The document is a whitepaper that discusses the problem of "sterile advertising" and provides suggestions for making advertising more effective. It argues that while research, data analysis, and following best practices are important, they often result in advertising that is too impersonal and fails to connect with consumers on an emotional level. The whitepaper suggests that agencies need to develop a deeper empathy for consumers by getting out into the field, engaging directly with people, and hiring staff with backgrounds in fields like psychology. It also advocates embracing some degree of messiness and individuality in the creative process to develop ideas that truly resonate with audiences.

1. The Curse of Sterile Advertising
by
Mike Carlton
Creating Campaigns
You know how it works. The client needs a campaign. The agency hires a
research firm to conduct focus groups among consumers (or B-to-B customers).
An agency planner may or may not attend. But if she does, it is often from
behind a one-way glass.
Then the research firm writes a report – always with a short executive summary.
Sometimes with charts and tables. Sometimes with audio or video tapes. The
agency planner reads the executive summary. But because of time pressures
puts the charts, tables and tapes aside intending to study them later.
The planner – sometimes in collaboration with the AE – writes the brief. It may
be insightful. Or it may just cover the facts. Sometimes this is shared with the
client. But if not, the AE makes sure it reflects the client’s point of view. The
brief is passed on to media, the creatives, the interactive guys, PR and the social
experts. Sometimes there is a team meeting to discuss it. Sometimes individual
schedules don’t permit.
The team develops a comprehensive program that meets the brief requirements.
If they have too little to go on their solution may become a bit self-indulgent. The
AE reviews it and if it looks OK, presents it to the client. The client approves it.
Everybody likes it. Nobody loves it. And nobody hates it. It is produced and the
campaign runs.
The consumer sees it and yawns.
What’s Wrong Here?
The campaign (in its broadest sense including advertising, PR, interactive,
promotion, social media, design, etc.) clearly meets the criteria called for in the
brief. It reflects the research summary. And it certainly reflects the client’s point
of view. The team has worked hard on it. They are proud of it. It may even win
an award.
From a clinical business standpoint everything was done right. All the checklists
were completed. The concept appeared sound. The quality of production was
excellent. The media placement was numerically efficient. PR was implemented
according to plan. So was promotion, social media and interactive.
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2. So, why did the consumer yawn?
Could it be that the campaign was just too sterile?
Tuning Out
Everyone knows that consumers are increasingly tuning out commercial
communications that are not personally relevant to them. Same for messaging
that presents a picture that is contrary to their personal experience.
The TV spot showing helpful, smiling telemarketers when you just called and got
blown off by a recording saying, “Please wait, your call is important to us....”
Or when social media tweets about a bank’s friendly customer service where the
teller has just growled at you because your deposit ticket was filled out wrong.
Or when the PR about a product has been stretched to a point of influencing you
to buy, only to find that it really doesn’t do what you thought it would.
It is getting harder and harder to make a meaningful connection with consumers.
And, following the old textbook is not getting the kind of traction agencies need.
Or clients deserve.
People are Strange
When I was a kid if I came home from school complaining about someone else’s
behavior, my mother would say, “You’re right Mike, people are strange. Aren’t
you glad you aren’t one of them?”
The truth is that people are not only strange, they aren’t sterile either.
Human beings are messy. And illogical. And perverse. And contrary. And
emotional. And unpredictable. Consumers are not tidy ciphers that can easily be
reduced to a one page research summary or an agency brief. As advanced as
science and technology is, its best is incredibly puny compared to the human
mind.
People are far too complex to be dealt with so impersonally. Or without the
individual respect and dignity they deserve. And agency people that don’t honor
that truism are doomed to creating sterile advertising that may look great against
all its best practices criteria but just doesn’t work with quirky consumers.
Numbers
Not too long ago Bloomberg Businessweek had a cover story titled, “Math Will
Rock Your World.” Its thesis is that the wealth of data that is now available about
each of us, and the computer power available to analyze and manipulate that
data, can raise the understanding and predictability of human behavior. This will
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3. be a quantum jump within our society. And mathematicians will lead the way in
this development. It is an excellent report, and should be read by every agency
professional. Lots of good stuff here. Much of the thinking can be of great value
to agencies and marketers. As well as in our personal lives.
