The former RTL boss and shrewd talker Helmut Thoma once aptly formulated the paradigm according to which all commercial communication must be aligned: "The bait must taste good to the fish, not the angler."
Thoma's statement was aimed primarily at his colleagues in the journalistic profession, whom he suspected of writing more for themselves or their colleagues and ignoring the public when selecting topics. However, a report that went over the marketing media's tickers at the beginning of the year suggests that we advertising professionals are often more attached to our internal target audience than to the actual addressees of our messages: our clients' customers.
For the "Only an ad can do that" competition for young creatives up to the age of 28, a professional jury critically assessed the work submitted last year. The majority of the jury was made up of agency representatives, supplemented by two advertising clients, one of whom had previously held a leading position in an advertising agency.
At the end of the year, the leading association of the Swiss press also invited the public to give their opinion. An astonishing number of almost 26,000 readers cast their votes by coupon and online. Even more astonishing than the great interest in taking part in the voting was, of course, the result of the two votes: The public voted diametrically opposed to the jury.
The subject placed first by the jury came a distant 11th by the public, while the subject with the telling title "Stilles Örtchen" was crowned the undisputed winner by the public. A work that had not even made it onto the jury's podium. Even if this event is anything but earth-shattering, the huge discrepancy between the public and the "experts" should give us pause for thought.
Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, once said in a discussion with clients that the agencies would never understand more about their clients' business than the clients themselves. What our industry does know and understand better, however, are the habits and trends of consumers.
In light of the controversial vote on the Swiss Press Association's creative competition, one might have slight doubts as to whether this is really the case. No one will deny that the communications industry has a disproportionate tendency towards introspection and that the opinions of industry and creative colleagues are a particular stimulus when it comes to distinguishing oneself with one's own work or judging the proposals of others. This wouldn't be worth mentioning if it didn't sometimes narrow our view of the people for whom we produce our product and who ultimately legitimize the existence of our industry.
Of course, every idea, every creative suggestion, every ingenious communication strategy must first convince those responsible at our customers. And of course every client also has an idea, often supported by market research, of who the consumers of their products and services are and what their specific characteristics and needs are. At the end of the day, however, one of the most important achievements of a communications agency is that it can question this often limited perspective of direct customers through its own findings and observations and correct it where operational blindness makes a clear profile impossible.
The fact that we still have some room for improvement is not only shown by the completely different assessments of the award-winning advertisements by experts and the public. We experience it ourselves when we are confronted with the communication products that we produce ourselves and which are often far from really appealing to us. After all, we are not only communication professionals, but also ordinary everyday consumers who apply exactly the same criteria when making a purchase decision as the rest of the public.
Perhaps the next time we start to communicate the special features of a brand, we should stand back a little and hope less for the next pat on the back from the insiders and more for the applause of the consumers. After all, they are only human.
