Advertising once believed it could shape culture. “Egocentric dickheads”, I hear you say.
But turn the dial back a few decades, and you’ll see examples of it being done.
Levis ads had music tracks that launched formerly unknown artists to a world stage.
Take their Spaceman spot of the mid 90s. It had a band named Babylon Zoo outselling everyone, overnight.
The Guinness Surfers ad of the late 90s convinced a whole generation of image-conscious, young drinkers to desire a stout that was formerly the reserve of pensioners.
These day, we talk about effective marketing being audience centric. The philosophy is absolutely valid. Delivering a clear, concise and relevant consumer value is paramount to effective sales.
But that’s at the pointy ‘conversion’ end of the sales funnel, not the broader, and equally essential ‘awareness & consideration’ stages.
It has created an entire data-driven industry that captures and filters key drivers to conversion. We can even pinpoint the subtle nuances of online channels to deliver ‘native creative’ that speaks in the style and accent of the platform.
But have we gone too far?
In the old days (before online analytics) marketers would run research groups on prospective ad concepts to test how well received an ad might be to its audience. A table of about 8 people, pulled in off the street for their opinions, was intended to highlight how an ad could be refined to be better received.
But, if you ever sat behind the one-way mirror in the observation room next door, you’d see a very worrying behaviour exhibited. Rather than simply saying whether a headline or scenario was relevant or not, many participants would suggest their version of the ad. In other words, they quickly transformed into a pseudo strategic and creative team, pitching against the agency that had devised the campaign.
The problem with this is that when your audience writes their own ads, there’s absolutely no surprise. They are simply spoon-fed what they already know and think.
A major component of 90s advertising was the willingness to show an audience something they weren’t expecting. To trust them to work it out, and have their intellect rewarded.
Us humans like a challenge. Just ask anyone staring at their phone, trying to work out the day’s Wordle.
Another highly concerning aspect of ads that are written purely through the mindset of their audience is duration. A story needs time to play out. Online media will often tell us that we have a few seconds to land our message, or we’ll be lost in the scroll.
But that assumes all communications are equal, and will hold the same degree of interest (or lack of interest) for their audience.
The job of great creative is to stand out in a cluttered environment – to be interesting, dare I say intriguing, enough to hold the viewer’s attention.
Let’s not forget that the same generation that only gives you three seconds to introduce yourself, and land a compelling call-to-action, are the same people who will happily sit in an uncomfortable cinema seat for several hours to watch that latest Avatar movie.
The more we dumb down our comms, the less we’re connecting with consumers at a philosophical, cultural or emotional level. And these are the things that will forge a lasting connection.
If you fail to establish that, they’ll have even less time for you next time.
Thanks for reading.