Advertising Creativity PDF

AS2006 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY In the advertising world, the “cre...

AS2006 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY In the advertising world, the “creation” of the campaign is a critical part of it. Why? Because that is the part where you must keep those creative juices in your brain flowing for you to come up with a solution for the client. The problem is, the client wants to sell their brand, make it memorable to the public, and eventually translate to sales. As a creative, it is your responsibility to ideate on how you will execute it. THE CONCEPTS Many people equate the term "idea" with the term "concept." In itself, a concept is an idea, but we are talking about advertising concepts here. Specifically, what is an advertising concept, and what are they for? Concepts are the abstract idea that represents the fundamental characteristics of what it represents. Ideas serve for, in some ways, reaching some goals and how we achieve them. Concepts have more to do with a question of "Existential," especially applied to people. It questions, "Why we are here," "Why we do what we do," "Where we came from," "Where we are going," "With whom we are going," etc. Ideas are used to try to shape that existence that we long for. In terms of brands, let us look at Nike as an example. Nike's reason for existing is to celebrate the athletes and sports. From their point of view, anyone with a body is an athlete, and everything they do has to be seen. All their campaigns have this guiding thread that has something to do with celebrating athletes. Their brand's concept is to make people want to move, and that what defines them. A brand that advocates sports and makes people want to move their bodies. The advertising idea in their concept is seen in a much simpler way. Image from https://www.businessinsider.com/25-nike-ads-that- shaped-the-brands-history-2013-8 Image from https://soak.co/nikes-you-cant-stop-us-campaign-goes-viral/ https://digitalcasestudies.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/nike-find-your-greatness/ 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 10  AS2006 The concept is a great creative idea that serves as an umbrella to the entire campaign or to the entire brand where an infinite number of ideas can fit in different media, and all will land in the same place. The concept is like the grandmother, and the ideas are the children. The concept differs from being maintained over time and is the main generator of the solidity of a campaign. On the other hand, the idea itself must be unique and authentic. The concept has liquidity that it that with the same thought can generate infinite ideas. THE WORLD OF IDEAS Once you are clear with what your concept is, you explore ideas. Ideas that you will come up with for advertising should go beyond formats. "Go Crazy with your ideas!" Going "crazy" with ideas means thinking out of the box, out of the ordinary, out of the usual, and something unique. THE IDEA AND THE CREATIVE CRITERIA "How good is the idea that you will carry out?" It is important that we recognize what is the best idea that we generate. What kind of idea is being asked? Sometimes there are very specific ideas, very executable, and other times they are ideas that we can call concepts. A larger idea that becomes the central axis of a brand or a campaign. There are many concepts, and many contradict each other. But we wanted to bring them all and tell them some of the things we think are important to start with mental clarity, especially when we must choose the best idea we have generated. Let us be critical of ourselves. Avoid conformism. We must have a lot of ideas that we get from brainstorming, so let us look for the best. Form your own criteria, but also expose yourself to the vision of others. "Do not stay alone with your own creative criteria, listen to others." From the advertising point of view, are the new associations between ideas and concepts that already exist, that usually what they do, produce very original solutions. The advertising idea, we call it "the bridge between logic and magic." Because it must be attractive enough for the public, it must be sufficiently disruptive for everyone to like it, want to see, and share. It must also be sufficiently assertive to meet the business objective of the client. Those are the characteristics of the idea we will have to choose from the list we have from the creative development. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 10  AS2006 STRATEGIES TO CREATE IDEAS 1. Mental Map – Mental map is like a mind map. It is a visual representation of your information, concepts, and ideas which you associate with one another. You need to have a central theme or central idea, then associate it with your other ideas. There are applications that you can use to create mental maps or mind maps like Mapps.ap, Mindmeister, Mindmup, and Miro Mind Map. 2. Oblique Strategies – It is a collection of cards created by Brian Eno, a famous musician, and producer. It will help you in some way to try to focus on the problem you want to solve from a different point of view. This will also help you overcome creative block. The cards have numerous proposals on how to re-approach the problem. You can download this on Google Play Store, and you can also access this online. 