An error in calculating the budget of an advertising campaign can cost too much – both in money and in image. But how to avoid pitfalls at the creative stage? Petr Gubanov, founder of the content agency PostPost, shared his experience.
The main difficulties in calculating the budget of an advertising campaign
The main difficulties in calculating the budget of an advertising campaign, in my opinion, most often occur at the creative stage. While the creative is raw and not developed, mistakes often occur in planning the production budget. Back in 2013, when I worked as a producer at the telemarketing data creative agency REDKEDS, we introduced the practice of involving producers at the stage of preparing the first approaches of the creative team.
The role of the producer at the creative stage
Involving producers at the stage of forming the first ideas helps to avoid unrealistic proposals. On the one hand, the downside of such a solution was the limitations for creativity – it seemed that every second idea did not work precisely because it was unrealizable. On the other hand, there were also advantages: when the client had a budget for a bicycle, he was not offered to make an interplanetary flight on a spaceship.
Case Study: TV Campaign “First Furniture”
As an example, I can cite the recent TV campaign of the brand “First Furniture” , for which we made videos. Initially, the task was to develop an idea for one video. In the process of work, we, together with the client, decided conduit cn to shoot 3 videos in order to reveal all the USPs separately and most fully. The complexity of filming, the number of actors, graphics and other works increased. Accordingly, the budget for producing videos also increased.
Still from the First Furniture commercial
Experimental projects
The biggest challenges arise when you need to do something that no one has done before. It is always an experimental project.
For example, we did a collaboration between the furniture brand Lazurit and the digital artist Nidgus. After developing the online project, we started calculating calling list the production of a physical “toy box” measuring 3 by 4 meters. I doubt that there are many specialists in the country who can produce “toy boxes” with real furniture in such dimensions. Accordingly, it will probably only be possible to calculate such a project once in a lifetime.
Balance between production and promotion
One of the most common mistakes is the imbalance between the budget for advertising promotion and production. For example, in television advertising, budgets for placement can reach hundreds of millions of rubles, while for the production of a video – only 15 million. In digital advertising, such a budget can be excessive. In practice, a reasonable balance is 30-40% of the total budget for content production, if it is necessary to solve a complex problem in a competitive market. If the message is simple and does not require complex creativity, you can use simpler formats, such as 3D or flat graphics.
Don’t be afraid of mistakes
Mistakes in calculating the budget for advertising campaigns often occur at the creative stage. To minimize risks, it is important to involve producers at the early stages and find a balance between production and placement. Ultimately, a professional approach to budget planning allows you not only to avoid mistakes, but also to achieve successful results in implementing an advertising strategy.