Chapter 6. Campaign
Now we’re putting everything together.
What is a campaign?
Again, let’s try it without looking in the dictionary. A campaign is “an orchestration of advertisements. The goal is to move people.”
Why have a campaign?
For the same reason football players make a team effort to get the ball down the field. You could have three different quarterbacks out there at once, and have other players wandering around doing whatever they please. You might even get some touchdowns. However, in the course of the game, the structured opposition will beat your disorganized mess. Reason: The other side is truly a team, and together they accomplish more than the sum of their players.
In our case, look at each ad like a player on the team. They could even pat each other’s rump.
Should you launch a campaign or run an ad?
That question is probably already answered by your circumstances. If a coworker says, “We want to run an ad in order to sell this product,” that isn’t a campaign. If the coworker says, “We need to have a campaign,” that is a campaign.
Go from a successful ad to a successful campaign
Experiment with different ads, mindful that each should have campaign potential. See which one does the best, then extend and expand it. If it works once, it could work many times and with many variations. The point: Run response-oriented ads, and figure it out as you go.
Also: You have the ability to create umpteen kinds of concepts, but select ones that can spawn follow-ups. Reason: A great ad will help you for only a short time, but a great campaign can help you for years.
Let’s build a campaign
For this new campaign, we’re choosing “empowerment” as the appeal, and military aircraft as the visual. The first ad shows a jet fighter and this headline: “Because you demand power.”
Stay on course...for a while
You need to stick with your central message (“you demand power”) for twice as long as you feel comfortable. You started with ‘empowerment and aircraft’ as the theme, and you stay with it.
Now, it’s time for other appeals
You would like to promote your wide selection for a while, primarily because you want to attract those interested that appeal. In your new ad, you show the fronts of three different military aircraft (jet, attack copter, and a transport plane). Headline: “Because you demand choice.”
By making a similar looking ad (aircraft) that has a different message (promoting choice instead of power), you’re having it both ways. You are...
1. Keeping the campaign intact
2. Breathing new life into it
The key is to retain enough of the original – 70% is a rule of thumb – and to “variate” with the other 30%. Is there a better way to show choice than with three aircraft? Certainly. On second thought, no. You’re running a campaign, and each ad needs to help the other.
Here are several aspects to this “variations within a visual theme.”
Aspect? 1: Nobody cares – good. The prospect pays little attention to the purity of the campaign. He won’t say, “Hey, this campaign is about getting more power, not about getting more choice.” But he could respond to the “choice” appeal, and that would be grand.
Aspect? 2: Lengthening the longevity. Folding in other appeals helps keep the campaign alive. Your organization is always coming up with reasons to buy, and this is wonderful. You’ll want to promote those reasons, and a “consistent visual” campaign lets you do this.
Aspect? 3: You can ever-expand everything. Your aircraft campaign has empowered people, given them choices, and now...the sky’s the limit. You can construct an aircraft ad that talks about quality, or maybe experience. Also, you have options. If your product is entering a new dimension, maybe you’ll show a spacecraft.
Aspect? 4: Appearance counts. This follows the view that Image is mostly visual (on page 71). As long as you’re showing aircraft, say whatever you think will fly.
Aspect? 5: Choosing among winners. You run that multi-aircraft ad on choice a few times, and it delivers many more responses than your empowerment ads. Interesting. Should choice replace empowerment as the new foundation of your campaign? That’s a good problem to have – choosing one winner or another. And yes, you should make choice the new ongoing appeal. You go where the market leads you, because the market rewards you for this.
Stick-to-it-ive-ness
The number one reason campaigns fail: They are weak. The number two reason:
Advertisers rapidly lose faith in them. The second reason is your big concern, because you’re going to create a strong campaign. Let’s talk about this loss of faith.
And when they want to scrap the campaign...
Keep a Web link to a popular directory of products in your industry. When Imp Ulsev says you need to drop your campaign, scroll through the directory with him. Say, “Look at these products. We don’t want to be one of these nobodies. But you want us to start the push all over again, and I have trouble agreeing.”
Show him how the campaign is being modified – continually updated to match the needs of the market and your company. Show him how you’re introducing new appeals and images.
The deal is: Some marketing people get away with flaky acts, and one of the worst is “starting new” – only because their egos demand it. If the new IT manager threw all the existing computers in the trash, that manager would be thrown in the trash. However, some marketing people are allowed to discredit, disregard, discard, and discombobulate all the company’s current advertising, and this is misguided.
Reference: “The fickle,” on page 55.
Reinvigorate an old something
Here is an approach that will sail through the approval process. (You only need to decide if it will be effective.) Refresh some little-used company philosophy, mission statement, or customer bill of rights. Coworkers will say, “We never talk enough about that. We should play that up.”
Again, just make sure you believe it will work.