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CHAPTER 8
CREATIVE STRATEGY: PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Chapter Overview
This is the first of two chapters devoted to the area of creative strategy in advertising. This chapter
focuses on the planning and development of the creative strategy. We will examine the concept of
creativity and the process that guides the creation of the advertising campaign as well as various types of
research and information that can provide input and insight into the creative process of advertising. We
discuss the concept of copy platforms that are used to guide the development of advertising campaigns.
Attention is also given to various approaches used for determining major selling ideas that form the basis
of an advertising campaign.
Learning Objectives
2. To consider the process that guides the creation of advertising messages and the various research
inputs into the stages of the creative process.
4. To examine various approaches used for determining major selling ideas that form the basis of an
advertising campaign.
Chapter and Lecture Outline
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the most important components of an integrated marketing communications program is the
advertising message. It will be obvious to students that there are a myriad of ways to convey an
advertising message. However, underlying all of these messages is a creative strategy that involves
determining what the advertising message will say or communicate and creative tactics dealing with how
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II. THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING
The creative side of advertising is one of its most interesting aspects. The creative strategy used to
communicate an advertising message is an integral part of the promotional process and is often critical to
the success or failure of the campaign. Numerous examples or cases can be cited of how a good creative
III. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY
It is important to examine the concept of creativity, how it applies to advertising, and the challenge
marketers face in developing creative and effective advertising.
A. What Is Creativity?—Creativity is one of the most commonly used terms in advertising as those
who develop advertising messages are often referred to as “creative types” and agencies develop
reputations for their creativity. So much attention is focused on the concept of creativity because
B. Different Perspectives of Advertising Creativity—perspectives of what constitutes creativity in
advertising vary. At one extreme are the “suits” or “rationalists” who argue that advertising is
creative only if it sells the product or service. At the other end of the continuum are the “poets”
who judge creativity in terms of its artistic or aesthetic value and argue that creative advertising
must be novel, original and unique. The answer as to what constitutes creative in advertising is
probably somewhere between these two extreme positions.
C. Determinants of Creativity – It is generally agreed upon that there are two central determinants of
creativity which are divergence and relevance. Divergence refers to the extent to which an ad
contains elements that are novel different or unusual. Some of the ways divergence can be
achieved in advertising include the following:
1. Originality: Ads that contain elements that are rare, surprising, or move away from the obvious
and commonplace.
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4. Synthesis: Ads that combine, connect, or blend normally unrelated objects or ideas.
5. Artistic value: Ads that contain artistic verbal impressions or attractive shapes and colors
Relevance reflects the degree to which the various elements or the ad are meaningful, useful, or
valuable to the consumer and can be achieved in two ways. Ad–to-consumer relevance refers to
situations where the ad contains execution elements that are meaningful to consumers. For example,
Professor Notes
IV. PLANNING CREATIVE STRATEGY
Those who work on the creative side of advertising often face a major challenge. They must take all the
research, creative briefs, strategy statements, communication objectives and other inputs and transform
them into an advertising message. Their job is to write copy, design layouts and illustrations and produce
commercials that communicate effectively. Marketers usually hire advertising agencies to develop and
implement their advertising campaigns because they are specialists in the creative function of advertising.
However, it is important to point out that the development of creative strategy also involves
representatives from the client side and other people in the agency as well as the creative staff.
A. The Creative Challenge—those who work on the creative side of advertising have the
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B. Taking Creative Risks—many creative people in agencies argue that they often follow proven
approaches or formulas when creating ads because they are safe and less likely to fail. They note
that their clients are very often risk averse and feel uncomfortable with advertising that is too
C. Creative Personnel—it is a fairly common perception that those individuals who work on the
creative side of advertising tend to be somewhat unique and different from those working on the
V. THE CREATIVE PROCESS
A number of advertising people have argued that creativity in advertising is best viewed as a process and
that creative success is most likely when some organized approach is followed. While most advertising
people reject and/or resist attempts to standardize creativity or develop rules or guidelines to follow, most
creative people do follow some type of process when approaching the task of developing an
advertisement. There are several models or approaches to the creative process including those of James
Webb Young, a former creative vice president at the J. Walter Thompson agency, which is similar to the
approach of English sociologist Graham Wallas. Young’s model of the creative process contains five
steps:
1. Immersion
2. Digestion
Wallas suggests that creative thought evolves in four stages:
1. Preparation
2. Incubation
A. Account Planning – To facilitate the creative process, many agencies now use account planning
which is a process that involves conducting research and gathering all relevant information about
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B. Inputs to the Creative Process: Preparation/Incubation/Illumination—these models of the creative
process offer an organized way of approaching an advertising problem. Both models stress the
need for preparation or gathering of background information that is relevant to the problem as the
first step in the creative process. Various types of research and information can provide input to
the creative process of advertising at each stage. There are numerous ways the creative specialist
can acquire background information that is relevant to the advertising problem. Some of those
discussed in the text include:
1. Background research—informal fact-finding techniques and general preplanning input.
Various ways of gathering background information might be discussed.
