With apologies to none at all
I had been in advertising for two years when I went to present a finished TV commercial to a client. All alone. Due to some internal reasons, nobody could accompany me. I was nervous but confident as the film was exactly as discussed and had come out well. But being alone and that too presenting at the client’s house late at night, unsure about the TV quality and the VCR playback, I tried to remember all prayers I had learnt in my life. On the plus side, though the client was the chairman of a conglomerate, we had developed a good rapport.
I was ushered into the massive dining room where the whole joint family was just finishing a meal. After exchanging small pleasantries and being introduced to the various children and grandchildren and the aunts and grandmothers, I put on the film. And waited with baited breath.
The matriarch of the house took the lead. In rubbishing the film. And soon the whole family followed. I felt like a man standing on his death row and facing a barrage of gunfire and life slowly ebbing out of me. After what seemed an eternity, it was actually not even 2-3 minutes, everyone walked out of the room. Except for my client. He looked at me. Grinned. And asked, what now?
I still don’t know how my tongue sprang back to life or how my brain instructed my tongue to speak. All I remember is telling my client with a straight face, confidently. “The film has to be seen through the eyes of the TG and it is bang on brief. So, it will work.”
Later on, my client told me, that my simple logic and my confidence persuaded him in an instant. Because his reply was “Isko chalao”. No change, no cuts, no further discussions.
And that remained my guru mantra whenever I went into creative assessment mode. As an advertising person, as a marketer or even as a critic.
I think one of the most underrated but the most important skill which any marketing person must acquire is to asses and judge creative product. It’s a skill which is never taught. It is a skill which one acquires with experience but it is also a skill, the lack of which, can result in ineffective, insipid and wasted communication. I am not talking about just ads but about any communication. Assessing and judging an ad or a post or a blog or even a documentary is an art supported by some simple science.
For me, there are three simple principles to be followed:
Does the piece of communication meet the brief?
The person who approves the brief must also be the final approval authority.
Will the communication grab attention?
Let’s delve into each. Let’s begin with the last one first.
The way I started this column, I caught your attention. Didn’t I? The story, the impending disaster and ultimately the great escape. Or happy ending. The very fact that you are reading this, tells me that I grabbed your attention. We are so busy trying to pack in brand message and brand rationale that we forget that we are one of the hundreds of messages that our target is being exposed to. So, we must develop the art of standing out in a crowd.
Today, creating an impact means creating a controversy. Because we measure impact by the term viral. Did my ad go viral? Was my post viral? Are people talking about my brand? We forget that it’s not just about going viral. It must be connected to the brand story, brand personality, TG thinking and finally the emotion it creates. Because we humans remember emotions easily. Even facts presented as emotion are better understood.
And to achieve all this we start with the brief. It should be super tight and focused. Personally, I think a good brief must be about four things. Single-minded benefit or service, TG, brand personality and desired response. An insight is a bonus.
And two out of these four are anyways a constant. TG and brand personality. So, a marketing person must chisel the other two. First, be clear about the single-minded benefit. Rational or emotional. Do not pack in too many things. Remember, if someone throws more than one ball at you simultaneously, chances are that you will drop all. Exactly the same thing happens with a communication message. Do not clutter. Simplify to one benefit.
Desired response is actually, what does one want the TG to recall. So, if the benefit is that Parle comes out with innovative products, then that is what the TG must recall single-mindedly. Now the challenge therefore is what stimulus or message will be communicated so that the TG remembers that Parle has innovative products. Stimulus is something that will make the TG recall that Parle comes with innovative products. Stimulus is the creative breakthrough.
TG and brand personality are mostly non-negotiable. You may want to include a new TG, or enhance the TG base. But explain the new TG well. Actually, TG is not just about demographics but also about behaviour, emotion and attitudes. Are you as a marketer clear on your TG details? Will it help if all and sundry watch or read your communication but your TG doesn’t? Not understanding your TG and wanting the communication to go viral could be a waste.
Personality does not change. How many of us humans are Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? We all have a constant personality that defines us. The same is true for brands. No changing of personality with different pieces of communication.
With the brief in place, we now move to the second of the three points in assessment. The final authority who is going to give green signal to the creative, has he or she signed off on the brief? You cannot expect a brand manager to sign off a brief and then the creative is rejected by the CEO who had not been privy to the brief. He may not agree with the single-minded benefit or the desired response. Is s/he clear about the TG and their emotions? The moral is simple. If your CEO will be the final approving authority, s/he better sign off on the brief too. I have worked with many MNC clients where this rule was followed and even if the CEO did not agree with the piece of communication, s/he would not interfere at the final stage. Mostly in such cases, the clarity, simplicity and impact in the creative was evident.
While judging or assessing creative, leave aside your personal likes or dislikes, unless you are part of the TG. In fact, you need to understand the TG inside out. So that you can step into the shoes of the TG and then look at the TG from that lens. Judge a piece of creative through the lens of the TG. The I here has to take a backstage.
I was lucky because the adversity I faced in that meeting, more than three decades ago, helped me learn the importance of creative judgement. But as an industry, I think we have failed in giving importance to this skill. Our creative judgment gets clouded because we are not trained to judge and asses it.
It’s never too late to start.
