I filled in an application recently to join the DMA UK Print Council. The key question was what I would bring to the group.
This was my answer, and it is the clearest way I can put the argument.
Where the money goes and where it doesn’t
Huge amounts of energy, resource and budget go into data, targeting, production and delivery. Who receives it. How it is produced. What format it takes.
Far less attention goes into the words, pictures, structure and argument that have to persuade someone once it lands.
Creative testing usually focuses on audiences, formats and production efficiencies. Not the context the message is read in. Not the headspace of the person receiving it. And not the sales argument most likely to change behaviour.
The result is creative that ticks internal boxes but fails to move the people brands want to reach.
Everyone in the room is paid to care
That is the mechanism.
Creative gets shaped by briefs, brand guidelines, feedback and sign-off. Everyone involved is being paid to give it their attention.
The person picking it up off the doormat is not.
So the work gets safer with every round. The headline gets polite. The problem gets softened. The uncomfortable bit gets taken out because someone was worried about how it would look.
And you end up with creative that is tone-perfect, on grid, internally approved and underperforming.
Who you actually answer to
Most internal creative teams have to switch hats between brand and performance without ever being given the tools to do it.
You need brand guardians. You need people who care about green versus slightly darker green. You need people with integrity. None of that is the problem.
The problem is forgetting who the work answers to.
It is not the boss. It is not the CMO. It is not the creative director.
It is the punter. Audience, customer, prospect, reader, call them what you like. They are the only ones who matter. If the ad does not move them to act, it does not work, and what the stakeholders thought of it will not change that.
I like it does not cut it in direct response.
Brief differently
If you want the creative to come out different, the change has to happen earlier.
A brief that only says what the brand wants to say forces the creative team to invent what the reader needs to hear.
So the brief should answer these before anyone opens a design file.
What problem are we naming? Is that a problem the reader actually feels, or one we have decided they should? What do they already believe? What is stopping them acting? What proof would make this feel safe? What is the next step and why should they take it now?
Get those on paper and the creative team has something to build an argument from rather than a list of things to include.
The commercial bit
None of this is about making ads look different. It is about making them work harder.
Because you are already spending the money to reach these people. The media plan is done. The data is bought. The postage is paid.
The ad still has to do the hard bit.
If your campaign did not work and you do not know why, I will help you find the leak.
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