Guests Brian Brydon, Enda Conway, and Ben Nilsen discuss the importance of connections planning in marketing strategy, emphasizing its role in effectiveness and integration. The challenges of fragmented media and measuring effectiveness are explored. The speakers highlight the value of collaboration and platform fit in connection strategies.
Connections planning combines creativity and effectiveness by understanding consumer behaviors and pain points.
Heinz Ketchup's 'Hidden Spaces' map demonstrates the power of connections planning in identifying platform-specific opportunities for impactful solutions.
Sheba's 4 AM Stories campaign showcases the ability of connections planning to deliver engaging experiences by tapping into audience preferences and needs.
Deep dives
Bridging Objectives: The Role of Connections Planning
Connections planning is crucial in bridging the objectives of brand planning, connections planning, and media planning. It combines the art and science of effective advertising by aligning creative ambition with proven effectiveness and reaching the target audience. The unique value of connections planning lies in understanding the consumer journey and finding unexpected ways to express the brand message. It goes beyond scratching the surface of channels and taps into audience behaviors and pain points to develop innovative and impactful campaigns.
Effectiveness through Platform Fit: Heinz Ketchup
Heinz Ketchup provides an excellent example of how connections planning enhances effectiveness through platform fit. By understanding the gaming experience and the pain points of gamers who want to snack while gaming, Heinz created the 'Hidden Spaces' map, guiding gamers to places where they could hide and eat their fries and ketchup. This unique approach demonstrates the power of connections planning in identifying and leveraging consumer behaviors and interests within specific platforms to deliver creative and impactful solutions.
Connecting with Audience Preferences: Sheba and 4 AM Stories
Sheba's 4 AM Stories campaign showcases the ability of connections planning to tap into audience preferences and deliver engaging experiences. Recognizing that cat owners often wake up at 4 AM due to their cats' hunting instincts, Sheba created long-form audio content that helps people fall back asleep. This brilliant understanding of the target audience's behaviors and needs allowed Sheba to connect the brand with a meaningful and relatable solution, effectively reinforcing their platform 'Resistance is futile' and driving campaign effectiveness.
Creative Integration and Objective Alignment: Cause Light and DraftKings
The collaboration between Cause Light and DraftKings offers valuable insights into the role of connections planning in integrating creativity with strategic objectives. By leveraging the Super Bowl environment and understanding their target audience's behavior during the event, Cause Light developed a standout approach to engage viewers and promote its brand. This collaboration effectively combined the creative idea with platform-specific tactics, resulting in a campaign that resonated with the audience and achieved both creative and strategic goals.
Objective Alignment and Driving Effectiveness: Mars and Columns Planning
Mars exemplifies the benefits of effectively leveraging columns planning to enhance campaign effectiveness. By recognizing the importance of columns planning in amplifying reach, relevance, and addressability, Mars demonstrates a keen understanding of how this strategic discipline drives growth. Their proactive adoption and integration of columns planning within their marketing efforts highlight its vital role in optimizing creative execution to achieve maximum impact and effectiveness.
Brian Brydon, SVP, Head of Comms Strategy for Publicis, Enda Conway, Head of Connections Strategy for BBDO, NY and Ben Nilsen, Head of Media Strategy for Droga5 NY, join me for Ep#1 to talk about the importance of Connections Planning in the ever increasing canvas of marketing strategy. Thanks to WARC for sponsoring this three episode series.
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