Understanding end-to-end Advertising Creative Process

The post focuses on the end-to-end process which can be followed in developing an advertising strategy. Generally the following steps are involved in creation of a advertisement.

• Account Planning - To facilitate the creative process, many agencies now use account planning, which is a process that involves conducting research and gathering all relevant information about a client’s product or service, brand, and consumers in the target audience. Account planning plays an important role during creative strategy development by driving the process from the customers’ point of view. Planners will work with the client as well as other agency personnel, such as the creative team and media specialists.
• Inputs to the Creative Process: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination


• Background Research - To assist in the preparation, incubation, and illumination stages, many agencies provide creative people with both general and product-specific preplanning input.
• Product/Service-Specific Research - In addition to getting general background research and preplanning input, creative people receive product/service-specific preplanning input. This information generally comes in the form of specific studies conducted on the product or service, the target audience, or a combination of the two.
• Qualitative Research Input - Many agencies, particularly larger ones with strong research departments, have their own research programs and specific techniques they use to assist in the development of creative strategy and provide input to the creative process. In addition to the various quantitative research studies, qualitative research techniques such as in-depth interviews or focus groups can provide the creative team with valuable insight at the early stages of the creative process. eg : focus group research , ethnographic research.
• Inputs to the Creative Process: Verification, Revision - The verification and revision stage of the creative process evaluates ideas generated during the illumination stage, rejects inappropriate ones, refines and polishes those that remain, and gives them final expression. Techniques used at this stage include directed focus groups to evaluate creative concepts, ideas, or themes; message communication studies; portfolio tests; and evaluation measures such as viewer reaction profiles.
• Creative Strategy Development
• Advertising Campaigns - Most ads are part of a series of messages that make up an IMC or advertising campaign, which is a set of interrelated and coordinated marketing communication activities that center on a single theme or idea that appears in different media across a specified time period. Determining the unifying theme around which the campaign will be built is a critical part of the creative process, as it sets the tone for the individual ads and other forms of marketing communications that will be used. Acampaign theme should be a strong idea, as it is the central message that will be communicated in all the advertising and other promotional activities.

The Marlboro Man is a figure used in tobacco advertising campaign for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954.

• Copy Platform - The written copy platform specifies the basic elements of the creative strategy. Two critical components of the copy platform are the development of the major selling idea and creative strategy development. These two steps are often the responsibility of the creative team or specialist and form the basis of the advertising campaign theme. Many copy platforms also include supporting information and requirements (brand identifications, disclaimers, and the like) that should appear in any advertising message. This information may be important in ensuring uniformity across various executions of the ads used in a campaign or in meeting any legal requirements.
• The Search for the Major Selling Idea - While really great ideas in advertising are difficult to come by, there are many big ideas that became the basis of very creative, successful advertising campaigns. Classic examples include “We try harder,” which positioned Avis as the underdog car-rental company that provided better service than Hertz; the “Pepsi generation” theme and subsequent variations like “the taste of a new generation” and “Generation Next”; the “Be all you can be” theme used in recruitment ads for the U.S. Army. It is difficult to pinpoint the inspiration for a big idea or to teach advertising people how to find one. However, several approaches can guide the creative team’s search for a major selling idea and offer solutions for developing effective advertising. Some of the best-known approaches follow:
  • Using a unique selling proposition.
  • Creating a brand image.
  • Finding the inherent drama.
  • Positioning