Commercials. At best, people feel apathetic towards them. At worst, hatred.
The only people who are genuinely excited about a new ad would be the people involved in making it. Only a very small (and very weird) minority of consumers would probably be excited to look forward to seeing new ads interrupt their lives.
And to be honest, I also hate ads. Ironic, I know, coming from someone working in the industry. This is mainly for the same reason people hate ads: most of the stuff is meaningless clutter. Static. White noise. But unlike most people, I have to watch ads just to keep track of what the competition is doing.
Now, I'm not saying that all of my work is perfect. Most of the work I've done had likely become part of the same clutter I hate. But that's the struggle. How do you make something that rises above everything?
Clients and accounts people would usually throw around words like "cut-through" during briefings. The problem is that everyone has a different idea of "cut-through." It can vary from a catchy slogan, a very wild and creative idea, or just plain carpet bombing everything via media placements (which is what often happens).
What we should be looking for, when "cut-through" is mentioned, is a connection with the audience. The material should be able to pierce through the white noise. And what's more "cut-through" than a sharp message.
And this is where “insight” comes in. Insight is truth. It gives your idea meaning. You can't argue with it, you can't fight it, and you would be foolish to deny it. It can be a truth about consumer behavior. It can be a truth about the category, culture, or even the channels. Why truth? Because this is how we relate to our audience. The consumer is your mom, your spouse, your kids. Would you lie to them?
There are two kinds of truths- the obvious ones, which are cliches. For example: moms love their kids. Craft the message around this and we get a message that's overused and generic.
The other kind of truth is the one that we don't realize, the not-so obvious, the interesting, and sometimes, the painful. For example: you belong to your kids, but your kids don't belong to you. This in itself opens up more possibilities in crafting a good message and idea.
If we have a unique and interesting insight, the job gets easier because we can state our message in a unique and interesting way and get a unique and interesting idea. Only a bad creative can fuck this up.
But what if we get stuck with a generic truth? The job then becomes more difficult because we have to think extra harder to avoid doing generic forgettable work. Most fail, hence the white noise. No shame there. It happens to everyone. We can always do better next time.
With a good insight, you can then have an idea how to sharpen your message. And both of these can lead to good big ideas. The big idea is the pillar of the ad campaign. It should be mind-blowing, but still grounded on a solid insight. It should be able to deliver the message effectively across all platforms and channels. The big idea is the novel solution to the client's problem.
But it is worthless without good crafting.
There have been big ideas that could have been brilliant if not for the crafting. And there have also been big ideas that could have been mediocre if not for the crafting. Good crafting can help the message pierce the white noise and stab it into the viewer's skull.
Solid insight, sharp message, brilliant big idea, good crafting- these are how you rise above the noise.
We spend ungodly hours in this job. We spend time away from friends and family. We squeeze our brains for the last drop of an idea. There is always a certain amount of pain that we tolerate in almost every step of the process, every single day.
Wouldn't it really suck if the work we produce just gets lost in white noise and clutter?