Demystifying this enigmatic job title.
"Creative strategist" (and by extension, "creative strategy") is a slippery term that can mean different things in different situations, to different people and in different businesses.
However, "creative strategist" generally describes a role that brings insight and creative together.
To illustrate what this means, let's look at how a creative strategist might get involved with the development of a seasonal campaign.
Creative strategy within a seasonal campaign
Before there can be a campaign, there needs to be a big idea. And before there can be a big idea, there needs to be data. In my experience, a creative strategist is the person who takes data and turns this into the big idea behind a campaign. To bring this to life, let's see what this means as we take a practical example step-by-step.
Fashion brand ClothingCo needs to develop a new campaign concept for the next AW season. ClothingCo is an established, mid-price point name on the high street, and they're looking to change customer perceptions to appeal to younger shoppers.
With this brand strategy in mind, a creative strategist would start with research. They'd use the data available to dig into questions like, "Who is the customer we're trying to target?", "What resonates with them?", "What are our competitors doing?", "What's happening in the market?" and "What trends are relevant to this project?". They'll look at customer profiles and personas, market research, competitor comms, brand positioning and market trends. They'll try and uncover gaps in the market, customer needs that aren't being addressed or new angles on established messages.
Once they've understood their market and the customer they're targeting, they'll use these insights to find a big idea. But, what do we mean by a big idea?
A big idea is the thought that everything else hangs from. In our example it might be:
Sustainability
Self-confidence
Championing emerging designers
Or something more abstract:
Dreams of the fantastical
The beauty of imperfection
Digital meets heritage
Whatever the idea, it's more than just a phrase or a tagline. It's a "positioning" or "territory" that informs all the communications, images, design and colour palettes for the campaign.
A creative strategist might bring one (or more) of these territories to life with mood boards and ideas for activations across channels like social media, visual merchandising or emails. They might also create a comms hierarchy to explain the key messages and when they should be used.
They take a cross-functional view to ensure everything from tone of voice to experiences ladders up to the big idea. There's no point in having a great idea for visual merchandising that promotes self-confidence if the rest of the communications promote sustainability.
Once this territory is agreed, it will be handed over to creative and marketing teams who will design and write the customer-facing comms and implement the campaign activations.
What else counts as creative strategy?
Finding the right big idea for a seasonal campaign is just one way a creative strategist can get involved with a brand. They can also help you:
Develop your brand story by:
Defining your brand's unique proposition
Crafting a compelling narrative to position your brand and connect with customers
Ensuring messaging is consistent across all channels
Identify opportunities and trends in your market by:
Spotting emerging trends and tapping into new market segments
Analysing cultural shifts to keep brands relevant
Finding competitor gaps
Identifying new ways to position existing products and services
Improve customer experience by:
Optimising customer touch points across the complete buying journey
Reducing pain points and creating shareable experiences
Bringing teams together to problem-solve
Generating new product or service ideas
Create a complete content strategy by:
Developing content frameworks
Ensuring creative content aligns with broader business objectives
Improving content to drive engagement and conversion
Finding a "sticky" hook for key communications
Get buy-in from stakeholders by:
Presenting creative concepts effectively
Explaining the business value of creative ideas
Summary: what does a creative strategist do?
Put simply, a creative strategist can help you turn your research into big ideas. Creative strategy is about finding the sweet spot where great creative meets both the business and customer need.
Working with a creative strategist can help elevate your business, identify untapped opportunities and set your brand apart from competitors. As they bridge creativity and commerce with a unique blend of strategic thinking and creative problem-solving, they can unlock better customer experiences, stronger market positions and innovative ideas, strategies and ways of working.
If you need help with creative strategy, I can help with that. Get in touch to chat about your project.