A Creative Campaign Masterclass – with Mark Perkins

Mark Perkins is a campaign heavyweight; he’s the creative force behind countless successful and famous initiatives. They all have a few things in common: real impact, audience oriented, and surprisingly subtle. From 00s reality TV to blood donation. From Christmas dinner in a tin to helping find missing persons – the latest instalment of PR in the Real World covers some ground. If you want the secret sauce to generate truly impactful initiatives, don’t miss this one. Tune in to find out how to maximise creativity, create intrigue and why Neil Warnock makes a good anger management coach…

Forget about the Brief

Instead of a helpful roadmap, briefs can often feel like they box in a campaign. You might have a zinger of an idea that reaches the right audience, but it’s not on brief. At the end of the day the client cares about the destination, not how you got there. Don’t feel like you have to stick to the brief or communicate everything on the client’s terms, your target audience isn’t interested.

Find what they care about, how you will cut through to them and where your messaging will be. Given an impossible brief? Challenge it. A boring one? Ignore it. Crucially, make sure you do this early and readjust the client’s expectations of what to expect.

Whisper – Don’t Shout

The best campaigns aren’t loud. The best ones create intrigue, pique curiosity and leave the audience wanting more. A home truth PR and marketing professionals sometimes forget: people don’t like being marketed to. A shouty initiative that hammers the same messaging turns people off from your brand. The goal isn’t to tell the audience everything about your brand, it’s to inspire questions about it. Campaigns that understand this spread organically and get real results.

Cultivating Creativity

Some people are a whirlpool of creativity, others are data driven, fact orientated and analytical. There’s no changing that right? In truth, thinking creativity is a gift and not something that can be worked on is a glaring misconception. Building your creativity is like building any other skill: put in the hours and see how the pros do it. This doesn’t mean be derivative, rather see what good looks like. Put the miles in and develop your creative reflexes and your campaigns will always benefit.