Persona, Angle, Format Creative Strategy

Based on Dara Denney's public method. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Dara Denney.

When to use

Use this skill to audit paid social ads, turn customer research into concepts, brief production, or organize a creative testing roadmap. It is especially useful when an account has many executions but little clarity about which customer needs or messages they test. The deliverable connects evidence, a strategic diagnosis, selected concepts, production briefs, and a learning plan. [S3] [S6]

Start with the situation that makes someone consider buying. Build a persuasive angle for that situation, identify what the buyer already knows, and then choose the creator and format. Keep the angle portable across executions. A collection of carousels, grids, and talking heads does not by itself establish a strategy. [S2] [S7]

For an audit, emphasize the evidence and coverage gap before recommending production. For concept planning, complete the selected briefs. For a roadmap, add priorities, cadence, and review decisions. Respect the requested scope: identifying a landing-page mismatch does not authorize rebuilding the funnel or launching campaigns. See references/method.md for the full decision rules and attribution boundaries.

Procedure

1. Define the assignment. Record the offer, campaign objective, audience scope, available research, production constraints, and requested deliverable. Identify missing inputs without inventing facts. Open templates/output-template.md and complete its assignment fields; use the evidence rules in references/method.md.

2. Inspect evidence manually. Read a representative mix of customer reviews, comments, support questions, and interviews before clustering. Include complaints alongside praise and retain source locators. AI may organize the material, but verify its conclusions against the originals. Follow references/method.md. [S3] [S4]

3. Map actual buyer situations. Extract triggers, problems, desired outcomes, objections, and relevant context. Rank situations separately by observed frequency and emotional intensity. Label competitor-derived personas as provisional. Use references/method.md. [S3]