Did you buy the media barn empty? Legs first up the tree is a strategy too.

The ideal order is roughly this. Goals on paper, brand strategy into planning or review, then media selections and purchases accordingly, then a brief for the creative team. Then the planning work can begin. Now we're going in legs first up the tree.

The media calendar is filling up now. There's this and that without any clear logic. Buy first, think later. At some point someone asks: what do we actually want to say and to whom, when at this point there should already be an answer.

Agencies are used to receiving either unambitious or overly demanding briefs. The campaign should stand out, beat all competitors, end wars, serve as internal therapy and the campaign must not upset anyone.

A creative brief is a responsible document completed before work begins. It tells what the advertising should achieve, who we're talking to and why in this particular medium, at this particular moment. It inspires internally and above all the creative team. Without it the creative team guesses. And guesses cost more than a good brief ever would have.

When a lot of media has been bought, responsibility grows with it. Then there's no room to take the path of least resistance.

The same visual on every platform isn't efficiency, it's laziness. Television isn't radio with pictures. An outdoor ad isn't a banner in a bigger size outside. A programme partnership isn't a commercial break with a longer text. Every medium is its own situation, its own audience, its own moment. People sense when they're being fed the same thing in different packaging. First they get irritated. Then they tune out. Then they feel it unconsciously the next time they encounter the brand.

An advertising concept means that the same story is told recognisably but in different ways across different environments. Copy adapts, the idea stays. Event themes, social content, PR angles, programme partnerships - all breathe the same air, but each in their own way. When the work is diverse and coherent, audiences buy your thinking in the long run. The brand begins to take shape in a new audience's mind.

Brand strategy is your map and support for moments like these. It reflects what media and partnerships are wanted, what is absolutely not wanted, how to speak and why. When it's in place before a single media spot is bought, every euro works toward the same direction.

When it's missing, every euro works separately.

The Finnish gambling market opens once. The media calendar is filling up now.