CREATIVITY

DEFINITION• Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality

• Coming up with improved solutions to problems

• Succeeding in moving customer to action

CREATIVE STRATEGY

• The number and variety of adverts (Ads) appears to be infinite.

• There are a number of distinctive creative strategies that have

evolved over the years. Some ads fall into more than one of

these categories.

• There are Seven categories of creative strategies include the

following

7 CATEGORIES OF CREATIVE STRATEGIES

•GENERIC STRATEGYHere the organizations make no attempt to differentiate its brand from its competitors e.g OMO

and surf ads

PRE – EMPTIVE STRATEGYHere an organization attempts to take ownership of an ordinary claim, thereby making it difficult

for other competitors to highlight the attribute in question Such as this Adidas TV commercial,

the slogan is “Impossible is Nothing”. In fact this can be used for every sports brand, but Adidas

creative it at first, and mix it with their brand image and products performance. It is successful.

•UNIQUE-SELLING-PROPOSITION STRATEGY

• The advertiser makes a superiority claim based on a unique product

attribute that represents a distinct meaningful consumer benefit e.g

bulbs (neon styled) produced by Philips have longer life span than

traditional light bulbs.

• BRAND-IMAGE STRATEGY

• This is about highlighting psychological differences between products

e.g the Mercedes Benz star

•POSITIONING STRATEGY• Has a direct effort at comparison with competitive products e.g Duracell

lasting six times longer than any other batteries

•RESONANCE STRATEGY

• Here the ad will attempt to strike a chord with customers

e.g Castle larger (Inqaba) ads being associated with the

sportsperson (Castle Larger and the Proteas)

•EMOTIONAL STRATEGY• These ads play on emotions such as fear, romance,

disgust and so on e.g

2. The copy3. Visualisation

4. Ad creation

1. The brief

5. Launching the campaign

5 STAGES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESSThe Brief

• Is an encapsulation of what the core message is that the organization wants to carry across to their target audience, but it is also likely to include some of the following elements

A description of the product/service to be advertised

A condensed profile of the target audience

The medium/media to be used

The type of advertisement required (informative, argumentative, humorous, etc.)

The key proposition (deprived from the core message)

Reasons behind the key proposition

THE BRIEF (CONTND)

Any supporting benefits

Existing target audience perceptions

Desired outcome in terms of target audience

Desired outcome in terms of target audience action

Any constraints

Inclusions required in ad

THE COPY• The copy-writing process has to do with finding the right words to gain the Attention,

Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action, and Satisfaction (AIDCAS) of the target audience

• Process involves:

Undertaking research to determine what words or phrases will motivate the target

audience

Establish a copy structure that depicts where the text will be positioned and what

elements the copy will comprise

The actual copy itself (contents of the ad)

The copy style (manner in which words are presented)

VISUALIZATION• Visual message is embodied in drawings, photographs, illustrations,

animations, video clips and or sound segments.

• It is important that the visual elements support the copy of the ad

• Visualization also has A.I.D.C.A.S, because humans are influenced to a

large extent by what they see, rather than what they read.

• Recall of a visual ad is much higher than in the case of copy only.

AD CREATION• Here the ad gets produced.

• This is where the graphic artists, illustrators, photographers, video

producers and audio engineers come into play.

LAUNCHING THE CAMPAIGN

• Finally the ad campaign is launched.

• Usually comprises a roll-out over a period of time

• An advertising schedule will be necessary to pin-point

when and where ads will be run

EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

• You receive feedback on whether you are on track and whether your

efforts have been worthwhile.