Speaker 1: What is communication strategy? Let me highlight the difference between a communication strategy and a creative strategy with an example from Campbell Soup. I had this as a common request in the strategy finishing school of strategists wanting me to define the difference between a brand strategist and a comp strategist. I ended up making a full free guide on that, there's a link to that in the comments. However, a new request has been on defining the difference between a communication strategist and a creative strategist. So I thought I would make this video about that. Communication strategy, which is also known as communications planning, is often mistaken with creative strategy. They appear to be very similar because communication strategy often includes creative strategy elements. Creative strategy involves planning, orchestrating, and briefing tactics, but this is only the second part of a comp strategy. A comp strategy is like the bridge between brand strategy and creative strategy. It brings the two sides together by giving the brand and creative idea rigor by focusing on the consumer instead of just the idea. Creative strategy is the how and where planning around the idea by choosing the platform and execution. Whereas comp strategy firstly defines what is said, when it's said, and why it's said. And secondly, incorporates the creative strategy and the how and where it's said. In insurance terms, communication strategy is fully comprehensive. It guarantees that the idea, the message is effective with our target audience by addressing our customer's problems with brand solutions. It's your recipe to showcase the big idea. Com strategy is the ingredient and the method, whereas creative strategy is just the method. What is needed for a comp strategy? In the strategy finishing school, I've created a guide on the four key outputs to developing a comp strategy. The consumer journey, the comps framework, the campaign blueprint, and the campaign ecosystem. Let's use an example to show how comp strategy is your insurance when it comes to the big idea. I'm going to show you a hypothetical example with Campbell's Dinner Insurance that protects first-time cooks from first-time fails.

Speaker 2: We are preparing a classic Thanksgiving dinner.

Speaker 3: They're going to have that dinner a little differently this year. Travel restrictions are making people adjust meal plans.

Speaker 4: They can't just make grandma do all the cooking.

Speaker 2: What a minor situation. What's so funny? So, you have insurance on your house or car, right? But what about your holidays? Well, now New Yorkers can actually buy Thanksgiving dinner insurance.

Speaker 3: Campbell's is offering dinner insurance.

Speaker 5: If a recipe does not turn out as expected, just submit a picture of the dish between noon and 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and Campbell's will send over a ready-to-eat gourmet replacement.

Speaker 3: If a side dish turns out foul, you can file a claim and get a replacement side dish delivered to you. Thank you so much. Love that. Thank you. You're hosting Thanksgiving for the first time.

Speaker 4: You're hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever, and you're concerned about how everything will come out. You could get a helping hand from Campbell Soup. I'm very curious to see how Campbell's is helping out here.

Speaker 5: I know, right? I'm signing up immediately. Yes.

