I came across this awesome video (thanks to the Marketing Communications group on Linked In) that speaks to three heavy hitters about what makes creative campaigns really work. And by “work”, we mean not only sparking buzz and awareness but leading to sales – or in one organization’s case, donations.
The panel includes the Creative Director of Innocent, the Global Marketing Director for French Connection, and the Communications Head for We Are Macmillan Cancer Support (a non profit).
It’s a long video but well worth it for the trove of tips and information – plus some really fun ideas. Highlights:
- Start with the right question: Instead of “How can we sell more X?” ask “How do you get people excited about buying X?” Innocent did this in brainstorming sessions for launching their new orange juice product. How the heck do you make OJ exciting? This sparked the idea for their digital campaign that was a big success for them.
- Go, Test and Tweak: We no longer have the luxury of six months to plan a creative launch campaign. Get creative, make it happen and test and tweak as you go. And then you can work out what people are interested in for the next campaign.
- The Three Keys to Going Viral: Have good product quality in the first place (duh), create packaging that sparks a conversation, and give people the content to generate the PR for you (videos, emails, articles they can tweet).
- Don’t Forget the Basics: In your quest to be creative, you also must never lose sight of providing useful information that is interesting and relevant. Shocking content just for the sake of being shocking won’t meet your sales goals.
- The Other Secret to Going Viral: “Use small animals or really good music!” – a joke from French Connection but seriously, one that worked for them!
- Target the Message: The Cancer organization’s campaigns targeted different messages to supporters of cancer research vs. long-term survivors vs. those just dealing with the the diagnosis and shock. They all had different information needs. This helped them create releevant messages to each audience.
- The Three Secrets to Successful Creative Campaigns: (According to Innocent) Good Luck, Awesome Product Quality and Appealing Tone (how you look, feel, sound, even smell!)
Each speaker was given a creativity challenge at the top of the video and presented their answers at the end. This was an interesting brainstorming exercise to see.
Photo Credit: Creativity103.com
What is your single best way to come up with creative ideas? Please share in the Comments!
