Determine if you have a big marketing campaign in just 5 steps

Read time: 3 minutes

Today, I will provide some inspiration to help you when writing marketing campaigns. It's a simple concept, but it might assist you during brainstorming sessions.

Let's briefly compare the differences in marketing: performance marketing emphasizes immediate, data-driven results and efficient ad spending, while larger marketing campaigns prioritize long-term brand building, creativity, and customer engagement. Both approaches play a role in a comprehensive marketing strategy, and successful marketers often strike a balance between the two to achieve their overall objectives.

1- WHAT’S AN IDEA?

Insights on the strategy are often mistaken as ideas. But those are not ideas. A simple way to determine if you do have a campaign idea is by asking yourself the following:

• Is this a complete thought?

• Do I have a “who”, “what”, “when”, and “where” in my paragraph?

• Is it PR-worthy?

A good way to see if a campaign is PR-worthy is by writing a press release in your head. If your idea sounds ridiculous after "breaking news!..." it's probably either: (a) bad or (b) not an idea.

Get straight to the point, don't make them too long. If you are getting bored, falling asleep typing or your eyes hurt. It’s probably too long.

2- WHAT’S A BIG MARKETING CAMPAIGN?

What campaign will make your startup brand famous? It's important to think beyond just a social media ad or a content post, and even beyond a TV spot or an out-of-home campaign. Ultimately, this idea will inspire great ads, content posts, out-of-home advertisements, and TV commercials, because it will compel them to be about something greater than these individual mediums.

During my time at Jung von Matt, one of our clients was Nike. They had a specific request for campaign ideas: each idea had to be summarized in one sentence, one image, and one slide. Think it sounds simple? Give it a try.

3- WRITE A PRESS RELEASE.

We are trying to do work that changes culture. Work that people talk about. Tweet about. Laugh with their friends about it. Ideas that will make the brand famous and that the press will write about. By starting with the result, the press release, we know for sure it’s going to be a story worth writing.

4- GIVE IT A NAME.

The name is crucial. Genuine news stories are crafted in a way that users can grasp the main idea of the article just by reading the headline. The same principle should apply to our marketing campaign write-ups. A great example of this is the "Shot on iPhone" campaign from Apple. Just by reading the name of the campaign, you immediately understand the idea behind it.

5- NOT YOU. WE.

It sounds much friendlier when we write from a joint perspective. It creates a sense of teamwork with the customer, making the campaign something we do together. Additionally, using "we" instead of "you" makes it easier to point out faults and mistakes. You can test this in your personal life. For example, if you want to go out and party, instead of saying to your boyfriend/girlfriend, "I think you should let me go out and drink with my friends", you can say, "I think we should give each other more time to see our friends". Give it a try. It works.

💡Takeaway → The description of a big campaign is never longer than one sentence.

In a meeting, Guido Heffels (Founder of Heimat Berlin) once said, "I never had a stroke of genius sitting at my computer." I still firmly believe that if we want to create something truly original, we need to venture beyond the confines of our screens and explore the world around us. So let's go out and get creative. 🙂

If you enjoyed it, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share it with friends interested in startup branding and growth. 🙏🏼 💚 

Catch you in a couple of weeks.

Cheers, Chris

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 more ways I can help you:

​Startup Brand Program → I have compiled all of my learnings into this program to help early-stage founders implement a unique brand correctly, saving money and achieving long-term success. Link 

1:1 Consulting → Need guidance and expertise to make your brand stand out? Join me for a 1:1 branding consulting session where we'll dive deep into your brand goals, target audience, and unique value proposition. Email me at [email protected]