What is Creative Strategy - Presentation.pdf

I wrote this presentation on creative strategy in order to clear certain misconceptions about what it is.

And to explain that it is an integral part of advertising strategy which sets the direction for how communications will build a brand.

To illustrate what I mean, I share a few examples of creative strategy from my career in advertising in India, and from my work on brands that I share on my blog regularly.

For more, you may visit my blog at www.peripateticperch.com

1. What is Creative Strategy?What is Creative Strategy?
A presentation by Geeta Sundaram

2. Some misconceptions
Creative strategy is a function or discipline in an advertising agency
It is a capability to meld strategic and creative skills
It is brand personality, tone and manner
It is the creative message or the idea

3. How to think about creative strategy
Creative strategy is an integral part of advertising
strategy – the other part being media strategy
Therefore, the last link that connects a company’s
business, marketing, brand and advertising strategies
with the consumer

4. Understanding creative strategy
Business Strategy
How a company will build
and grow its business
Marketing Strategy
How marketing and sales will help
achieve the business and brand
objectives
Brand Strategy
How the brand will position
itself in the minds of
consumers
Advertising Strategy
How advertising and communications
will help the brand position itself
in a distinctive way
Creative Strategy
How advertising will build
the brand in creative terms
Media Strategy
How media will deliver the
brand communication
objectives

5. Yet another way to think of creative strategy
It’s what leads to the creative brief, which is the springboard to ideas!

6. How advertising/brand communication will build the brand in creative
terms
Setting the creative direction for how communication will build the
brand and position it in the desired strategic manner
The key components of creative strategy:
Target audience
Brand positioning
Brand benefit/promise or message
Yet another way to think of creative strategy
Brand positioning
Brand benefit Target consumer

7. Some examples: Seagram in India (early 1990s)
Brand positioning: Enduring traditions and enduring quality in wines and spirits
Creative strategy: Build credentials of Seagram through its iconic wines and spirits
brands worldwide
Creative Idea: Use Seagram’s employees behind these iconic brands to talk about
their focus on quality

8. Modi Xerox in India (mid-late 1980s)
Brand positioning: The business efficiency enhancer
Creative strategy: Compare familiar ways of working with the new (Xerox office
automation) to convince decision makers in companies
Creative Idea: Use humour in presenting the familiar through Mario Miranda’s
cartoons, a la The Economic Times, read by decision makers

9. Pernod Ricard Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: The wines and spirits maker with savoir faire in fine living
Creative strategy: Make Pernod Ricard share their savoir faire with consumers to
make them more appreciative and discerning
Creative Idea: Demonstrate the benefits of knowing one’s wines and whiskies in
social situations and devise appreciation sessions online

10. Jaguar Land Rover Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: The British luxury vehicle maker who ensures you always arrive future perfect
Creative strategy: Build JLR as the company that creates luxury travel by making
technology work in harmony with the environment
Creative Idea: Dramatise the luxury and pleasure of road travel with JLR by presenting
motoring in a surprising, new light

11. Rolex Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: The world's leading Swiss luxury wristwatch maker whose creations
are a reward in themselves
Creative strategy: Build Rolex as the champion of Switzerland by connecting it
strongly with Swiss wristwatch making and time
Creative Idea: Present Rolex as the undisputed leader by placing the brand within the
context of what time has meant to the country

12. American Express Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: The world's most reliable payment processing solutions for the
affluent international business traveller
Creative strategy: Build American Express as the indispensable travel companion for
corporates by equating it with peace of mind
Creative Idea: Present privileges of American Express membership as a unique
state of mind

13. British Airways Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: The world's largest airline takes you to new horizons in
air travel
Creative strategy: Use British Airways' network, technology and service to make it
the great connector across cities, countries and continents
Creative Idea: British Airways turns the seas that separate us, to skies

14. Sony Global Corporate Brand
Brand positioning: Making magic in media and entertainment with world-leading
consumer electronics technology and content
Creative strategy: Integrate Sony’s edge in consumer electronics technologies and
its content in an internet-led world to amaze and delight consumers and creators
Creative Idea: Use hyperboly to communicate that using Sony is like being in
a magical realm between fantasy and reality

15. Who should work on creative strategy?
From my long career in advertising and the years in Ogilvy Delhi, India,
I would say account management and creative heads on the business
In today’s world of account planning, it would still require the creative
director’s vision and setting of the creative direction for the brand
A critical aspect is getting clients to understand and appreciate the
importance and value of creative strategy in brand-building

16. Does creative strategy change to suit a client’s needs?
No, if the business, marketing and brand strategies are still the same
Creative strategy must remain consistent with them
However, creative ideas and campaigns can be refreshed if and when the
need arises, within the direction and framework of the creative strategy

17. What about the data-driven dimension of creative strategy?
The data-related aspects of strategy are already factored in at the business,
marketing and brand strategy stages
It is after taking all the industry, market, consumer and segment data into
consideration that we ought to arrive at the advertising strategy, of which creative
strategy is a part
At the creative strategy stage, it is more about communication and how it will
persuade and convince consumers to think about our brand the way we wish them to.

18. To conclude, what creative strategy is:
The final connector or deliverer of the company’s business, marketing and
brand strategies to the consumer
An integral part of advertising strategy
The method by which communication will build the brand over the long
term
The creative direction for a brand’s communication, irrespective of
communication discipline and media channel
Always dependent on the business, marketing and brand strategies that go
before it, and therefore consistent with them
The responsibility of the creative director as much as the account planner
in determining the creative vision and direction for the brand

19. Not the brand personality, or tone and style although they will emerge
from the creative strategy
Not the creative idea or execution, even if these too are outcomes of the
creative strategy
Not the advertising message or the media channel
Not a department or a function in advertising
Not a particular capability in combining creative and strategic skills, even
if it requires lateral thinking
To clarify, what creative strategy isn’t:

20. For more on brands, visit the Business and Brands page on my blog,
www.peripateticperch.com and check out my other slide presentations on SlideShare.
Images used in this presentation are from Canva, Pixabay and Unsplash and I am thankful to all of them.