9.2: Overview of a pro-social advertising campaign strategy

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Makin' dreams come true. (Unsplash free-to-use license; Peter Fogden)

Focusing on positive social outcomes

Numerous conceptual frameworks and models exist to provide examples for how to run successful advertising campaigns. This section focuses primarily on the social marketing model. This framework describes how to design information campaigns that focus on improving social welfare. First and foremost, this model is used for health and environmental campaigns; however, as Atkin and Rice¹ state, it is appropriate to apply the social marketing model to consumer advertising campaigns because they share similarities with health and environmental campaigns. 

Some examples of social welfare campaigns include smoking cessation campaigns, anti-littering and anti-pollution efforts, and vaccine campaigns, which have been conducted since at least the early 1800's.

The essential steps in the social marketing campaign model are consistent with many other strategic communication models.

In a symbiotic manner, applying a social welfare model to a consumer advertising campaign can reinforce positive social behaviors while, at the same time, serving marketing objectives.

The difference between more standard consumer advertising campaigns and social welfare campaigns is the primary goal. Consumer advertising campaigns aim to sell a product or service to a mass audience while social welfare campaigns aim to influence large group behavior in pro-social ways. Although not all advertising campaigns include reference to or concern for social welfare, appeals to social welfare can be successful at helping to influence consumer choice.

The social marketing campaign model identifies five steps in a campaign process: planning, theory, communication analysis, implementation, and evaluation.

In the planning stage, advertisers establish message goals. This is a critical step as it informs both strategy and tactics. In the strategizing stage, advertising account managers, planners, and creatives, including, of course, copywriters, pose the following questions to the team: 

• What kind of response do we want from the audience?  

• How do we want them to feel?  

• What do we want them to do? 

• How does this product or service address a problem or challenge in their lives? 

In the theory step, advertisers try to determine the best way to achieve the campaign objectives. Perloff² writes about the theory stage as an idea generation phase where broad strategies, specific appeals and potential pivots are all identified. This step is also when advertisers complete a creative brief that further outlines the strategy. The next section covers creative briefs.

There are two main strategic categories: product-oriented and consumer-oriented. 

Product-oriented strategy 

Definition: Product-oriented strategy

Product-oriented strategy focuses on highlighting specific benefits related to the product or service.

One example is commercials for paper towels that compare the product’s specific features, such as absorbency and strength, to those of competitors. These commercials often show side-by-side shots of people using the featured brand and the competing brand, with the featured brand as the better option. 

Other product-oriented strategies may focus on something that can be found only at a particular company or under a specific brand. McDonald’s occasionally uses this strategy in its advertisements, reminding viewers that they can purchase America’s favorite french fries only at its restaurants.  

Consumer-oriented strategy 

Definition: Consumer-oriented strategy

The consumer-oriented strategy connects the audience’s daily experiences and lifestyle with the advertised product or service.

Advertisers frequently use this strategy for branding purposes, that is to define a brand rather than to sell a certain product. The idea is to associate the company with a particular lifestyle, personality, or characteristic that the audience identifies with or aspires to. Car companies often use consumer-oriented strategies. Rather than focusing on the specific features of the car, consumer-oriented commercials might simply show an attractive person driving along a winding road. 

The luxury motor company Lincoln used this strategy in a campaign starting in 2014. The commercials featured actor Matthew McConaughey simply talking and driving a Lincoln MKC. There is little mention of product features. However, the campaign associates McConaughey’s wealth, talent, confidence, and attractive physical features with the car. In doing so, the ads help to shape Lincoln’s brand identity.  

These basic strategies may be combined. Many ad campaigns strike a balance between presenting product-oriented facts and consumer-oriented feelings. Social marketing campaigns are particularly adept at combining the positive, practical outcomes of a behavior or a set of behaviors with positive feelings, more in line with the consumer-oriented approach. 

For example, ads that encourage consumers to reduce pollution by purchasing products that use fewer fossil fuels or that encourage consumers to cut down on waste by purchasing products that use less packaging are making product-oriented appeals, but they may also highlight the positive feelings that come along with caring about the planet and its future, which are considered pro-social consumer-oriented appeals.

Advertising essentially involves persuading people to act or feel a certain way about the message topic. Incorporating several ideas and strategies may increase the odds of accomplishing the goal.  

The third step in the social marketing model is communication analysis. Here, advertisers conduct market research and audience analysis to test core campaign ideas. This step helps advertisers refine their strategies. 

For example, if you are designing a campaign to convince a target audience to try local cuisine, you want to examine perceptions of the food prior to launching the campaign. You can do this through focus groups or audience surveys. For a copywriter, it makes a world of difference in such a campaign if the target audience already has a positive perception of the local restaurant scene. The tone and content of advertisements reminding people about the popularity of local restaurants should be quite different from ads directed at an audience that does not trust local eateries.

