The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics

The Central Core of Creative Planning and Evaluation
There is often much confusion between strategy and tactics, as they are interrelated within the planning process. Specifically, strategy relates to the central theme, tone, style, and appeal techniques that are being considered in communications. The tactical perspective is all about the details, and boils down to matters concerned with production. Tactics are where questions revolve around, "what are we going to present to the consumer, and what are we going to use in promoting it?". Look at it this way:

1. Strategy="What it will look like like/sound like?"
2. Tactics="What we are going to do?"

How can creativity be judged?
Creativity is a very unique process that many receive inspiration from differently. Quality, within the realm of creativity, is often a matter of perspective, and as such, has been a popular topic of debate within advertising.

Several methods for judging quality in creative output have been proposed within the industry, such as the commonly seen payment-by-results approach, which is often directly related to sales. As well, there is the automatic margin commission option, where the individuals who contributed the work are paid a fixed percentage (most popular is 15%). These methods worked well in the past, but they are becoming outdated very quickly. In today's new media landscape, there is an emphasis on collaboration and discussion.

But how can we truly evaluate the potential of creativity within marketing and advertising? The answer, as far as I know, is that we can never truly be certain. We can try our best though, to give a relatively accurate analysis through creative research.

There are many factors involved with pushing creativity to new heights for different individuals. Some of these factors consist of innovation development, maturity of an industry/product/service, and competing ideals that are held by others. I wish to single out innovation as an important motivator towards creativity.

Creativity can be about using the tools you  have in new ways.

Most of the reasons why we perform a specific action is because we seek some sort of return for our efforts. Innovation is a complicated driver of creativity, since it consists of the unknown, with regards to how successful a new product, service, or industry is established. The research industry is a primary example of innovation at work, especially when there are new developments in place such as moving towards real-time data.

Emphasis on creativity being present within the innovative developments of the research industry cannot be understated. For the most part, copywriters were mainly known for being the ones who had to tell the story, but now that is all changing. The researcher needs to be well-versed in storytelling as well, if they want to survive and adapt for the future. Within the communications highway of 2012, there is no longer any time to read detailed charts and reports; information must be actionable and concise, while being relayed to decision-makers in an understandable manner.

Ultimately, Creativity is Composed of IQ, But Also EQ
Being smart certainly goes a long way towards creative development, but it is not the only source of an individual's creative mindset. Leonard Murphy, from Greenbook Blog, explains that technology is a huge support system for allowing researchers to make their findings fit in with reality, as is the case with behavioural economics merging with data collection practices.

Sometimes creativity is about finding new ways of using and conveying the tools you have at your disposal. How do you define creativity?