C. Verification/Revision—the purpose of the verification/revision stage of the creative process is to
evaluate ideas that come from the illumination stage, reject any that may be inappropriate, and
refine those that remain and help give them final expression. Some of the techniques used at this
stage include:
• Directed focus groups
Professor Notes
VI. CREATIVE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
The creative process of advertising is guided by specific goals and objectives and requires the
development of a creative strategy or plan of action for achieving the goal. Creative strategy development
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A. Advertising Campaigns—Most advertisements are part of a series of messages that make up an
IMC or advertising campaign, which consists of a set of interrelated and coordinated marketing
communication activities that center on a single theme or idea that appears in different media
across a specified time period. The determination of a strong idea for the campaign theme is very
B. Creative Brief – The creative brief (which some agencies refer to as a creative platform or work
plan or creative contract) is a written document that provides a plan or checklist that is useful in
C. The Search for the Major Selling Idea—an important part of creative strategy development is
determining the central theme that will become the major selling idea or big idea for the ad
campaign. There are several different approaches that can be used for developing major selling
ideas and as the basis of creative strategy. Some of the best known and most discussed
approaches include:
1. The unique selling proposition—this concept was popularized by the famous copywriter
Rosser Reeve’s in his book Reality in Advertising. It’s three characteristics include:
• each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer
2. Creating a brand image—some competing brands are so similar it is difficult to find or
3. Finding the inherent drama—the famous ad man Leo Burnett, founder of the Leo Burnett
4. Positioning—the basic idea is that advertising is used to establish or “position” the product
or service in a particular place in the consumer’s mind. Various approaches to positioning a
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These approaches to determining the major selling ideas discussed above are very popular and are
often used as the basis of the creative strategy for advertising campaigns. These creative
approaches represent specific “creative styles” that have become associated with some of the
most successful advertising creative minds and their agencies. However, it should be pointed out
Teaching Suggestions
For many students the most interesting aspect of advertising and promotion is the creative side. Most
students really do not have an appreciation for what is involved in the development of an advertising
campaign. They may think that the development of a campaign and individual messages involves only the
agency creative department. It is important to stress the fact that the development of a campaign involves
Some interesting discussion can be generated over the issues of what constitutes creative advertising.
Students might be asked to debate the different perspectives of advertising creativity. One side can take
the “its only creative if it sells” position versus the “aesthetic, novelty/uniqueness” perspective. Some
interesting discussions can also be generated over the issue of creative risk taking and just how much
latitude the client should give the agency when it comes to creating the advertising message. For a very
interesting discussion on the debate over different perspectives on creativity we suggest that you read the
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It is also important to discuss how research is used as an input to the creative process of advertising.
Some time might be spent discussing the value of both qualitative and quantitative research techniques
and how they can be used to provide the creative department information that gives them more insight
into the consumer. It is also interesting to spend some time discussing advertising campaign themes
currently being used by various advertisers. This discussion can focus on the creative strategy being used
by the advertiser, the image or position they are trying to establish for the company or brand and what
type of analysis or background research might have been used in developing the campaign. It is
A discussion of a Model of Marketing Information flow developed by John Sutherland, Lisa Duke, and
Avery Abernethy is presented in this chapter and warrants discussion. This model shows the flow of
marketing information regarding customers, the product or service, and the market from clients to agency
Answers to Discussion Questions
1. The chapter opener discusses the popular “The man your man could smell like” commercial the
Wieden + Kennedy agency has created for Old Spice body wash. Analyze this commercial from an
advertising creativity perspective and discuss some of the reasons it has become so popular. Do you
view it as an effective way to sell the product? Why or why not? (L01)
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“The man your man could smell like commercial” for Old Spice body wash is an example of an
extremely creative commercial and won the Grand Prix for film award at the Cannes Lions
International Advertising Festival. Old Spice advertising had been targeting men for the past several
years with humorous creative built around the “Smell Like a Man, Man” tagline However this
commercial moved beyond the male market with an ad that both men and women can enjoy together.
