24 Feb Best practice for producing effective advertising campaigns
Advertising is a mercurial business tool.
It is less predictable than other areas of investment such as engineering processes, or construction, or production systems. This is because advertising only works in the mind of the target market it is trying to influence, and people are notoriously irrational.
To be effective advertising must find the right balance between art and science. The art is needed to create an emotional connection with people; to capture their attention, to motivate their behaviour and to inspire them think, feel and behave in a certain way. The science is needed to efficiently design the campaign with the right mix of investment weight using the right media options.
In recent times advertising has become a lot more sophisticated, largely through the evolution of digital technology. It is now possible to create a much richer quality of connection through interactive web and mobile tools, and the ability to measure and refine the effect of campaigns is becoming very advanced.
Campaigns also need to earn their place more than ever before. The truth is that we live in commercially saturated times in which many consumers have a love:hate relationship with advertising. We’ve all heard people vent their distain at advertising pollution, or take pride in their channel changing or MySky’s power to fast-forward past the ads. But most will also admit to ads that they do relate to, and despite what people might say, there is clear evidence to prove that when done well advertising does have a powerful ability to move the business needle. As they say, “look, it does get in”.
In a recent CAANZ/Headlight survey* of advertising clients and industry professionals 62% said that advertising was as effective or more than in the past.
From an analysis of 225 campaigns entered into the New Zealand advertising effectiveness awards (the Effies) over the past three years the average return on investment was $6.15 for every dollar invested, and in a few cases the ROI reached more that $100.
The commercial benefits are there for advertisers who get it right, and there is a lot to be learned from those who have crafted New Zealand’s highest performing campaigns. A series of interviews with the creators of successful campaigns like NZTA’s Ghost Chips, Boundary Road Breweries, V, and John Kirwan’s depression journal, provides a 10-point checklist for creating effective advertising.
The 10-point Check-list for Advertising Success
1. Start with a healthy client:agency relationship
Campaign development is a team game best carried out within the context of a positive, healthy working environment. In contrast, political agendas, poor communication and dysfunctional relationships make it very hard to produce good work.
2. Insights are vital
It is essential to have a deep understanding of what the target market thinks, feels and does – and therefore how to influence them. Too many campaigns lack insight and are just a case of telling the market what you want to say, rather than what the market wants to hear.
3. Get the brief right
A tight, clearly thought-out brief is essential to ensure everyone is working on the same page. This will specify what the campaign is trying to achieve, who it is aiming to influence and what the campaign constraints are.
4. Be open-minded
Great advertising involves a leap of creative interpretation. Creatively impactful work never comes from a literal reflection of the brief. This requires an open-mindedness and willingness to consider fresh perspectives.
5. Focus on the idea
Successful campaigns always have a strong core idea at their heart that can be executed in different ways and evolved over time. They are not just one-off executions that have a limited life.
6. You need an X-Factor
All great campaigns have a creative X-factor to them: a ‘Bugger’, a ‘Yeah Right’, a ‘heft mehr mmmmm’. This is the hook that creates an emotional connection that makes the target market take notice and buy in to what the advertising has to offer.
7. Use research wisely
Qualitative research is a great way to gain insights about the target market and tracking research can monitor campaign presence and engagement. The pre-testing of campaigns is a more controversial subject. It can provide useful development steers, but it can also prematurely kill off potentially strong campaigns that need further crafting.
8. Connect and integrate
Most campaigns these days are integrated across different applications of mainstream, digital and social media, trade channels and internal communications. Campaign design needs to find the right balance of channels and messages, and to ensure that the core campaign idea is effectively translated for use in each application.
9. Be realistic
Advertising is an investment in the creative execution of a strategic initiative. This takes appropriate money, time and commitment in order to achieve success.
10. Be patient
Campaign performance measurement and the ability to fine-tune campaigns is improving all the time. However this can produce unrealistic expectations. Most great campaigns take time to build momentum and impact.
*If you’d like more information about the CAANZ/Headlight survey email me at lew.bentley@headlight.co.nz
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