Here are six maneuver influenced actions you can take to immediately improve your next advertising or marketing campaign.
01. Designate a campaign leader. Campaigning is a form ofcompetition and requires a coach or a general to lead the effort.The leader should come from sales... not marketing unless the marketing candidate has significant sales experience. Campaign leaders from a sales background are more pragmatic about
marketing decisions because they know from experience what they need to sell.
Why do we do this? To delegate authority and speed up decision cycles.
02. Form a campaign team. Campaigning teams will consist of sales and marketing members along with outside vendors like ad agencies, PR firms, etc. This is a virtual team assembled for the purpose of prosecuting a specific campaign. The important action here is breaking down the sales/marketing/agency walls. And instead forming a team with a specific identity and singular mission. The campaign leader leads the team and has final say and decision-making authority.
Why do we do this? To eliminate friction and distrust between sales, marketing and agency personnel.
03. Select credible creative competencies. Award winning creative has nothing to do with gaining market share, increasing sales revenue, or decreasing advertising costs. Select art directors, graphic designers, copywriters etc., on the basis of credible, dependable creative instincts. The ability to work quickly and competently is critical. Good creative is good enough for 95% of B2B campaigns and 50% of B2C efforts.
Why do we do this? To provide fundamental creative competencies that are dependable, fast and harmonize with campaign objectives... ie - revenues not awards.
04. Delegate all creative decisions. Choosing the color of a logo, selecting a tagline, designing a trade show booth, creating an ad, web site, brochure or corporate identity should be done by the campaign team. An ENORMOUS amount of time and campaign cycles are wasted by managers and executives, who tweak, fiddle, alter or revise creative for purely aesthetic reasons. Trust the fundamental competencies of your creative team. The campaign leader makes all creative decisions. Do not use committees to evaluate creative.
Why do we do this? To develop effective creative quickly and at a low cost.
05. Use Rapid Cycle Messaging. Utilize creative elements that can be developed and produced quickly and cost effectively. Most importantly select creative elements that can be modified quickly and cost-effectively. Stay away from creative elements with extended development cycles (photo shoots in remote locations etc.) or complicated production processes. Keep it simple and wickedly-fast.
Why do we do this? To be able to adapt and evolve to threats and opportunity faster than our competition.
06. Apply the Maneuver Marketing Formula. Here’s a rough rule of thumb you can use in order to frame a maneuver campaign. Take your existing budget and cut it 20% - then allocate your remaining dollars on an equal basis to creation and production/placement categories. In other words every dollar you spend on media should be backed by another dollar for research, strategy, positioning and creation.
Why do we do this? To generate the intelligence necessary to shape the market place to our advantage and the disadvantage of our competition.
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