A Strategy For Strategy: Part One

“The problem for too many brands is not in the getting there, but in figuring out where “there” even is.” - @LeeClowsBeard

In my experience there are few things as critical as consumer feedback and opinion in the journey for making winning creatives. Whether it’s to help ensure that great ideas don’t get killed because someone simply doesn’t “like” them or to help optimize the mood and tonality of a spot before going to finished film, bringing consumers into the mix prior to going to market is an important step to take.

However, when we look at the communications development process for most campaigns from initial insight to final execution, are we bringing the consumer in too late in the game?

Ipsos ASI, where I work, has a huge practice in testing communications and we test more ads that anyone else in Canada. Across categories and media and for some of the biggest brands in the world we have extensive experience in understanding how communications can be optimized to drive stronger returns in market and deliver against brand objectives. Too often we see ads that are engaging, connected to the brand and working to deliver the intended message, but struggle in delivering on one critical area of success – motivation, short term or long term for the advertised brand. It is these experiences that has made us ask the question – does marketing need a better strategy for the development of communication strategy?

When looking at communication development today we see that the breakdown happens when one moves too quickly from an initial insight to a creative brief without understanding how to express this insight or strategy in an optimal way – in essence the brand’s “position” has not been fully developed, or expressed in a way that connects with consumers and carves out a space for it to occupy in their minds.

Having these issues arise at the end of the communication creation process can waste huge amounts of time and money – forcing folks to go back to the drawing board or make quick course corrections. But what this often this means is that they are simply avoiding fundamental issues that need to be addressed.

When thinking about how this process can be improved, and to help ensure that all communication ideas for a brand have the best chance of success when they hit the market, obtaining consumer feedback at the earliest possible stage is critical.

The trouble is how.

Because the focus has been long placed on understanding creative executions, there are few processes or means to understand the potential of communication strategies – in a way that will help guide the process and accelerate chance of ad success in market. The answer is simple. Just like how in our business its critical to involve clients earlier in discussions, marketers need to involve their clients, the consumer, earlier in developing a winning strategy that can be executed at a campaign level. To help marketers with this, ASI has developed a method of breaking down these ideas and obtaining the necessary feedback to help inspire the space for a brand to occupy – prior to the briefing process and the creative expression of the insight.

In our experience this process has helped increase the market potential of ads and content across media – facilitating the creation of a world for the brand to occupy and a space for them to own in consumers’ minds. In the words of Jonathan Mildenhall in his Content 2020 address, these types of processes can help to inspire “The liquid and linked creative brief.”



Going forward I hope to continue to discuss this ‘strategy for strategy,’ and sharing experiences that highlight what matters at this stage of the creative process – helping marketers and agencies define the ideal space for their brand to occupy and laying the soil for their brand world.