The Creative Process: How It Works and Optimizing Your Ideas
Marketing can be a misunderstood industry, especially outside of the corporate world. Sometimes, people assume it is just a creative specialization and some think it has more to do with strategy and statistics than anything else. The real answer, to anyone who works in marketing, is that it is a mix of both of these things. A successful marketing campaign isn’t complete without both attention-grabbing visuals and a strategy that gets the visual in front of the right eyes. All of this being said, the creative process is a huge step in a marketers day-to-day and that’s what we’re going to dive into today. The team at Lyv Marketing can provide you with both well-researched strategy and creative work. Let’s jump in.
Steps In the Process
There are a few steps in the typical creative process for people in professional or corporate fields. These might look something like the following:
The foundation
The lightbulb (idea)
Creative drafting/concept
Execution & outcome
While, of course, these steps vary from person-to-person, the general concept is the same. Now let’s look into each of these steps.
The Foundation
This is the step where you figure out how your creative and your strategy will work together to create the outcome you want. There is such a thing as too much of each of these things. With too much creativity, there is a great look, but no outcome. With too much strategy, there is a good message to the right people, but they might ignore it because it doesn’t look good. During the foundation, you figure out if a customer would want or need it and decide if there is a way to make it stand out. You should also consider whether action will come from it.
The Lightbulb
Every great marketing campaign starts with an idea. Many people outside of the career think that these ideas come from data, but usually they come from real people’s experiences and what humans predict the customer will need or want. From an insight, a marketer will get an idea for a campaign. From there, marketers must decide how these ideas can be made into completely fleshed out campaigns. Put all of your ideas in one place and then decide which is the most likely to achieve all of the goals you have for the campaign.
Creative Drafting and Concepting
Now that you have turned your insights into an idea, it’s time to bring that campaign to life. Drafting and concepting will help you do just that. The draft clearly explains the objectives, ideal audience, messaging, and direction for the campaign. This helps you to stay on task and keep the campaign contained. A creative concept makes sure that the audience is understood and the creative team knows how to measure the success of the entire campaign. The concept gives structure to your idea and shapes it into a clear and focused direction for the campaign to go. The concept turns your draft into a story that people will want to hear/see.
Execution & Outcome
After all of this drafting is done, it is time to start turning these ideas into real life. In this step, you will figure out what the main message of the campaign is, what channels will work best for it and which content should be featured on each. It is also important to figure out how you will measure the success of your campaign so you can measure the progress to your objectives. The message of a campaign should be clear to everyone who sees it. It shapes how a customer interacts with a brand and even the best visuals or creative will fall flat without it.
Takeaway: The Creative Process is Long but Rewarding
Marketing is about creating a long-term impact through your messaging, creative, and strategy. To create this impact you have to have a foundation of ideas and knowledge about your brand/business. Through this knowledge you will be able to create something that works and stands the test of public perception. If you’re looking for a team to take over your creative process, no matter what step you’re on or how far you are in the process, the team at Lyv Marketing is here for you. Contact us today by filling out the contact form on our website.