It is a humorous commercial featuring a very muscular and handsome young man (former
professional football player Isaiah Mustafa) who uses a variety of unusual situations to demonstrate to
women how much better their lives could be with a man who switches to Old Spice from a “lady–
The second part of the question asks whether this commercial is an effective way to sell Old Spice
Body wash. The commercial broke through all previous viral-records and became a part of popular
culture. According to an article published in Advertising Age on July 26, 2010, the commercial
2. Advertising creativity is viewed as the ability to generate unique and appropriate solutions to
communication problems. This definition suggests that a creative ad is one that is novel but also
relevant or appropriate. Find an example of an advertisement (either a print ad or TV commercial)
that is novel but not necessarily relevant to the product or services Discuss why the client would have
approved this ad. (L01)
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For an ad or campaign to be considered creative it should meet the criteria of being both a unique and
appropriate solution to a communication problem. Creative specialists have the responsibility of
3. Discuss the various factors that account for the way divergence can be achieved in advertising
creativity. Find an example of an advertisement that reflects these various characteristics and explain
how it does so. (L01)
Divergence is viewed as one of the two key determinants of creativity (along with relevance) and
refers to the extent to which an ad contains elements that are novel, different, or unusual. Robert
Smith and Xiaojang Yang have identified five factors that could account for the ways divergence can
be achieved in advertising which they describe as follows. These include:
• Originality: Ads that contain elements that are rare, surprising, or move away from the obvious
and commonplace.
4. What is your opinion of advertising awards, such as the Cannes Lions, that are based solely on
creativity? If you were a marketer, would you take these creative awards into consideration in you
agency evaluation process? Why or why not? (L01)
There are numerous arguments that can be made both for and against advertising awards that are
based primarily on creativity. In defense of awards based on creativity, it should be noted that a major
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There are also problems with creative awards such as the classic argument that an award-winning ad
is of little value unless it results in sales of the product. Critics of awards have also noted that many
agency personnel have become too obsessed with winning creative awards and too much time, energy
5. Evaluate the debate over creative versus hard-sell advertising. Discuss the arguments for and against
each perspective. Who should be responsible for judging the creativity of an ad – clients or agency
creative personnel? (L01)
As discussed on pp. 267-268, there has been an ongoing battle in advertising between those who
believe ads should move people and those who feel they should just move product. The “suits” or
“rationalists” on the hard-sell side argue that the primary function of advertising is to sell the product
Chapter 8 – Creative Strategy: Planning and Development
On the other side are the “poets” or proponents of creativity, who argue that advertising has to build
an emotional bond between consumers and brands or companies rather than focusing on product
features and benefits. They feel that it has become very difficult to differentiate a company or brand
advertising that is unique or different is often needed to break through the competitive clutter, grab
the consumer’s attention and have some impact. They are more likely to view creativity in terms of
the ad’s ability to generate an emotional response and create certain feelings or images that can be
transferred to the brand.
There is no easy answer to the second part of this question as ideas and perceptions regarding what
constitutes a creative ad vary among those who are involved with and evaluate advertising. The
“Universal Advertising Standards” of the D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles agency, which are
presented in Figure 8-1, offer some ideas for judging the creativity of advertising. The issue of who
should have the responsibility for judging the creativity of an advertisement is debatable. Obviously
creative personnel are probably best able to evaluate an ad in terms of criteria such as its novelty,
uniqueness, and artistic merits. However, the client may be in the best position to evaluate the ad in
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6. Many advertising creative personnel are opposed to focus groups research as they argue that they may
inhibit the creative process. Discuss the problems, as well as the value, of using focus groups to
evaluate advertising creative work. (L02)
Focus groups are a qualitative research method whereby a small group of consumers are led through a
discussing regarding a particular topic or issue. They can be used to gather detailed insight as to why
Gladwell examines the content and origin of instantaneous impressions and argues that decisions
made quickly can be as good as those made after much deliberation. Agency creative personnel have
long been critical of the idea of having their ideas and work critiqued by consumers as they argue that
it limits their ability to develop innovative and breakthrough advertising. Recently focus groups have
been criticized for a number of reasons. Many advertising creative people insist that good ideas don’t
7. Assume that you have been hired as an account planner by an advertising agency and assigned to
work on the development of an advertising campaign for a new brand of bottled water. Discuss the
various types of general and product-specific preplanning input you might provide for the creative
team. (L02)
General preplanning input includes overall information on trends, developments and conditions in the
marketplace that would be relevant to the marketing of the product. In the case of a new brand of
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Product-specific preplanning input includes information that is directly relevant to the product or
service. Usage and attitude studies regarding bottled water users and nonusers in particular, could be
performed as well as psychographic studies. Problem detection studies could be performed to
other brands.