However, it doesn’t address the fundamental fact that the consumer has a
pervasive contrarian streak. None of us likes being pinned down. History has
repeatedly shown that as soon as we get the feeling that the consumer is neatly
pigeonholed, she changes on us. She is incredibly elusive. As soon as she is
safely in our logically driven sights, she moves the target.
The rise and fall of brands and categories is driven by this fickle nature. Tidy
predictive models, statistical analysis, and precise briefs are vital. But, they can
only go so far. Predictive models are usually being driven through the rear-view
mirror. While the consumer is intuitively looking ahead, and altering behavior
accordingly.
The Role of Empathy
Empathy is defined as the ability to project one’s own personality into the
personality of another so as to better understand his emotions, feelings and
behavior. And consumers, all of us, respond best to others who are empathetic
with us. There is nothing complicated here. This is a plain fact of human
behavior.
But empathy doesn’t come easiy. Particularly in a business environment that
increasingly looks to sterile quantitative metrics to measure success. Empathy is
often derided as being too soft and fuzzy.
The concept of empathy can make the “If you can’t measure it, it does not exist”
school of business thought very uncomfortable. It’s just so messy and
unpredictable.
Yet, while empathy may not be currently in vogue, we all know from our
individual private lives, it is the bedrock of all of our personal relationships with
those we care about. And the people who are better at creating empathetic
relationships are those most likely to build enduring, happy, productive lives.
That’s the way life works. It is just that simple.
Lessons from the Past
While the great advertising breakthroughs of history, and the great advertising
and PR practitioners, were each quite different, they all had one thing in
common. The work was based on keen empathy with the audience.
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4. Sure they had good factual information. And sure they knew what the best
practices of the day were. But arching over all of that was an intuitive
understanding of the psyche of the consumer.
Understanding that did not come in a sterile package.
Any study of giants like David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Edward Bernays, Bill
Bernbach, and their peers reveals that basic empathetic intuition was a
controlling factor in their thinking. And so it was for innovators like Thomas
Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and others whose visions have so changed our
lives.
The thinking and actions of these guys was not detached and sterile.
A Growing Gulf
What we’re seeing here is not a pretty picture. It appears that the marketer and
the agency are focusing more intently on sterile quantitative measures or arm’s
length insights and briefs to drive their marketing strategies and advertising.
And the consumer is increasingly feeling disengaged from the marketer. The
sense of personal bond is declining. It may not be full alienization yet, but it’s
moving that direction. Many consumers believe that marketers just don’t get it.
It is interesting to note that a recent survey identifying the top ten businesses
consumers most dislike includes a number of the companies that are on the list
of the top ten advertisers Kind of tells you something.
A gulf has developed. And it is getting wider. Neither the consumer nor the
marketer and its agency really understand the other as well as they might.
But remember, the consumer is always the king. No matter how logical and
scientific the marketer and agency position is, if it isn’t empathetically grasped by
the consumer, it will not work.
The responsibility for closing this gap falls on the marketer and its advertising
agency including its advisors for PR, interactive, social media, design, etc.
The Role of the Agency
The sole purpose of advertising (in its broadest sense) is to change human
behavior so that it benefits both the consumer and the marketer. As well as
society as a whole. The mission for agencies is not just making ads or other
communications vehicles. They are only the means to the end. Not the end
itself.
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5. Any agency person who believes otherwise is just fooling himself. And short-
changing the client, too.
Our business is to move people. Period.
This is a Contact Sport
The best way to move people is to understand them on an empathic level. This
means that we all must first understand the customer. And as the old saying
goes, to truly understand someone you must first walk a mile in their shoes.
Perhaps this is why so many of the advertising greats are first students of
humanity, and then communications professionals second.
The simple fact is that the best way to learn about people is from people.
The Client’s Bias
This empathy, and the emotional insights it brings, can only come from the
customer. Not from the client. No matter how knowledgeable, or caring, or
compassionate, the marketer can only see the world through his eyes.
Often this is a bias for the manufacture of the product and the financial
implications for his company. His point of view is that of the maker, not the user.
