5 Must-Ask Questions for Starting a Creative Ad Campaign

Starting an ad campaign is daunting, we get it! You’re usually not an expert in your client’s industry and you’re trying to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can so you can stick to the timeline. That’s why we start every campaign with an in depth kickoff call with the client. The purpose? Utilizing the amazing resource you have in your client. They hold invaluable insights into their industry's nuances, challenges, and market dynamics. Here are five of our favorite questions to ask clients to prompt deep thinking and help you get answers that will actually fuel your campaign.

How should people feel when they interact with your brand?

Really, this is a more unique way of asking “What should the tone of this campaign be?” We like this phrasing because it gets to the root of what we want clients to be thinking about. The tone of the campaign should come from how a client wants their brand to resonate with viewers. Once you uncover that deeper emotional reaction they want their brand to evoke, you can help guide your client to what the tone of the campaign should be. Brand interaction sentiment and campaign tone have to be living in harmony to make a cohesive campaign, so try digging deeper rather than just asking what the tone of the campaign should be!

What's your differentiation?

We love asking clients this question because this helps us discover key points to help tailor the campaign messaging. Your client may have 10 things in common with other companies that offer a similar service. Highlighting what makes them unique is what will help reach that target audience and connect them with the right customers.

What should be the top three takeaways of this campaign?

We’ve all had that client that wants to explain 10 minutes worth of stuff in a 30 second video. It’s our job to help our clients identify their priority messages and make sure that we’re not packing too much into a piece of media. And, when you come across a client like that, there’s usually a lot of points that aren’t necessary to the campaign, they’re just having trouble identifying what is truly important and effective messaging for their audience. We’ll even take this question a step further and ask them what the one takeaway of the campaign should be. Asking this question will help your client look at the bigger picture and not get stuck in the weeds on details that may not resonate with their audience or even help achieve the goals of the campaign.

Tell us your story.

When you ask your clients to do this, you’ll get some chunks of gold. First, you’ll be able to figure out how good they are at telling their story. What are the shortcomings of the story? What are the strengths of the story? From that information, you can better understand why their efforts in the past have or have not worked. We’ve also discovered the basis for great campaign taglines or key buzzwords from clients answering this question.

What should this accomplish?

Obviously, vital. But think about the different ways you could ask this. Do you have KPIs that you need to deliver? Or is the client more focused on how the campaign feels? Hearing positive feedback from customer word-of-mouth? This is just a great question to ask again before starting the campaign so you make sure everyone is on the same page.

At the end of the day, the big message here is that a kickoff call is your chance to learn. When you're starting a campaign, your client is your biggest resource. A kickoff call should really be used as an opportunity to get all the information you need by utilizing this resource that you have in your client. Take the time to develop effective questions that will get your client really thinking so that you have a plethora of information before starting the creative of the campaign.

Prioritize learning, listening, and asking more and more questions!