8. Discuss the role an advertising slogan plays in the development of an advertising campaign as well as
some of the factors that should be considered in developing an effective tagline. Find an example of a
good tagline as well as one that does not communicate effectively. Discuss the reasons why you view
these as either good or bad examples of advertising slogans. (L03)
An advertising slogan or tagline is used to express the central theme or message that is being
communicated in an advertising campaign. The slogan should serve as a summation line that
succinctly expresses the company or brand’s positioning, as well as the message it is trying to deliver
9. Briefly describe the five major communication interfaces and decision points in the model of
marketing information flow shown in Figure 8-4. Discuss how breakdowns in communication can
occur at each interface and how this might negatively impact the creative process. (L03)
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This model, which was developed by developed by John Sutherland, Lisa Duke, and Avery
Abernethy, shows the flow of marketing information regarding customers, the product or service, and
the market from clients to agency creative staff and the major interfaces and decision points where
10. Discuss the key characteristics of a unique selling proposition. What are some of the factors an
advertiser must consider in developing an advertising campaign that uses a USP as the basis for the
major selling idea? (L04)
The concept of the unique selling proposition (USP) was developed by the famous advertising
copywriter Rosser Reeves. The concept of a USP is that it offers the consumer a specific feature or
11. Find an example of an ad or campaign that you think reflects one of the approaches used to develop a
major selling idea such as unique selling proposition, brand image, inherent drama, or positioning.
Discuss how the major selling idea is used in this ad or campaign. (L04)
Jeweler refers to the major selling idea as “the strongest singular thing you can say about your
product or service. This should be the claim with the broadest and most meaningful appeal to your
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Additional Discussion Questions (not in text)
12. Explain what is meant by creative strategy and creative tactics in advertising. Find an example of an
advertising campaign and evaluate the creative strategy and tactics used in the ads.
Creative strategy determines what an advertising campaign and messages will say or communicate. It
is best viewed as a process that is designed for determining what the advertising should communicate
13. Television commercials are often developed that rely on unusual creative tactics and have very
little relevance to the product or service being advertised. Creative personnel in agencies defend the
use of the strange messages by noting that they are novel and break through the clutter. Evaluate the
pros and cons of this argument
Creative personnel do face a major challenge as they must develop ads that will break through the
clutter that occurs in various media such as television, radio, online, magazines and newspapers and
grab the attention of the viewer, listener or reader. This can be particularly difficult in the broadcast
14. Find an example of an advertising campaign for a company or brand that you feel is very good and
evaluate it using the universal advertising standards of the former D’Arcy Benton & Bowles agency
that are shown in Figure 8-1. Discuss how the advertising reflects these standards.
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Students should be asked to find examples of an advertising campaign that they find particularly
creative and evaluate it against the universal advertising standards presented in Figure 8-1. They
15. What is meant by a media-driven creative strategy? What are the advantages of taking this approach
to creative strategy development?
A media-driven creative strategy refers to the idea of creating advertising messages that are designed
to work well in a specific media vehicle. For example, Absolut vodka often tailors its print ads to the
16. IMC Technology Perspective 8-1 discusses how marketers such as Hitachi America Ltd. Are using
Webisodes on the Internet as part of their IMC campaigns. Discuss how the “Hitachi/True Stories”
Webisodes might help the company in its brand-building efforts in North America.
Webisodes refer to short films that marketers create to promote a company or brand that are shown
online. Many marketers create micro Web sites for these films which are really a form of
advertainment as they contain elements of advertising and entertainment. Online ads and webisodes
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IMC Exercise
Each year various advertising publications and organizations sponsor creative competitions and/or give
creative awards for advertising. Some of these awards and competitions include: the Kelley Awards for
the best magazine ads which are given by the Association of Magazine Media (formerly the Magazine
Publishers of America); the Best Awards which are given by Advertising Age, the Effies (which were
originally given by the New York chapter of the American Marketing Association but recently assigned
AdForum Exercise: Analyzing Award Winning Campaigns and Commercials
(See Advertising and Promotion Playlist, Chapter 8)
Part I: Integrated Campaigns
The AdForum Playlist for this chapter contains the three campaigns that received Grand Prix awards in
the Integrated Marketing category at the 2010 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival including “Replay” for
Gatorade, “Chalkbot” for Nike Livestrong apparel, and “Choose a Different Ending” for the London
Metropolitan Police Service. Answer the following for each of these campaigns:
1. Analyze each award winning campaign from an integrated marketing communications perspective
giving attention to the way various IMC tools are used.
Chapter 8 – Creative Strategy: Planning and Development
Part II: Film Awards
The playlist for this chapter also includes the Old Spice commercial that won the 2010 Grand Prix award
for film along with four other commercials that won Cannes Lions awards in the film category. Watch
each of these commercials and address the following:
1. Analyze each commercial in terms of the two major determinants of creativity (divergence and
relevance) discussed in the chapter.