Audience research for the sake of refining a communication strategy cannot be taken lightly. Opinions change. Think about a brand that saw its popularity drastically drop or rapidly rise in recent memory. Campaigns that ignore audience perceptions may fail to connect or may have a negative impact on brand perception and sales. For example, in 2017, Pepsi ran an ad with model Kendall Jenner in which she joins a Black Lives Matter protest, but rather than protesting police brutality, she hands an actor playing a police officer a can of Pepsi. Critics argued that Pepsi was clumsily and superficially attempting to capitalize on issues and expressions of grave importance. Pepsi, many argued, made an appeal to unity through commercialism that largely missed the tone and attitude of the nation in support of the protests at that time. Though referencing social movements had worked for Coca-Cola in the past (also referenced in the article linked in the previous sentence), this particular appeal was not well received. Pepsi pulled it within 24 hours. 

The next step in the social marketing campaign model involves implementing the campaign. This is done by carefully considering the four P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion.

• Product - You must know the product you are attempting to sell. In a social marketing campaign, this means you also must have data to support any claims you are making about positive social impacts.
• Price - You must understand how the product or service will be packaged and priced. Miscommunication about available package deals or about certain features being available at certain price points can frustrate consumers. In some campaigns, price is a major selling point.
• Place - You must strategize about where and when ads will run while also thinking about the physical or digital location of the products and services being marketed. If the goal is to connect consumers to products and services, you need to know where each are positioned in order to best make that connection. This includes the concept of advertising placement. Although the media department in an advertising agency is ultimately responsible for making sure ads are placed where and when they are supposed to run, strategizing about placement is a group effort. Copywriters who fail to understand where, when and in what context an ad will be placed run the risk of confusing or alienating audiences. Not all contingencies for ad placement can be planned for, but writers should know, at the very least, what audience they are targeting, what type of media platform they are writing for — such as social media, print media, broadcast, etc. — and the context of the related content — such as the types of shows or clips that are likely to run adjacent to your video ad, and the physical location of a billboard. 
• Promotion - In the broader marketing sense, promotion encompasses all of advertising as well as PR efforts to maintain the brand's image. Thinking about promotion when working on an ad campaign means thinking about the past, present and future of the product or service in the context of the brand that is attached to it.

The last step in the social marketing model is evaluation.

Definition: Evaluation

In the context of an advertising campaign, evaluation refers to tracking the success of the campaign itself. This is often done in terms of both reach (How large of an audience did you deliver the ad to?) and engagement (How many signs of connection with the ad did the audience indicate?)

For a social marketing campaign, this means tracking audience opinion about the pro-social message as well as any impacts on brand perception, sales, or other metrics specific to the product. Evaluation provides an opportunity for campaign designers to see how well their efforts succeeded in reaching targeted goals. Media campaign goals are often set in terms of key performance indicators or KPI.

Definition: KPI

Key performance indicators are the goals for a media campaign established in the context of the platform on which the ad appears. For example, goals on YouTube might include the base number of views or impressions but also the number of times viewers watched for at least 10 seconds and/or the number of times they clicked through the ad to learn more about the product or service. KPIs may also measure how often viewers elected to skip the ad.

• It is expected that clickthrough rates (CTR), or the number of times a viewer clicks on an ad to find out more about a product or service, will be relatively low. After all, a clickthrough means someone is leaving the media they intended to watch, listen to, or read to find out more about the product or service you are trying to market, but variance within that small number is still important to brands. Brands will likely also evaluate sales before and after the launch of the campaign, allowing some time for the campaign to take effect. They may tabulate statistics beyond media impressions, CTR, and conversion rate, such as average view duration of video ads after “Skip Ad” appears on screen. They may track audience attendance at events and/or conduct focus groups to learn not just what ads people prefer to spend more time with or to click through but also to learn why.

• Successful evaluation empowers brands and their partner agencies to refine their strategies for future planning, theory, communication analysis, and implementation. A successful social campaign will also measure consumer attitudes, intent to alter behavior, and behavioral shifts as they relate to the pro-social messaging aspects of the campaign. Ideally, consumers who make positive changes in their own lives associate those changes with the brand, product, or service that encouraged or empowered them to make the change. Of course, communication strategizing is easier said than done. The next section addresses how to outline a detailed advertising plan.

1. Atkin, C.K. & Rice, R.E. (2012). Advertising creative: Strategy, copy, and design. Sage Publications.

2. Perloff, R.M. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century. Routledge.