Strategic Creative: What Creative Strategy Has to Do Now
Note: this is the second in a series of articles & posts on Strategic Creative Marketing
In the first installment of this series, I talked about the need to stand out in a hyper-crowded, overstimulated media marketplace and how a strong strategic creative approach will make a substantial difference. That creative approach, however, has to take into account the way things have changed in the last 10 years or it will just as readily die on the vine. In the not-so recent-past, we used to develop a creative concept, transform it into a campaign, throw it into some ads, print collateral, billboards, e-mail and maybe even TV and radio. For those of us in higher education, that also meant a significant number of print publications. Of course, much of this conventional media can still be effective, but we are living in a media world increasingly driven by the web and technologies flowing out of it which are radically changing the ways in which we communicate with our key audiences.
In today’s marketplace, your creative executions have to be multidimensional. Your brand has to work across numerous platforms, each with its own strategies and conversion points. To succeed in this environment, keep in mind these five rules:
- Your creative executions must be built on data. Data provides the strategic foundation to make your creative output relevant to your audiences. You may have been doing this with traditional research—now it’s time to use analytics to shape your creative content.
- Your creative work has to do more than just broadcast messages or promise statements. Though they are still important components of a creative campaign, in today’s multi-channel world your brand has to be much more flexible and adaptable, able to communicate differently in different environments—headlines on ads, conversations in social media.
- Your creative work’s primary job is to deliver experience, especially on the web. We have moved from a world where raising awareness is enough to a world where building relationships is key. The best way to build relationships is to immerse your audiences in brand experience they like so much, they come back for more and become regular users and community members on your digital brand platforms.
- Your creative campaigns have to inspire and include audience participation. Your constituents—especially prospective students—are eager to be a part of your institution. How can you build campaigns that involve them much deeper and faster than just a viewbook?
- Your creative work has to continuously evolve. With the advent of real-time, web-based platforms, creative executions like banner ads and social media platforms are in a state of constant adaptation and growth. This means that you are no longer developing a static idea with a limited life span, but a creative concept that can continue to grow and change over time.
Photo Provided by: Message Marketing Communications ltd
