Article by Dan Bailin

How Creative Strategy Drives Business Growth

Without a solid creative strategy orchestrated to drive business growth, creative work is just a bunch of really nice guitar riffs without a song structure. Don’t get me wrong, the ideas in these riffs may melt your face, but do they also drive the desired action? Are the ideas based on real insight?

When in sync, an insightful brand positioning and a compelling concept can build on each other to become a veritable Hall & Oates of brand communication: catchy, clever, easy on the eyes, tingly for the mind, and powerful enough to get the target audience moving.

Why Strategy and Creative Need to Work Together

If you have an account lead who isn’t on the tour bus with the creative team, it’s time to find another bandmate. Strategy should not just inform creative ideation but harmonize with it. The two should groove and improvise with each other, have their fair share of tension, but ultimately remain the best of friends.

This is what separates a full-service creative agency from a production shop: the integration of strategic thinking with creative execution from day one.

How to Write a Strategic Brief That Inspires Creative Work

A good place to start is making a solid playlist in the form of a creative brief that inspires instead of just informs. Here’s what a great strategic brief includes:

1. Audience Insight: Love and Understanding

The target isn’t a data point. It’s a real person, so get to know what makes them tick. Deep audience research transforms a generic message into one that resonates.

2. Competitive Landscape: The Competition Blues

Being outspent by a big bully or out-innovated by a challenger? This is where you treat the brief like a bartender and tell them exactly why the target is thinking about leaving you.

3. Single Most Persuasive Message: We Need a Single

The brief boils down to this: what is the single most persuasive thing we can say? Like any good earworm, this core message is the hit the rest of the campaign should be built around.

4. Proof Points: I’m a Believer

What evidence supports why your brand has what the target really needs? These proof points back up your single message with credibility.

5. Call to Action: I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)

When the “learn more” button isn’t enough and you want to motivate people to actually change behavior, your CTA needs to be as compelling as your creative.

Strategy Is the Opening Track

So the next time you prepare for a campaign launch, or you’re evaluating one as a client, don’t skip over the strategy. It’s the opening track that sets the tone for the entire concept album.

Ready to align your brand strategy with creative that actually performs? Come jam with us at p3 and hear what a collaborative approach to strategic and creative partnership sounds like. Let’s produce a hit together.