Only the consumer can truly see the marketer’s product from the point of view of
the user. And while the agency can never know as much about the product as
the marketer, it should know a lot more about the consumer’s interests, and
effectively interpret those interests to the client.
A Case for Dirty Hands
If creating great campaigns is difficult in a sterile environment, what can an
agency do? Here are several questions you might ask yourself:
1. Is Everyone Involved?
Having empathy for the consumer is not just the responsibility of
the planners and creatives. It is something that should be shared
by all. Everyone. The receptionist. The media planner. The CFO.
The junior AE. Everyone.
Great ideas come easiest in an environment and culture that
relentlessly focuses on the interests, the emotions, the trials and
the passions of the consumer.
No one should be excused from being an ardent student of
humanity.
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6. 2. Are You Out on the Streets?
Consumers of client products are all around us. We only need to
get out there rubbing shoulders with them. They are in the stores.
They are in the factories. They are at the trade shows. They are at
the gas stations. They are on the busses and trains. They are at
parties. They are in our homes. They are everywhere.
Finding them is not difficult. Getting to know them is.
Agency leadership needs to not only allow time for everyone in the
agency to become more consumer empathetic, but in fact, demand
that they do so.
3. Do You Use the Products?
Does everyone in the agency have first hand experience using
products in the client’s category? This includes all the major
competitors. It also includes the shopping experience. What are
the stores like? What are the web sites like? How easy to use?
How relevant? How user sensitive? What about pricing? And
service?
Seeing, touching, feeling embeds knowledge much better than a
page full of numbers. And while individual experience may be
anecdotal, it can be like frosting on the cake of reams of data.
4. Do You Engage Consumers?
Do your people consciously reach out to consumers and observe
their behaviors? The need to engage them in conversations about
their perceptions of products in the client’s category. What they
think of them? How they use them?
This isn’t like taking a scientific survey. This is a much more
personal and humanistic exploration. Seek feelings, not facts. This
is personal, not clinical. Learn as a friend learns. Not as a
research technician does.
5. Do You Hire ‘gists?
Is your staff peppered with people with educations and
backgrounds in the humanities? Psychologists, sociologists,
cultural anthropologists are trained to see people differently than
statisticians. So are history, philosophy, language and literature
majors.
They can add the important dimension of “feel” to the abundance of
facts available to us.
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7. Humanists can also help by continually reaffirming that people are,
at their core, emotionally driven. They are a lot more than
economic animals.
6. Do You Celebrate Messiness?
Many of us are raised with the notion that tidiness is inherently
good. And that messiness is inherently bad. Not so.
While it is important that offices look professional and inviting to
guests and clients, it is just as important that they celebrate the
spirit of individuality of each of us. That they reflect the uniqueness
that makes us worthy contributors to the creation of great ideas.
And while process is important in avoiding chaos, a certain amount
of messiness in how work is done is also called for.
Great ideas do not come on orderly preplanned timetables. Or
from orderly preplanned contributors. They come when they want
to come. In the way they want to come. And from whom they want
to come.
A Big Enough Tent
Make no mistake. We are not arguing for abandonment of statistical scientific
methods of measuring consumers and their behaviors. These tools are vital.
And necessary. They are the currency of today’s business world. And the
foundation for most measurement systems.
What we are advocating is making the agency’s tent big enough so that hard
information can coexist with soft feelings. Facts that are focused and amplified
by emotions which originate in the spirit and souls of consumers.
Only with a careful and delicate mixture of both can an agency move beyond
sterile advertising to successful advertising.
Copyright 2011 – Carlton Associates Incorporated
Quotes:
The concept of empathy can make the “If you can’t measure it, it does not exist”
school of business very uncomfortable.
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8. Many of us are raised with the notion that tidiness is inherently good. And that
messiness is inherently bad. Not so.
Illustration:
Hazmat hood
Subject:
Agency Whitepaper – The Curse of Sterile Advertising
Lead in:
A lot of campaigns don’t work the way they should. They are carefully
researched and meet all the contemporary best practice standards. But the
consumer sees them and yawns.
Here are some thoughts on what‘s wrong, and some ways to fix it.
I hope you enjoy the full text or the condensed video capsule.
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