Contrary to rumors, I did not break my back experimenting with human flight. I merely fractured both shoulders and tore some muscles. So much for Icarus come to Advertising.
This one's from the email bag.
Question:
Should a strategy and its promise be general/plainly-stated enough as to not “lock” creatives into specific executions? Or should that promise be worded in a way that is flavorful, dimensional and emotional where it serves as a springboard for unexpected executions immediately?
Example:
Energizer Batteries. What might that promise have sounded like on the document? Energizer batteries are built to last longer…The …creative team then had to spend a lot of brain power and time to make the leap to …“It keeps going and going and going” and all it’s different executions. Whereas if the promise had started out as “Energizer batteries keep going and going and going,” it might lead me to thoughts on how to execute against that specific line.
I know, on the one hand, there is more latitude in approach number one to come up with more ways to spin longer lasting than just “going and going and going.” But approach number two doesn’t necessarily limit us or prevent us from doing so either. It just ensures that we have a more savory promise to start executing against right out of the gates.
Should that responsibility fall on client service or the planning department? Can they be relied upon to come up that perfect promise that takes the burden of finding a nugget away from creatives? As you can tell, something that used to seem so simple is now complicated beyond belief in my own mind.........help!!!
Ok - Creative Promise, writing creative strategies. Your planners/AEs can write Advertising and Marketing Strategies, but not Creative Strategies. That's our job. Even if we get a "creative strategy" from another dept., even if it was done by an AE trained in KCWP, they can't always think/feel/respond/interpret things the way we do.
Creatives should do our own KCWP and work from that. In my experience, it's usually easier and more productive to write the KCWP myself, use it to discuss things with the AEs/Planners/Clients. Just make sure they all understand how each relates.
It's not just that our definition/use of the Key Fact is different (and that's huge) - it's not the most important thing to communicate about client/product/service - that's acceptable only in Advertising and/or Marketing Strategy. Creatives define the "Kamikaze Creative Key Fact" as something that's happening out there, in the prospects' world, we can use as a conceptual vehicle to "carry"/communicate the rest of the KCWP. (Example: Energizer Batteries are long lasting (possible Adv/Mktg Key Fact), vs. "Congress is really making a mess of the economy (all the more reason to use long lasting batteries) - a possible Creative Key Fact."
As to how to word your promise, you talked yourself out of the right answer. Keep it simple. Yes, that would require the creatives to come up with "keeps going and going and going..." but that's our job. Really, it's just a translation of the Promise's thought - Energizer Batteries last a long time. It's not even a competitive thought - just a nice, safe, perhaps even parity thought. (Think back to our discussions on Perceived vs. Real differences – the Energizer Bunny campaign never claims superiority over other brands – just says it’s long lasting. The perception they create, however, is so strong, the net gain is longest lasting.)
Say what you want to say. Creative Strategy should be internal, so you have a bit more freedom. If you do use it with w/clients (and I do), you need them to understand all that and how the KCWP works. What everyone's roles are. So you write down "long lasting." Then you and your partner come up w/going and going and going...***
As to spending more time concepting the creative strategiy than concepting the work itself, there’s nothing wrong with that. The best way to really push creative out there in a meaningful way, is by pushing the strategy out there. Not by just getting kinky with what you know about the product. I'm talking substance. Push that "long lasting " promise further, it could become "no matter what you pay for them, Energizer batteries cost less(because you replace them less often)." Is that the right Promise? You need to study it in context with your Prospect, Competition, Objective, etc.
Pushed again, with a different Creative Key Fact, the same thought (long lasting) can turn into "it's the Greenest alkaline battery you can use." Why? If they’re long lasting, you use fewer, there's less of their ecologically damaging chemicals going into the town dump/city water table/air quality, yadda yadda.
Again, you need to look at this within the context of the rest of your KCWP. There are market segments this wouldn't matter to (believe it or not), or would matter a lot less to - if you're trying to motivate one of them, this wouldn't be a great Promise. It sounds different, but really what it is, is the same Lasts Longer promise just skewed a bit and pushed further.
To get back to your basic question, is the Creative Promise something you should get from AEs, clients, planners, etc? They should have already contributed to the advertising/marketing strategy/ies. That's one of the places you find the original thought, "long lasting," although it may not be in the form of a promise. Could be buried in the Reasons Why or Competition.
Advertising and Marketing Strategies are your INPUT. The better the input, the better the creative. (You should print that up on big signs and post them everywhere, even where clients can see them, just so people don't forget that PRODUCT INPUT and INSIGHT is their job - interpreting that, putting that into a KCWP/Creative Strategy and spinning it conceptually into whatever medium you're dealing with - is ours.
As to your “Should a strategy and its promise be general/plainly-stated enough as to not “lock” creatives into specific executions?” puzzlement. Think back to the discussion your class had on the Creative Process. (If you want my handout on this, email me at kamikazecreative@gmail.com) The first step is to “Define the problem – as broadly as possible.” The last thing you want any strategy to do is dictate information so narrowly, your creative solution options are greatly diminished. The more simply you write your KCWP, the broader your creative options.
An anecdote on that Energizer Bunny campaign: several former students worked for the guy who came up with it. He was such a miserable person to work for, one of them wrote a story about the Hamburger Helper Helping Hand plotting to jump out of the TV and kill the creative who came up with it. Next time you want to present an animated “embodiment” of the product/product benefit, be careful. While the EB (Energizer Bunny) bounced off the TV into mainstream American cultural literacy with a mind-numbing array of variations, rip-offs and embellishments, poor old HH (Helping Hand), much more specific in nature/content, never quite caught on (except with the client, I’d venture).
