The Blueprint to Creating a Lifestyle Ad Campaign
Most people think you need a big production to build an ad campaign. You don’t—you just need a plan.
I had an idea, and I didn’t know if it would work or not. Let’s talk about starting a campaign for your product or service.
Recently, I took a trip to Chicago to visit family for Easter week. While I was there, I had an idea—I’m building out a capability deck, and I needed some lifestyle photos to really bring it to life. For the shoot, I asked a good old friend of mine to help with modeling, and she came through big time with the style.
With an ad campaign, you have to plan ahead. I asked her about two weeks in advance, and she was all in. I needed her to really see my vision for the project. I mean, who goes into a project without building a mood board and laying out exactly how it’s going to come together? From wardrobe to location, I had everything locked in through a creative brief I made for both of us.
When the time came, I was ready to shoot and get exactly what I needed to finish my part of the job.
This was a tight time slot for me—I only had three days, while also spending time with family. As you can see, the model is wearing a nice yellow blazer with a black shirt and pants. It fit her skin tone perfectly. I was going for a corporate lifestyle photoshoot, the kind of look that speaks directly to the clients I want to work with—indoor shots, city views, building textures, and a café-type atmosphere.
I brought my Nikon Z6II with two lenses: an 85mm 1.8 and a 24–70mm 2.8. The whole process took about an hour. I got in, set up, captured what I needed, and wrapped it up.
Overall, it was a great shoot, and I’m hoping I get to travel more and work with her again.
After a long weekend in Chicago, I drove back home, edited the photos, and started setting everything up for marketing—content for Facebook and Instagram ads, emails, and newsletters.
When you take the time to plan and really lock in your idea, you can create an amazing ad campaign from just one shoot.
So here’s the breakdown:
Find someone to work with—and if you can, pay them for their time. You’d want someone to pay you for yours, so don’t overlook that.
Create a creative brief that you, your model, and your team can all understand and follow. Think of it as your roadmap to the final destination.
Look for locations that fit your vision.
Build out 8–10 slides with your ideas and a moodboard. For my moodboards, I use an app called PureRef. It’s free, and you can donate if you want—it’s a great product. It helps organize your images and lets you arrange everything easily without having to constantly save files one by one. It’s a real time-saver.
I also pull photo references from sites like Behance, Pinterest, and Google to find what I’m looking for.
Don’t be afraid to go out and take photos of the world around you—whether you’re on a run or just picking something up from the store.
Share your ideas with your team and talk through how you’re going to execute the plan.
After that, start your photoshoot and start building out your ad campaign.
If you found this helpful, you can download a PDF of my creative brief to see how I put one together. At that point, you’ve got the blueprint to start making noise about your product or service.
“Thank you Keanna for modeling for me!”
Link to Model and cafe' Website:
Kribi Coffee Air Roastery - 7324 Madison st, Forest Park, IL 60130
Model Keanna Campbell’s Instagram
If you’re a business owner looking for photography in the Buffalo, NY area to add to your social media or portfolio, I would love to assist you.Book a session today!
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