Creative Strategy – Planning, development, execution and evaluation

Advertising is a specialized field that requires tremendous efforts and creative strategies to promote products and services of different kinds of brands. An Advertising Campaign is successful only when the ad message reaches the targeted audience and effectively communicates crucial information about the product or brand. High levels of creativity combined with a powerful strategy makes the promotional efforts a huge success. Formulation and implementation of a Creative Strategy passes through many stages namely Planning, Development, Execution and Evaluation.

Planning a Creative Strategy – This is one of the most challenging jobs in the Advertising. The planning stage involves in-depth research on the target audience, product, positioning and the communications media to create advertising briefs, advertising message and formulate various tactics to address the targeted audience. It involves decision making regarding the target audience, product positioning, advertising appeals, ad message, type of media etc. according to the business objectives of the advertiser.   

Development of Creative Strategy – Based on the inputs received from the planning stage, earlier assessments and campaigns; unique selling propositions are framed for the advertiser`s products. At this stage a thorough analysis is conducted on the market conditions, consumer approaches and competition performance to create an ad copy, storyboards, verbal & non-verbal elements, work plan, creatives tactics etc. It involves development of a financial as well as creative strategy for the advertising campaign. 

Execution of Creative Strategy – At this stage the Advertising Agency or the Marketing Communications Team takes all relevant efforts to execute the Marketing and advertising strategy planned during the earlier stages. Pre-testing of advertisements are conducted before the actual execution to estimate the likely impact of the ads and the effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

Evaluation of Creative Strategy – Any strategy is successful only when it achieves the purpose of its formulation. This stage involves evaluation of effectiveness of the executed strategy through various post-testing methods. These methods differ from one media to another. Post-testing is conducted to estimate the net return on investment and determine the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. All Post evaluation observations are recorded in a common database for future reference and implementation for other projects.