The Chicken Or The Egg?

Should the design of an advertising campaign be led by media strategy or creative strategy?

An issue that keeps appearing when designing advertising campaigns is whether the design should be led by media or creative strategy. There are, of course, good reasons to choose both and I'll write about some of them here but please feel free to comment as I'd love to hear other opinions on this topic.

The case for a media-led strategy

One argument that marketers will make for a media-led campaign design is that it almost guarantees you stay within budget before you even hear ideas; the media space has been purchased and that's that. The creative agency will have to work around it.

The main argument, however, is that a media-led campaign is one which goes to the consumer. Media space is bought according to your target market, where they spend their time and when they're there. This makes sense. You create a campaign with a definite destination in mind. Unfortunately, this can be a little prescriptive and restrict the creative side of things...

The case for a creative-led strategy

The most prominent argument for designing an advertising campaign around the creative content is that there are no constraints; the best idea wins. With this strategy, an engaging idea is presented along with suggestions regarding the media to carry it. This is generally the case in pitch-type scenarios. However good the pitch-winning idea though, there's always a chance that the client's first request is to produce the idea for a certain medium. If it's the right medium to carry the idea to your target market, the idea will more than likely have been created with it in mind. In addition, having the creative concept allows the media agency to add an extra layer to their targeting strategy.

Implemented by marketers from the onset, this strategy means the best ideas can shine and don't have to be warped and adapted to fit certain criteria. Why book radio space just because it fits the budget when the concept is entirely visual in nature? Why prescript the medium when the idea could surpass it?

So...the chicken or the egg?

This, like many such topics, is completely subjective. In my (slightly biased) opinion, it comes down to finding and engaging your target audience versus compelling them to find and engage you.

As I've written before, sometimes creativity beats all the metrics in the world. You just have to ask: is it worth the risk?

When Enough Isn't Enough

Marketing today centres on being measurable; the terms ‘metrics’ and ‘ROI’ are a little too commonplace in marketing departments in my opinion. Overly-measured marketing can mean very specifically targeted messages at minimal over-spending. You tell just enough people about your product/service so you can meet your goals via the wrong metrics. Sometimes enough isn’t enough.

Often these metrics are not exactly wrong but simply the traditionally tried and trusted methods to calculate ROI. They don’t even necessarily match up with pre-campaign goals. Their main role is to appease the accountants and ensure similar marketing funds for the next campaign. If the campaign objective is to increase sales, why are you patting yourself on the back for getting 100,000 views on your video? Impressions and other similar results are a great way to measure how your brand image campiagn is being received. As has always been the case, you have to set your pre-campaign goals and judge success on meeting or not meeting these goals. Everything else is irrelevant. The brand’s success is your success and if you’re bluffing, your career and personal growth as a marketer will suffer.

AIDA: The case against inbound marketing

Sometimes you need to shout your message. Make people your target audience by being interesting to them; don’t just aim for sure things. AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire and action. This is an initialism that has done the rounds in advertising since the 1950s but I believe it’s still relevant. If you grab somebody’s attention, make them interested in what you’re selling and make them desire it, there’s a good chance they’ll carry out the action you want them to (your call to action). If you create attention-grabbing and interesting ads, you’ll have more success. I'm not saying inbound marketing doesn't work; in fact, it works extremely well for certain business types (and it's always measurable if that's what you're in to).

I do, however, disagree with the argument being put forward by today’s inbound evangelists against traditional advertising: that it is disruptive and annoys consumers, which is bad for your brand image. This is a good argument against bad advertising and I agree with it completely. However, if you create interesting ads this argument is nullified. If you disrupt people’s routine with something that will interest them, they’ll welcome it. The basic premise of inbound marketing is that we should create interesting content for people, allowing them to form a relationship with your brand. Why can’t this content be a TV advert? Would you say a gorilla playing the drums was an unwelcome disruption to your routine that put you off eating Cadbury chocolate?

Speaking of brands...

Invest in your brand. This investment may not be very measurable but it could be vital for success. Investing in your brand image can be an alternative route to creating content as it helps customers form long-term relationships with your company in a similar manner. A brand is a company’s most valuable asset; it accounts for approximately more than half of its value. Your brand primes you for every move you will make in the future. Do you think people will sleep outside waiting for the new Huawei phone? The answer is no, but ask yourself the same thing about Apple’s next iPhone.

Your brand allows you to create hype and set the prices you want to set. People can be lifelong fans of a brand and this means they’ll possibly be fans of each and every major product released under that brand name. This means less risk in the long run as you’re almost guaranteed a certain level of success if you stick to the qualities that made your brand lovable in the first place.

You have to spend money to make money (A cliché, I know but it still makes sense)

Get creative and shout your message from the rooftops. Use all means available to you within your budget. The truth is that traditional advertising works. It might not always be the most measurable but it works. Do you think Dollar Shave Club would have been such an instant success if they had provided useful tips on the best shaving techniques and the best razors via blogs? Here's what they did instead and at a relatively low cost. Sometimes you need to make a statement (and a big one at that).

All in all, traditional advertising is, believe it or not, a sure fire way to stand out amongst today’s measured, safe marketing campaigns if you do it well. While your competitors are reaching enough customers with enough media, why not do more?