Lifecycle of an advertising campaign

The Brief

The brief will be sent out to tender, which means that it will be available for advertising agencies to look at and see if they would like to offer their services. They would need to create a competitive pitch that provides a concept or idea, based on the requirements of the brief. Sometimes one brief will generate pitch ideas from a large number of companies. Pitches can be sent in digitally or presented in person.

The Pitch

A company will decide that they need an advertising campaign, to promote their newest product, brand or the company itself. They will decide on their budget, the type of coverage they want (TV, radio, print, online). They will write a short client brief that explains what they think they would like from an advertising company, who their target audience is and what action needs to be taken by those watching the advert.

The Winner

The client sees all the pitches and decides on a winner. Once the go ahead has been received from the client, research will take place. This will include looking at some of the following - the advertisers’ service or product will be compared with the competition, their ranking in the marketplace will be looked at, as will consumers’ perceptions of their brand in comparison to their competitors’.

Research to Planning

Using the research, the media agency will identify who the target audience is and the media that should be used to reach that target audience in the most cost effective way. The agency will make recommendations on which markets are to be reached, distribution changes, pricing and which media channels will be used to deliver the message.

The creative team

The agency’s creative people will have the job of converting the advertising communication into words and pictures. The copywriter will, as the name suggests, write the copy for the print ads, creating a slogan that is memorable

The art director will visually implement the copywriter’s message, so s/he will have responsibility for turning the slogan and the written idea into a clear visual message.

The graphic design team will be responsible for the creation of the artwork for the print ads based on the art director’s ideas,  a logo if needed, and making sure that all print work comes out looking like it is part of the same campaign.

Whilst the Advertising agency will be involved at every stage of the production of the commercials, they won’t actually do the filming or taping – that will be done by outside film production companies, based on the art director’s ideas.

The Finished product

The traffic/accounts department within the advertising agency will ensure that the adverts are ready on time and that the client and legal approvals have been granted. This ensures that the company gets paid!

Once the advertisement or commercial has run, the media agency will verify this and check its performance, reporting back to the client. Sometimes payment will depend on analysis of the response from the audience. This could be by a rise in sales, more hits on a website or more money donated.