The advertising company’s program logic routine!

What is the general logic of an advertising company ’s plan? What are the routines?

The logic of a program is the logic of persuasion, and advertising agencies are no exception. (Nonsense, the plans are for customers to see.)

The process of persuasion is the process of showing how you can solve the customer's problems. So I think the essence is the "problem-solution model" - the problem is the client's business/communication problem, and the solution is strategy and creativity, among which strategy is the direction and the reasonable explanation of creativity. (Strategy is sometimes not a rational explanation of creativity, but just points out the direction in which the information should go)

The problem-solution model can also be expanded to: background-conflict-question-solution (complex, the first three are used for introduction, and the solution is the key) . The first three parts are used by us to interpret the customer's brief: that is, confirming the goal or setting the goal . This part is sometimes not important and will be reduced to 1-2P; if the customer himself does not know where the problem lies, then it is necessary to vigorously analyze the brand itself (see what the specific problem is for the customer, if it is a social problem, talk about social, if it is a branding problem, talk about branding) /industry competitors/consumers to redefine the problem. (Be careful when pointing out problems in a client's brief. It's easy to fall into a trap. If you point out problems well, there will be problems. If you point out problems poorly, there will also be problems.)

All solutions start from insight mining (note that it is insight from various angles) , which is used as the premise of the strategy to come up with the direction to solve the above problems; at this time, attention is generally paid to the direction of the message information and the setting of the media (depending on the importance) . Based on this direction, continue to set creative ideas, big ideas, digital ideas, social ideas or media coordination, and finally the execution case, which is usually refined after the client is secured. (There is nothing special here, but more and more clients do IMC instead of relying on big ideas, and instead directly invest in big IPs and big media, such as sponsorship events and celebrity effects)

Dentsu has a toolbox that is quite detailed: (Note that this is the large IMC process)

(Dentsu is really good at all kinds of models. Share this article, then reply "planning" in the account to send you this tool PPT)

(I suggest you look at how the big logic is arranged. Many things in it are Dentsu’s own gadgets that outsiders cannot use. In the end, you still have to study each medium yourself when executing it.)

The above is the logic line, and the following is the specific routine of the communication plan:

(Not MECE because it is too difficult to write MECE. Planning logic can be explained from different dimensions)

1. Set a target and shoot at it.

The most common method is to say that the client's brand has a specific problem, such as consumers no longer like it, the competing product is strong, or blabla, highlight the severity of the problem and then emphasize your specific solution.

(Another bad trick is to set a target, such as a research analysis that points out that direction A is wrong and direction B is right. Then other companies that pitch in direction A will be doomed.)

2. Use best practice.

Some companies have their own mature methodologies, such as Ogilvy 360, TBWA, etc. If not, they also have their own success stories/industry best practices. Based on these, they tell customers how everyone else does it in this category, so we should do it this way or the opposite.

(Strictly speaking, it cannot replace your analysis results. But it can provide strategic guidance from an industry perspective that is higher than advertising strategy, similar to a principle. It will surprise customers.)

3. Tell stories using deductive logic.

The proposals of advertising companies emphasize creativity, but are not as logical as those of consulting firms. Therefore, we tend not to give conclusions directly so that customers do not feel surprised (inductive presentation) .

Deductive logic is actually telling a story step by step, using current events or your own life to attract attention and highlight the seriousness of the problem and the creativity of the solution. Of course, this is a routine that can be used by everyone.

(Strictly speaking, it is not a routine. It just requires you to explain your analysis results in the form of A→B→C. If it is too long, it will make people fall asleep.)

4. Low-level routines: general concepts.

What does it mean? This approach is effective against companies that have no vision. For example, they may create a word cloud to analyze what consumers are looking at, and then say that this is a content marketing strategy; for example, they may come up with a strategy called: say the right words at the right place and at the right time (scenario) ; using this kind of correct but useless nonsense = no strategy. What customers need at certain specific moments is creativity, which is especially common in digital social.

(Many times, the client’s big idea is finalized, and it’s the digital/social company’s turn to convert it, but you can’t just give an idea, but you have to explain an idea of ​​your idea. This is when it comes in handy.)

5. Battle cycle routine.

Warm-up, climax, and continuation. This approach is of little significance in the era of social media and media fragmentation. It is continued to be used only to physically divide a two-month campaign into three cycles for ease of operation. By the way, few people really use teaser preheating well.

(If teasers want to use it well, they either have to spend a lot of money on media budget, but the client will think why not put it in the main stage? Or they can create hot news, which means it depends on luck)

6. Design campaign phases based on the consumer journey (sometimes not a time node).

This is more common, such as awareness→engagement→sales/leads; some are under model architecture such as AISAS.

Some brands will establish basic logic for how to educate the market. For example, a certain client (cannot be told) has an internal saying of educating consumers on what the brand is, how good it is/how to buy it? whyHigher-level needs, why choose me? But usually they create confusion themselves because logically they are doing things simultaneously.

(In fact, this journey is essentially a continuous cycle, but unfortunately it is often divided into three stages of a campaign in the plan.)

In addition, the logical routine of traditional advertising is mainly reflected in the creative brief. In digital/social companies, due to the problem of operation speed, sometimes 1-2 weeks of strategic operation time will be omitted. But they have many routines, such as this template of JWT:

(This JWT template is very old, and judging from the content, it is also an analysis of market strategy rather than pure advertising or communication. In addition, almost all such briefs require a clear presentation of point A → point B, and a comparison between the consumer before and after receiving the information, which is also a kind of goal setting)

You can come here for more such ancient strategy templates: "Strategy" secrets from Y&R, JWT, DDB, LeoBurnett, BBDO, FCB, Ogilvy, Chiat/Day. It is recommended to just take a look at the ideas. (Actually you can learn a lot (╯□╰))

This article is not suitable for experts, they should not need these routines.

There is a sword in the heart, but no sword in the hand.