“What’s the campaign going to be?” is a question your team is probably asked every month, planning out seasonal drop after drop. 

New product to push. Talent to source. Concepts to build out. Store assets to line up. We’ve witnessed the pressure in-house teams are under to constantly pump out unique ideas—and the frenzy of executing campaigns that raise the bar. 

From our POV, the campaigns that succeed are the ones that have a clear campaign “way-in”: your ownable space in the market—the language and visuals that give you an undeniable advantage and ensure your campaign is impossible to ignore. It’s an exercise in creativity, but it requires a strong strategy. 

Here’s an insider look at how to activate campaigns that feel meaningful, convert easily and resonate emotionally. 

Research and Insights: Eyeing the competition

When you’re swimming in data and product specs, it’s easy to forget to look outward to see what’s working and what’s not. Any time we kick off a campaign, we look to your competitors on multiple fronts: local, global and aspirational. We analyze how they’re winning in their space, how their audience perceives them and what your key advantage could be. We obsess over what’s trending, what’s culturally relevant right now (or what will be soon)—and how you fit into the conversation. 

From trawling through customer reviews to analyzing every detail of competing campaign rollouts, we get a clear picture of what audiences are gravitating to, what’s fatiguing them and what’s yet to be done. (Meticulous? Us? Yes.) That helps you land on…

Strategic Position: Staying aligned 

… The exact position you can take up in the market. A successful campaign way-in is built on an ironclad strategic foundation. We like to define an ownable space and a compelling strategic approach that informs the rest of the work: what to lean into fully so that you can stand out. Perhaps we’re choosing to emphasize the textures of the earth, prioritize a community-led narrative, or frame a seasonal drop in a unique way for retailers.

Setting that tone gives you a cheat sheet to remember what’s going to make the campaign tick, and keeps your teams aligned from the start all the way to production and promotion (because we all know that when things get rolling, it can be easy to lose sight of the original goal). The Strategic Positioning goes to everyone from your marketing team to your sales reps—giving your entire campaign a central source of truth so you know which levers to pull at the right moments. 

Narrative: Telling a compelling story

Once you’ve established your unique space and a campaign strategy, do as Monday does and build worlds with words… And visuals. Every campaign needs a story with a beating heart, a tagline that’s unforgettable, and art direction that electrifies your product or big idea. Honing in on your messaging and visual hierarchy from this point onwards sets your team up for success and gets everyone excited about actually bringing this into the world. 

The approach should be inherently 360°, so the narrative unfolds from the top of the funnel to the bottom. Creative direction and copy meld together to showcase your brand’s unique point of view for the campaign, and how it will resonate with your audience at a core level. 

Campaign Assets: Watching it come to life

To roll it all out, you’ll need a comprehensive toolkit that empowers your team to execute your campaign. From identity guidelines to templates and that messaging hierarchy we touched on earlier, ensure everyone on your marketing and sales team is singing from the same songbook—consistency is as important as creativity when activating new work.

Why Your Campaign Way-in Matters

Taking the time and space to carve out your way-in yields results that surpass a single campaign. We’ve seen clients land on a new tagline for the brand in the process—because extensive customer research from a fresh perspective saw what they’d been missing. We’ve watched campaign art direction lead to internal influence at the brand level—because they had the opportunity to see how it can carry new energy through everything they produce next. We’ve watched clients earmark a great idea in concept brainstorms that will have its moment in the following year—giving them creative fuel for the season ahead. We’ve heard sales teams celebrate having the resources they need to sell-in with conviction—because the direction, messaging, and strategy were all in lockstep.

When you start from a space of strategy with a clear plan ahead, everyone breathes easier. They know how to work back from demanding timelines and you get ample time to explore as much as you can, rather than rushing into producing something that didn’t have a compelling brief to begin with.. 

And if you want to bring in extra support to make it happen? Having collaborators in the process ultimately gives valuable bandwidth back to your team. Freedom to bring your insights to the table without the weight of coming up with creative ideas. Room to plan strategically for the following year, knowing this year is covered. And space to get out of the weeds, see the full picture and even enjoy the process—because finally, a solid foundation is in place and you’ve got creative partners working right beside you.

Got your wheels turning? Let’s run:

• Want to collaborate on your next campaign? Our team is brimming with ideas. Say hi here.

• Need more inspiration? Tune into our podcast, My Best Campaign, or check out our recent work here.