The agency department responsible for the finished product, called mechanical, is the production department. It is from to Yellow Pages, take the advice of a neighbor, or depend on one of the well known and heavily advertised names? Account men make it their business to learn everything they can about the client's product and how it compares with others on the market and a strategy is arrived at with the help of the researchers and planners, and sometimes with the creative team on the writing and art side. Ideally, the strategy should reflect a plus point for the product, something its competition hasn't got. It is generally possible to isolate at least one compelling selling feature even if it is only that your client's product is the cheapest.
Once a strategy is agreed it is up to the copy writer and art director to turn it into an advertising idea or ideas. Sometimes a number of ideas are researched to find out which most appeals to potential buyers.
The media department then works out how the client's money should be spent. Is it best to go for television, radio, newspapers, magazines, posters, point of sale material like shop cards on counters or in shop windows, or brochures and leaflets? As people cannot buy what isn't on sale it is often important to tell 'the trade', like retailers, first about a new product or an impending advertising campaign. Announcing a campaign often boosts sales to the trade, because forthcoming television advertising may persuade grocers, for example, to stock up so that they can meet the extra demand. Hence advertising in trade publication's is often part of the media mix.
The creative team then set about bringing their idea to life in all the chosen media and putting them together in a fashion which the client will understand. If you can't make the client understand what you are talking about, it is likely that consumers will also be mystified, so the client won't let you run the campaign. To show the client what you are proposing, commercials are sometimes read and described; sometimes a narrative tape is recorded which is a spoken description of the action, perhaps backed by music; or sometimes a 'story board' is drawn up with a number of key frames illustrating what viewers will see on the TV screen. For radio commercials a 'dummy tape' is very often made with the words and music or 'jingle' simply recorded. Advertisements for newspapers and magazines are shown in layout form with a board showing the overall design and a rough illustration with the headline and sub headings lettered in. Accompanying this is "a typescript of the text. If posters, packaging, show cards, or other visual matter may be greeted by a bewildered silence. This is particularly true of the company puff wanted because the chairman thinks he should run an advertisement which says no more than 'we are jolly good fellows'. Yet the question is vital to the agency which must know the company's resources, problems and objectives. Before advertising can be carried out, the agency must understand the client's true needs in the short and long term. Only then can a strategy be hammered out and the right advertising solution devised.
Good advertising communicates the right message to the right people at the right time in a way that will interest or amuse them, but above all make them want to buy the product, service, or even idea'. They must be in no doubt as to what they are buying. The most glamorous imaginable TV commercial filmed in the Caribbean with an all star cast is a failure if, when in the supermarket, the viewer can't remember what the product was called. The right people are, of course, the people most likely to want to buy the product. If this is of limited interest, say a knitting wool, you would find it wasteful to go on TV because so many viewers would not be knitters. You would reach your market more economically in a women's magazine where the percentage of readers who knit is known to be high.
The way the message is presented also plays its part. As a TV documentary once pointed out, a hand lettered cardboard sign by the roadside saying, 'Free range eggs' is an effective advertisement. If the message were 'flying lessons' it wouldn't be. When your life is at stake an amateurish appearance is not reassuring.
Arriving at the right message, deciding who the right people are, and how to reach them is a highly complex business, and the result is an advertising strategy for your client which is sound and provides a realistic and workable rationale for his campaign.
