What do 1400+ award winning advertising campaigns have in common?
Curio #33
Morning! How’s it goin’?
So, last week we left off at the 4 principles for planning effective advertising campaigns.
Hop over here 👇 if you need a refresher on what Effectiveness is.
Today, we’re going to get into the first principle.
It answers the question ‘What do all the campaigns that win effectiveness awards have in common?’
They're planned around specific effectiveness targets.
That’s the first principle of effective campaign planning.
And it sounds deceptively simple.
Because all campaigns have some sorts goal, right?
But setting effectiveness targets isn't the same as tracking campaign metrics.
That's because effectiveness is not a metric.
Effectiveness targets are an umbrella term.
An effective campaign needs to hit your commercial, communication, and brand funnel objectives.
Knowing this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that…
Every marketing campaign that's ever won an effectiveness award was planned around clear effectiveness targets.
And that includes over 1400 case studies collected by IPA gathered since the 1980s.
In my experience, even having one clearly defined target to plan around is better than nothing.
But the best campaign objectives require thoughtful planning.
Start with qualitative input, conversations, and discussions.
So, dig into your bag of case studies. Talk to industry experts. And work with your team to find the best answers.
I’ve been using Richard Rumel’s ‘Kernel of Good Strategy’ to structure my thinking.
I love it because it’s simple to follow.
I use it this way.
Start by having a clear and common definition of the problem. (The hard nut to crack.)
Do you want to improve your market share?
Get people to pay a higher price? Or improve preference for your brand?
Do you know why your brand isn’t selling more today?
Then explore and agree on the reasons why we’re stuck. (Diagnosis.)
We know that problems come in batches.
That’s why the final step is to agree on an approach that’ll have the biggest impact. (Guiding policy.)
Finally, take action.
Once you’re clear on what problem your campaign needs to solve, it becomes a lot easier to set clear objectives.
Use the insights you gather for setting clear objectives and quantitative targets for:
Commercial Objective: How much more do we want to sell?
Communication Objective: What do we want people to know about our brand that they don’t know today?
Brand Funnel Objective: How do we want people to behave differently when interacting with our brand?
I advise not adding more objectives to this list.
In my opinion that only makes it harder to manage the planning process.
And worse, you end up with campaigns designed to do everything at the same time.
That might appease the most people but it will certainly kill your campaign effectiveness.
There you have it: the winning formula of effective campaign planning.
Have questions? Hit me up.
Until next week. Stay curious!
Aliyar