Planning An Ad Campaign

What exactly people do?

WHAT IS AN AD CAMPAIGN

• An ad campaign includes series of ads,

• placed in various media,

• that are designed to meet objectives, and

• are based on analysis of marketing & communication situations

Planning An Ad Campaign

Steps Involved

ESSENTIAL STEPS

1. Appraisal of advertisingopportunity

2. Analyze & definethe target market

3. Set advertising objectives

6. Create ads, pre-test and release ads

7. Evaluate final results(Post-testing)

1. Appraisal of advertising opportunity

Advertising is a powerful tool, that doesn’t mean that you advertise without a reason – Neil H Borden

5 conditions should be met first:

a) Presence of positive primary demand Relate to nature of market

b) Good chance of product differentiation

c) Products have hidden or not readily noticeable qualities

d) Presence of emotional powerful buying motives

e) Availability of sufficient funds required for advertising

Relate to product

2. Analyze and define the target market

Prospects

• Demographic characteristics

• Geographic locations

• Psychographic variables

• Buying behavior

• etc

Research

• Who buys the product?

• What do they really buy?

• When do they buy?

• How do they use the product?

• etc

3. Setting advertising objectives

• Awareness

• Liking

• Trial

• Action

• etc

4. Determining advertising budget

Objectives tell what is expected from a ad campaign for a defined period of time

Budgeting involves:

• Controlling all the proposed expenditures

• Different companies use difference approaches

• Budgets can be reviewed according to market situations such as competition, demand etc

5. Deciding media and creative strategy

• Media plan determines the best way to reach audience

• The goal of media planning is

- to find a particular combination of media at best cost

• Creative strategy

- what to say to best achieve the objective

6. Creating ads, pre-test and release ads

• Ad should be pre-tested before actual execution

- to avoid costly mistakes

- increase its efficiency

Some techniques used for ad pre-test:

• Market tests

• Focus groups

• Surveys

• etc

7. Evaluating the final results (post-testing)

Few techniques are:

• Recall (what portion of ad)

• Recognition (logo, headline, punchline etc)

• Inquiry

• Trial

• Tracking studies (regular intervals awareness, recall, interest, inquiry etc)