Catalyst S+F: It Depends Upon What The Meaning Of the Word Campaign Is - Jim Nichols - MediaBizBloggers

The second most misused word in our industry after strategy has to be campaign When I started in the biz it meant the planned and coordinated totality of a selling idea and an executional approach for a brand Campaigns rarely lasted less than a year Some lasted 20 years or moreThings are sure different now It can be rather challenging to work in a segment of the business where one banner ad executed in four sizes is considered a campaign Or where all of the messages and media of a finite period regardless of their look feel or message are called a campaignGoogle says those 25 results you punch into AdSense are a campaign Heck I39ve heard one ad on the front page of Yahoo for one day called a campaignThat loose usage of the term quotcampaignquot contributes to the creativity ghetto that is digital marketing Too often we spend millions delivering messages devoid of creative ideas That may be what selling can be about but not marketingWe39re here to create value by imbuing brands with enduring meaning That39s an impossible challenge for a handful of SEM results or one banner quotconceptquot executed in four different sizes And don39t even get me started on what digital people think a concept isCampaigns begin with a central idea Just Do It The Ultimate Driving Machine Keep Walking Not Save 20 today Or Download a White Paper Offers are critical but to actually do marketing you have to begin with a thought that helps consumers file away pleasing brand informationThe definition of quotcampaignquot used to be quite narrow It often combined a selling idea with a litany of quotexecutional mandatoriesquot like font and colors and ad style Good campaigns these days are alot more freeformDigital surely has helped drive the need for this sort of executional freedom We are barraged with more and more messages everyday if you want to reinforce an idea you need to constantly surprise and delight consumers with the ways that you deliver that message Can39t do that when all the ads look and sound the sameDigital agencies tend to suck at delivering real campaign ideas Yes there are exceptions But in general I think there are three reasons for thisamp183 Most digital people grew up in digital where campaign ideas were at best secondary considerationsamp183 Lots of digital people don39t know what campaigns areamp183 We ache for constant change in everything There39s always another shiny object we want to serve upAs a result we don39t make brand progress We39re great at selling stuff But the reason why so many big brands continue to quotshortquot digital media relative to its share of total consumer media time is that our quotcampaignsquot aren39t campaignsCampaign ideas have always been the bread and butter of traditional agencies But as they help their brands do more in interactive many struggle with injecting enough executional freedom under the idea Not all but many Everything comes out lockstep I think there are three reasons for thisamp183 It39s the way it has been done for ages And with plenty of successamp183 Traditional agencies tend to prefer tightly defined ideas because you make more money on themCreative development costs a great deal more than making quotpool outsquot of the same bloody thingamp183 Some traditional agencies approach advertising with the view that their way is the best way and therefore no deviation from their approach is appropriateThe challenge there is that the nature of branding has changed Consumers now give as much as they get in terms of brand definition And to the extent that some traditional agencies are closed to consumer participation they are doing a disservice to the very brands they are purporting to protectSo which kind of agency is going to change the way it thinks first One requires a change in reasoning The other a change in feelingJim Nichols is a Partner and Chief Strategist at Catalyst SF He can be reached at jimcatalystsfcomRead all Jim39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The Marketing Capital Report MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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Catalyst S+F: It Depends Upon What The Meaning Of the Word Campaign Is - Jim Nichols - MediaBizBloggers

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