Convergence, contradiction and collaboration: Case studies on developing creative strategies for digital components of integrated campaigns

This chapter explores the profound impact of the digital revolution on the advertising business. Specifically, it looks at how advertisers and their agencies are changing the ways they plan media, create advertising ideas, and integrate their campaigns using digital and traditional media. Three key themes are explored: 1) the critical importance of context, which challenges advertisers to fundamentally re-evaluate the relationship between media placement and messaging; 2) the challenge of fragmentation to goals of integration: in the digital scenario, the ability to manage complexity has become a key competitive advantage; 3) the need for a new process to ensure the creative development process is in tune with context and focused on simplicity: this process is called the contextual creative brief. A number of case studies are provided of advertising campaigns that have pioneered in these areas. They are: Mitsubishi's "Which Car?" campaign, Lexus' "Mosaic" campaign, Toyota's "Best in Jest" and "Sketchies" campaigns, Ambien CR's "Points of Stress" campaign, and the Simpsons Movie launch campaign.