Want to know how one of the top agencies comes up with its creative plan? Read on for the five key principles.

The way we communicate with each other continues to change at light speed. Over a billion people are online globally. Two thirds of the U.S. population now has broadband. More than 2 billion blogs are registered. Web 2.0 is ballooning. And mobile handsets are ubiquitous.

The effect that this has had on full-service communications agencies has been profound, and Y&R is no exception. Ad critic Bob Garfield calls it Chaos 2.0: the end of the full service agency as we've known it. I wouldn't go quite that far, but there's no question that as the world changes, so must we. And we have.

Water cooler conversations at our shop are as likely to be about viral videos, social networks, SMS, podcasting or search as they are about branding and :30 second TV spots. And you see it in our work: for Cadbury Schweppes, or the NCAA, or the campaign we're about to launch for Palm -- all campaigns built around integrated communications strategies reflecting the new world order. Toto, we are not in Kansas any more!

But even though our playing field is far wider and mostly digital, our fundamental approach to solving clients' problems creatively remains the same. It still starts with the clients' business objectives, and a profound understanding of the target audience we're trying to influence, including how the audience behaves offline and online. And, yes, it's still about the "Big Idea." That's where the energy -- the spark -- comes from that gives a brand velocity, and captures the attention and engagement of the audience.

But if we had to boil it down to five key principles (which is what iMedia asked for!) then this is what we'd say:

1. Understand the business objective
   Our first priority is developing a creative concept that is on-brief. A good brief starts with a clear understanding of the client's business objectives and what metrics will be used to measure success. As advertisers become more online savvy and understand the enhanced interactions now available, they have become more confident in expanding branding campaigns beyond traditional media. Many of our customers are relying less on CTR and more on interaction rates to judge the performance of a campaign. That means the creative challenge extends past breaking through the clutter to encouraging trackable behaviors that are grounded in the strategy.
   
   
2. Understand the audience
   Who is the target audience, what do we know about that audience's buying habits and what other insight do we have that we can leverage? Our strategy guys spend a lot of time understanding consumers: the way they buy, and the behavior we want the creative to stimulate. Do we want them to click for more information? Or click to buy? Do we want them to laugh and love us? We need to know how our communications will be received, and knowing our target audience usually determines the way we craft the call-to-action of the campaign.
   
   
3. Create a single-minded message
   Develop a clear and concise message that can be communicated from a single ad to the entire campaign. This message must be on brief and fully take into consideration the media buy. With regards to distribution channel and ad format, at Y&R we drive the creative concept and the media buy through the same consumer lens. How do consumers search for information? Where on the web are the conversations in the category taking place? How can the brand naturally become part of that ecosystem? How can we engage with the customers and start a conversation with a deepened engagement?
   
   
4. Match the message with the audience
   At this point, we circle back around and ask ourselves why the target audience should believe the message. It is not enough to deliver a message through a single ad; our creative goal is to make the message really resonate with the target. It's about engaging the consumers in a conversation that moves them through the entire process of becoming a customer. So when we think about a campaign, we're thinking more of a series of mini-campaigns placed wherever our target congregates, which more and more tends to be on the web.
   
   
5. Match the message with the medium
   How does the message connect to the other elements of the campaign and the brand in all its channels? We want our creative teams to have a broad sense of the total campaign, even though they may be only working on one part of it.

When working online, more and more we're developing rich media placements where possible. The ad units and technology provide a high level of engagement with consumers and allows us greater creative freedom. A recent example of this is the Texaco campaign that we teamed with Eyeblaster to produce. Within the ad unit we were able to replicate an old school arcade game that encourages longer time spent with the brand. This obviously is something that we could not attempt to do with a standard banner.

Only after considering these five priorities do our creative teams pull out the napkins and start working on the "Big Idea."

Aaron Bart is interactive producer, Young and Rubicam. Read full bio.