Brand Strategy Always Underpins Successful Advertising Campaigns
Wayne Attwell - Senior Brand Strategist, Bold Horizon
I recently read an outstanding article about how brand strategy always underpins creative execution. Since we started Bold Horizon, this has always been the underlying basis of our own TrueBrand™ process, and we have consistently preached it from our soapbox. But it's still great to get validation from a reputable international source.
The article was written on June 25, 2008 by John Furgurson of BN Branding in Oregon, USA, and is titled "Put some meat in your marketing messages". Their website is www.bnbranding.com.
Here's a paraphrased version of what John had to say...
"Every year, millions of dollars are wasted on advertising that is well-produced, but not very well thought-out. Rather like a supermodel... nice to look at, but there's just no substance there.
I was talking with a restaurateur the other day about this very subject. He had retained an advertising agency to help promote his launch, but after an hour-long conversation, he had talked himself into never going back.
The advertising agency in question produced a website, some print ads and a tagline without having a single, meaningful conversation with him about his business. If they had, they would have known that this particular business owner didn't understand his own brand.
He has a beautiful restaurant with an impressive interior and outstanding cuisine, but has no story to tell, no clear idea of what his core message ought to be.
Instead of an advertising agency, he should have hired someone to help him figure it out... Before he paid for a tagline and a campaign that "doesn't really fit this place." Before he paid a top-name architect to design the interiors. Before he ever trained his servers or developed the menu, he should have known what his establishment was "all about" (this refers to the Brand Story). Easier said than done!
He and I did more quality thinking over one cup of coffee than he had ever done with his agency. And he's not alone. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review shows that the majority of VP and C-level execs don't know their company's strategy. Or at least they can't verbalize it without launching into a long-winded spiel about "value-based planning and linkage for a strategy of diversification of the company's differentiated asset portfolio."
The payoff for a clearly defined and well-written brand strategy is clear: you won't run pretty ads in the wrong publications. You won't change direction every year, just to be fashionable. And you won't have an on-line marketing effort that doesn't jive with the rest of your branding. Botto,vided by you, the client, and on their own gut instinct. They'll tell you that "great creative work begins with sound strategic thinking" but then they'll just jump right into the sexiest part of the project... the creative execution. For advertising agencies, strategy is not a deliverable.
It's understandable, given the prevailing perception that most business people think of strategic planning as a left-brained activity. But advertising agencies are enclaves of right-brain, creative thinking: therefore, you can't possibly get a brand strategy from them. So there's often a disconnect between the strategy and the creative output.
A sensible approach is to get a combination of both services from one team: strategic insight and disciplined graphic execution. A left-brain, right-brain, one-two punch. That's how brand experts approach it... insight first, then execution.
No amount of creative wizardry will save a marketing campaign that lacks a strong, well-defined sales premise and brand strategy. That's why you should put so much emphasis on message development and front-end strategic issues.
Sound advertising begins with creative strategic brand thinking. In other words, right-brained thinking is just as important in the strategic planning process as it is in execution."