Reading: 04 + 05

This chapter describes the differences between one shots and campaigns.  If something is a one shot it is a singular idea that cannot be stretched into other executions in order to constitute a campaign.  This doesn’t mean one shots are worthless.  If they are profound and memorable enough the effect may last years (such as the 1984 Apple commercial). 

            A campaign is an idea that can be used to create three or more executions of the idea.  A campaign that stops after three ideas is a small campaign and one that can be easily turned into numerous executions is a large campaign.  Of course, when you’re making your campaign you have to make sure that you’re not spreading the idea too thin and if it is really easy to expand upon, it might be too easy an idea and people will get bored.

            The teaser campaign is a very interesting approach but difficult to execute.  It is used to draw interest to the client without revealing them to the audience all at one time.  You reveal the idea part by part until the “big reveal” where the client or product is announced to the public.  You can’t drag it out for too long though or else the audience will lose interest.

            The tagline is very important to a campaign.  It harnesses the entire meaning that you are going for in one sentence and you use that to stay on track.  That doesn’t mean that the tagline always has to be seen, but you do have to stick to your idea (this is called the invisible tagline).  There are four other types of taglines; summation (sums up), explanation (explains), proposition (proposes the ad’s idea), and brand or umbrella.  The brand tagline is really more of a general brand explanation than a working tagline.  They tend to be longer and address things across the board. 

            When creating it is good to have an idea, campaign, and a working tagline that you can throw in and out of the process whenever you see fit in order to come up with an ad that suits the product.  Once you think you know what you’re doing it is good to polish up the tagline and make sure it says what you want it to say as simply as possible.  This is called the final tagline.  There are a whole slue of tagline type that I hadn’t even thought about (such as the “yeah…” tagline or the period between every word) but now that I know they exist I realize that I see them all over the place.