Speaker 6: I have a claim on file right now. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh, absolutely. You're welcome. Yeah. Enjoy. You guys have a great Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: Let's use this campaign to break down the stages of a com strategy. The consumer journey. Using research, we map out the consumer touch points. We use this to find consumer insights at relevant stages of the consideration, decision, and purchasing journey. Therefore, we want to learn where and how our consumers engage with the category. We want to understand what their pain points are and how the brand can address and support them at each of those pain points. We also identify the barriers to choosing the brand and category. The four basic stages we are looking at is the living stage, the needing and wanting stage, the looking and using. In the strategy finishing school, I have a video that teaches you how to run a consumer journey workshop and a template of all the questions you need to ask. When we look at the Campbell's example in the living stage, we see that due to COVID-19, everyone's life has been turned around. People are dealing with a lot and living under new restricted conditions. With Thanksgiving coming around the corner, a traditional family setting just wasn't going to happen. Many people would be celebrating Thanksgiving in their own home without all their family. As people are going about their everyday lives, this is the opportunity for Campbell's to help people with a lot on their plate. In the needing stage, we find that a significant proportion of people would be cooking Thanksgiving for the first time, adding even more stress to an already stressful time in people's lives by not wanting to fail at one of the very few moments people can celebrate as a family. Campbell's has the opportunity to help people by creating simple yet tasty recipes. Moving into the looking stage, we understand that these first-time cooks want inspiration. They want simple but tasty food that the family can enjoy. Campbell's has the opportunity to help people by now sharing the simple and tasty recipes they have created. At the buying stage, we look to understand what influences people at purchase. In this instance, research demonstrates that online grocery shopping allows people to get the items they need rather than a limited shop at their local grocery store. Campbell's has the opportunity to make their recipes a reality by partnering with a D2C grocery app partner. Finally, the usage stage, we target at how our key audience would use the product. This ensures we are creating campaigns based on their usage behaviors. With Campbell's research, we realize that most people dislike traditional Thanksgiving meals. This means Campbell's has the opportunity to develop recipes that people will actually want and that will convert into better sales. The comms framework is one of the three essential documents that I teach in the strategy fundamentals chapter of the strategy finishing school. A lot of strategists are never taught how to properly do this. A quick overview of it is that using research and barriers identified, we can now develop our comms framework. We address these barriers using comms tasks and solutions. Finally, we address these with media touch points. The comms framework typically has three to five phases when engaging with your audience. For budget efficiencies and to maximize effectiveness, I try to stick to three phases. These three phases are consumer-centric and are living, looking and buying. In the Campbell's example, our objective is to increase sales by showing and communicating product versatility. The strategy is to protect first-time cooks from first-time fails. In the living stage, we see that first-time cooks are stressing about their first-time fails. Campbell's needs to offer cover as people have enough on their plate. For media, partnership with Instacart means we can send a CRM to an already aware target audience. To amplify the reach of the campaign, Campbell's uses PR, news media, social teasers and a celebrity chef. In the looking stage, we see that people are looking for a safe bet, easy recipe. Campbell's can guarantee this with the no-fail tasty recipes. The living stage then drives people to the campaign recipe hub where people can sign up for the insurance. To drive further awareness where people want inspiration, Campbell's uses Instagram to share recipes and engage the targeted audience with interactive polls. This ladders up to the main event by getting people to file for a claim for their first-time fails with UGC. Campbell's verifies their claim and case and sends a replacement dinner to save the occasion. Finally, in the buying stage, we see that throughout the campaign, the availability of products during the pandemic means a restricted Thanksgiving menu. Campbell's partnering with a D2C grocery app means fail-safe orders. To convert customers, they offer a discount on the first-time order to incentivize a pre-trial of the service. They further incentivize purchase with a discount on brand products over a certain order value. You can see a detailed breakdown of the comms framework process on my YouTube channel with my example for Chase Inc. The Ripple Effect. The campaign ecosystem is your how-to illustration guide to the creative idea that plots and maps out all the key channels, stages, and creative executions of the campaign. Depending on their strategy, it can be brand or consumer-focused, it can be linear or non-linear in its approach. Again, these approaches are dependent on the strategy, phases, and roles of each channel and desired outcome from them. With Campbell's, we see two critical streams to drive people to the website. From PR and social to drive search and CRM initiatives with their partner, Instacart. Landing on the campaign page where people can ensure their Thanksgiving meal while looking at fail-safe recipes. Then on Thanksgiving day, people upload their failed recipes for acclaim, finally receiving their dinner insurance to save the Thanksgiving occasion. The campaign ecosystem is your one page that illustrates the campaign flow and how all the creative executions seamlessly come together. I recommend to all the members in the strategy finishing school that they have a deck full of ecosystem examples. I share with them my framework factory, which has over 50 examples of frameworks they can use so they never start with a blank piece of paper. The campaign blueprint is your insurance to sell in more integrated work. It takes all the stages and showcases how the campaign rolls out. The campaign blueprint highlights critical moments for amplification with a focus on media approach. It's your idea and comms recipe for success by landing all parties on timings and budget. Typically, the campaign blueprint includes a production budget for each tactic, but as this is a hypothetical example, it's not included on this occasion. However, you can learn more about the importance of this for your clients and team in the strategy finishing school. These are the perfect ingredients to justify the budget with your client. The Campbell's dinner insurance campaign shows the critical time when people are planning meals while focusing on Thanksgiving. We can see how and when all the tactics within each stage are seamlessly rolled out to drive amplification. Let's recap. Comms strategy includes creative strategy. It brings brand strategy and creative strategy together. It gives the strategy and creative idea rigor by focusing on the consumer, not just the idea. Where creative strategy focuses on the how and where, a comms strategy focuses on the what, when, and why. The four key outputs are the consumer journey, comms framework, campaign ecosystem, and campaign blueprint. Within the strategy finishing school, there is a comms planning module. It takes you from the basics to the intermediate to the advanced. Some of the lessons include comms planning examples for RxBar, Spotify, Seamless, PlayStation, Bacardi, and more. It shows you how to build a robust consumer journey, how to articulate an idea, how to develop a campaign ecosystem, and how to storify your ideas. Finally, it also gives you access to the framework factory, your comms playbook with over 50 ready-made frameworks to save you time, articulate your idea, and win you more work. Let me know if you have any questions or any recommendations on other brands that you would like to see next. Thanks to strategy finishing school member Matt Osborne for helping to create this video.