Why Theme Should Be Central To Your Annual Marketing Plan

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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nnual marketing plans are the overarching roadmap for the year. They help to create direction and structure to the variety of ways through which products, places and people are marketed by brands. Whilst important, sometimes this framework can be based to heavily in strategy based on analytics. Outlining a theme for the year, however, allows you to act more creatively within this framework. It connects operations with the customer who can acknowledge brand consistency. A theme then provides an underlying identity for the year that still influences purchasing. At Maxwell-Scott, as a small business with a matching budget, curating a marketing calendar allows us to create thoughtful and effective campaigns without the price tag. Through the psychology of marketing campaigns and discussions of the importance of themes in marketing, we are able to push creative boundaries whilst measuring KPIs across platforms. In the vein of transparency and sharing our expertise then – the core ethos of the Maxwell-Scott Broadsheet – we explore our theme for 2019 as a case study for using an overarching theme to create a cohesive creative annual marketing plan as a small business.

In essence, marketing is an art in terms of psychology. Beatrice Andrew, Head of Consumer Neuroscience at the award-winning digital agency LAB, explains that by using psychology it is possible to highlight key emotional drivers. This helps brands to prioritise emotive and relevant messages to customers. After all, as media is noisier than ever, it is more and more important to create impactful, relevant content that stands out in busy environments. Choosing the right theme for the audience then can be highly effective in communicating with the audience – setting the tone of annual marketing campaigns. If a campaign has particular relevance to the consumer, it has been proven that its performance improves. Andrew adds that by using techniques such as empathy mapping, brands can create more emotional relevance:

Consequently the art is to trigger favourable responses from the consumer. It has been since the late 1900s when John B. Watson, one of the fathers of modern marketing, spent his career studying and utilising ethical psychology methods to influence customer behaviour. Themes, in particular, act as a reference point for the customer, as an emotive or relevant anchor through which customers connect with a particular campaign. It engages a customer.

A theme within an annual marketing plan then creates a brand narrative beyond the singular platforms on which a brand operates. Head of International Marketing and Strategy at Maxwell-Scott, Julia Munder, comments that whilst KPIs and analytics have their place, a theme embedded within a marketing plan ensures the success of annual marketing campaigns on both sides. She continues that, as mentioned, for the consumer it creates a continuous reference point. In particular, a theme throughout the year acts as an underlying touch point that the consumer has with the brand.

But, themes are also incredibly important to create a creative path and structure for the marketing and content teams. A yearly theme, after all, provides a wealth of source material to fuel their creativity whilst maintaining links with a recognisable narrative for the brand. It forms a way in which small businesses can push creative boundaries whilst remaining pertinent to their consumers. For instance, it encourages the teams to exploit the theme as much as possible, offering creative opportunities that permit quality marketing campaigns within budget. A planned theme for the year develops a level of knowledge that can be easily mined throughout the year. Moreover, more practically, implementing a theme into your annual marketing plan also provides structure for the year. Marketing clearly requires extensive pre-planning and the utilisation of a theme can help to form the year. This is particularly true in terms of the Maxwell-Scott 2019 theme – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

In 1723 Vivaldi composed a set of concertos that mimicked the four seasons. As one of the most influential Baroque composers, this remains one of Vivaldi’s most famous works for violin. Now iconic, the music was accompanied by sonnets which highlighted the nuances of the music, the barking of the dog in summer, birdsong in spring. These explanatory sonnets were by an unknown poet, probably Vivaldi himself, guiding the listener through the musical imagery. Now, they provide a marketer with a wealth of inspiration. Ultimately, classic themes such as these then can offer a cultural value that ensures campaigns are rooted in a wider environment. Vivaldi is, according to Anne Midgette for The Washington Post, “part of our cultural fabric.” Therefore, in the modern day, he remains crucially relevant.

As a result, The Four Seasons was chosen this year by Munder to be the foundation of the Maxwell-Scott annual marketing plan. Not only does its structure lend itself to an annual campaign, the music’s popularity provided the value required of such a theme.  It is emotive, offers structure and includes an established catalogue of source material that it can be easily adapted to the budget of a small business. The three main ways in which Vivaldi’s Four Seasons provides inspiration is: musically, sonnets and the Baroque time period. So far this year, the spring sonnet has been our most relevant source:

Springtime is upon us.

