Introduction
By Jean-Marc Lech
Il n’y a pas d’experts muets, c’était l’antienne d’Ipsos il y a peu. Et aujourd’hui, il y a urgence : les clients veulent de l’expertise, de la réflexion, des initiatives, de l’engagement, des idées.
Alors oui, les experts doivent s’engager, et mieux encore : il est urgent de se faire écouter.
Dans un orchestre de jazz, ce sont les cuivres que l’on veut entendre, et pas seulement la plainte de la contrebasse.
« There are no silent experts » was the refrain of Ipsos until recently. But today, it is even more urgent: clients want expertise, insights, initiatives, commitment and ideas.
Experts have to commit themselves and more than that, it is urgent for them to be heard. In a jazz orchestra, we want to hear the brass and not only the protest of the bass.
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John Hallward
"John works in our advertising specialism, Ipsos ASI, with a global role for product development/product management. He is a published author, "Gimme!" (2007), and the 2008 winner of the ARF's "Great Minds Award" for Innovation (New York). He often writes and presents insights on how advertising works, based on the extensive ASI databases of pre-tested ads and tracked campaigns."
“Every man is a fool in some man's opinion” (Spanish Proverb). …
Perhaps I am a fool, but I hope you might accept my opinions simply as means to stimulate your own. My point is this: Many ad campaigns have the wrong advertising “model” (above and beyond the intended message, their targeting, and choice of media). I have come to the opinion that (1) Advertisers are generally quite good at determining what message they want to communicate; (2) Ad agencies are quite good at worrying about ad breakthrough, ad recall, and media selection; and (3) Both advertisers and their agencies are mediocre on getting ‘brand link’ within the advertising (poor branding is one of the biggest in-market reasons for campaign failure in our Ipsos ASI databases). But beyond these three key issues, I feel many advertisers fail to consider the most appropriate advertising model or architecture for their brand/business.
What do I mean by the ‘advertising model’? These are the characteristics or architecture in which the message, creative approach, and media selection fit. For example, I find many advertisers have adopted an advertising model of trying to get their message in to consumers’ heads , but often the better model might be to work on triggering out the brand associations at the relevant situation. Many brands are old, established, and familiar to consumers. Thus, it is relatively pointless to have as an advertising model with the goal of communicating what consumers already know. Instead, the advertising model should be working to trigger out these mental associations at the appropriate situations. If a consumer understands much about a granola bar, but fails to think of such a snack when their stomach rumbles, then the failure is not in understanding the brand, but failing to have it triggered to mind. Is your brand trying to get the message in, or is better served trying to trigger it out?
Another example of the creative architecture relates to the role of slogans as a mini brand summary in-between purchase occasions. If your brand is in a category with a long or infrequent purchase cycle, then the role of a slogan and the benefit of a catchy brand mnemonic is likely quite important. The slogan acts as the engram (brain thought unit) to represent the brand through time until the next purchase occasion. This is less important for brands which are in constant use like toothpaste, household goods, snack items, and so on, but likely key for insurance companies, cruise lines, car rental companies, and others with infrequent purchases (durables, cars, etc). Are you competing in an infrequent purchase category where a slogan and/or mnemonic is likely an important part of the advertising architecture?
In my mind, considering the right advertising model should be developed with the creative ad agency, prior to or as part of developing the ‘creative’ so that the architecture of the message is most relevant. The creativity and media selection then build around this architecture so that things are designed to succeed versus designed to fail. In my opinion, many campaigns have simply ignored the appropriate ad architecture… Am I a fool?
September 22, 2009