Creative strategy techniques from HexClad, Lucyd, and Omnia 1 Analytics

Over the last few years, the creative strategist has gone from a role that very few people knew about, to the fastest-growing job in performance marketing. 

Changes in consumer privacy and the integration of AI in ad algorithms have ended two decades of targeting-based growth.

And now, creative is the most important lever in paid marketing. 

But creativity alone doesn’t cut it. To succeed with creative you still need the rigour of an analyst and the sensibility of a designer.

You need a creative strategist.

Our latest report features six top Creative Strategists who have shipped ads for brands like HexClad, True Classic, Noom, Dollar Shave Club, Bandier, and Hims & Hers (just to name a few).

You can read the full report right >>here<< 

Or, if you’re in the mood to skim, here’s what you should know:

• Don’t sell features. Sell emotions 💗
• Build a rapid trends response system 💃
• Grant autonomy but make sure it comes with accountability 🤝

Don’t sell features. Sell emotions 💗

People don’t buy features — they buy emotions 

That’s the philosophy at luxury cookware brand Hexclad, where Joanna Wallace and her team have been diligently working to nail emotional messaging.

“Deep and detailed research packets — that’s where we start,” says Joanna. “Your creative teams need to put in the time to understand the product and the customer as something, or someone, tangible.”

Creative teams can be far removed from the people that their copy or design is actually supposed to reach — which can impact the quality of your ads. 

Most of the time creative briefs will come with a bland bulleted list of product features — sometimes it’s a list of features that compares a product to a competitor — if it's “good.” 

But features don’t give your creative team any insight into who they are writing for, or why they would actually buy something. 

Your brief should focus on clear consumer benefits. 

“People don’t buy pans because they have heat-proof handles, they buy them because they don’t want their kids to get burnt,” says Joanna. “It doesn’t matter if a pan is lightweight — It matters that your grandma who loves to cook can pick it up.” 

Your creative needs to be clear about who your customer is and why they would buy from you.  That’s the real key to sales. 

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Broaden your testing beyond iterations ⚖️

Before Silicon Valley allowed us to measure ROAS, CTR, and CPC — Madison Avenue advertisers had to be more creative about their testing methods to find out what was working.

Kyle Goldman and his team at Omnia1 Analytics take a lesson from the past and use location testing to measure overall performance.

"As we're spending more on TikTok, we’ll look to see what's happening to our overall business in the regions we're reaching. We look at how our test locations did compared to holdout locations. Along with purchase rate before, during, and after targeting ramped up."

A measurable bump in traffic from a certain demographic or region compared to another is a good leading indicator that your ad strategy is working.

Go beyond the obvious A/B testing to consider how your ads are boosting the bottom line.

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Grant autonomy — but also accountability 🤝

Creative strategists are inherently generalists — they’re people who understand that effective advertising is both an art and a science. 

But they often–either through direct or indirect management–are responsible for the output of people who are highly specialized. 

Instilling generalist skills into a team of specialists is critical for creative strategists like Yash Thapar, who works with some of biggest advertisers in North America.

“It's really important for your team to have a strong foundation in marketing,” says Yash. “You can’t just be a media buyer or a designer—you have to think holistically.” 

Creatives who understand the details of a business problem but can also think creatively are invaluable, according to Yash. 

“I look for creatives who understand both the technical and strategic side of creative production,” he says. “They should be able to handle execution while also contributing to higher-level strategic ideas like how best to position a product or brand.” 

How does he encourage this skill-building? With autonomy, but also with more accountability. “Give your creative team the autonomy to iterate on ideas, but make sure they own the results,” says Yash. 

Being accountable for performance encourages creatives to think beyond just execution and consider how their work contributes to the bottom line.  

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There’s more where that came from… 

If you found this interesting, our latest report has much more from Joanna, Josh, Yash and other elite creative strategists on the state of creative strategy as a career.

Discover what’s behind the role’s unprecedented growth over the last few years and get a rare look at how creative strategy is pushing the best DTC brands to new levels of creative performance. 

You can find the full report right >>here<<