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Chapter 8
Getting Strategic before
Getting Creative
In This Chapter
ᮣ Setting ad objectives and strategies
ᮣ Writing creative briefs
ᮣ Translating product features into consumer benefits
Creative. The very word turns confident people queasy and rational
people giddy. It prompts otherwise buttoned-down small business
owners to say such outrageous things as “Let’s dress up like chickens” or
“Let’s show our products as animated characters dancing the can-can” or
such well-intended but pointless things as “Let’s cut through the clutter” or
“We have to think outside the box.”
Far, far less often are you apt to hear the creative conversation turn strategic,
with statements like “Let’s talk in terms that matter to our target prospects”
or “Let’s define what we’re trying to accomplish.”
By focusing on your communication objective before dreaming up your cre-
ative concept — by getting strategic and then getting creative — you’ll steer
past the mistakes that shoot too many ad budgets into the great abyss where
wasted dollars languish. This chapter shows you how.
Good Communications Start
with Good Objectives
Copywriters and designers are talented and creative, but they’re rarely tele-
pathic. They can’t create marketing materials that meet specific objectives if
their instructions don’t include what they’re trying to accomplish.
