What Is CREATIVE STRATEGY?

Summary

A creative strategy outlines the organizing plan for a creative advertising idea. It clarifies the idea platform, orchestrates integrated campaign elements so they make sense together, and briefs tactics adhering to the main idea. Reasons to create one include: connecting cross-channel executions, ensuring channel relevance, linking complex campaigns, and guiding other creatives. It differs from brand strategy in focusing on execution of current creative ideas vs long-term brand identity. A sample campaign shows reinvigorating the 'It's Miller Time' tagline. Common mistakes are just creating social media ideas or lacking an articulated creative idea platform.

Takeaways

• 😀 A creative strategy organizes a creative idea into a plan of action with 3 outputs: platform, orchestration and tactics
• 👉 Platform clarifies the essence of the creative idea that's being executed
• 🌟 Orchestration ensures all campaign executions make sense together across channels
• 📝 Tactics adhere executions to the main idea and fit the communication channels
• 🔑 Creative strategy ensures integrated campaigns have cohesion across executions and media
• 🗺️ Brand strategy sets high-level long term direction; creative strategy actualizes it into executions
• 🎯 Creative strategists articulate abstract creative ideas and orchestrate executions
• 🚀 Creative strategy amplifies and improves a creative idea into an integrated campaign
• ❌ Don't need full creative strategy for straightforward briefs like banner ads
• ❗️Creative strategy requires a clear creative idea platform to build executions from

Q & A

What are the three outputs a creative strategist is involved in?

The three outputs a creative strategist is involved in are: platform, orchestration, and tactics. First they clarify the idea platform, then orchestrate the different executions of a campaign to make sense together, and finally brief in all the tactics.

Why is having a creative strategy important?

A creative strategy is important to have integrated coherence across different mediums and moments, make executions suitable for different channels, and connect the user experience through complex campaigns.

What is the difference between creative strategy and brand strategy?

Brand strategy happens at a higher level and remains constant over time, providing the framework that creative strategies operate within. Creative strategy is based on executional elements of the brand strategy.

What skills does a creative strategist need?

A creative strategist needs to understand creative ideas and articulate abstract concepts, have knowledge of different channels especially social media, and be good at orchestrating all the pieces of a campaign together.

Can you provide an example idea platform, ecosystem, and tactical brief?

For the Miller Lights "It's Miller Time" campaign, the idea platform is that Miller Time is about doing what you want versus expectations. The ecosystem is creating a beer koozie sneaker for Father's Day. The tactical brief is to target young adults forced to do unwanted things, positioning the koozie sneaker as a gift for dads on Amazon banners.

When might you not need a creative strategy?

You may not need a full creative strategy for straightforward requests like creating some banners. Creative strategy is most useful when there are a number of integrated executions working together.

What are some common mistakes with creative strategies?

Some common mistakes are just coming up with creative ideas for channels without a full strategy, or trying to create a creative strategy without first establishing a clear idea platform.

Why has the creative strategist role emerged recently?

The creative strategist role has emerged due to the proliferation of technology creating new communication channels. Many creative strategists started in social media and are channel experts who are now taking on more strategic responsibilities.

How does a creative strategy ensure channel suitability?

The creative strategist works with media agencies and considers what executions will work for different channels. This prevents tactics like slapping a TV ad onto Facebook without adaptation.

How does creative strategy connect the user experience?

The creative strategist oversees the user journey across different touchpoints to ensure coherence. For example, if directing people to a website, ensuring it is consistent with previous interactions.

Outlines

00:00

😀 What is creative strategy

Paragraph 1 defines what creative strategy is - the organizing plan of action for a creative idea. It outlines the 3 key outputs of a creative strategist: idea/platform, orchestration of campaign, briefing tactics for executions to adhere to main idea and channels. It then previews the key topics covered in the video.

05:00

😊 Example creative strategy for Miller Lite 'It's Miller Time' campaign

Paragraph 2 provides a detailed example walkthrough of the creative strategy for a Miller Lite 'It's Miller Time' campaign. It covers formulating the creative idea platform, mapping out the integrated campaign ecosystem across channels, and writing tactical briefs for specific creative executions.

Keywords

💡Creative Strategy

Creative Strategy refers to the structured plan of action designed to guide the development and execution of creative ideas. It ensures that all creative outputs align with the core idea and effectively communicate the intended message across various platforms and channels. The video emphasizes the importance of having a unifying idea that connects different campaign executions, making them coherent and impactful. An example mentioned involves orchestrating campaign elements to resonate with the overarching theme, ensuring consistency and reinforcing the message.

💡Idea Platform

The Idea Platform is the foundational concept or essence of a campaign. It represents the central theme that all creative executions are built upon. In the video, the idea platform is described as crucial for clarifying what the campaign aims to communicate. It serves as the base for orchestrating various executions and ensuring they align with the campaign's core message. The video illustrates this with the process of defining an idea platform statement that encapsulates the campaign's main concept.

