Technology Plan - JWT Planning Tools Book

Channel and Technology Plan

Brand:

Campaign idea:

Brand idea:

Tasks:

Participants:

Channel / Technology

strategy:

Things:

Client:

Brand:

Date:

Project:

Contact:

Job no:

Brand idea goes here Brand name goes here

Campaign idea goes here

Task goes here

Participants go here

Channel/technology strategy goes here

Things go here

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What is the main purpose of this tool?

The main purpose of the Channel and Technology Plan is to help define the strategy for the different types of things that we need to make. It will help you understand the tasks we have to achieve and organise the things in terms of where they appear and the role they should play.

Where in the process should this tool be used?

This tool should be used at the end of the Collision part and during the Make part. You will probably find that as you go through the Make part, your Channel and Technology Plan will evolve as you begin to actually make things.

The Channel and Technology Plan is primarily for the agency to help develop all the things we need to make, but it can also be a valuable tool to use with clients to discuss the shape of the campaign.

How does this tool work?

This tool works by providing a template to map the flow of an idea.

It’s a ‘task-driven’ template, and the tool is built upon the key tasks we have to address for an idea to deliver its objectives. It will both inspire the development of new assets and identify where you might need more.

The Channel and Technology Plan should be used together with the Creative Brief.

How to use this tool?

You use this tool as a way to capture your strategic thinking about Channels and Technology. You should always have some thinking about this every time that you write a Creative Brief. Early on in the development you will have hypotheses about how to deliver your idea.

You should capture these using this tool, even though you know that they are going to change later.

The tool then provides a structure to outline how your idea will be delivered.

Brand

This is where you write the brand name.

Brand Idea

This should describe the idea for the brand. It will therefore be a short phrase or sentence. This is not an endline that may already exist for the brand. Neither is it the campaign idea that a brand may be employing.

Channel and Technology Plan

Campaign Idea

This should describe the Campaign Idea that the Channel and Technology Plan is about. As you are developing the work, you may not know for sure what the Campaign Idea is. This is OK. You can put in something that is work in progress.

Tasks

This is where the thinking about Channels and Technology should begin.

You should outline the tasks that you believe are necessary for your Campaign Idea to work.

Think about the key barriers that you have to overcome in order to achieve your brand objectives. Write them down. It is likely there will be several.

This will include things like raising awareness, creating a direct

behavioural response, building an experience or motivating the trade and so on. When you are defining the tasks try to be as specific as possible about what it is that you are trying to achieve. This part of the tool will specifically drive the channels and technology that you decide to use. It’s probably the most important bit to get right.

Participants

This is where you identify the key audience or audiences that the tasks need to address. This should relate to the audience that you have defined in the Creative Brief. However you should think specifically in this section about the details of your audience.

It may be the case that you have several tasks to achieve with the same audience, but more and more commonly we will actually have different tasks for different audience subgroups. In this section this is where you can create further subgroups, if they are important for specific tasks. For example ‘digital opinion leaders’ can be critical in shaping mainstream beliefs. Or trade buyers often dictate shelf space for mainstream products.

Channel and Technology Strategy

This is where we identify the channels and the technologies that will be most appropriate for this task with this audience. You should think specifically here about how you think the actual things we make will work.

How will people participate with them, and how will that help us achieve the tasks identified? What are we using these channels or technologies for?

You may need to challenge yourself, the team and the client about why you are making some choices? You might find that an unexpected option is a better solution to the task, than the one you first thought of.

Things

This is where we capture the actual things we will need in order to implement the plan and make the idea work.

This might be as simple as a list of advertising you need. However, this is more and more unlikely as brands are using much more than advertising to engage with people in different ways. You can also include things like on-line participation strategies, brand partnerships, or sponsorships. Use the Circle of Things to help you consider all the options.

Once completed, the Channel and Technology Plan will provide a comprehensive roadmap for how the idea will work, and the things you need to make to bring it to reality.

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This tool is most potent when the selections we make are either fuelled or supported by data, e.g. TGI, Chorus, IPA Touchpoints. It can be be completed in isolation or in collaboration with media partners. It is not, however, a media plan.

On the other hand, the absence of a data source shouldn’t prevent the development of a Channel and Technology Plan. This is not an excuse! At its most basic it will be a valuable tool in guiding creative development.

Once you have completed the plan, review vertically, down through each task stream, to check the logic is flawless. A good, well-thought out plan should represent a water-tight piece of logic and provide a perfect framework to review and guide ongoing creative development and present work to clients.

Finally, don’t be afraid to evolve it as creative work begins to emerge.

Creative development and channel and technology thinking will always work in partnership with each other. One will inform the development of the other. The more that this happens the better things are likely to be.

Just make sure that when you settle on a plan do a final check that the logic remains watertight.

Channel and Technology Plan

Brand:

The Champion of one of a kind experience/Be there Smirnoff

Nightlife Exchange Project

Build excitement about

nightlife experiences Build a community of party

goers Deliver a one of a kind night

on a global scale

21 – 45 vodka drinkers 21 – 30 year olds looking for original experiences

Party goers, style leaders and the trade

9WI½PQXSGIPIFrate past

experiences and events Use facebook as a hub for interaction, news and live streaming

Party curators, live events

TV spot, youtube strategy for online distribution

facebook page, consumer competitions, regular news updates, live streaming technology

Party curators, live events

FIG. 43: SMIRNOFF CHANNEL AND TECHNOLOGY PLAN

Channel and Technology Plan

NOTES

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In document JWT Planning Tools Book (Page 131-137)