3. Narrator – This is raising your ideas through storytelling. This is you, sharing everything on your mind, what your objectives are, how you want to execute them, etc. 4. Observe n’ Research – One way of generating good ideas is observing what is happening around you every day. As the saying goes, “experience is the best teacher.” So, your experience and what you see around you can help you think and come up with a brilliant idea. Also, being curious will help you develop ideas because if you are curious about how something works, you will conduct research and learn how it works. TIPS FOR GENERATING IDEAS. 1. “It takes a lot of crap ideas to get to a good idea,” says David Guerrero, the creative chairman of the ad agency, BBDO Guerrero.. STOP telling yourself the following: “I don’t want to share my ideas because they might just make fun of it.” “I’m afraid my ideas are bad; they might just think I am not that smart enough,” “My ideas will not work for this project, etc.” So what does this mean? It means that, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged from voicing out your ideas. You have a lot of ideas, but no matter what it is, JUST SHARE YOUR IDEAS. Why? Who knows, one day, that one idea of yours can make a change for the better. 2. Always write your ideas down, even the bad ones, because sometimes good ideas come out from the bad ones. 3. Always get inspiration. May it be watching different ads, observing ad campaigns, or simply browsing advertising related content on the internet. Always find time to look for inspiration you can start thinking and generating your ideas from there. Some platform that you can check to get inspiration for advertising is Deck of Brilliance and Seenapse. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 10  AS2006 Here are some examples of ad campaigns that was born out of crazy creative ideas: RC Cola Commercial | Ad Agency: Gigil | Video from Gigil's Youtube Channel Burger King Ad | Video from Burger King Youtube Angkas Social Media Ad | Image from Angkas FB Page 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 4 of 10  AS2006 SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN GENERATING YOUR IDEAS Does your idea connect the physical world to the digital world? This means your idea can benefit both worlds to have a larger audience. Is your idea something that no one has ever did? It means that, your ideas should be unique that, no one has done it things like that before. Do you think people will take time and interest to your idea? Will it make your audience stop and take time to look at the idea Does your idea fits in a specific medium or do you need other mediums? This means that your idea is an idea that can be counted not just on one medium but also to other mediums. Example, If it can be done as a radio ad , then maybe you can also place it in Spotify for larger audience. Can you tell idea in a sentence? If you have an idea you should be able to combine it in a sentence. THE BRIEF In the design field, you may be already familiar with the design brief, but in the advertising industry, we have what we call a creative brief. What is a Creative Brief? The starting point of the creative process It is a document where the client exposes the needs and problems that must be solve creatively At the beginning of the creative process, the development of communication is based on the brief to be delivered by the client. They will describe the needs or the problems that they want to attack. It is important to align the client's needs to the expertise of the agency. The brief is not a work order but a document that contextualizes to the creative and planning team to start the work. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 5 of 10  AS2006 According to Anselmo Ramos, a Brazilian former Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Brazil tells what a good brief should be. It should be simple and inspiring. A single line such as about the brand, the product, or the benefit of a product. The briefs are saturated with information, the client asks for more than an advertising action achieves. The expectations must be aligned with the client. It must always be a written document. Do not let personal interpretations distort the requirements. It should serve to judge the creative idea according to request. Ensure that the order was developed. The content of a brief varies depending on the brand and depending on the need of each project. Here is the usual content of a brief: Objective The Budget The more concrete the objective is, Know the resources to develop the the most likely it will be. campaign. Know if If will you do Many goals dilute the result of the campaigns with big budgets because message and loses consistency. It is it allows more open creatives like better to fulfill a goal very well. commercials, etc. or smaller budgets that delimits you a little the medium you are going to work on. It is essential that what we present is very ambitious and the most creative. Not only knowing the budget will save us from wasting time but it shows the attention and understanding we have of the brand and the client. