Holy Kamikaze! In which Doreen corrects an earlier confusion and reminds you who we work for

Two terms ago, David Baldwin met w/my class to initiate my “Team Skyper” sessions.  It’d been a long time since David team taught with me.  As usual, he was fabulous (the shirt’s in the mail, David!). 

He also reminded me I was remiss in my teaching.  At one point in the sessions, he said (in a coded message to me, I’m sure), “Everything we do is Objective Based.”  Score One, David.

The last time David and I team taught, I was experimenting with my first class in Object Based Kamikaze Creative Strategy.  It was something David, David Glaze (then of genex/LA and Designatory, now of Amazon) and Minsoo Pak (Sparks Grove/Atlanta) and I had been playing with.  Making the medium the concept.

I taught it at the Circus.  Blogged about it (6/1/11, 7/30/11 + sprinkled throughout).  Reworked the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan.  Then seemed to forget about it.

I was still teaching Kamikaze Creative Strategy, but dropped the Objective Based Thinking.  When David, David, Minsoo and I were trying to figure out how to teach it, we were way ahead of the curve.  The curve caught up.

Last term, I went back to emphasizing (and did my Friday seminar on) Object Based Kamikaze Creative Strategy.  Will be doing a seminar on it at the Circus tomorrow (if you’re in town, 9:30 a.m. at the Circus, tell the security station/receptionist you’re here to see me, they’ll direct you to Carol Vick Bynum Auditorium).  In the revisitation, I realized I made a mistake earlier.

I should never have moved the Objective ahead of the Prospect.  On the form. In the teaching.

It’s failed logic.  Objective Based KCS (Kamikaze Creative Strategy) does make meeting the Objective part of the Creative Concept (CC or KCC).  Knowing the Objective doesn’t mean squat, however, unless you have a good handle on your Prospect.

In Objective Based KCS, Prospect still rules.

What good is knowing you want to introduce something if you don’t know who you want to introduce it to?  Ditto creating awareness, branding, rebranding, positioning and every other Creative Objective.

Objective Based Strategies are first and foremost What are we trying to do.  Concepting the media mix, vehicles you can use creatively (innovate and/or reinvent/invent) to meet the Objective.  Putting the product in front of the Prospect so they cannot ignore it.  Integrating it organically into the fabric of their lives.

To creatively meet your Objective, you must know who you’re reaching for inside/out.  Same as for every other Kamikaze Creative Strategy. 

As in all things Advertising Creative, Prospect still rules.

The form is correctly as follows:

1.      Prospect Definition

2.      Creative Objective

3.      Prospect Problem to Solve

4.      Competitive Information

5.      Promise
      Reasons Why*

6.     Kamikaze Key Fact

7.      Mandates & Limitations

Mea Culpea.  Even Doreen is not perfect. 

GRRRR...for some reason, cannot get Reasons Why to show as its own bullet point.  It is.  Sorry.


This post, along with everything else on this blog, (c)2016 or earlier,  Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative