Wednesday, May 8, 2013

What Makes a Good Digital Campaign Idea

A "good campaign idea" in digital can be super subjective, and rightfully so, since there are so many variables for creatives and strategists to think about, such as who are we speaking to, where does it live, what's the user engagement, what's the key message we want users to takeaway, so on and so on. While concepting campaign ideas can be a complicated process, a "good campaign idea" shouldn't be. I continue to defend that the best campaign ideas are often the most straightforward, for example:


These digital ideas are old, meaning six months to over three years ago, but to this day, I bet you and I can agree these ideas are "good". However, to be clear, "good" is not equivalent to "successful" as success relies heavily on the activation of the campaign across all media channels. I'm not going to get into campaign activation or how the best ideas are tied to consumer insights--although this is very important--instead I have created a simple formula above for creating good digital ideas that people want to engage with and (that all-mighty buzzword we all love) "share". 

My chicken-scratch above is nothing groundbreaking but often times as creative strategists we need to ask ourselves these simple questions like "why should consumers spend time with this experience?" or "what makes this idea different from everything else?". And if you have a strong answer, then great! Novel interaction refers to new technology or new uses of old tech/interaction, interesting content refers to images, video, copy and whether it resonates with the audience and compelling incentive mainly refers to prizes and promotions because some brands need to beef this piece if their product is not that compelling.

Disagree with the criteria of a good digital idea above? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as my goal at the end of the day is for advertisers and agencies to stop creating shitty (excuse my language) digital campaigns.

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