Chapter - 8

Creative advertising can be seen as a combination of creative strategy and creative tactics. Where creative strategy constitutes deciding what the advertising message wants to convey while the creative tactics deal with how the advertising message is to be executed. Being creative though is a challenge since the consumer reaction cannot be gauged and the impact of the ad in terms of sales cannot be estimated. But at the same time it is very important to balance: Creativity and message. In a nut shell, it can be explained that “ it is not creative unless it sells”

Account Planning and Copy Platform:

Account planning is the process of gathering information about the client’s product , taste of target audience, and researching about the cultural and social aspects related to the product sothat creative team has right idea regarding what needs to be communicated. This   process is followed by a creative strategy development. This creative strategy is written and compiled in a document called Copy platform whose outline is follows:

1.          Basic problem and issues which ad must address
2.          Ad & communication objective  
3.          Target audience
4.          Major selling idea or key benefits to communicate
5.          Creative strategy statement( campaign theme, appeal, execution technique)
6.          Supporting information

     Flow of Information in the Market

     

A major issue that arises is how to get inspiration for coming up with a creative idea and to cash is on the same.

There are basically 4 techniques for this:

Models of Creative Advertising

Young’s model of Creative Advertising

Experts view the creative advertising process to be exactly like an assembly line- organized, sequential, controlled and efficient. One of the models for the same is the Young’s model which consists of 5 stages:

1. Immersion
2. Digestion
3. Incubation
4. Illumination
5. Verification

                                

Graham Wallas Model of Creative Advertising

The model was developed by English sociologist Graham Wallas and is composed of the following steps:

1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Verification

These models are useful since they offer an organized approach to advertising problem solving.

These models however have the disadvantage of not explaining how the data for the process is to be collected.

For this purpose, Account Planning is being used which is the process of conducting research and gathering information about the client’s product or service.  The following image depicts some of the sources from where background research for the product can be done.