NORTHERN PLANNER

Oke Doke, as promised it's time to finish communications planning. For previous posts, go here, here and then here.

When we left it, we were at the point when we'd worked out the task for communications – what actions do you want your audience to take – the thing communications can influence people to do to best contribute to the business goal.

Grow impulse purchases by getting top of mind with young buyers…

 

 

That's more than half the battle – really defining the task is the best thing you can do, in  some agencies, planning stops there – you'll see the proposition as a task in many briefs, JWT focuses on what we want people to think and then opens up the process to everyone. I must admit, that's how I would prefer to work, but most agencies still have a wall between creative and planning and you can't shape the rest of the process as a team everywhere.

However and wherever you work, it's critical to make sure you don't stick to 'advertising's the answer, what's the question'. Knowing when and where to show up in your audiences lives is not only a must now the web enabled, marketing savvy consumer can filter ads out if they want to, it can actually form part of the actual idea.

So you need to answer the following question – when and where, and in what circumstance will our target be most receptive to our communications? You need to thinks about:

What media do they consume, why and how? What else do they interact with that isn't strictly 'media'?

What role does different possible connection points play in their lives? What do they pay attention to during the day? What are they doing at the time? Are they looking for entertainment?  Information? Companionship?

How does the competition connect to the audience? Are their opportunities to find different connection points? Should we use the same but in a very different way?

Think again about what role the category plays in their real lives? When are they most in need of what they're offering? When could we make the most difference or be of the most use?

When and where does the brand vision and personality fit the most?

Think again about the purchase process – what does that tell you about when and where to show up?

Of course, TV is still a great medium, but you're deluded if you think all you have to do is put a logical ad up there and that's it. It's harder to stand out now, so relevance is critical, and you need to think of this as part of multiple touch points in  story – in store, on-line, PR events and other media you want to invent.

Coming back to the Gorilla, they knew that the ad had to be something viral, that would get people talking and sharing on Youtube.

Axe in Japan (I think) needed to increase usage in the morning and discovered that males there use their phones as an alarm clock – so the moment became when they woke up..with sexy alarm calls from the girl of your choice.

Orange engaged with a younger audience through film – and picked a couple of moments. One was the actual film experience itself, this one was even more specific – engagement with Star Wars fans.

Another was a night of the week to share a film with a mate.

Sainsburys conceptually is about that rainy Tuesday night when you can't think of anything to cook – Try something new today.

Ghd focuses on the ritual of getting ready, and the hidden desires inside every woman.

 

But then there's TBWA London's work to make young women aware of the dangers of having your drink spiked – by actually spiking their drink with a specially made cocktail umbrella.

 

A word of caution. Be sure what you're doing will the reach the number of people you need to. Stunts etc are waste of time if they reach 100 people when you need to generate trial with 10,000.

Then consider the experience you want people to have, maybe think of it as a reward. What you're going to say, do etc to make people end up acting as you want, this ends up as the proposition in the creative brief.

Consider functional – Ariel makes whites whiter. And don't be afraid of telling people about a unique product benefit if there is one.

This ad is just telling you that a Sony Bravia has better colour, the rest is how that is delivered.

 

Just bear in mind, it's how you deliver that message that counts and thought and input on that is needed – it usually and should come from the brand vision/tone etc, but we'll come to that.

It can also come from knowing what the experience is of th medium – only an idiot produces a cinema ad that doesn't entertain, but you can interact with a small crowd here too.

 

Purified so it tasted fresher

 

 

Sensory/emotional  benefit….freedom, power, confidence.

Independence..

 

Belonging

 

 

Expressive – being to communicate to others that you are experienced..

 

Intelligent..

  

A great mother..

 

How do you choose the right focus? Think why the audience isn't doing what you want, find the blockage, judge your solution by how much it will overcome it.

You should think about support- give the reasons why the target should believe what you're saying. This should really be the actual stuff of the communication.

You can be literal – 9 out out of ten cats prefer Whiskas

British Airways brings more people together than anyone else..

 

Honda used their hatred of diesel engines to spur them to make one they could love.

 

Demonstration…

The Accord just works

 

..or dramatise it.

Women enjoy Yorkie's even thought they're masculine.

 Check your logic – how does the action, the reward and the support fit together – a useful check is to complete the following sentence from the audience point of view:

"When I (intended action), I will (reward), because (support).

Now, traditionally tone of voice etc comes last – you would hope because this is already set and agreed, everyone is clear about the brand idea, the personality etc. Other people have talked betterthan I could about why this matters (and offer alternatives to this way of comms planning, but remember, these are the basics, know the rules, do them well before you break them).

Anyway, you must say, behave etc in a way that people will FEEL it. Just telling people will mean they won't listen. Nothing will happen.

Every piece of comms says something about the brand, like it or not. It needs to be appropriate for the brand and the audience. You need to be clear about this, and agree it with client especially creatives.

Too often, a creative is briefed really well, but tone is left out. Or even worse, it's not and they ignore it, because they believe it's up to them to decide how communication is delivered. It is up to a point. But it was Boddingtons – it MUST have been delivered creamily with  a Mancunian twist.

 

If it's Apple, it must be simple and human.

You might want to be consistent with how you're perceived already, you might want to play up an element of what the brand's about, you might want to shift perceptions a little of what the brand's about.

In the end, it's got to be appropriate for the objective, brand and audience – but creatives don't own tone and manner and the sooner you talk about it and the more work is put into getting it right, the better.

I've only shown TV here because it's easy to get hold of Youtub video, more and more that will be less of what we do…but TV's real long term benefit is building up how people feel about the brand. You need to make sure they feel the right things.

And that, as they say, is that, hope it's useful.