Creative strategy framework: 7 steps to build better creative
Playbook
Satej Sirur
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Co-founder & CEO
Most creative briefs ask for something fresh while staying on-brand. Talented creatives bridge this gap well but even they do not have the time to research deeply what shoppers say about them and their competitors, what decisions competitors took, and what platform best practices look like. This produces assets that might fit the brief without delivering the best performance.
Below is a summary of the framework we created to come up with creative plays. It aims to bolster the judgment and intuition of creative teams without asking them to offload strategy to AI. It brings together the data and insights that design teams have to piece together from multiple places and then runs them through fixed stages to generate creative plays.
To complement our theory will real-world examples, we have taken Amazon listings from beloved products and applied our framework to them - all free clear detergent, Atkins gummy bears, Bloom Pop prebiotic soda, CeraVe hydrating serum, David protein bars, and Oxyfresh pet water additive. We love what these brands have done already and hope their teams find our outside-in perspective valuable.
Key takeaways
Start with why shoppers buy and what they judge you on, which are rarely the same.
Find the doubt that stops people because your core idea has to address it.
Your core idea needs to get to the white space that shoppers value but competitors do not address.
A strong core idea passes three tests: it answers the doubt, competitors do not say it, and reviews back it up.
Turn the core idea into creative plays across six routes and pick winners by comparing two at a time.
Stage 1: Consumer truth
As with all things marketing, the first step is always the consumer and what they want. Consumer truth states why people consider the category and what they value once the product works. Answer it for your consumers with this statement - "[Audience segment] comes for [entry need] but values [something that they value higher]".
Let us see this with the example of Bloom Pop prebiotic soda. Reviewers who talk about it as a healthy soda alternative rate it 4.6 stars on average. The biggest theme - sweetness and stevia aftertaste - averages 2.5 stars. People switch for health but they judge it as a soda.
Stage 2: Consumer tension
Staying on the consumer theme is the second stage - consumer tension. It lies in the middle of two extremes - what customers want and what stops them believing, buying, or staying. It can be represented by this sentence - "They want [attribute or benefit] but are stopped by [barrier or side-effect]". The want comes from what the product is praised for. The stop comes from complaints, purchase barriers, and gaps in the messaging.
In the Atkins Endulge gummy bears image, the brand promises low sugar and keto-friendly, something that the happiest customers value. But the most common negative theme across 130 reviews is stomach and digestive discomfort. That gap between the promise and the experience is the consumer tension that creative needs to address.
Stage 3: Competitor claim
Now come the competitors. Everyone in the category claims something similar with slight tweaks per brand. Think of it like this statement - "The category leads with [top benefits] to solve [top problems] and proves it through [top trust builders]".
Across CeraVe, The Ordinary, La Roche-Posay, Good Molecules, Torriden, and others in the hydration serums category, every gallery carries benefit claims and an ingredient callout, and 86% carry a clinical proof image. CeraVe’s "97% agree that skin feels hydrated" tile is a strong example of the category standard. Only 29% of galleries address sensitive skin, which surfaces an area that creative could address to stand apart from competitors.
Stage 4: Brand truth
Brand truth is crucial because it sets the boundary of what creative can and cannot say. The brand truth comes from what the brand states to consumers, what is known about its credentials, and what is validated by its own consumers.
all® free clear detergent images cover two promises - gentle on skin, effective clean. The gentleness promise is backed by EPA Safer Choice certification, a 4.8-star rating, and skin sensitivity being the most discussed theme in its reviews. However, the effective clean promise is not validated by consumers - reviews about stain removal rate them 2.9 stars. This means the effective clean headline should be phased out until there is more validation for it.
Stage 5: White space
This stage combines consumer truth, competitor claims, and brand truth to identify a white space. White space is something that consumers value that competitors do not talk about but the brand can credibly address. Or expressed as a formula,
White space = Consumer truth - Competitor claims + Brand truth
Let us see this in the context of Oxyfresh pet water additive. Consumer reviews value improvement to bad breath, which is raised in 36% of its reviews. Meanwhile, competitors address ease of use. Not one water additive listing shows a before-and-after. The white space is proving the fresh breath not just the easy part.
Stage 6: Core idea
As the name suggests, the core idea is the one thing every asset, every region, and every channel has to agree on. It lives in the white space while resolving the consumer tension. It should be short enough to remember and specific enough to rule out alternatives.
We recommend generating three candidates and choosing one that gets the most yes for these questions - does it answer the "but" in the tension, is it absent from the competitor claim, is every proof it relies on in brand truth.
David protein bars are a useful case study because no core idea we found in its listing assets gets a yes for all 3 questions.
Does it answer the "but" in the tension? - Shoppers want the most protein per bar but doubt a bar that lean can taste good. “Taste and flavour” is the biggest theme in 150 reviews that review it 2.4 stars.
