Every communication campaign starts with a good idea. No campaign without a concept. After you have had your first brainstorm it is tempting to immediately start designing your utterances. Tempting, but not smart. Carefully thinking an idea through is very important. You want your message to come across and touch the audience. This is why you have to think carefully about that message. A fast brainstorm is just not enough. You want to know the consequences of your idea into the details: does this concept work in all types of format and all media? And will the primary message or proposition still stand?
GEt to the PUReST essence OF YOUR STORY
To come up with the best ideas you have to ask yourself critical questions. Why do you want to tell this? Why should you do that? Why do people need to know this? Who's going to benefit from this?
Are people waiting on this product or service? These are questions that can be hard for marketers to answer. Their first thought is usually: ‘I have a fantastic product, and everybody needs to know about it and have it’. If it is that great you don’t need a campaign, right? Truly good products will sell themselves. But sometimes you just need a bit of sales help. This help starts with a story. An honest, clear and easily understood story. To get to that you need to give honest answers to those annoying questions, get to know the truth, and get to the purest essence of the story you want to tell. With the emphasis on honest. Because if you’re being full of hot air your target audience will notice.
Align your means, repeat your proposition
When you have come up with your honest story it is time to get attention for your story. You can decide on the format and the means. All communication must align with each other because only then you can repeat you proposition well consistently. So, if you want your means of communication to repeat themselves you have to align them. Communications advisors shiver at the thought of it, but I like to use the word ‘propaganda’. Your message has to be as simple, clear and unequivocal as possible in all formats. Nobody is waiting on your message, so it is better to clearly say what you have to offer. And preferably done nicely. Whether it is about a new soup, a different name, or a new way of working.
THE same story in a different way
Imagine your company has to undergo a name change as a result of a takeover by a French company. Then the goal would be that all employees will embrace this new name. To do that you can think of numerous ways to achieve that: let a Frenchwoman run through the office with a camera and microphone, eat cheese and drink wine with the team, offer the employees a course in French et cetera. But the main factor is that you develop these activities in the same way, by having a concept. In this case that would be: Discover your French side. If you keep using this basic concept as a starting point it will all add up. That way you keep telling the same story and do so in a different way each time.
so (the power of repetition)
A good idea is not easily thought of. Make sure you free some time to think about it and aim for the purest essence of your story. Determine in which format you will tell your story and align your means of communication. This way you can keep repeating your proposition, whilst using different and creative ways to do so. You can keep relying on your basic concept. The same rationale, the same leading thought. Êtes-vous prêt? Then visit us and discover our French side ;)
