creative planning @ miami ad school

Miami Ad SchoolPlanning Bootcamp

September 1 2009Leon Phang

Planning is like rolling a joint.

... there are many ways to do it.

I had a look at your curriculum and thought: ”what’s missing?”And although it looks good, I think it’s highly focused on classical account planning - basically the stuff that happens before the [change] brief.

Creative brief

Cause I really believe there are many challenges even after the briefing and that’s really what I’m going to talk about...

It’s kind of like this... From a nice and linear path you’re suddenly in a big cloud... Or is it?

Creative planning

So for the next hour or so we’re gonna talk about this. Creative planning. So, why is Creative planning important?

The thing is: there’s no real shortage of ”smart MBA people” in the world. And there’s no shortage of creatives either.

”My attitude is that creativity might be a commodity.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-abelson/embrace-for-impact-alex-b_b_229160.html

Creativity might be a commodity says Alex Bogusky... So, the trick isn’t really to be really creative or really strategic, but it’s really to combine the two.

Creativelyinspiring

Relevant +Differentiating

I really believe that this is what advertising is all about, and that’s why Creative Planning is important.

RightWrong

The creative domain

The rest of this presentation I’m going to talk about this: the creative domain, the area or arena which the advertising will take place and some tools for filling it.

1

Get the basics right(strategic planning)

Get the basics right OR strategic planning. It’s really important to get the basics right, because countless times I’ve seen creative teams lost in the process when there’s no basic planning.

If the consumer is trading down - is coffee/ tea protected by brand loyalty?

Source: BCG Consumer Sentiment Barometer, March 2009

The Recession Effect: Sweden

Source: AC Nielsen June 2009

Share of sales

0

10

20

30

40

Household products Deep-frozen Staples Sweets Beverages

Retail chain’s own brand/ category

36

28

20

6

14

New views on consumption may lead to an increase in sales of the retail chains own brands;

Among all Nordic consumers, Swedes show the lowest intention to switch to cheaper grocery brands, even though overall intention has increased - from 21 % in October 2008, to 35 % in May 2009.

Hypothesis

Consumption development: Sweden

- Declining sales of ”light” dairies, with less fat- Yoghurt/ fil with more fat increases

Source: svensk mjölk, Swedish Dairy Association

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Konsumtion av fil/yoghurt (liter/pers)

Source: AC Nielsen 2008

”Svenskarna väljer smak och naturlighet framför lightprodukter”

NOTE- Filmjölk has its strongest position in northern Sweden, while yoghurt is mostly consumed by people in the western and eastern parts respectively.

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REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

Source: Hemköp’s statistical survey ”Så vill svensken ha sin frukost” in July 2004.

Downturn pick-me-up: A Good Cup of Coffee or Tea

Coffee and tea may benefit by a downturn, from consumers who consider them to be a less

expensive alternative to other non-alcoholic beverages, such as soft drinks and juices. Coffee and

tea are viewed by most consumers as necessary staples.

A similiar trend can be seen in Sweden; ”Coffee and sweets

seems to be the only thing people do not cut their spendings

on”

Source: Bengt Hedlund, CEO Svensk Servicehandel och Fast Food. DN Ekonomi 2009-06-13

Industry/category insights

Industry or category insights are of course important...

Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior too...

Human insight

Models

And when it comes to models, use them even if you risk being ”theoretical”.

MSU

Don’t be afraid to Make Stuff Up. A colleague of mine once said: We’re not in business of science but in the art of business.

Repackage current offerings

Cluster products and services into new offerings

New segmentation of target group

New sales channels and offerings for these

Identify new usage areas

Develop new features and accessories

Communicative features integrated in the product

Adding knowledge services

For example:

Repackage current offerings: RSO subscription + key

New sales channels and offerings for these: Länsförsäkringar shop

Communicative features integrated in the product: Jämtkraft river option

Develop new features and accessories: Absolut Icebar themes

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2

Tools: the workflow

ChaosOrder

The workflow is seldom linear. But it’s not totally chaotic either. So as a planner you can really achieve creativity by remodelling the workflow by setting ”rules” etc.

Wieden & Kennedy has an interesting concept which is about ”embracing failure”, based on the insight that the risk of failure hinders creativity.

Creative

Expressingmany ideas

Building onideas of others

Discussing ideas with others

No negativeremarks

Actio-orientation

Special projects

Behaviors Characteristic

At Jung von Matt we’ve done our own little exercise to find out how we can be more creative. With the help of a psychologist we’ve tried to map what makes creative behavior.

As an example: we came to the insight that generating a lot of ideas without dissing them is key and therefore developed a simple idea template which is a piece of paper where you scribble down your ideas. In that way you will not get discouraged through negative comments in the process.

We also created an idea wall that encourages discussion around creative work - only with positive feedback.

End-user focus

Another tool I’ve used in some projects as a planner is to focus on the end-user emotions or experience rather than message or concept.

Flavor

Form and shape

Interaction

Challenging

Surprise

Play

Inside

Display

Motion activated animations

Inside outside

Light space

Can sound and lightmake you warm?

Freezing your ass off?

Keep warm. Go mental. Or leave.

Do It Yourself

surprise

So those were some tools for expanding the creative mind... Next topic is [change slide]

3

Build an inspiration portfolio

Another tool which is outside the workflow is to build an inspiration portfolio. The key word is portfolio, because it’s like having a constant stock of assets which you can draw your inspiration from. I’d like to present you mine:

Pop culture

Psychology

Cognitive psychologyEvolutionary psychology

Economics

Economics.

Philosophy

Blogs

Technology

People

… connect the dots

... and with your inspiration portfolio you can simply connect the dots with all the strategy, concepts, insights, etc. into one idea.

Kind of like Pixar which is ONE BIG IDEA made up from thousands of small ideas.

Media placement

Budget

Psychological

Engagement

4

Creative strategies

Creative strategy is the soft side to the formal brand or communications strategy.

An uncompromising direction

The goal is to find an UNCOMPROMISING & SINGLE-MINDED direction. By uncompromising I mean that there are always gaps between strategy and executions, so the creative strategy is really about filling this gap and turning it into a positive force.

Rule #1: you can position anything.

And there’s really only one rule to a creative strategy.So forget those 2 by 2 grids.

ProvokeEntertainInspire

Back to basicsFlip+

Some themes.

That was a bit on Creative planning. To summarise you could say that the creative planning role is to be the midfielder: it’s all about deadly passes.

Bonus materials

1. Tinyurl.com/planneradvice

2. Work with the best creatives(and avoid those that suck)

3. Choose an agency that understands.

4. Do it with models.

5. Don’t boil the ocean.

Three.Have a clue.

6. Be creative in research.

7. Confront anxieties.

8. Power-summarise.

9. Outsource boring stuff.

10. Listen & don’t listen.

11. Handle trends.

12. Be unconventional.

13. Get a free lunch.

14. Wear your bullshit glasses.

Thanks.

leon@jvm.se