Planning an important advertising campaign is a complex and often daunting task. As professional marketers, it is our job to make it a smooth and enjoyable process; we will begin by taking a step back to firstly appraise your brief. The PRG team will always flag up any ambiguous areas, ensuring we use our joint expertise to get to the heart of exactly what you hope to achieve and who you wish to target.
By nailing down the ad campaign objectives at this early stage, we can ensure we focus our time and energy in the most effective manner. We will ensure that your objectives are ‘SMART’. Using SMART objectives will provide a clear and unambiguous goal to work towards, it also provides key indicators against which to measure the ad campaign’s success.
At PRG we always put ourselves in the shoes of your ideal customer; by doing this and constantly referring back to your brief, we can make sure that our proposed creative and ad placement is highly relevant and targeted to meet your objectives.
There are many important factors to consider when planning an advertising campaign; we’ve focused on the following five which provide the linchpins of our inspirational ad campaigns.
Consistency – Maintaining your message across all media.
Whatever your unique messaging is, be it a headline, slogan or graphic, make sure you own it! You want this to become synonymous with your brand, so use it, everywhere, on everything.
A good example of consistency is the promotional campaign PRG was commissioned to develop for REFCOM‘s Refrigerant Tracking Database. We developed a striking theme with imagery of a penguin diving into water and a line of penguins following each other across the ice, with the strapline ‘REFCOM is moving forward.’ Other designs in the range showed penguins nurturing their young, with the strapline ‘REFCOM, the new generation has arrived.’
Following the success of the promotional leaflet, we produced adverts for the trade press, alongside DVD covers and stickers for the database packaging. This confident, consistent campaign won the Field Service Innovation of the Year Award at the 2007 Cooling Industry Awards.
Simplicity – Keep your message simple.
Know who you are talking to and what you want to say. A clear concise message will be remembered, trying to be everything to everyone can be a campaign’s undoing. Don’t be afraid to be bold.
Our strategic approach to the Bourne to Recycle brief lead to us creating a strong, positive visual identity for Eastbourne Borough Council’s household waste recycling scheme.
The eye catching design is very visually recognisable and daringly unfussy. This, coupled with the simple headline ‘Are you Bourne to Recycle?’ and the bright colour palette led to the campaign being very successful at attracting the attention of its key audience
Confidence – Know your brand.
Be confident about your brand and its strengths; but don’t be afraid to challenge perceptions. If you think your audience perceive you in the wrong way, educate them!
At PRG we are passionate about our hometown, this has never been more evident than when we created the ‘Eastbourne’Change Your View’ campaign.
The advertising campaign was controversial at the time, as it dared to challenge long known stereotypes, however this confident approach was very well received generating national press and television coverage. This ambitious campaign was the starting point which has helped to change the public perception of Eastbourne as being a pensioner’s town.
Clarity – Be clear and don’t use jargon.
Your audience needs to understand your message. Confuse them and you will lose their attention.
The striking campaign collateral PRG designed for Trend, one of the world’s leading Building Energy Management Systems manufacturers, is a testament to how crisp, jargon free advertising can have real power.
Trend is delighted with the eye-catching designs as they have been very successful in generating interest and new sales enquiries during their new product launch campaign.
Positioning – Be clear about your audience and research how to reach them.
There have never been as many advertising channels available as there are today. Devising a suitable marketing plan to reach your desired audience is the key to success. You don’t need to advertise everywhere, but you do need to put your brand in front of your key audience; it is our job to find the correct channels for your campaign.
We were previously approached by Britain’s leading manufacturer and installer of fire-resistant ductwork, Fire Protection Ltd, who tasked PRG with boosting its brand reputation within the building engineering services industry. A safe choice may have been a traditional press announcement campaign linking to a client case study; however at PRG, we like to do things with a creative spark, so instead we delivered an unusual concept.
To highlight how prestigious London buildings benefit from Fire Protection’s solutions, we produced a fold out booklet entitled “Safeguarding Britain’s Best” and organised a flight tour down the Thames for trade journalists. Having set imaginations ablaze, the event was such a success that a second press trip had to be arranged!
