The media surrounds us in almost everything we do. Every day, you’re exposed to hundreds of different messages that are competing for your attention. As a marketing professional, one of the most important keys to a successful marketing campaign is creativity in finding ways to make your message reach the intended target audience and stand out.
Often, the idea of creativity is coupled with being artistic. While it sometimes can be hard to separate the creative of a campaign (TV commercial or a magazine advertisement) from the media placement (the manner in which the message is delivered) both provide for equally great opportunities to make a memorable impression.
Research Successful Campaigns
From a marketing perspective, creativity comes from producing original and engaging ideas that are going to send the right message to your target audience in every way. Creating engagement is an art-form in itself. Pay attention to recent campaigns of brands you like, notice the message they are trying to send and see how it resonates with you. Were you engaged by the message? Did it get your attention? What qualities did you find to be creative? Did you like the way the message was delivered? Focusing on these questions can help you spark your creative development.
If your budget does not allow for TV advertising, consider radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, outdoor or Direct Mail. The possibilities are endless. Sometimes, the best way to get someone’s attention is the absolute simplest option.
Welcome Team Feedback and Be Open to Change
Recognizing all ideas will help determine the good from the “bad,” so it’s important to consider them all. A great way to do this is by creating a shortlist of ideas. Feedback will give you insight into how your target audience will receive the potential campaign, providing you with reliable and diverse perspectives other than your own. If you’re working on generating ideas as a collective team, be collaborative and remember that all ideas are worth discussing. Importantly, be open to change. The only thing we know for sure is that change is constant. The ability and willingness to adapt and evolve with change is a great asset.
Passion – The Ultimate Driver of All Successful Campaigns
The non-negotiable and most powerful ingredient is passion for your brand. You must know your product or service inside out, know exactly what it can deliver, who your core users are and in which environments you will typically encounter them. One of the best ways to get ideas is to do research through observing. It is said that Pret A Manger management requires all their top managers to spend at least one day per month serving coffee and food to their customers. I cannot think of any better way to stay in touch with not only your customers but your own service professionals.
Form a Great Partnership for a Worthy Cause
Last year, Cadbury Dairy Milk partnered with Age UK on a campaign that increased awareness about senior citizens in the UK suffering from loneliness. Age UK works nationally and locally to tackle loneliness and isolation and loneliness amongst older people, which is reaching epidemic proportions with a reported 1.4 million people struggling alone.
Through their campaign, Cadbury Dairy Milk used their marketing platform to support Age UK and demonstrate how a small gesture can sweeten the life of a lonely elderly person. Emotionally touching and relatable, the campaign brought the brand’s buzz score from 2.3 to over 11 points within the first two weeks and most importantly, contributed donations of 30p to Age UK for every Cadbury Limited Edition Bar sold. You can watch the campaign video here.