieles - "stop ad grab" the viewers attention - The identity of the product/brand are all part of "start" and "change scanning" techniques

The types of action are done either directly or in an indirect manner

• This is often done wirh " assertions, commands, how to, or news annicment"
• Indirections build the brands image, and are puzzles and associations usually
• Other things that come witj display copys area capptions and subheadlines

What is a slogan to advertisements?

    - Short, catchy phrases that reinforce the brand identity
    - They are repeated and used to wrap creatove ideas
    - They beneift from  direct address, unexpected phrases, or even rythm and music

Bodies pf work for print are there to maintain reader interest

and can beneift from sales pitches, summurizing and provideing explanations to the audience

• There is a large emphasis on getting womes' attention

• The straight foward and dialogue are great, and translation is best with working technologies - This requited a good lead and closmng "call to action'

Ad Production: How much of your work is print?

• More in magazines than directorys or newspapers

Assess your knowledge of advertising message strategies. This quiz covers techniques like prompting action, target audience considerations, building brand salience, leveraging psychological appeals, and using rational arguments to influence consumers.