Has the idea got legs, has always been the question. So could the idea go beyond a one-off TVC
or print campaign and deliver multiple executions over time?
Thinking about what is required of an idea today makes the “legs” only variety seem easy.
Now ideas have to work in a lot more places, in a lot more different ways than ever before. Working out which ideas have enough richness, currency and pure interest value has never been harder.
All of this is compounded by the fact old habits die hard and particularly bad ones, which have resulted from the drive for “integration”. So often the idea agreed upon is driven by the medium with the request to turn the TVC
into an online ad or viral or DM pack or website. This is always an interesting challenge when the only assets the brand
has is a 30-second script or a headline, three lines of copy and
an image.
Start with understanding the context. Where the brand lives is no longer under the marketers’ control – user-generated content is just the recent example of this, with blogs and forums being the earlier examples. So strategic thinking leading into the creative briefing must now include the context for brand engagement and, most importantly, conversations.
Context planning has been around for a couple of years in different guises but only now,
with the onslaught of digital opportunities, is its potential and importance becoming clear.
Like traditional brand and communications planning, the focus is the consumer but the big difference is the start point. With context planning you plan for one and not many consumers at the outset and, importantly, where and when the brand and consumer are going to meet across multiple connections.
Why? Because, quite simply, if we don’t think at this level, the potential to have conversations will be completely missed in the creative process.
Thinking about the brand context requires a deep insight
into the mood and mode of
the consumer and what their expectations are of the category and the brand. Why would they want to talk, play, create, share, register and spend time with
the brand?
What context planning does is help inform the creative development process, looking at the potential and relevance of content, community, tools and applications, to enable a conversation with the consumer.
So how do you know if your idea has arms and legs?
There are two additional
and fundamental requirements of
big ideas today:
1) Opportunity to participate: Interaction must be integral to the idea and not just an add-on after the TVC has been approved.
2) Content that is not just pure product: Talking just about yourself is rarely attractive. The idea must encapsulate what is uniquely motivating, interesting and differentiating about the brand to create an experience that is multi-dimensional. So the brand idea can be discovered, explored and shared on the consumer’s terms.
Then you have to think past the first connection with the consumer across channels over a period of time. Can the brand live, and live up to the idea? 30 seconds on TV, three minutes on mobile, 30 minutes on the web – not just first time around but three months later, when consumers talk about it to their friends?
In a nutshell, the idea must be capable of two parties being involved from the beginning: the brand and the consumer. Just telling consumers about yourself with no opportunity for a conversation is no longer acceptable. So, next time you are reviewing the work, look for the arms as well
as the legs.
“Instead of campaigns that start and stop every sales season, agencies will help brands engage consumers in a conversation containing a series of dialogues, each of which gradually develops and fades over time, like ripples in a pond.” (The Connected Agency, Forrester February 2008) <
Sally Martyn is managing director of digital & direct agency RMG Connect.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
