I will never vouch to be a brand expert. However I accept that I have many experiences, insights and a certain amount of experience of understanding when and why some brands and brand activations connect and thrive and why others miss their mark and end up dying (even if only for a period of time)! On June 16th, I am speaking on a panel at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The panel entitled ‘Beyond the Generational Divide: The New Rules for Consumer Connection’ presented by Amazon will consist of a discussion between myself and some very esteemed leaders in the field focusing specifically on age-based marketing. What I’m going to share in this post will no doubt apply to what I will be contributing as part of the panel.
Anyway, this week as I have been gathering my thoughts for aforementioned panel, I reflected on a car crash of a brand’s campaign that I recently witnessed close up a few months ago. In a nutshell a well known brand wanted to engage with a youth demographic in a certain trendsetting city. They used consumer data to drive a campaign which was essentially about pushing product to lots of people in said demographic and paying tastemakers to wear the product in the hopes of encouraging the demographic to go and buy the product. The agency, representing the brand seemed very sure that this would work and did not listen to some of the feedback that suggested otherwise. Neither did they apparently do any real research on the ground to grasp a better understand of how the land lay for the brand.
Needless to say the campaign was a bit of a disaster. Well in my opinion it was. It certainly never kicked off the halo effect which they hoped for, if anything it felt like they created a negative effect, at least among the tastemakers. I won’t go in depth but trust me.
This led me to consider how and why things went wrong – but more importantly, how things could have gone right.
I thought back to many campaigns that I felt were excellent in concept, creation and execution – whether its impact was measured in a growth in sales or engagement or positive positioning or a combination of all those outcomes. I reflected on campaigns I had worked on or advised on for a variety of brands or organisations that are essentially brands in their own right. And that led me to realise that I actually have an equation that I use to work towards what I call DESIRED IMPACT when I am engaged on such projects and campaigns.
DATA (IQ) x CULTURAL INSIGHT (CI) + INFORMED ACTIVITY (IA) = DESIRED IMPACT (DI)
byyawowusu
Basically the message of this is, you can have all the Data or intelligence (IQ) but you also NEED the Cultural Insight (CI), which should be adhered to and inform the targeted activity. Simple right?! In my experience if you have all of these things in place and they are maximised to the highest level you will undoubtedly get your Desired Impact. My work as a creative consultant tends to be focused across the CI (Research) and IA (Development, Design and Delivery) elements. I won’t lie though, it’s a lot of work to get it done right but the other option is failing to hit the target, which to me is death. And what brand or campaign wants to die?!
Now you may ask, well what is CI?! I can imagine you want some clarity on that. Well I will tell you what it isn’t! It isn’t just information. It isn’t just hearsay. It isn’t just a random hunch or feeling. It is true insight, gained only from considered research and actual experience. It’s depth and understanding. In fact, I feel it can be broken down in to 4 main parts but perhaps I save that for another post… or maybe I’ll just keep it to myself 🙂
Anyway, just some of my Words & Thoughts. I hope it sparks some debate or discussion.
If you are keen to know more, you know what I do and where I am 😉