The Single Minded Proposition

So as I said, this is the most important part of formulating a good advertising campaign, as all your ideas will revolve around what you decide is the single minded proposition.

I'm going to use an analogy from Adschool, told by Ben O'Brien from Kastner&Partners (who work on the Red Bull brand in Australia). He said that advertising is like tennis balls. If you imagine being thrown a load of tennis balls all at once, you can't (usually!) catch any of them. But if you are thrown one, you are very likely to catch it. So that's what an ad is like. If you are thrown all this information, you don't take any of it in, but if you are just given one piece of information, you are much more likely to remember it. It's also a bit of a psychological thing, are minds get bored easily, so make it as easy as possible by just having one focus.

Clients generally want to rave about their product, they have lists and lists of features that they want everyone to know about...naturally! But it's the advertisers job to pick ONE defining thing about it. A different angle. And once that has been decided (usually by the account managers), it is then presented as a brief to the creative department, who can work around that idea and come up with as many different ideas surrounding it. David Ogilvy said that a really tight brief, that is extremely detailed, is much better for creatives, because it gives the freedom within the boundries that the account managers set, meaning they won't go off on one and miss the point of the campaign!

The worst word to see in a campaign is 'and'. That means the client has won. And fair play, they have all the money, but advertisers are supposed to be experts on what sells, and what resonates. And 'ands' never resonate. Of course their are exceptions, but I can't name one. There has to a be single focus, so x bars are nutritious OR delicious, not nutritious and delicious. It seems like it wouldn't make that much difference, but you will be surprised at how many good ads never have reels of information in them.

It's important to know, that no one wants to look at your ad. People pay extra, for tv that can fast-forward through them. So they HAVE to be interesting, and have to be thought-provoking, and have to be exciting! You have to be unexpected, because people are curious by nature, and like being surprised by an unexpected idea. To give you some ideas,  couple of examples... 

Blackcurrent Tango: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGjizZCXetk   Why not talk to someone who doesn't like tango?!

Marmite: Why not admit that some people don't like your product?!
IWC: http://ialreadyhaveawatch.com/2009/06/iwcs-clever-ambient-advertising-bus-wrist-straps/  Why not use media channels in a clever way?!

I'll be using some more examples about more campaigns that I like, but hopefully it demonstrates how doing the unexpected can really work in your favour, even it intuitively it seems a bit risky! That's when the best campaigns are created in my opinion.

The Different Functions In An Agency

So now I'll explain the different departments in an advertising agency. There are a few more posts I want to do about advertising generally, before I start bashing my own views out, so hopefully this will give people who don't know much about advertising the chance to learn more about it, and work out if it's something they want to explore further! So just bear with me, I'll move on to some more of my opinions soon!

Account Management: These are the people who work most closely with the client. They have to be people-people, who are good at knowing their audience and can understand their needs and aspirations for their brand. Account managers try and work this out, and create briefs (I will explain these later and what they include, but generally consist of brand insights, consumer insights, target audiences, what advertising channels should be used, budget sizes and the single minded proposition) to present to the creative department.

The Creative Department: Come up with the crazy ideas. These people need to push the boundries, be really lateral thinking and work outside the box. To quote Mr. Bernbach again 'Rules are what the artists breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula' (see, he's full of great advice!) They consist of copywriters and art directors, which is headed up by the creative director.

Strategy and Traffic: They are known as the 'springboard for ideas', they take an objective view on everything involved with the campaign. They organise market research, evolution and the refinement for ideas. Traffic sorts out how work is distributed and deadlines, to ease work flow.

Each department obviously plays a key role in the overall quality of the work produced. Everyone has to collaborate and work together, and communication is so key. You need to make sure everyone is on the same page. At the same time, we all need to make sure that in advertising we are constantly challenging ideas and the way things are done, in order to come out with the best ideas for the client.

Where An Agency Comes In...

I'm going to really basically, and a bit crudely as there is quite a lot to the whole process, explain the client-agency relationship.

So the first step for a business when they decide they want a new campaign to push a product or something, is to use a model to work out where their brand is now, why they are in that place, where are they going, how can they get there, are we getting there, and then re-evaluate where they are again. So it goes round and round. They then give this information to a couple of advertising agencies. The agencies then go away, and prepare what they think to be the answers to all those questions. Which are then presented back to the client who decides which agency they think best aligns with the direction they want to go in.

The agencies therefore put a lot of work into the creative brief, which is what is presented back to the client. Agencies don't get paid for these (which I think is awful considering the amount of effort gone into them) but if they win the business of the client then it is worth all the effort.

The main issue for advertising agencies is convincing a client that their idea is the best. When it comes to advertising, clients want you to include everything that they think is great about their product or brand, and they have huge lists of features, but the main job of the agency is to come up with ONE single focus for the campaign. This is called a single minded proposition. I will write a whole new post for this (after I have explained the different functions of an advertising agency) because it's so important!

So that's how an agency fits into the whole thing!

A Good Campaign

Ok, so advertising. What's the point of it, how does it work etc etc.

So firstly, why do we advertise? Advertising is about selling products. It isn't about making the funniest, or cleverest ad to make the agency look good, it should about about what your selling. These days agencies can sometimes miss that because their focus is on winning awards....which is great as long as you are doing a good job for your clients! The best agencies will always remember that. As the great Bill Bernbach said (if you don't know him, Google him, he's the genius behind some of the most infamous ads) 'A good ad makes the product-not the author-shine'.

What makes a good ad? A good ad should combine a strong strategy, brilliant creativity and great client relationship managers. To come out with a good ad, it needs to be simple, original, relevant and create an impact. It needs to be unexpected and lateral thinking. It has to be memorable. Along with all this, an idea has to be campaignable. By that, we mean that an idea should be one that can be transferred to all marketing channels, from tv, to digital, to outdoor. It has to be an idea that can be developed consistently across each medium so that it can resonate with consumers. Finally, an ad has to achieve what the client wants it to achieve, whether that be raising awareness, selling more of a product, or whatever the purpose of the campaign is.

Introduction to me!

Hey!

If you are reading this, thanks for coming to check out all my thoughts and opinions in the world of advertising! I'll start by introducing myself and letting you know a bit about me.

I graduated from Nottingham University in this year (2011) in July, with a 2:1 in Philosophy and Theology. I had the best time, and met the greatest people. I wasn't sure then what I wanted to do with my life, but then I moved to Australia, made the snap decision to enroll in advertising school (the day before!) which is an 11 week course on everything to do with advertising.

I'm now doing an internship at M&C Saatchi and absolutely loving it! I'm hoping to go traveling next january with a couple of my favourite people, and then move back to London in August/September and hoping to get on a graduate training scheme so I can properly start my advertising career!

So in this blog, I want to explain the advertising world to people who don't know anything about the industry, as well as give my opinions on what I love and what I hate. I really want it to be something that fires debates, and fuels people to come up with their own views that they put forward. So please make comments, challenge me, whatever! I'm not an expert (although everyone thinks they are an expert in advertising!), but I have opinions, and sometimes they are strong ones. I think that's a definite positive if you want to get into the industry, so I welcome discussions!

Thanks again for taking a look, and come back regularly to check out what I'm thinking :)

Love, Sarah