Recognize best practices in marketing campaigns

By Thomas Lamprecht

Lamprecht is vice president, executive creative director for Hacker Group, one of the largest marketing agencies in the West. During his career on Madison Avenue, Thomas created award winning campaigns for Fortune 500 and other clients, while working with Bates Worldwide, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and Siegel & Gale, among others. In 2000, he opened a new division of Grey Global Group in San Francisco , growing it to more than 200 professionals.

In a marketplace that becomes more measurable every day, it is critical to know what works and what doesn't. It takes good judgment to recognize excellent creative work. It takes great judgment to know whether a campaign will be a winner before it even hits the street.

Savvy marketers have tested thousands of strategies and ideas over the years and have an eye for what works. Most brand marketers are looking for something distinctive, identifiable and original. The creative team's challenge is to incorporate tried-and-true concepts along with ideas that have never been done before.

To evaluate advertising ideas, consider these common qualities of successful campaigns:

1. Great creative work has emotional depth. Commercials for the iPod make us want to dance. Nike commercials make us feel strong.
2. Great creative work shows benefits and doesn't rehash features. Commercials for Target make us feel like we can afford good taste. In contrast, past commercials for Wal-Mart merely screamed "low price."
3. Successful creative often features an offer. This summer's BOGO commercials for Payless ShoeSource are a good example. The essence of an offer is “do this and you'll get that.” Payless drills the “buy one/get one” offer in a fun way that catches consumers' attention.
4. Winning creative is conversational. Ads that talk at viewers or readers, rather than to them, are likely to be ignored. There's no excuse for not starting a dialog with customers in this era of social media. Conversation leads to understanding, which translates into a successful campaign.
5. The best creative doesn't give any hints about what the creative brief said. Too many ads look like the marketing plan in drag, because the marketing team insists on incorporating a list of bullet points. No matter how many key messages must be communicated, they shouldn't sound or look like a creative plan.
6. Excellent creative is well thought out. The plan must address all contingencies. When a team member asks a question or raises a potential problem, it should be addressed honestly.
7. Creative intuition is good, creative knowledge is better. Today, everything is measured and analyzed because it can be. With the availability of intelligence, there is no excuse to do anything that is not deeply informed.

Great advertising isn't built by committee. If you're uncomfortable with a creative execution, it may be best to shelve it, rather than try to fix it. On the other hand, be careful about tossing awkward ideas aside. One of them could be the breakthrough you're looking for.

CA