Strategy is not a seasoning.

It isn’t bottled in a glass jar with a plastic top. You can’t just add a dash here or there when the work is bland or when the client doesn’t like how it tastes, just like you can’t throw in a bit of design.

Strategy, like creative/design, is one ingredient in successful advertising. You need to plan on including it from the start. You need to measure it out and make sure you have enough to complete the assignment. It may play a bigger role at some points and take a back seat in others but what you need to accept is that it is there throughout. If done well, strategy blends with the other “flavors” but becomes inseparable from them when you look at the finished project.

If the work or the client relationship is in trouble, “sprinkling” some strategy on it to cover up a bad product is probably going to be as effective as painting your house because the foundation is crumbling.