💡Orchestration

Orchestration in creative strategy involves coordinating different campaign elements to ensure they work together harmoniously and effectively convey the campaign's message. This process is essential for maintaining consistency across various mediums and moments. The video highlights the role of a creative strategist in orchestrating campaign executions, making sure they are interconnected and complement each other, enhancing the overall impact of the campaign.

💡Tactics

Tactics refer to the specific actions or steps taken to implement the overarching strategy. In the context of creative strategy, tactics involve the detailed planning and execution of individual campaign elements according to the main idea and channels of distribution. The video discusses briefing in all the tactics to ensure they adhere to the campaign's core idea, thereby ensuring coherence and effectiveness in reaching the target audience.

💡Brand Strategy vs. Creative Strategy

The video distinguishes between brand strategy and creative strategy, noting that brand strategy operates at a higher level, setting long-term objectives and defining the brand's essence. In contrast, creative strategy focuses on the executional aspects, bringing elements of the brand strategy to life in specific campaigns. Brand strategy is consistent over time, while creative strategy adapts to articulate and execute the campaign's ideas.

💡Channel Sense

Channel sense involves understanding and utilizing the most appropriate media channels for campaign executions. It ensures that creative outputs are tailored to fit the unique context and audience of each channel. The video stresses the importance of a creative strategist's role in preventing missteps, like placing a TV ad directly on social media without adaptation, thereby maintaining the relevance and effectiveness of the campaign across different channels.

💡Integrated Campaigns

Integrated campaigns are comprehensive marketing strategies that span across multiple channels and touchpoints, presenting a consistent message and brand experience to the audience. The video discusses the complexity of integrated campaigns and the necessity of having a creative strategist to oversee the user experience throughout all interactions, ensuring cohesion and a unified brand narrative.

💡Creative Idea Formula

The Creative Idea Formula is a method for articulating the core message of a campaign, shaping how creative ideas demonstrate a brand's values or propositions. In the video, this concept is applied to the 'It's Miller Time' campaign, illustrating how each creative execution reflects the idea of choosing personal enjoyment over societal expectations. This formula helps in crafting messages that resonate with the target audience and reinforce the campaign's main theme.

💡Ecosystem

In creative strategy, an ecosystem refers to the interconnected set of campaign elements and channels working together to amplify the campaign's message. The video showcases the creation of an ecosystem for a product launch, including print ads, social media, and influencer partnerships, emphasizing the strategic coordination required to ensure all parts contribute towards the campaign's objectives.

💡Tactical Briefs

Tactical briefs are detailed instructions prepared for the teams executing specific parts of a campaign. They ensure that every execution, from ads to social media posts, aligns with the creative strategy and effectively communicates the campaign's core message. The video outlines the process of creating tactical briefs for different campaign elements, ensuring they are coherent and aligned with the overarching creative strategy.

Highlights

A creative strategy is the organizing plan of action for a creative idea

The 3 outputs a creative strategist is involved in: platform, orchestration, tactics

A creative strategy ensures campaign executions make sense across different channels

A creative strategy connects the user experience through integrated campaigns

A creative strategy helps creatives who didn't come up with the idea understand it

Creative strategy begins when creatives come up with the core idea

Brand strategy happens at a higher level and never changes; creative strategy brings brand strategy to life

Creative strategists understand creative ideas and orchestrating campaigns across channels

The creative strategy for the Miller Lights "It's Miller Time" campaign is provided as an example

The ecosystem showing how the "dad shoe beer koozie" execution works is mapped out

Briefs are written to show how the creative idea comes to life in each channel

Creative strategy is sometimes mistakenly seen as just making ads work across channels

You don't always need a full creative strategy for straightforward banner ad requests

Creative strategy isn't helpful if the core idea platform isn't clearly defined

For more on strategy, see videos on writing creative briefs and a brief for Cheetos

