Distinguish your campaigns from the competition with a creative strategy
We'll help you increase the performance and effectiveness of your campaigns
Higher brand knowledge
Creative advertising is more memorable and lasting.
Campaign effectiveness
Lower media costs and faster growing fan base.
Long-term relationship
Brand knowledge, brand loyalty and perceived quality also affects value for the customer.
Communication strategy
Creative strategy is an important part of communication strategy. The result is a creative, the part that:
- it is almost instantly visible or hearable and builds the final impression your brand will leave
- it affects brand knowledge, campaign effectiveness, customer relationship and therefore profitability.
Creative and profitability
There is a relationship between advertising creativity and profitability. Creativity is one of the biggest determinants of ad profitability, although opinions on the impact of creativity on sales volumes and campaign effectiveness varies. In general we can say, that weak creative leads to weak increase in sales and therefore increase is usually assigned to the media. And it works the other way around. When the creative is strong - the increase in sales is higher and the media affects it less. The media have an important role in campaigns today more than ever before. In fact, the influence of the media has increased on sales from 15 % to 36 % over the last 15 years.
More into the creative or more into the media?
From the creative point of view, more effective campaigns are:
- different from the competition,
- provide an unforgettable experience,
- create a relationship with the target group through strong emotions,
- the „story” is believable
- focus is on the high degree of visual execution.
From a strategist's point of view, even creative average or even below average campaigns can succeed if you have a huge media budget. Brand building in the form of constant repetition can ensure the first place in communication (Alza).
Assuming that marketing communication carries only a simple message, all other creatives are useless tinsel. The key in this case is to „have a sufficient budget" for the media.
Creative doesn´t have to be the holy grail of marketing effectiveness, but it would be good to know the benefits that creating a creative strategy brings.
An effective process for creating a creative strategy
Brief
Creating an advertising campaign without a creative strategy is like shooting blanks. Our preparation of a creative strategy always starts with a brief. The brief clearly shows where you are, where your competition is, who your customer is, what is the message, where you want to go (goals), how you can get there, but also includes the constraints (schedule, budget, etc.). Brief is an important part of a creative strategy because without clearly defined goals, there is no way to measure success.
Analysis
The process of creating a creative strategy also includes an analytical part. Not only the analysis of the product, service itself, but also the competition, market and trends are important. It is equally important to be able to decipher the results of your last campaign and to examine them, to find out what worked and what did not. The results of analyzes are often new creative solutions that are based not only on emotions, but also on logic and facts.
Insights
To interpret the message correctly, it is important to know the insights arising from the surveys. If you define the target group as „a downtown man from 20 to 60 years old", it won't help you with the creation of ideas. But once you know who this man is, what his preferences are at the product, and you show him the situation from his own point of view, you have won. When a creative is based on real insights, the campaign works like a refrigerator – when you open it, it lights up.
Creating concepts
The job of a creative is to come up with idea that no one came up with in the situation that everyone knows. Ads that we enjoy the most are based on strong insights.
This is followed by the development of creative ideas and the creation of the concepts in collaboration with the graphic designers, the copywriters and the producers who can „materialize" the idea into specific visuals, videos and texts.
One idea can have hundreds of designs, so while you design it, you always need to keep the target group in mind and focus on the right emotion that hits desired goals at its best. Because if the audience doesn't get the message in a way that bonds them emotionally, everything else is useless. We are human and we succeed in emotional connection. If the connection is missing, the message will disappear in a number of other messages.
Recommendations for creating a creative strategy
1. longevity
Never settle for a first – hand and short – term idea. Short – term ideas are about 50 % less effective and offer minor from the full potential of the insight. Short – term ideas puts boundaries on the brand's ability to resonate. On the other hand, lasting campaigns are a driving force for efficiency with huge performance multipliers.
2. insights
Don't solve the product – solve the insight. To understand the message, it is important to know the insights arising from the surveys. You need to know what people are doing with the product and show them the situation from their own point of view. And then the customer can say: „This brand can identify with my needs, know how to live my life, and know exactly why and when I need to buy their products.”
