Recently, I did a talk at Vision Bristol.
One of my points was that advertising doesn’t work without impact.
If we don’t cut through, if we don’t get on the radar, nothing can happen.
Whatever medium we use.
So we need impact.
How we make that happen, if we’re a huge, lazy company with a massive budget, is repetition.
A dull predictable message with enough money spent on it will cut through eventually.
Just out of sheer irritation.
But if we don’t have a massive budget, it takes a little more thought to get impact.
You have to separate your message off from your environment.
You have to stand out from your context.
You have to be different.
If you do this, two things happen.
Not only will you get noticed just by being different, but more important, you will appeal to Opinion Formers.
Opinion Formers are the mentally agile, the inquisitive.
They are the people who are usually leading any group, whatever the demographic, male or female.
They like to spot things first, they like what’s new and different.
Opinion Formers spread the message amongst Opinion Followers.
There are fewer Opinion Formers than there are Opinion Followers.
But a single Opinion Former may influence many Opinion Followers.
It’s a trickle-down effect.
This is how viral advertising happens.
Not just by using a particular medium, but by motivating Opinion Formers.
Therefore, for people with smaller budgets, this makes sense.
But you don’t motivate Opinion Formers with Opinion Follower advertising.
Opinion Follower advertising is dull, ordinary, just what they expected.
That advertising can only work if it’s got a massive budget.
To keep hammering Opinion Followers over the head.
It doesn’t make good business sense.
But it is easier to approve, because it takes less nerve.
Strangely, the higher up the ladder you go, amongst the people who approve advertising, the more daring they are.
This is because, the nearer the top they get, the more entrepreneurial they are.
They got to the top by doing things differently, by making decisions that stood out.
They know standing out works.
So they are more likely to buy advertising that stands out.
Standing out is entrepreneurial.
Standing out creates impact.
After I’d done this talk, I was checking on Twitter to see how it went down.
Someone had angrily sent me a message, ending ‘tosser’.
I replied, if they wanted a debate, they should do it without name calling.
They replied, sarcastically, that they used the word ‘tosser’ to get impact, as I’d said in my talk.
(Deep sigh)
It’s at times like this that I despair of doing talks.
It seems there are so many people who think it’s their job to twist and misinterpret what’s being said.
Let’s take it slowly.
I didn’t say impact was the be-all and end-all.
I didn’t say ‘nothing else matters’.
I said ‘nothing can happen without impact’.
Since I was talking to advertising professionals I didn’t think I had to add ‘but the wrong sort of impact can be harmful’.
Dropping your trousers and farting in front of a young lady will get you impact, but it probably won’t get you a date.
I didn’t think I had to explain that to fellow advertising professionals.
It has to be impact that’s relevant to the result you want.
I’ll say that again, because otherwise someone will manage to twist and misinterpret it.
“It has to be impact that’s relevant to the result you want.”
There isn’t a simple formula.
Every time, every brand, every product category, every media, is new and different.
It takes thinking.
Which is hard work.
And our minds don’t like hard work.
Tosser.
Er, Dave – even with a huge budget, mindless reps may not work. But many clients think having money gives them the right to be silly. Better spend the money doing something safe but ineffective – than to spend less money but on something that has a better chance of being noticed.
Robin. - 28 November 2011 10:36 am
Now who’s the tosser…
Will Harvey - 28 November 2011 10:44 am
On the theme of standing out, I can’t help but think, that what this bloke talks to is not entirely nonsense and appeals to the Opinion Formers.
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
Jeremy - 28 November 2011 11:00 am
Something similar to Opinion Formers, is Early adopters. You can see the whole adoption life cycle here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle
Bharath - 28 November 2011 12:49 pm
http://styled-comments.blogspot.com/2011/11/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-285.html
Anca - 28 November 2011 1:15 pm
Don’t despair, Dave. Mindless criticism is the price you pay for having something to say. It upsets people who can’t contribute. Feel sorry for the tosser who called you a tosser. Your life will be much lovelier than theirs.
rachel carroll - 28 November 2011 4:31 pm
Rachel and Anca, that’s very nice of you both.
Thanks very much.
Dave Trott - 28 November 2011 6:11 pm
Some men honk their car horns and yell from construction sites to attract women.
Those women have surely got to be thinking, ‘Yeah, you’re all that I want!’
john woods - 28 November 2011 8:38 pm
Bloody hell, how embarrassing for us Bristolians. I am so sorry Dave. I didn’t hear anything negative about our talk. I went to the after party up at 3Sixty, and everyone was raving about how your keynote ended Vision on a high note. You get idiots everywhere, I’m just pissed off this idiot bothered to buy a ticket to Vision.
Gail Parminter - 28 November 2011 11:18 pm
Not at all Gail.
I had a good time and everyone was great.
If ‘tosser’ is the worst thing I ever get called I’ll be happy.
I really enjoyed Bristol.
Thanks.
Dave Trott - 28 November 2011 11:26 pm
Interesting. I find sometimes big monolithic clients want to look agile and interesting while the smaller guys want to look larger and more stable than they are. Ironically, they want what the other has.
Peter - 29 November 2011 2:37 am
@ Peter
How right. I was once the CD of Supermarket Chain A. Their lifelong ambition was to be like the smaller Supermarket Chain B. Years later, I was at the agency that did Supermarket Chain B. And their ambition was to be like A. I still reckon I could’ve made a nice bit of money introducing the 2 CEOs.
Robin. - 29 November 2011 9:21 am
That’s where knowing who your competitor is and being too focused on them to realize you have an opportunity to be yourself.
Which is infinitely more interesting.
Well, it’s interesting if we cut through.
Peter - 29 November 2011 10:09 am
It’s annoying because A thinks B’s way is how to move ahead. And B thinks A’s way is what keep them ahead. Have some confidence, man
Robin. - 29 November 2011 11:24 am
Comedians want to be rock stars, rock stars want to be film stars and film stars want to be comedians.
Jim - 29 November 2011 12:11 pm
Yup, clients want to be creative directors/art directors/copy writers.
Robin. - 30 November 2011 8:59 am
Hi Dave,
A friend of mine had to attend a boring meeting the other day headed by an uninspiring manager. At the end of “Mr Manager’s” 30 minute durge, he suggested everyone try everything they had done and failed countless times before, again, as his vision was the way forward to utopia. Before breaking-up he asked: “Any comments?”
My friend replied:
“We are walking into the future backwards.”
Ironically he shares the same surname as the Chancellor of the Exchequor.
Kevin Gordon - 30 November 2011 9:00 am