Let's Just Do That

I want to share one of my favourite advertising effectiveness tricks, simply because I think too much advertising doesn’t work nearly as well as it should.

I’ve been thinking about the most successful brand comms strategies I’ve been involved with over the years (as you do) and I’ve noticed there’s this common moment that occurs in their development. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is rather simple.

It’s that moment when someone (often me as the strategist or facilitator) enthusiastically points at someone else's idea and suggests, ‘Let’s just do that’.

Equally successful variations include, ‘Why don’t we just do that?’ or ‘What would happen if we just did that?’ It’s a strangely motivating and liberating phrase. It simultaneously appeals to both aspiration and laziness. Rationally, it suggests that by focusing our resource on less, we could probably do it exceptionally well.

This approach was, for example, behind PAK’nSAVE (Stickman), Mitre 10 (Sandpit), The Electricity Authority (What’s My Number?), Mercury (Electric Bikes), New Zealand Post (Sweet Little Lies, and Express Tonight) and very recently, Turners Cars (Tina from Turners).

With each of them, well before they became a creative concept, there was an exciting moment of focus; where the team agreed not to do, or say, a lot of the things that others in the same situation might consider important, or even mandatory.

Let’s look at those four words, in grammatical order, rather than importance:

Let’s

Collaboration cliches aside, we do have to agree to an angle and own it together. (Clients, suits, strategists, creatives...) Then defend it. Then execute it brilliantly. With passion and commitment. If any one person behaves as though it’s entirely their individual idea, then bang, half the available energy is wiped out, resistance builds, airspeed plummets, and the fall towards mediocrity begins. The unifying sentiment ‘Let’s do something great together’ is the first simple step towards excellence.

Just

Yes, we know the business being considered is complicated. That’s because all business is complicated. So are the lives of the people whose attention we’re trying to attract. And this is just one of thousands of brands competing for that attention. They don’t need to hear another twenty messages from us. What’s the one most important and interesting thing we have? Keep it simple. Pick something and do it way bigger than anything and anyone else. Controversially, it actually matters less what it is, and more that we do it well. Connecting on one issue, distinctively, likeably, and at scale, usually boosts other perceptions and behaviours that we didn’t even address in our communications. Sure, we can, and should, bring that one angle to life it in various ways, but hold it all together with Just that one big thing.

Do

Deciding to do something doesn’t mean committing to a series of meetings and sharing more contradictory opinions about it. It means actually making things happen. Committing time and money. Learning and optimising through doing. Getting others excited and on board. Writing, designing, planning… making something. The sooner we agree the sooner we can start. The longer we take thinking about whether something could be great, the less time and money we’ll have to make sure that it actually is.

That

The most powerful moment in any ideas session is when someone enthusiastically draws attention to another person’s suggestion (‘that’ rather than ‘this’) and declares it to be great. It immediately shifts the room from individual ego to collective ego. It changes everything. Yes of course, the thought has to actually be great or, more likely, have the potential to be great. Flawed is fine, or even preferable. The focused energy and optimism created will soon sort that out and take it to new heights.

Let's Just Do That

I know very well that this philosophy makes many people feel uncomfortable. It used to make me uncomfortable too. But, after 30 years of experimenting, I know that it works. I suspect it probably works even better in today’s more complicated, fragmented, and expensive advertising world.

For those that think this just sounds overly simplistic and lazy, I suggest, for the sake of both advertising effectiveness and your mental health, that you read the excellent ‘Great CEOs are Lazy’ by Jim Schleckser.

(I didn’t. I just read the book summary and watched the YouTube video.)

Schleckser’s anecdote about finding ‘the kink in the hose’ directly helped us with the thinking behind Turners Cars' new campaign. It’s actually way too early to declare that 'Tina from Turners' is very successful, so I’m going out on a limb when I predict that it will be one of New Zealand’s most effective campaigns this year and next. I’ll talk more about that in my next piece.

David (DT) Thomason, 23rd June 2021