There are three phases involved in the creation of any campaign.
(i) Strategy Development Phase,
(ii) The Briefing Phase and
(iii) The Creative Phase.

Strategy Development Phase

This phase decides the objectives and contents of communication. It analyses the research data and decides positioning of a brand. The strategy formulation is in modern day’s agencies a team effort. The creative persons form a part of this team not as creative persons but as a mind. There are brain- storming sessions. The team throws up the ideas. These ideas ultimately make up the strategy. The brilliant in the team pick up one or two ideas from the total ideas generated and develop them. Our strategy should give us a competitive edge.

AI Ries and Jack Trout started focusing on the strategy side of advertising business in the late 60s when they first started writing about positioning. Everybody else was talking about creativity, whereas they decided to talk about strategy. They found that clients did not want to buy strategy from an ad agency.

I want that you appreciate the importance of strategy development phase. If the strategy is wrong, no amount of creativity will help. If the strategy is right, despite the poor creative work, we can sell due to right strategy. However, right strategy and creative campaign is a winning combination. Mere creativity and no strategy never work. To your client, you should tell what you are trying to achieve in your communication.

The strategist is the left-brain oriented, very linear in thinking, very logical in deduction. The strategy formulation leads to an advertising brief.

If you want to catch fish, you have to think like a fish. If you want to catch a consumer, you have to think like a consumer. That’s the first principle. What most companies do is they think like themselves. They spend all their time with themselves’ (AI Ries and Jack Trout).

Bob Isherwood, creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia emphasizes that a good effective ad has to be married to the right strategy, if it has to sell. He is also a strong believer of the theory that a creative director is as important a member of the strategizing team as the account director is especially if it involves a product launch.