Campaign Analysis

Objectives

The subject has a clear mission: to ensure that students understand, in depth, what lies behind advertising campaigns. Why they are carried out, who they are aimed at, what they pursue, with what objective, what techniques they use, what they should communicate and how they seduce and convince the target audience they are aimed at.

Based on this knowledge, an exhaustive learning process is carried out on how to “dissect” an advertising campaign from the reverse model, from the positioning and from the brand strategy, to the analysis of the 21 elements (denotative and connotative) that make up its internal structure.

All this knowledge allows the student to understand how advertising campaigns really work, so that he or she can approach any briefing with the professional level and rigor that advertisers demand. This learning must be applied in the resolution of a case study (based on a real brief ) and design a successful campaign.

Recommended subject for: students who want to develop a career in the field of advertising (as planners or creatives) and marketing (in advertiser's marketing and communication departments or in ATL and BTL agencies) or as specialist communication and branding consultants.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the advertising theories, processes, structures and techniques that give rise to the functions of the different departments of an advertising agency, creative boutique, consultancy or media center in conventional, virtual and emerging environments.
• Identify the principles and concepts that allow companies and institutions to project, develop, implement and evaluate a marketing plan for an organization, a brand or a product.
• Transmit information, ideas, problems and solutions appropriately and in accordance with academic standards, orally, in writing and audiovisually, to both specialized and non-specialized audiences, being respectful of linguistic diversity and diverse social, cultural, gender and economic realities.
• To project the values of entrepreneurship and innovation in the exercise of the personal academic and professional career in contact with different realities of practice and with motivation towards professional development.
• Apply different conventional and non-conventional advertising communication techniques to convey the message with the highest level of effectiveness, built under the parameters of creativity and innovation in a context that respects linguistic diversity and diverse social, cultural, gender and economic realities.
• Operate in different computer and digital environments (multidisciplinary and complex) linked to the communication disciplines in all their written, visual and audiovisual dimensions (in one's own language and in foreign languages) in addition to those that facilitate new targets in face-to-face, virtual and emerging environments, with a high degree of correctness in use, form and content.

Content

Block 1

1. The briefing
   • Definition of briefing
   • Interpretation of the client's briefing based on the analysis (content and form)
   • Types of briefing
   • Brief writing: from the client brief to the creative brief
2. Branding - brand audit
   • What is a brand
   • Types of brand
   • Brand audit and positioning
   • Types of brand positioning
   • Creating a brand's “territory”
3. Strategies applied in ATL campaigns
   • Evolution of strategic trends
   • Strategy concept
   • Types of applied strategies (competitive strategies and development strategies)
   • Strategic platforms
4. Analysis of advertising communication (campaign)
   • Definition of advertising campaign
   • Basic objectives of an advertising campaign
   • Models and types of advertising campaigns
   • Applied strategies
   • Campaign analysis: inverse model and 21-element model (denotative and connotative)

Block 2. Carrying out an advertising campaign* based on the case study in Block 1

1. Methodology for the development of the plan
   1. How to carry out the plan
   2. Previous actions
      1. Executive summary
      2. Situation analysis
      3. Pre-phases of the plan
         • Basic questions at each stage
         • Determining the variables to be analyzed
         • Analysis of environments (macro and micro)
         • Competitive scenario analysis
         • Communication analysis
         • Primary and secondary sources of information
         • Diagnosis: SWOT analysis
2. Defining business objectives
   1. What are the objectives?
   2. Characteristics of the objectives
   3. Adjustments to objectives
   4. Structure of objectives
3. Defining target audiences
   1. Definition of areas of action
   2. Map of audiences
   3. Definition of internal and external audiences (typological map)
4. Strategy and creative concept
   1. Identifying the strategy to follow
   2. Development of the creative proposal
      • Layout
      • Storyboard
5. Phase and action planning
6. Annual plan, evaluation and budget
7. Presentation of the campaign

*A media plan would not be included (to facilitate the concentration of effort on knowing how to professionally develop a campaign).

Evaluation

The course syllabus document, which is available to students on campus, details the assessment percentages applied to each test and/or project to be completed in each block (as well as the regulations governing the course based on the credits assigned in the corresponding degree).

• Block 1: the grade for this section represents 50% of the total for the subject.
• Block 2: the grade for this section represents 50% of the total for the subject.

Methodology

The methodology of the classes has a double aspect (applied in both blocks):

1. Theoretical: it is mandatory to acquire theoretical knowledge about branding and brand positioning ( brand audit ), construction of the briefing , structure and types of campaign, strategic advertising communication techniques, structure and analysis of campaigns ( campaign audit ).
2. Practice: solve a brand communication problem and generate a successful ATL advertising campaign. To do this, different practices and a project are carried out throughout the four-month period.

To achieve the objectives of the subject, a highly pragmatic work methodology has been designed, similar to the “in training in job simulation” system.

From the start, the student works as if he or she were actually involved in a “simulated real project”. He or she simulates professional work for a client, starting with the implantation of an agency in a large advertiser, performing a whole series of functions that allow him or her to analyse, obtain results, make strategic decisions, create, manage, develop and propose successful communication solutions to an advertiser.

This represents a great qualitative leap in experience in the degree, which can be used immediately in the TFG (Final Degree Project) or in working life.

Bibliography

Key references

• Cuesta, Ubaldo. (2012). Planificación estratégica y creatividad. ESIC Editorial.
• García Uceda, Mariola (2011). Las claves de la publicidad. ESIC Editorial.
• Ries, A. y Trout, R. (2002). Posicionamiento: La batalla por su mente (2 ed.). McGraw-Hill Interamericana.
• Wilensky, Alberto L. (2003). La promesa de la marca. Temas Grupo Editorial.