What Is CREATIVE STRATEGY?
Summary
TLDRA 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
😀 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.
😊 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Creative Strategy
💡Idea Platform
💡Orchestration
💡Tactics
💡Brand Strategy vs. Creative Strategy
💡Channel Sense
💡Integrated Campaigns
💡Creative Idea Formula
💡Ecosystem
💡Tactical Briefs
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
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