Case Questions

What should the TSL team do$?$ What do they stand to gain through mass media TV advertising?

What do they stand to lose? What about maintaining their current strategy? What gains and losses

do you see from this course of action?

Suppose that the TSL team decides that TV advertising might be effective at reaching outside their

current target market to attract older users to the brand. Older demographics tend to be less socially

progressive than younger users; however, they watch considerably more television. Could enough

of these consumers be introduced to the brand to make TV less risky? Would such a strategy help or

hurt TSL$$s current promotional efforts? Why or why not?

Consider the case for TV through the lens of ethics. TSL$$s mission is to save lives. Is it morally com$-$

mitted to save as many lives as possible? Does the company have an obligation to pursue aggressive

growth strategies to maximize its efforts to alleviate hunger?

Application Exercise

Advertising professionals often make $$creative briefs$$ to help guide advertising campaigns and make

sure that all advertising team members are working together so that resources are not wasted. Suppose

you are an advertising executive hired by TSL$.$ Make a creative brief for your client.

Write a paragraph explaining the background of the company. $($This paragraph would be shared with

the client to assure it that your perceptions and the client$$s perceptions are the same.$)$

Describe the target audience or audiences.

Based on the target audience, what are the campaign objectives? Look at the hierarchy of effects

model presented in this chapter for a little guidance on how this would work.

What key benefits will be promoted by the campaign? Importantly, the campaign does not have to

promote all key benefits. Pick one you believe will resonate soundly with the target audience.

Develop a creative theme for the campaign. What one thing should audiences take away from expo$-$

sure to the advertising creative? Creative themes are frequently tag lines or slogans. Write a tag line

or slogan for your campaign. The slogan can guide the messaging in your campaign on digital media,

social media, and mass media.

Using the section on creativity in advertising in this chapter, select an execution style for your cam$-$

paign. How will the creative theme actually take form? If you do not believe TV mass media adver$-$

tising is advisable for TSL$,$ that$$s fine. Execution strategies apply to any media, traditional or not.