Brand Planning Advice: How Do We Get There?

Planning / Briefing How to write a great brief Five principles for writing successful creative briefs – from the creative director of Britain's leading creative agency of the 1990s. Planning for better briefs Some useful guidelines, and short case history examples. How to write an inspiring creative brief Discusses, from a creative's point of view, how a creative brief should be written. Above and beyond advertising planning Although account planning has been in existence for over 30 years, virtually all activity has focused on advertising. The author discusses how other disciplines raise different types of problem for planners. Research to Aid Creative Development How to use research to develop campaign ideas A practical guide to planning and using research in campaign development. How to develop international advertising campaigns that work Presents an international content analysis of 218 television commercials, comparing the approach, style and key executional elements of ads running in several different countries. Integrated advertising research for successful advertising development Describes the importance of integrating advertising research tools into the development of successful advertising campaigns. Execution Stalking the big idea The creative process in advertising is hard to define. Copywriters work with a mix of fear and bravado, chilly logic and warm emotion. The process is part reason, part heart and part intuition. Using archetypes to build stronger brands Discusses how brand stories can bring a brand to life, and how these work best if they are rooted in the common culture of the audience. Brand personality is one thing, a brand personality that truly reflects an archetype is better. Specific Media and Disciplines Television Direct response TV and how it works Traces the development of direct response advertising on TV from its earliest days when it was intrusive, brash and unsophisticated to the present time, and goes on to show how to create DRTV for today's audiences. Planned or impulse purchase? How to create effective infomercials Conventional wisdom suggests that most purchases made from infomercials – 30–minute DRTV ads – are made on impulse. However, this study of infomercial purchasers shows that the ads mostly tap into considered needs. Newspapers Does size matter (or position, or colour or context...)? Describes a JWT project designed to fill gaps in up–to–date knowledge about the effectiveness of print advertising in newspapers. Presents effectiveness ratios linking position, size etc. Making the most of newspaper advertising A WARC Quick Brief that summarises available research and guidelines on how best to use newspaper advertising. Magazines Advertising in magazines is different A South African paper that draws on local and international research into how magazine advertising works, both on its own and, more powerfully, in conjunction with other media. How to harness the power of magazine advertising Does magazine advertising work and how should it be used? The author draws on Millward Brown research – specifically IPC Adtrak '94 – to show how to get the best from the medium. Outdoor Using outdoor to find the 'moment that they might' Describes how outdoor advertising can be planned and executed to fit the mood and mode of passing traffic, according to the location and the time of day of major traffic. Radio Proving radio works This paper illustrates the importance of effective radio advertising research, and the dangers associated with using inappropriate methods. An effective research method is described using case histories. Direct marketing Database marketing: one antidote to consumer indifference A brief case study from Readers Digest that illustrates the key principles of database usage: targeting, understanding, out–reach and connection. Data–driven marketing – an important new tool Data–driven marketing (gathering and using data on customers' buying habits and lifestyles) has become one of marketing's most important trends. Discusses the requirements for successful database building and customer relationship marketing. Online Five golden rules of online branding... Many researchers have demonstrated the Web's efficacy as a branding medium. However, the creative variables that are related to successful online branding have yet to be validated quantitatively. This study identifies five essential characteristics of successful online advertising. Promotions How to get your promotion right Discusses the potential cost to a business of the newly proposed pan–Europe single market for S.P. and offers the solution of managing risk professionally, by limiting risk through predicting and controlling redemption rates. How to handle promotions How a specialised handling agency can support a promotional campaign and provide valuable data on direct response mechanisms. Celebrities The fame game: using celebrities effectively Describes recent research which attempts to define what is successful when using celebrities in advertising campaigns. Five types of endorsement are identified, and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. Sponsorship Defining a Successful Special Event Brief case study article describes US Telco Bell Atlantic's professional approach to sponsorship. Integrated marketing sponsorship Sponsorships are not all mega–deals. But whatever their scale, they need to be fully integrated into the sponsor's marketing programmes, and assessed against clear commercial objectives. Events Using sponsorships to connect with new customers Sep 2000 Article from a commercial signage producer that provides broader guidance about how to make an event work. And yes, signage can be crucial. Event sponsorship: 'Is the worst yet to come?' Discusses the use of brand sponsorship at dance music events and warns that some brands, especially those not targeted at the youth market, could undermine the future of this type of sponsorship. Integrated Marketing Communications Using integrated marketing to drive brand value Argues that to rebuild and exploit brand relationships with all key stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, journalists, government regulators and special interest groups – marketing needs to be re–integrated. Finding your level in integrated communications Outlines three phases of campaign development – strategic, development and implementation – suggests how integrated communication can be introduced at any of these stages and details the advantages and drawbacks to agencies. Pre-Testing Pre–testing in the third millennium Suggests that in developing a pre–test two issues should be addressed – how to predict how the creative idea will succeed and how the ad will change the brand–person relationship. Pre–testing radical advertising Describes how ad agency HHCL got involved in working with researchers to find ways to assess radical ad campaign ideas – often involving multiple media. Discusses the issues raised, and how solutions were found. The hitchhiker's guide to media issues and pre–testing All media, and combinations of them, can be tackled in pre–test research. Ads need to be researched against their objectives, category norms/objectives, context of the format, market dynamics, brand positioning and mass, creative strategy and response mechanics. A brief guided tour through the copy–testing jungle Thoughtful discussion of the theories and techniques of copy testing, including the different spectrum of attitudes between `accurate prediction' and `pure judgement' (quantitative – qualitative, US – British). Media Planning/Scheduling How to schedule TV: exploit learning from hard data Describes a systematic approach to scheduling on the basis of modelled brand data based on 113 grocery advertising case histories from eight countries, covering 16 categories. Using modelling to improve media laydown Describes Millward Brown technique designed to refine advertising response analysis. Contains good general material about advertising response and media planning. Using media to get under the radar The media department is the new creative department and the new media person must be a real ad enthusiast. Each medium has its qualitative core value to which the brand must be related. Budgeting Setting the communications budget Discusses and illustrates the use of models when setting advertising budgets; suggests that modelling agencies should realise that marketing teams are now more sophisticated than in the 1980s and early 90s; and proposes closer interaction between the modelling and marketing teams. How to use the budget better WARC Best Practice that describes the ways in which budgets can be set, and discusses how to improve the process. How to manage the budget across a brand portfolio This article outlines an approach to allocating budgets across brands, media, and countries. It provides an ideal model for the planning process to help brand managers to set a realistic budget level.

In this section Planning & briefing Research to aid creative development Execution Specific Media and Disciplines Integrated marketing communications Pre-testing Media planning/scheduling Budgeting