Our Cornish interns share what makes a great campaign

Last week (18th – 22nd June) we had two talented BA Creative Advertising students, Henry and Alex from Falmouth University spend their week with us here at Stuff. Not only did they create some fantastic ideas and concepts for clients Miss Millie’s, Better by Bike & others but they also took over our @StuffCornwall Twitter for the week, where each day they shared with us one of their favourite campaigns and why.

Towards the end of the week, we sat down with the creative duo to find out what exactly they think makes a great campaign and here’s what they had to say…

Understanding Audiences

Discovering key insights about the audience and utilising these within the advertising means that campaigns resonate with the audience in a relevant and longer lasting way. So, one of the most important parts of a campaign is knowing and understanding the target audience. This includes knowing which demographic to communicate to, knowing what platforms to advertise on and knowing when is the most appropriate time to run a campaign. One of our favourite campaigns belongs to WWF and their “#LastSelfie” campaign. The advertising really connects with the younger target audience of millennials, and getting them to use mobile to keep up to date.

Distinctiveness

When creating an ad, it’s good to see some sort of distinctive quality that instantly shows us and the audience what brand the ad is for. This leads to cohesive and consistent work that sets a brand apart. An obvious example of this is Volkswagen’s heritage in running with their own distinct classic style and humour which always demonstrates a populous yet distinctive approach to its advertising. Distinctiveness is also much easier to achieve if those working on the ad have a real understanding of the brand as well as a good relationship with the client. KFC’s recent comeback campaign is a clear example of the importance of understanding a brand and thisenabled the creatives to use their knowledge of KFC’s heritage to produce a campaign that is both fresh but still true and distinct to the KFC brand.

This was Henry & Alex’s ‘Day 3 – Campaign of the day‘.

A fresh idea

Everyday, people are bombarded by countless ads so all should appreciate and aim for fresh ideas. Concepts that capture the imagination of audiences because of their new and innovative approach, are the kind of ads we should strive to create. Campaigns like the Absolut ‘Nothing to Hide’ campaign. The campaign manages to achieve a fresh, wholesome and light-hearted tone whilst still engaging audiences thanks to its very striking visuals. 

A STRONG CAMPAIGN LINE

For a campaign to stand out and achieve great things for a brand, it should be led by a strong campaign line. The line should reflect the proposition because the line summaries what a campaign is all about. The best campaign lines are ones where audiences know the brand just from hearing the line. For instance, ‘Kit-Kat’s’ famous “have a break, have a Kit-Kat” is so known that people recognise the brand just from the first three words. This can be seen in the 48 sheet poster ad from 2014.

EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

A campaign that can trigger an emotional response from a consumer can be key for brands. Just ask John Lewis. An ad can make audiences, happy, sad, surprised or even angry. Some campaigns only inform audiences of the benefits of a product but a  campaign that can bring out the emotional side of people will have far greater effectiveness for the brand. For example, Pedigree’s “Adopt a Dog” campaign really empathises with the audience  in the ad for a much more heartfelt and successful campaign.