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INFOGRAPHIC: Six steps to successful creative campaigns

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INFOGRAPHIC: Six steps to successful creative campaigns

Being asked to plan a campaign that is going to be creative and achieve impact can be like standing at the bottom of a cliff and staring upwards. Without any boots, ropes or hooks.

Let us take you by the hand, strap on our backpacks together and take a step-by-step journey on producing winning creative campaigns – the topic of our first Alive Academy course…

 

POV: You’ve got to run a comms campaign and you’re given a perfect brief, plenty of time and you’ve got loads of creative ideas. 

OK, you can stop laughing now. Let’s try this: 

POV: An online training course, broken into enjoyable, manageable chunks, that will help me plan successful creative campaigns. 

Now that we can do. Here’s what you’ll find in our first Alive Academy course…

 

1. Solid foundations

A great idea or flash of creative inspiration is all-important. But scaffolding is needed to build our ideas on. 

We need to be clear what the campaign is setting out to achieve and how we’ll measure that, as well as who and what we’ll need along the way. And all while embracing flexibility and simplicity.

 

2. Finding the single human truth

Our campaigns will be most successful if we can connect with our audiences emotionally. 

Can we make people feel something and unearth an approach that hits home on a human level? 

Finding the ‘Why’ at the heart of our campaign gives us an emotive focus to build it around. 

 

3. Connecting with our campaigns 

How are we going to get people to understand what we’re asking them to do in our campaign? 

We need to create compelling calls-to-action and demand people engage with our campaigns. 

And we need to tap into the human triggers that can help us achieve the behaviours we’re looking to influence. 

 

4. Delivering our campaigns 

We can produce the most creative content and mezmerising messages but if they are not seen by the right people, our campaigns will achieve nowt. 

We need to work out who we need to speak to, what’s going to motivate them to care about our campaign and then where we might be able to find them. 

And we also want to make our campaigns fully accessible and inclusive – because why would we want to exclude anyone?

 

5. Generating creative ideas 

OK, so we’ve got everything we need in place – now how are we going to give our campaign the irresistible creative hook that will grab attention? 

It can be hard to know where to start or find the time to generate creative ideas, so simple, repeatable techniques are what’s needed. 

 

6. Refining our ideas 

Generating lots of creative ideas for our campaign is the goal – but which one is then going to be the one that fits best for what we need to achieve? 

We need to use all the prior work we’ve done – on objectives, audiences – to help us land the right creative approach. All while not ignoring out gut feeling either. 

 

So, if you’re a bit stuck with where to start in planning your campaign or in need of some creative inspiration, then sign up with us at the Academy. 

You can join our community of lively learners at alivewithideas.thinkific.com/.

Take a look at the free sample video for the 6 steps to successful creative campaigns here…

6 Steps to Successful Creative Campaigns

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Emily Stoten — Head of Marketing, Selecta

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Jo Hobbs — Communications Manager

“Thanks for all your help. We are delighted with the campaign, both in terms of the creativity and messaging but also the thought taken over the rollout of the materials. All looks absolutely fabulous!”

Sarah Crowdy — Campaign and Media Officer Communications, South East Water

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Sobha Varghese — Tata Consultancy Services

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DR ELENI ATHANASAKOS, Lead Paediatric Clinical Scientist — NHS Barts Health

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Kath Evans — Director of Children’s Nursing at Barts Health

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Lianne Springer — Communications and Engagement Lead

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Louise Burnard, Head of Marketing and Communications UK — Be | Shaping the Future

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Dr Anna Batho — Clinical Psychologist – Critical Care, UCLH

“We have worked with Alan, Caroline and the wider Alive With Ideas team for many years. In that time, they have provided a dedicated service that is second to none. We appreciate their attention to detail and creative approach to bringing our brand, communications and stories to life. And would recommend them to anyone looking for creative communications support.”

Georgia Beech — Internal Communications Specialist, Ocado Group

“This is brilliant. I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the team who worked on this. You all understood exactly what we wanted to communicate and why, and then managed to do it in a way that was far better than anything I could have imagined. I’m a bit choked up to be honest!”

Sarah Wright, Head of Communications and Campaigns — NEA

“Each time I work with the team, I am always stunned at the effort and creativity that goes into each detail and am always eager for the end result. The team is extremely accommodating and always provide a fresh approach to our projects that elevates our communications materials!”

Alana Khaytin, Communications Specialist — Braskem America

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Sara Langston, Patient Engagement & Marketing Manager — italk

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Steph Tranter, Hybrid Exec Coach & Psychologist — StephTranter.com

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Alexander Mills, Communications Manager — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“Alive were professional, friendly and great to work with. Most importantly they were creative, helping us to bring an extremely important safety campaign to life.”

Jack Grasby — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“The (Alive) team were able to creatively pull together and document (in just over 2minutes) everything our service has achieved over the last few months, from thousands of prescriptions deliveries to hundreds of phone calls made to the vulnerable. The final product was so powerful and reflective of what our service has and continues to achieve. It couldn’t have been better received within the service – thanks Alive for once again helping us to communicate our vision!’”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

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At a time like this, its never been more important to share the amazing work that our staff have done and continue to do on a daily basis under very difficult circumstances. We wanted to shout about this and recognise that when the time came, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue stepped up to the plate. We didn’t want an ordinary thank you post on social media or a basic email sent out internally, we wanted something special. Enter Alive. ”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

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Jack Ford, Head of Marketing — streamGO

“Our company is fun, we have great brands, but most importantly we’re all about our people – and I wanted an agency who would understand that and help us bring it to life through our website and other comms. Straight away I felt that Alive ‘got’ us and provided the creative inspiration exactly where we needed it, as well as the technical expertise to deliver a well-functioning website.”

Keren McCarron, Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications — KP Snacks

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Thank you so much. Incredible work done at incredible speed by incredible people.
Outstanding work as ever and what a turnaround. As for the concepts – wow. These are that good it would be an insult to describe them as just good. It’s a joke, quite frankly. This is exactly the Alive effect I was after. Right now I feel like I am living in an Alive With Ideas wonderland. Thank you!”

Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

“If you are looking to improve creativity and build teamwork, I highly recommend a session like this for your team. No matter where you are in your creativity journey, a workshop like this can give your team a boost of energy and ideas to invigorate their creative thinking.”

Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

“Alive were there to help when we were working every hour to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They gave us the creativity, ideas and support we needed to deliver campaigns which empowered our residents in the most difficult time most of us have ever seen, personally and professionally. The team understood what we needed, worked closely with us and delivered fast without any compromise on quality. Working with Alive has been a joy in the darkest of times and I have no doubt will have helped to save lives. Thanks team x”

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers — Derbyshire County Council

“We got 'Alive' involved to help us shift mindsets across our organisation and they delivered! Using simple, clear and creative ideas the team have delivered us a campaign which has seen a dramatic increase in idea sharing and development. They’ve also played a significant role in creating a culture of shared success. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with again, in fact, we already are!”

Gavin Buckle — B&Q
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