How To Come Up With A Creative Concept For Advertising A Product Or Service

The process of developing a creative concept can be divided into three large stages:

Collecting Information And Setting The Task

This is the most critical stage to come up with something creative and a working effective tool that should ultimately bring profit.

So, you have a product or service and need to profitably and creatively present it to your potential buyers.

Describe the target audience of your product in as much detail as possible: gender, age, marital status, interests, etc. You can use a popular tool – an empathy map (easy to google)

after you understand the target audience’s profile, describe what they are most concerned about, their pains and needs, and answer the question: “How does my product make my audience’s life better?”

Write down the benefits of your product and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

be sure to look at what your competitors are doing and what kind of advertising they have so as not to do something similar

Idea Generation

Find images and associations that are suitable for the product, are understandable to the target audience, and fall into the need. The best way to do this is to use the enumeration methods of associations: write down all possible associations with the product and service, a list of life situations, and at what point potential customers will become interested in the product.

Brainstorm. Brainstorming will be dynamic and productive if you have prepared everything as we described above. When there is working material, then ideas come easier. At the first stage of the assault, generate a lot. Criticism is prohibited. In the second stage, discuss and choose 6-10 ideas; combine something, something – vice versa. In the third stage, leave the best ideas (there may be 3-5 of them in an advertising concept).

Assemble a focus group. Make a small presentation or mock-up of your idea. Find representatives of your target audience, preferably several dozen. Ask them: what they see and how they understand it. What emotions does it evoke? Analyse the results and make changes, if any.

Adaptation Of Ideas To The Advertising Concept (Advertising Channels)

When the main idea/ideas are ready, and you are as confident in your hypothesis as possible, it’s time to find advertising channels and adapt the created creative concept to them.

These include social networks, contextual or targeted advertising, promotion through opinion leaders, landing page creation, and other online platforms. Depending on the product/service, remember possible offline channels.

Choose the communication channel that is more attractive to your target audience.

Decide on the format of the advertising message: if your audience is on TikTok, then the format must match. And if you plan to promote using display advertising (for example, on the RBC website), consider what message format will suit the site and local users.

When you decide on the communication channel and format, predict the performance and assign critical metrics and KPIs.

Also Read: How To Choose An Advertising Agency: 5 Infallible Tips