Is it absent from the competitor claim? - Every competitor leads with the amount of protein.
Is every proof it relies on in brand truth? - The brand does say "Creamy texture. Addicting taste." but reviews contest it.
If two or more core ideas are comparable, compare them in pairs. Which better resolves the tension? Which is further from what competitors say? Which one can the brand claim more credibly? This is also the perfect place for human judgment to come in.
Stage 7: Creative plays
Creative plays make the abstract core idea into something everyone can see. Our framework recommends coming up with creative plays through six routes - problem, benefit, product, proof, comparison, and emotion. Each draws on a different part of the research and each must cite one specific insight as its anchor.
The six listings in this post already show most of the routes. Oxyfresh’s "Healthy Teeth, Happy Pets" is benefit-led. David’s cross-section is product-led. CeraVe’s 97% tile and all’s Safer Choice badge are proof-led. And Bloom Pop’s "craving soda?" is emotion-led.
Choosing the winning creative play
Drop creative plays that cannot point at a specific driver, barrier, or trust builder. Drop any that repeat competitor claims or rely on the same insight as another candidate.
Compare the remaining creative plays in pairs rather than scores because answering "which of these two is better" is far more reliable than "how good is this one out of ten". For each pair, choose the one that is the stronger expression of the core idea.
Putting this into action
Here is a prompt that you can use to generate consumer truth, consumer tension, competitor claims, and white space. Paste in your reviews, a handful of competitor listings, and your own brand claims where it says [paste].
You are a brand strategist presenting to a marketing team. Use ONLY the evidence pasted below. Do not invent counts, quotes, studies or claims. If something is missing, write "NOT IN EVIDENCE". Produce, in plain third-person strategist voice: 1. Consumer truth: "[Audience segment] comes for [entry need] but values [something that they value higher]" 2. Consumer tension: "They want [attribute or benefit] but are stopped by [barrier or side-effect]" Name any theme that shows up in both 5-star praise and 1-star or 2-star complaints. 3. Competitor claim: "The category leads with [top 3 benefits] to solve [top 3 problems], and proves it through [top 2 trust builders]." 4. White space: 2 or 3 candidates (consumer truth minus competitor claim, kept within the brand claims supplied). Pick one and say why. For every output, give 2 or 3 quotes copied exactly with their star rating, the number of reviews that support it, and a confidence rating (high, medium or low) with one reason. REVIEWS (ideally 100 to 150, spread across star ratings): [paste] COMPETITOR LISTINGS (titles, bullets, image headlines, badges): [paste] YOUR BRAND CLAIMS: [paste] |
A few caveats before using this framework. It gives you a few options and grounds them in evidence. However, it does not have taste and it cannot tell you which route deserves your budget. Keep in mind that reviews over-represent strong opinions and say nothing about people who never bought. Your intuition and judgement has to make up for these gaps.
What this framework does give you is a structured approach to cover the basics that have to be addressed regardless of who is in charge of creative decisions - are we addressing the tension, do competitors say the same thing, and can we credibly prove it.
Frequently asked questions
What are creative plays?
Creative plays are distinct routes that express the core idea. They can take different approaches like being problem-led or emotion-led. Each play has its own copy and art direction and is anchored to one specific customer insight.
What is white space in marketing?
White space is the part of what customers value that competitors are not claiming and that the brand can credibly prove.
How do you find consumer tension?
Look for a theme that shows up in both praise and complaints, or a promise the product makes that the lowest-rated reviews dispute. Then ask what belief separates happy and unhappy customers.
How many reviews do you need to find a consumer tension?
100-150 recent reviews are usually enough as long as they are balanced across ratings. The examples here use up to 30 reviews at each star level, so 1-star complaints and 5-star praise get equal weight. A theme becomes worth acting on when 10+ reviews raise it.
What is the difference between a core idea and a tagline?
A core idea is the strategic line every asset must serve. It can be plain and literal. Customers may never read it exactly as expressed. A tagline is one possible expression of a core idea and is written for memorability. A single core idea can produce several taglines, one per creative route.
Should you copy the best-selling competitor’s assets?
No but use them as a reference. Your own reviews come first. If they are quiet on a topic, check whether the best-seller covers something you do not. Only then look at what is common across the category.
How many creative routes should you test?
Develop around 6 candidates, one per route type, and take 3 forward. 3 routes of different types give a clear test without spreading the budget too thin. We recommend choosing at least one emotion-led creative route.
Can AI generate creative strategy?
AI can sort evidence, draft candidates, and run consistent comparisons at speed, across hundreds of reviews and competitor pages. It cannot judge which idea is worth the risk or the budget. That call belongs to people.
