Developing an ad campaign in 2015

I had moved out of the advertising industry to dabble a bit in marketing and then consulting only to gravitate back to what I do best and truly enjoy doing. Working on a large advertising project after five years, I realised how much things have changed since I was last a part of this industry. To enumerate a few:

1. Seconds are passe, minutes are in

I remember the time when the creative team would throw tantrums about an extra 5 seconds without which they just could not tell the story in a meaningful way. The fight continues. But now the struggle is for an extra minute or two!

2. Collaboration is in

For a campaign to work really well in the modern world, it is no longer good enough to have an art and copy duo. At the very least, a creative team needs film makers, music directors, social media experts. While the core team conceptualises the idea keeping the brand pillars in mind, the other experts need to come on board much before the PPM stage to ensure the story is crafted keeping the current content consumption trend in mind. 

3. What’s the campaign hashtag?

Whether one has  a print rendition of the campaign idea or not, a hashtag is a must! A campaign without a hashtag is like a telephone without a dial. Incomplete as hell! (I wish we were spending a little more time in the hashtag strategy.) 

4.  Will it get shared?

While you develop the campaign, apart from ensuring that the campaign aligns with the brand and category pillars, one needs to keep asking, will it get shared? Being ignored on social media is a fate worse than death!

5. What’s a couple of crores?

I hear these days, film production runs into multiple crores for a single execution. While I have not yet had the good fortune of working on a project of such magnitude, I am really looking forward to working on one before the party gets over.