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 6 of 10  AS2006 The Target Communication This is what we call the This is the ultimate goal of the "consumer" person that we want brief. What we want with to talk to. communication. There should be data of your This is called the goal of target audience communication, challenge, challenge to achieve, among others. The KPI (Key Performance Indicator) are drawn here. The indicators you want to move with advertising. The goal of communication should be one. If we simplify this more, it boils down to What I want to do, who it is for, and what budget there is. THE DEBRIEF It is the process wherein the agency reinterprets the information delivered in the brief, like finding inconsistencies or new opportunities to define and share with the client before the beginning of the creative process. When we receive the client's brief, we read it, analyze it, and interpret it, which we call the assessment stage. If the agency has doubts or suggestions about the brief and there should be necessary changes, then that is the time to do "debrief." Debriefing is not to debate with what the client wants versus what the agency wants; it should not contradict the client. It is a matter of being very objective, very critical. We must take what we consider good and have findings to improve communication. There are some examples of creative briefs found in Creative Brief Samples in eLMS. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 7 of 10  AS2006 BRAND AND STRATEGIC PLANNING What is a Brand? Brand Position It is a kind of abstract identity, an According to Kotler, it is designing the intangible that feeds on many things like brand's offering and image to occupy a what the brand says and what the brand distinctive place in the minds of the does. target market. It is the mark of a product or service of a This can be conveyed in various means certain company. like visual designs, tone, voice, the endorsers, social media. Brand's Point of View We are talking about what the brand believes in, what are their stands, or convictions. Because whatever the brand believes in will translate on how they want their campaigns to come out. Example, SM's "We Got it all for you." SM believes that Filipinos can find everything that they need in SM. So if you are to create a campaign for them, your ideas should be align with what they stand for. Some examples of brands with good brand positioning and point of view: Coca-Cola Ad during Covid-19 | Source: Campaign Asia Hush Puppies Campaign | Source: Melanie Acevedo 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 8 of 10  AS2006 Del Monte Campaign | Source: Ads of the World STRATEGIC PLANNING IN ADVERTISING Strategic planning is an analysis of all factors that influence the process of communication with the audience and make a clear action plan for relevant and effective creative development. The "planners" in the ad agency analyze large amounts of widely dispersed information, which is essential to address the must-haves in the communication of the brand. Not only is data analyzed in strategic planning in the advertising industry, but the insights (insights in advertising means the clues about the audience behavior which will help you determine how to connect with your target audience in a more meaningful and efficient way), facts, research, social, cultural contexts, the focus group, etc. The job of the "planners" in advertising is to organize information and give it a sense so that the creative department can work. Strategic planning is applied strongly to determining briefs for a brand. Briefs that go beyond a timely order and where is the question of how we get to the problem. The main planning function is to find a unique brand proposal, and by a proposal, we understand something like territory or a speech that differentiates it from the competition. In a sense, ad "planners" should also have the creativity to create strategies. In creative development, one should think like a consumer when presenting ideas to the client. The planners streamline creativity for the client. That strategically supports the planning of ideas to demonstrate how and why the audience will react before a certain message. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 9 of 10  AS2006 THE BIG DEAL MODEL BY OGILVY Born from the premise that brands not only do need to have great ideas but rather Brand's have a great ideal. An idea Best Self that gives you a reason and reason to be, not only from Cultural the business side but the Tension ideal that brand will The Big Deal contribute to the society and make the world a better place. Find the best of the brand. There must be a statement that expresses the quality that the brand will share with the world. It should be credible and grounded with the characteristics of the product, benefits, and what it can generate. Next is the cultural tension. You must do a large investigation, where it is sought or left in evidence a tension that is true. A human and social tension that can be solved by the best that the brand has. They cannot be unlinked. Example: Brand's Best Self Dove's Campaign Gentle and Cultural alternative Tension - soap that Beauty The Big Deal - The delivers real anxiety in world will be a better care the world of place if women are Photoshop allowed to feel good about their bodies References Granatta, D. Advertising Creativity for all Audiences. Lecture, Domestika. Rivera, R. Advertising Creativity: Take your Ideas to the Next Level. Lecture, Domestika. 01 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 10 of 10