Never a dull moment

Better than a bus trip to Bognor...

Peter Field’s white paper makes the case that the medium of TV is at the heart of effective marketing delivering attention, emotional clout and trust.  Interesting, no?Attention is crucial for building mental availability, which drives long-term brand growth. TV advertising excels in capturing and maintaining viewer attention compared to other platforms. TV is particularly effective for creating emotional connections with audiences, yields a 3.5x multiplier in market share growth per budget unit. TV is viewed as a trusted medium, which positively influences consumer perceptions.

With that in mind, our founder Melissa Fretwell and Creative Director Rachel King got together to bash heads and share some of their experiences working in TV, streaming and digital, across the big screens and the small. Briefing and producing a myriad of colourful campaigns for just about every genre and demographic you can think of. From blowing up a giant junk skull sculpture at Pinewood Studios for Kerrang! to getting rockstars high on life to behave on camera at V-Fest. Collecting the nation’s ‘doof doofs’ for EastEnders’ 25th anniversary, to working with Aardman on  bespoke Wallace & Gromit idents for BBC ONE Christmas. Creating and embedding Love Island’s iconic heart-shaped snow globe into popular culture, to throwing Ant & Dec out of a helicopter into the jungle for I’m a Celebrity and installing the world’s first popcorn dispensing billboard in Victoria Station for the launch of ITVX. We reckon it’s not boring. No need for caffeine. We’re keeping this short, sharp and pointy.   

As May fades to black, we say adieu to Lettuce Month. One of the lesser known celebrations of a humble plant part of the ever shinier, happier sunflower family. Cultivated by the ancient Egyptians who passed it onto the Greeks and Romans. The latter believed it boosted your sexual stamina and probably gave rise to the Caesar salad. But we digress. The thought here is that if a lettuce can be interesting, so can your brand. We set out to discuss why it pays to be interesting. 

Expensive and not dull research from System 1, Peter Field and Eat Big Fish explored the ‘Cost of Dull’. 

“Looking at the extra amount of media money you would have to spend behind a dull campaign to get the same commercial return as if you'd spent it on an interesting campaign. So in the case of a typical TV campaign in the UK, Peter has estimated, using the IPA data, that a dull campaign (he's defining that as one that uses rational or factual based arguments to try and persuade the customer to buy them) would have to spend £10 million more on media to have the same commercial return as a more interesting campaign (i.e. one that is emotionally engaging or creating fame and social salience).”

That’s a helluva lot of marketing quids right there. So we’re keen to chip into this conversation. Add our priceless thoughts on how to avoid a yawn-fest with your marketing and communications campaigns. 

According to System 1, an ad in their database literally involves watching paint dry! Important to note that we did this stunt way back in the naughties for lifestyle channel UKTV Style. We took over a whole shop window in Great Portland Street to showcase paint drying. It stopped people in their tracks, momentarily. 

And then there’s the 20 seconds of cows gently munching in a field continues System1.

“Even an ad like that, in which nothing happens, scores in line with the average TV ad for effectiveness. While most of the cow ad’s audience (56%) feel nothing, that actually is not enough Neutrality to put it at the bottom of our study, in the “Extremely Dull” advertising quartile. Yes, you heard us right, more than 1 in 4 ads create even less response than a 20’ film of a cow in a field.” 

You may not be truly unique with your offer but you can tell a distinctive story, one that surely creates standout from the herd, purple cow anyone? You have 2.5 seconds to grab people’s attention. 

According to the brain boffins, being bored activates a pivotal network in your brain called the default mode network. When you are alone with your thoughts you reset your brain. It's consolidating memories and reflecting, playing through scenarios and applying what was learned and how it could be used in the future. During this disconnection time, your mind can wander, stumble across new solutions and new ideas.

Actively listening to what’s driving your boredom is also a useful tastemaker tool. We realise what we really like to read, to watch, to listen to. The people who enthuse us and transmit energy and those who simply drain and deplete us. Tuning into boredom helps us grade what’s interesting to us and perhaps a community that we’re part of.

