Creative Strategy - March Review
A summary of key learnings to take into April
March has been a big month of writing and thinking. I’ve covered research, concepting, scripting, data, mindset, AI, and where the role is going. Here’s a quick rundown of the key things I’ve taken from each.
Researching 🔍
The best research doesn’t come from ticking through a checklist. It comes from following your curiosity and seeing where it leads. Forums, Amazon reviews, and niche-specific sources are where you find real customer language. The kind you can’t get from a surface-level search. AI is useful for getting quick summaries, but it doesn’t replace the hours of digging that uncover genuinely new insights.
Concepting 💡
Two things shifted how I think about this.
Unique Mechanisms vs USPs. UMs CREATE demand. USPs CAPTURE demand. At the top of the funnel, your audience hasn’t yet built belief. You need to explain why the problem exists and why this solution works when others haven’t. Not just what makes your product different.
Thinking in 3D. I was varying hooks, formats, and angles, but I wasn’t being intentional enough about the psychological position behind each concept. Valence (which emotional zone is the ad sitting in), self-concept (actual, ideal, or ought self), and language intensity (high vs low). If too many concepts in a batch are sitting in the same psychological space, you’re not creating real variety. You’re just repackaging the same idea.
Scripting ✍️
Three things I’m holding onto:
1. Lock the awareness level and stay there. TOF scripts that drift into MOF messaging are a really easy mistake to make. MOF language feels more comfortable to write because it converts in the short term. But that drift is what stops you from building real scale.
2. Don’t trust the first AI draft. Read it back at least five times. Make sure it actually sounds like a human, and that it fits the tone and style of what you’re going for. The key goal is to avoid recycled scripts that sound like the same AI loop.
3. Anchor scripts in core desires, not just features. Belonging, status, security. The things people are actually motivated by underneath the surface. That’s what makes an ad feel like it was written specifically for them.
Data Analysis 📊
Structured volume is winning over careless volume. Every creative gets tagged with a micro persona and an angle before it goes live. When the data comes back, you can actually read what it’s telling you. Instead of trying to reverse-engineer why something worked or didn’t.
The Bigger Picture
The creative strategists who will do well over the next few years will be sitting at the intersection of data, creativity, and AI. Most people are strong in one or two of those. The opportunity, and I think it’s a real one, is in all three working together.
What I’m Taking Into April
A creative audit before every concepting session
Tracking concepts intentionally before they go live
Continuing to build out my AI context library
Keeping up the strategic diary