by Roberto Tomasi

Social media has democratised advertising. Today, everyone with a social media account and a credit card can reach thousands of people through ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and beyond.

However, not all ads are equal. If you are a grassroot activist raising funds for your organisation, a communication officer promoting a candidate for public office, or a policy expert asking for contributions to a public consultation, it is very likely that social media platforms will reject your ads. This is because political and cause-based ads are special categories that most platforms ban or limit. 

Events like the assault on the US Capitol or attempts by foreign actors to interfere in national elections will continue to push social media platforms towards greater transparency and more election integrity. 

But fear not. In this article, you will learn what political and caused-based ads are and on which platform they are allowed. You will also discover five creative considerations to design effective ads.

by Pablo Pérez

Above all else, creativity is about perspective. A way of looking, thinking, living, seeing and being. A set of skills, behaviors and attitudes. 

In other words, there is no such thing as a recipe for creativity beyond having the courage to let your mind fly, seeking collaboration and holding a slightly cynical way of seeing life and the things around you.

The challenge is how to get creative in your upcoming communication campaigns. What you can do first is to be smart by following all the rules we know about communication (defining your objective, knowing your audience, etc.) and then once you have mastered these, you can have fun breaking the rules.

This is easier said than done, so here are three lessons I learned from running creative campaigns and that I have applied in my chosen campaign success story (read at the bottom).