How to Evaluate a Big Campaign Idea

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In this video, Kevin discusses five key criteria you can use to evaluate a big campaign idea, know exactly what feedback to provide, and improve the process of working with creative teams and agencies. You might also want to check out our Ultimate Guide to Writing a Creative Brief.

Transcript:

Hello, Kevin Namaky here. Today I’m going to give you tips on how to evaluate a big campaign idea when you’re reviewing work that comes back from an agency or creative team.

A lot of the times it’s hard to know how to react to creative work or know what you’re supposed to say when asked for your feedback on a campaign idea. Especially when you’re a new ABM or a junior person on the brand team. So, I’m going to give you some key criteria and evaluation tools to help you with creative feedback.

Big Picture Thinking

First, you want to think big picture, and think about how these ideas deliver on what you set out to do. You want to stay away from the minute things that could be scrutinized during the early rounds of creative work on campaign ideas. 

Key Criteria for How to Evaluate a Big Campaign Idea

Here are some key criteria to keep in mind when you’re evaluating creative work. 

Strategy

Key Question: Does the campaign idea deliver on the strategy? 

In order to know that, you need to refer back to the creative brief. Look back at the creative brief on what the desired behavior or key takeaways were—the strategy behind this work. Then you can judge whether or not you think the creative idea helps deliver on that. 

Attention

Key Question: Will the campaign idea garner or command attention? 

Does it stand out to catch attention? Also, does it hold interest over time? Will consumers want to continue watching/listening to this as it’s happening? Is it distinct from everything else that’s happening in the marketplace, such as competitive activity and communications? 

Equity

Key Question: Does this campaign idea help build our brand equity or erode our brand equity?

This is a key test that you’ll want to think about. The second thing to note is brand linkage. Can this idea be easily linked back to my brand in some way.

Extendable

Key Question: Is this campaign idea extendable? 

Does it lend itself to different contexts? Can it be used in different channels and media forms? Or will it last over time? Is there enough behind the idea that we can make variations of it and continue the campaign over time and still hold interest? 

Excitement 

Excitement can be viewed a couple of ways:

  1. Does it have the desired impact? Will the audience feel excited about what they’re seeing?
  2. Does it elicit the desired behavior? Looking back at the creative brief and the strategy you set at the beginning, will this campaign idea motivate consumer behavior—excite the consumer to do what we intended? 

Conclusion 

Those are five ways for how to evaluate a big campaign idea. If you look through those lenses, you’ll always have good, quality feedback that you can give to creative teams. When you use them, your next creative review will be even better. 

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