Yes, these are all very real problems and, yes, these huge global issues should be discussed by the C-suite and, yes, businesses have a responsibility to do the right thing whether that relates to the planet, or the people who live on it.
But here’s the kicker… It’s not up to us to alone to fix all that. A young graduate entering this industry may be led to believe otherwise considering the time, brain space and even media spend consumed by these topics by so many brands and agencies, but in truth we’re often just distracting our efforts away from what we’re actually here to do – to build unforgettable brands which people notice, remember and then put in a basket.
Start by thinking for a moment about why you came into this industry in the first place. For me, and I’m sure many others, it was to make people laugh, to make their hairs stand on end or put a smile on their faces on the way to work, it was to create amazing characters and tell brilliant stories.
We came into this industry to entertain.
And luckily for us, this isn’t simply self-indulgence; it’s what works. Howard Gossage hit the nail on the head when he said ‘People pay attention to what’s interesting to them, sometimes that’s advertising.’
It’s for this reason, that entertainment is one of our four ‘principles of unforgettable brands’, because we know that highly-entertaining creative which has an emotive impact is one of the most effective ways to put a brand into the mind of a consumer and keep it there.
At Principles we’re seeing increasing appetite from brands who want to look to the lighter side, and because we’re working on a handful of these campaigns right now, it feels like the perfect opportunity to shine a light on the topic.
And whilst we’ve been creating entertaining campaigns for everyday brands for almost 40 years, and we know that far less changes than stays the same, we also know we can’t switch off; we must continue being curious about what we do and how we can do it better.
That’s why we’ve introduced a series of webinars, the latest of which explored this exact subject with some of the most experienced voices in FMCG marketing, who covered a hell of a lot in an hour which all marketers can learn from, like:
- How to entertain when you don’t have a blank cheque
- How to be braver than you think you need to be
- How the school run acid test can be a sobering benchmark
Hit the link below to watch the full session...
If you want to have a bit of fun with your brand, and believe in creating comms which people talk about on the bus or in the hairdressers, get in touch at hello@principlesagency.co.uk