3. credible stories
Put the mirror in front of the consumer, but in a way that he will not take it personally. If it's our job to convince people, it's important to make them believe in our story. And people believe in what they are willing to identify with the most. Show them what they know, what they have experienced, or what they are currently affected by.
4. sustainability
Create a „sustainable" concept that lasts for years. For the past few years, creative competitions have been won by opposite campaigns: short – term, momentary, using the current moment. Due to the brand's knowledge, impact creative does not work in the long run. An example of an effective sustainable concept that works even after 10 years are ads for COOP Jednota.
5. onion concept
Create an „onion” concept and work out several levels that unite the message.
6. message
Refresh the message from time to time – give it a new additional meaning.
7. consistency
Consistency and fluent device (brand signal). Two things that are related and affect efficiency in the long run. Communication must be consistent. Fluent Devices (color, mascot, pattern, packaging, shape – for example a Coca-Cola bottle, sonic branding!) are multi – purpose, efficient and they can drive brands much longer than most campaigns.
8. visual beauty
Visual attractiveness is a must. But beware the internet is full of nice things. It's not enough to make it „nice”. It also needs an idea, a story, something that can be followed up in the future. Otherwise it will be dusty like most campaigns that were „just nice”.
9. exceptionality
Originality – be unique! Don't do just what your competition does. Ask yourself this question: How far can we move the communication to be more effective than competitor´s communication?
10. unusualness
Don't be afraid of bizarre shots or unusual scenes, place the product where no one would normally look for it… (cell phone to washing machine)
11. authenticity
Be believable. No one wants to see american cliché smiles or unconvincing statements from company representatives. Show people for example the story of a satisfied customer.
12. relevance
Try to stay relevant to the product, the service or the brand. Try not to wander too much from the message in the creative, otherwise it may happen that the emotion, the story, everything will be, the customer will remember the ad, but will not know what product or service it was.
13. make a statement
Don't be afraid to stand out from the crowd. The communication must be strong, and be able to hit the most of the audience.
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
We have cooperated with Effectix.com on SEO for several years. In May 2019, we set the goal to position our site on the first page of Seznam.cz search engine results for the keyword "pool". We were told that it would take a long-term effort. And in the end, we managed to make it happen, together.
Miroslav Nejedlý
Senior Marketing Manager
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
We are working on SEO with Effectix.com for the third year and are still going. It's a strategy that meets our expectations. Together, we create articles and engaging, useful content. The agency monitors search trends, then creates content which we distribute to our potential customers. SEO is a reputation-based channel for us, which we use to assure the market that we understand our work and especially our customers.
Lucie Ďuriník
Marketing Specialist
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
We asked Effectix to manage the content of our social networks. The Effectix team surprised us right away with their creativity, fresh ideas, and perfect realisation. I want to highlight the self-sufficiency and reliability of the whole team. It's a great feeling when you don't have to worry about managing your social media and instead, be able to enjoy the posts made by the team. I definitely recommend working with this agency!
Jakub Veselý
Marketing Manager
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
Effectix manages our Facebook profile content and campaigns. Since the beginning of our cooperation on Facebook and other social media sites, the quality of our Facebook profile has increased tremendously. We are very satisfied with the positive reaction to our posts and increase in fans. I especially appreciated the team's proactivity and the fact that they gave their best even though we had a small budget. They always provided the most effective solution and maximised our funds. We especially thank Eva Durnová and Klára Faiglová, who were always ready to respond promptly to even non-standard requests.
Petra Čížková
Marketing Manager
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
I want to thank the Effectix team for convincing me to join a meeting with them about one year ago. We established cooperation before we started our new e-shop. They helped with campaign management and several modifications of the old e-shop to stop the slow decline of visitors caused by having an outdated e-shop. It has been almost a year since we started our cooperation, and it seems that our new e-shop www.hmnabytek.cz is doing well and getting better and better every month. I can see that people in Effectix really understand their job. I look forward to making more great achievements together.
Marian Budoš
Owner
How do our clients evaluate us?
How do our clients evaluate us?
Effectix is a great and reliable partner, which was what we were looking for. They are responsible for our online marketing in terms of SEO. That means that we can fully dedicate ourselves to the development and sale of our products and leave the marketing in their hands.
Michal Nemčok
Marketing Manager