It was sparked in part by a note/ thought that I had said to our agency working on some absolutely critical new copy for a brand that is now really struggling in the market place. My view to my agency partner is: "This copy has to make us all famous". That is what I am really looking for. Famous because it will dramatically change the way people inside the company (who have lost faith in the brand) think about the brand and so they get behind it again - and famous because it will get consumers to completely relook at the brand (from being old fashioned and stuffy into something innovative, relevant and exciting) and put it back on their shopping list.
It reminded me of what I had read about the much publicised Cadbury Gorilla ad (which readers of this blog will know is not one of my favourite ads). Fallon, the agency, claim the brief they got was: make me an ad that gets talked about. This lead to an ad that was very much talked about and took on a life on the net as well as on air. Her example was when working in the brewing industry where copy ahs to stand out as products are probably less differentiated, was she asked for an ad that would "win awards". This lead to a very breakthrough, very popular and award winning series of ads.
All too often when briefing creatives we give them sales and shares targets, that usually reflect business plan targets and so are not that aspirational. Creatives need to be inspired -a nd so give them an advertising objective that inspires.
But remember, you will then get that. So if don't really want to buy it, don't ask for it.
1 comment:
I am sorry that you don't like 'Gorilla' - I wrote the brief. I never asked Juan to make us famous - that isn't a brief, it is merely an output of a good product and a story well-told. What we wanted Juan to do was create some communications that made people feel the same way they do when they eat the chocolate - job done, I think.
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