A sound strategy can be the difference between so-so results and stellar outcomes. But a sound strategy can also fall short compared to an alternative. How would you know if you weren’t looking, before you spent money executing it?

For example, when I worked on the Polaroid account, the then-marketing manager informed us, the ad agency team, that they were going to do a promotion for a new camera. Because the budget was limited, they thought the ad should be in Parade Magazine, a national Sunday newspaper supplement, which reached more than 30 million households and more than 50 million readers each week at the time. But the budget maxed out at three insertions for a large-sized ad.

Rather than just going with it, I determined that the numbers would be better if we pivoted from using Parade to using television. After researching the costs and developing a plan with :15 TV ads using the same print budget, I presented it, got it approved, and executed it. (The creatives used the same production budget to create the :15 spot, as well.) The campaign reached millions more people many more times and ended up overdelivering the sales goals. The “Under 30 Bucks” ad was also highlighted on PBS’s Adam Smith’s Money World program. And the client ended up running the promotion a few times a year for several years afterward.

When a strategy is outlined or defined but not yet set in stone, looking at what an alternative strategy could deliver could be the difference between just hitting the mark versus hitting it out of the ballpark. Let’s look at this together. Contact me.