Transcripts

what is creative strategy a creative

strategy

is the organizing plan of action for a

creative idea

pot are the three outputs that a

creative strategist is involved in

platform orchestration and tactics

platform first they clarify what the

idea platform

that is being executed is this is an

understanding of the essence of the idea

then the job is to orchestrate all the

different executions in a campaign

so they make sense together then finally

it's to brief in

all the tactics so that they adhere to

the main idea

and then also the channels that they're

coming to life in

in this video we're going to talk about

why it's important when to create the

creative strategy

the difference between brand strategy

and creative strategy

an example of creative strategy and

finally

the common mistakes made

one building bricks a creative strategy

is important because

with integrated work we're often going

across a number of executions which span

different mediums and moments we want to

make sure that there is one

organizing idea that all the executions

are laddering up to

every execution is adding another brick

on the wall

rather than tossing another brick in the

rubble

two channel sense also with technology

creating new ways to communicate with

consumers

it's important that our executions make

sense

in the new channels we've all seen the

tv ad

slapped in facebook which doesn't make

sense for that environment

a creative strategist ensures this

doesn't happen

three connecting the pipes with

integrated campaigns becoming more

complex

we now need one person who is in charge

of making sure that the user experience

through all the touch points makes sense

understanding this before you start

briefing in work

is essential we want to make sure that

all the pieces

work together if we are telling them to

go to a website we want to ensure that

the website makes sense from the last

place they've been

four different creatives with clients

having more specialized agencies

having cohesion over all these different

channels

is important so having a clear creative

strategy helps creatives who may not

have come up with the original idea

to make sense of it for other executions

creative strategy begins with the

creatives who have come up with the idea

this can come to life in a number of

forms it could be a poster they created

a manifesto or a tv

ad the first role of coming up with the

idea platform

is essential at this step once the

platform is nailed it is now time

to come up with the orchestration of the

campaign the creative strategist

work with the media agency and own

channels to work out what executions are

going to be made

and how they will all interact with each

other once the orchestration has been

created

now the creative strategist needs to

write the specific briefs

involved in this campaign

the difference between creative strategy

and brand strategy

is that brand strategy happens at a

higher level

it is a strategy that never changes over

time

it is telling you the higher order

pieces that need to come to life

in this creative campaign and all future

campaigns

whereas the creative strategy is based

on an

execution elements of the brand strategy

will come to life

in the creative strategy

a creative strategist requires someone

who has a good understanding of creative

ideas and can help

articulate abstract concepts they have a

good understanding of channels

and they're good at orchestrating the

pieces together in the last few years

the understanding of the channels

especially social media

has meant that a number of creative

strategists have come

through social media they are experts in

the channels

and now they are being asked to do the

idea platform

as well as orchestration creative

strategists tend to be people

who feel more comfortable with helping

to amplify

and making an idea better rather than

starting with a blank piece of paper

often they've not been formally trained

in strategy

so having creative and strategy in their

title might make them feel

more comfortable than just straight

strategists

so let's take this campaign for miller

lights it's miller time

there's haha high with your friends

and then there's with your friends

here's to the original social media

here's to the original light beer

it's miller time we'll break it down

into the three things that a creative

strategist has to do

create the idea formula create the

ecosystem and then

finally have the tactical briefs let's

start off with the creative strategy

idea platform in the planning dirty

academy we teach

how to define an idea platform using the

idea platform statement

the creative strategist may have worked

with the creatives to come up with the

following creative platform

for its miller time we see that they

have taken an old tagline and breathed

new life into it

the creative idea formula for this line

would have been

miller time is about doing what you

really want

versus what everyone else expects you to

do

every creative idea should demonstrate

that we often do the things that we

don't want to

when really we want to be hanging out

with friends and consequently

hanging out with friends happens to be

when we're drinking miller light

in the ad we can see they always pick an

enemy to doing what you want

for instance in one spot the main

character is buying a couch

instead of hanging out with friends

watching football another one

having afternoon tea with a family

instead of hanging out with friends

and lastly it is attending your work

christmas party

instead of being with friends

the ecosystem we're going to show for

this ad is the one they created

for the susie which is a beer koozie in

the shape of the ultimate dad shoe

the white new balance and making it into

a beer holder for father's day

we've taken an ecosystem from the

framework factory which is 50 plus

frameworks in a document that you get

when you sign up to the planning dirty

academy

for this we see that there are a number

of moving parts within this execution

we have the print ads which we can see

go out to sneaker collector publications

and general pop culture we also post

them on our social

and amazon banners in the lead up to

father's day

all this leads everyone to a website the

website has

two phases pre-launch and then the

launch of the shoe

we need to show the fulfillment of the

shoes when people order

we also are going to be sending those

shoes out to influencers for father's

day as well

this shows all the moving elements of

the campaign

finally we need to brief in all the

creative executions with the tactical

briefs

showing how the idea comes to life in

that channel

so we use the get who to buy formula

with a small variation on it with the

where statement get young adults who

are forced to do things they don't want

to be doing to

show what really brings them joy is

having a beer and hanging with friends

by

giving them a hero for doing what you

want no matter what anyone else wants

which is your dad where on amazon

banners

when kids are looking for the ideal

presence

for their dad who has it all

it's not the tick tock resident expert

creative strategy can be just coming up

with creative ideas for new media

channels

this is unfortunately what a lot of

creative strategists get pigeon holed

into

you're the expert in tick tock at the

agency can you make our tv

ad make sense for tick tock as we've

seen channel knowledge

is only one small piece of the overall

pie

straightforward requests don't need it

you don't always need a creative

strategy if you have a straightforward

request

like create some banners then you don't

need to go

over the top with a full creative

strategy it should be reserved for the

moments where you have a number

of integrated executions all working

together

needs a clear idea creative strategy is

not helpful

if we don't know what the idea platform

is because then we're coming up with

ideas

that might just be taking executional

elements rather than what's central to

the idea let me know if that makes sense

and if you'd like to know anything else

about the role of a creative strategist

for more videos on strategy

you can check out my video on how to

write a creative brief with seamless

and my creative brief for cheetos