The process of creating a carefully-conceived strategy worked well in the pre-tech days of David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach, when ad men would sit down together and really work out the intricacies of a targeted strategy. Since then, the ad agency climate has changed, and the once hallowed Strategy Brief has become a formality: a hastily filled-out list, handed over at the last possible minute to agency creatives so they can hurry up and start brainstorming ideas for an emergency project.
As a result, the art director and copywriter end up wasting much of their "brainstorming" (or concepting) time trying to interpret what the real message should convey. When creatives are handed a strategy with such bland, general statements as "Our product means quality" or "Get the customer to call us," they have no real target to shoot at, and even less chance of hitting it.
Weak Strategies=Lame Ads
Often, a weak strategy is the result of an account executive trying to please a client. Hands-on business owners with a product to sell often want to cram so many messages into an ad, they end up with the kind of busy, jumbled clutter audiences ignore.
The good news is that so many ads fall into this trap, the advertiser who has a clear marketing message (a result of a well-thought out strategy) is the one who will "break through the clutter." This is true whether the media is direct mail postcard, brochure, radio, TV, press release or newsletter.
In "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
," Ries and Trout remind us how important it is to pick one key message and stick to it. This is also the key to creating a targeted strategy:
"You can't stand for something if you chase after everything."
The creation of a sound strategy brief is often the first place the traditional ad agency model breaks down—and one reason freelance copywriters have an advantage.
Without the overhead and department levels that come between the client and creatives in an agency, the freelance copywriter can personally participate in the strategy session to truly refine the strategic message.