The power of advertising ideas

The power of advertising ideas


"Very few people are good at judging the value of advertising ideas
and executions.. ."

It was a deliberate compromise, so I could focus on advertising
clichés. But I've now been challenged to write on advertising ideas,
so here goes...

Understanding advertising ideas

First things first: in a client / agency relationship it is the
responsibility of the advertising agency to develop advertising ideas.
A good agency will always start their creative presentations with the
advertising idea.

There are two key points to understanding advertising ideas:

1. The role of an advertising idea is to dramatize the benefit to the
consumer. A good idea brings the consumer benefit to life and
communicates it in a powerful and compelling way. (This is why big
advertising ideas are so valuable.)

2. An advertising idea can be expressed independent of an advertising
execution (an idea is NOT the storyline, the location, the use of a
celebrity or any other element of the execution).

Why the advertising idea is so important

Understanding the idea, when you are evaluating advertising, is
important because it allows you to do two things:

1. It allows you to consider the idea itself. Is it a big idea? Does
it dramatize the correct benefit? (The one in the brief!) And is it
powerful and compelling?

2. Once you have evaluated the idea, then you can move on to the
execution. Is it the best execution of the idea? Are there other
executions that could work? Is the idea 'campaignable' (can it produce
a number of good advertising executions)?

These are all vital considerations for the client. And for the agency
presenting the work focusing on the idea demonstrates the value they
have created much more effectively.

One example...

The only way to fully appreciate the power of advertising ideas is to
practice identifying and evaluating them. To do this I'd like to refer
you to another website, the personal site of Neil French, one of the
most successful creative directors in the world (he now has a global
role at Ogilvy).

Have a look at the Dove print campaign on his site. I would suggest
that the advertising idea can be expressed as:

"Taking bizarre and irrelevant facts from the animal world to
illustrate that all the reader needs to know about is Dove."

To view the Dove campaign, click here (the images are 'thumbnails' and
will expand if you click on them). Have I expressed the idea
correctly? Is the idea appropriate to the brand? Does it dramatize the
benefit? Take a look and let me know what you think. And if you'd like
to practice more, browse the other campaigns on the site (or start
looking at your own work!)

If you'd like to browse the site from the homepage, it's www.
neilfrench.com.

Make a habit of looking for the advertising idea first and you'll have
a new and more effective approach to evaluating advertising.

Kutipan dari :
Colin Bates
Founder, Director
BuildingBrands Ltd
www.buildingbrands. com