The birds celebrate her return with festive song,

and murmuring streams are

softly caressed by the breezes.

Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,

casting their dark mantle over heaven,

Then they die away to silence,

and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo

On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches

rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps,

his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro

Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes,

nymphs and shepherds lightly dance

beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

The Blossoming Of Love

It was the time period though that was the first point of reference for our 2019 Valentine’s Day campaign – The Blossoming of Love. Still life paintings were first established as an independent genre in the early Baroque period, flourishing as a speciality in the Netherlands during the early 1600s. In this period, floral still lifes were particularly prominent for their symbolism that addressed a cultivated audience. According to Walter Liedtke at the Met:

“Painters such as Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Balthasar van der Ast, Roelandt Savery, and Jacob Vosmaer often referred to herbals and other botanical texts when composing “bouquets”…which typically combined flowers from different countries and even different continents in one vase and at one moment of blooming.”

Steeped in sheer romanticism then, recreating such a floral still life appeared to be perfect for Valentine’s day. Moreover, Vivaldi’s concertos are praises of nature as much as they are an early example of program music. As a result, the Valentine’s Day shoot was simple, highlighting the beauty of the flowers whilst representing the masterpieces of Baroque artists.

In order to tie this campaign in further with the Vivaldi theme, images were paired with poetic copy in order to mimic his sonnets. They emphasised those early days of love, with references to the natural world such as – “Your touch feels like the warm kiss of spring sunlight” or “And so we blossom, together.” This way, the delicate romanticism of Valentine’s Day was emphasised. It also acted as a solid foundation to the theme, introducing the tone of the year’s campaigns that would follow within this framework to the consumer.

A Mother’s Hands

Paintings from the Baroque period were equally influential for our 2019 Mother’s Day campaign – A Mother’s Hands. Hands feature rather heavily in Baroque portraiture, portraying active gestures that often communicate strong emotions. A particular reference for the campaign in fact was Rembrandt’s 1634 portrait of Oopjen Coppit that is now displayed in the RijksMuseum in Amsterdam. Oopjen sat for the painting, aged 23 and pregnant with her first child, a year after her marriage. It features a delicate hand by her side embellished by a white lace cuff, pearls and a simple ring. Pearls themselves continued into the Baroque period after enjoying particular popularity in the Renaissance era, set alongside the new enthusiasm for bow motifs and botanical ornaments. For Mother’s Day a pair of guiding hands seemed apt, especially embellished by pearls as a further nod to Oopjen, Rembrandt and Vivaldi’s Baroque period.

The Season To Travel

Next, the copy for our Easter travel campaign encompassed how a theme – this time Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – can be adapted throughout the year. Besides, when a theme is included within the framework of the year, marketing campaigns remain cohesive whatever the style or season. To accompany the imagery, copy included a snippet of Vivaldi’s spring sonnet:

“The birds celebrate her return with festive song,

and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.”

With the return of birdsong and warmer spring breezes, wanderlust is inevitable. So, fly away this spring and explore warmer climes, new cultures and vast exotic vistas. All of which should be done with the perfect travel companion.

Birdsong was translated into a birdcage, settled within the colonial themed photo shoot which harked back to the warm spring breezes. This in turn was tied to travel, providing an idea of escapism to the warm Italy that Vivaldi inhabited. Despite each of these campaigns’ being entirely different, this same thread runs throughout. They embody Vivaldi’s life at the time he wrote The Four Seasons. Common ground is clear.

It is this common ground that is vital to an annual marketing plan. It creates cohesion. Soon, with summer looming, there will be a transition to the summer sonnet – including “the cuckoo’s voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard”. This is the beauty of thematic marketing campaigns. They guide you through the year. It provides marketing and content teams with plenty of source material and effectively structures the year. It goes beyond measuring success of a marketing year through analytics and, instead, appreciates the emotive effects of marketing on the consumer.  For whom, an annual theme feels crucially consistent as it allows for continual connection. Psychology dictates that this connection must be emotive, that the theme must anchor the consumer by providing positive responses to a familiar cultural touch point. Creatively, a theme is a vital consideration within an annual marketing plan. Vivaldi it seems will always continue to inspire. For 2019, nearly three hundred years after he wrote his iconic concertos, he has molded our brand identity.