Over the coming weeks and months I want to talk about some of the challenges that we, as advertisers, face on a regular basis. My goal for today was to talk about our creative brief process and how it ties back to the final execution. I was going to go into all the gritty details of how we approach the challenge and strategy, target audience, client collaboration, etc… I will come back to this at another time. For today, I want to look at a concept that perfectly ties strategy into execution.
Before we get started on a project, we have to define the problem so we can better understand WHY we’re doing something. Let’s look at the problem we need to solve. How do you advertise child abuse services to warn the aggressor and offer assistance to the child? Next we need to understand who we’re talking to and what we what them to do. The most important message to convey needs to be directed to the child. The child needs to know that they are not alone and that help is available. The last thing to examine is the strategy behind this. More often than not, the child’s aggressor is a parent or guardian and at the time they are exposed to the ad, they will be together.
This is the challenge faced by a Spanish organization called Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation and Grey Spain. Personally and professionally, their solution was brilliant. Rather than choosing to talk to the child OR the parent, they addressed both without either knowing. The creative featured two versions, one for each audience, layered on top of each other with a lenticular top layer that allowed viewers to see a particular message based on their height. Adults were served an awareness ad with the message “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” By adding the lenticular, viewers 4’4″ or shorter – roughly 10 years old or younger – are served a much different visual with a much different message, “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” accompanied by the phone number. The creative is aptly named “Only For Children“.
This is a prime example of what happens when all the pieces come together. Challenge. Strategy. Message. Target Audience. Problem solved.
