In today's blog post, you'll learn how to research for a HIGHLY PROFITABLE ADVERTISEMENT, by creating a strategic brief that targets your business goals.

Advertisers worth a damn, know that the myriad of marketing platforms that exist in today's society, all have their strengths & weaknesses - but even more importantly... they must be handled with care lest you waste money on an inefficient campaign.

I've worked in online marketing for 10 years now, for some of Australia's biggest companies, and this has taught me my competitive advantage - how to actually come up with cinematic experiences which motivate people to buy or engage.

Beginning Your Research

Every company has a unique aim with their ad campaigns - as sometimes, purchases aren't the only action they want customers to take.

For instance, the Australian Electoral Commission, launched an advertising campaign that effectively and poignantly showed the power of a single person's vote.

Knowing that apathy and laziness could be a massive barrier to enroling and becoming eligible to vote, the copy & tone for advertisement isn't judgmental or preachy. It simply reaffirms every person's universal right to vote, in an unbiased, but emotionally powerful way - especially in an area like politics, where things can be supercharged and volatile. This is what I consider a well made ad.

That's all well and good, but what does it bloody mean for me?

I'm glad you asked! You must start off by asking yourself these questions...

What does are my advertising objectives?

Do you want to sell a product, build brand awareness, or deliver a jolt of good public relations? Every objective has a different need in it's advertising execution.

In our example, we'll choose to sell Air Max 95's, a Nike Shoe as it is best way to demonstrate a product that can be bought physically & online.

Nothing is more ubiqutious than Nike, love them or hate them, they're everywhere - and their advertisements are effective.

Who are my core audience?

You must find a broad or niche audience to market your business effectively to them. Every audience will be different due to this, and the more broad you are, the more broad the marketing copy must be in order to effectively target them. Conversely, the same is true with niche targeting.

In this instance, we will target basketball enthusiasts within Austraila.

What does my audience value the most?

If you're selling Nike Air Max 95's, then the obvious values would be fashion, popularity, basketball, street wear - perhaps culturally specific music (rap/hip hop). You must figure out what your audience value, in order to position your product & services, in a relatable & inviting manner.

In this case, basketball fans value high profile basketballers, latest colour ways, team loyalty (i.e Celtics/Lakers/Bulls), flashy dunks & the latest hip hop music.

How can my product or services tie in with what they value?

Knowing how to position your product can be a tricky thing, but really, it is quite easy if you put your mind in the shoes of the audience. By understanding how they would use your product/services, you simply blend in the usage, with the thematic workings of the advertisement.

In this case, our advertisement would show a collective mix of amateur/semi-pro basketballers, slam dunking and doing a variety of cross overs / alley oops on a basketball court.

Then Ben Simmons - the #1 Australian draft pick for the Philadelphia Sixers, would then come in with Air Max 95's and pull a spectacular dunk and land. The camera would react to the crowd in awe, as it cuts down to the shoes, showing in the background, the mob running at him in celebration.

In this case, using a high profile athlete who happens to be a homegrown hero in Australia, on a play off contender like the Philadelphia 76ers is perfect hero to utilise in an advertising campaign to basketball enthusiasts in Australia.

Obviously, you won't be able to call on Ben Simmons (but if you can, call me!), however the main takeaway is to find what your customers value. Once you can do this utilise realistic subject matter experts/items/events/locations that can fit within the values your customers adore whilst tying in or demonstrating your product/services.

What is my advertising objective / call to action?

This is the mother of all aims. In this instance, we would be positioning the Air Max 95's latest colorway releases. At the end of the advertisement, we would overlay a title card of "Air Max 95's. At Foot Locker. Dropping 3rd August"

This is succinct and allows the audience to make a clear action - by heading to any Foot Locker store on the 3rd of August to buy their Air Max 95s!

Where are my target demographics?

An advertisement like this, would be best suited to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat & Youtube in today's day and age. By using demographic targeting initiatives, you could target Male 14 to 29 year olds in Australia who like basketball related pages. This would be a very highly targeted advertisement to launch. This is why it's important to understand each marketing platform and who they attract.

If you follow the above steps, you should be well on your way to understanding your advertising strategy a lot more, which needs to be done before spending any money on developing an advertising campaign. It is far too crucial to execute.