The thinking behind the creation of your advertising.

When to use a copy strategy

Before creating advertising, or briefing an agency to create advertising, you should have developed and agreed the copy strategy with your internal stakeholders. It should form an integral part of the creative brief.

How to use the copy strategy

There are three key elements to the copy strategy:

1. A consumer benefit

2. A reason to believe

3. A brand character

What is a benefit?

A promise to the consumer of what they will get, and answers the question, “What’s in it for me?”.

There are two types of benefit:

1. Emotional – majority of adverts currently focus on emotional benefits. Conveys a benefits such as “I will feel good about myself”, “I will be happy” or “I will be fulfilled”

2. Rational – very tangible benefit such as “it will take me less time to creosote my fence” or “I won’t smell”

What is a reason to believe?

The justification of the benefit, the Reason to Believe (RTB) gives the consumer the confidence to accept that there is something in it for them

What is the brand character?

The personality that we want to create for the brand, which we believe will be engaging for the target audience.

Other important attributes to be aware of are:

 -  Engagingness with target consumers

 -  Relevance to target consumers (casting, style, format)

 - Tone of advert, media placement etc

 - Brand focus – how well have you got the product and brand name into the ad. Will someone remember what it is for afterwards?

Costs and Benefits of having a copy strategy

Very simply, if you do not have a copy strategy (formally or informally), your advertising will be sub-standard and it is unlikely you will get a return on the investment you put into it. It costs you nothing apart from some thought.