C+F=S – A Basic Formula for Campaign Success
Regular readers of my work will know that I really admire simplicity. With that goal in mind, I want to briefly share a basic marketing formula that I think explains a lot:
C+F= S
“C” represents the campaign’s concept and overall creative. C is driven by the big idea.
“F” represents the frequency with which campaign elements are placed in the marketplace. F is driven by big money.
“S”, of course, is the overall success of the campaign.
For a campaign to be successful, C+F must reach critical mass in the marketplace.
So far this is pretty basic. But now let me add a twist. I do not think that C and F always have equal emphasis.
Let me give you two examples.
A small private in Illinois is in the midst of a long-running ad campaign. When we showed one example of the campaign to a group of high school students they all described it as “OK.” However, this campaign was able to achieve critical mass because the execution was (and still is) exceptional.
Some 18 months ago, when the campaign first ran, one of our creative people mentioned that the concept wasn’t that great. I agreed. Last week, however, this same creative person commented on how great the campaign was. In other words, the well-financed execution took average creative and made a compelling campaign.
A regional public in Pennsylvania launched a campaign with truly great creative. Because of tight budgets, the college was not able to afford a massive ad buy. However, the great concept immediately grabbed the attention of prospective students and the students became the actual channels through which the campaign was executed.
In the first example, success was achieved not with great creative, but through saturation. This is the big money approach—not particularly elegant, but likely to be effective in the long run, especially if your competitors cannot afford similar strategies.
In the second example, success was achieved because the college began with a great concept. This is the big-idea approach. Big ideas are always more elegant, but are so rare.
Of course, this commentary begs a larger question: What would happen if we had truly great creative and a well-executed campaign at the same time? For an example, take a look at the “Fear the Turtle” campaign at the University of Maryland.
As you plan your campaign you need either great creative or a big budget (or both). At the same time, there is little chance that average creative and a small budget will be of any value.
Bob will speak about campaigns, money, and other marketing topics at Stamats’ upcoming SIM Tech Conference and Stamats Graduate Student Marketing Conference, both November 10-12, 2009 in Boston. We hope to see you there!
Photo by tkamenick