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’...?!  Said someone, somewhere once.  But what if it’s boring vs broke? What if the messaging is delivered in the same format, in the same space with the same call to action.  Are we then all stuck in a Groundhog day of predictability?! Hmm. Admittedly the counter-argument is repeatedly ripping up the rulebook which results in a constant state of flux that leaves me feeling queasy - change for changes sake is equally a sin. So how to define boredom, dullness, monotony, tedium…?  Physically as a mental state it’s when you zone out, switch off, disengage.  Auto-pilot. Immunity. Disengagement. You walk past a D6 without registering it, stare blankly at a poster on the tube platform, fast forward (or mute) the ads on TV.  Everything is immemorable.  (Apart from what you’re most likely viewing, listening, reading, interacting with on your phone!). In reality it means low impact visuals, over-processed content with too many messages, bland, excessive text or dialogue, zero narrative or emotional connection and barely registering as a basic, functional piece of marketing.  Auto-delete. Instantly erased from people’s minds. See ya.

Interesting then to ponder what’s interesting..(apart from the opposite of the above).  Distinct look and feel, potentially provocative visuals but certainly confident and striking.  Clarity of message, be pithy and make one point clearly made.  Something ‘sticky’. The image, the line, the call out, the take out - what will catch attention. What’s the ‘one thing’ that people will register consciously  - or subconsciously, (remembering the famous Derren Brown advertising agency trick, where he asked advertising agency folk to come up with a creative solution - that he had already created).  It’s not new news, but too often these basics get forgotten.  

As every strategist knows, understanding human behaviour is key to how marketing connects.  And it can be a micro movement that makes all the difference.

By all means recycle a TV format, but add in a surprising twist. Stick to a familiar campaign structure, but add a distinctive sprinkle of newness. Tap into the nostalgia of ‘what works’  but through a modern, relatable lens.  If we never try to do ‘different’ we’ll never know.  That ship will have sailed with you on it.  

Here's a starter for ten:

1. Think in puzzles and mysteries. Are you more Poirot whodunnit, the cast assembled in the drawing room or more Tales of the Unexpected, leaving you pondering for days?

2. Be incurably curious you never know when an idea or nudge might present itself. 

3. Talk to strangers - not in a creepy way

4. Flip it, reverse it

5. Music, music, music. The soundtrack is your superpower

6. Get it all out….. Let the first wave of inspiration spill out, rarely will those initial thoughts be ‘it’...but it’s therapeutic and all with all the s**t out the way, makes way for the second wave which is usually much more likely to reveal a nugget of an idea.

7. Don’t go it alone. Ask for input.

8. Take a knock back and build resilience.  Determination is fuel.

9. Lie down, stand up, repeat.

10. Do a downward dog

A mini checklist of sorts to help measure your creative genius:

• Your first concept or script will be rubbish. Build in time to refine. 

• Test in on audience - spontaneous reactions are often the best

• Can your nine year old get it?

• What is everyone else doing…?  Clearly don’t copy someone’s homework but is there a trend to follow, or buck?  

• What’s the most ridiculous thing you can think of?  Try starting there and working backwards.

• Is it marmite? Is it polarising enough? 

• Chat to chat gpt (!)...?  

This is also useful for startups:

• Be the person you’re selling to. What is their mindset?

• Bring personality to the table, bland will sell bland.

• You need to genuinely love the idea, show passion

• Present using as many of the senses as you can - chocolate may sometimes be useful but video tells your story faster.  

• Add some pitch theatre, be memorable, be different

• Humour is a tightrope. Don’t tell people you’re funny, tell a cracking joke 

• Rhymes can be naff, use sparingly

• Parody is a dangerous game, enter at your peril

• If talent is involved, get it right or it’ll be hard to live down (for them & for you) and potentially brand damaging.

• Death by a thousand vignettes, an age-old trope but if you want/need to feature multiples of anything think about an interesting transition or technique to get you between scenes. 

• Get the casting right. Toe-curling and cringe don’t ever cut it. Spend time getting it spot on, or you’ll spend even longer regretting your decision when you get to the edit.

• Look for a story, is there a nuance that could garner some PR?  A creative rationale behind using a specific place, a significant time, specialist equipment, contributor, style, art direction.  The HOW (or WHO) could well be more interesting than the WHAT…! 

  
  

So our ask to you is what if you were to do (just) one thing differently tomorrow? 

It could be a small, incremental adjustment to a campaign, message or format. It could be a contextual thing, the environment can transform an idea or a new insight that genuinely speaks to the target audience that could make a big difference to effectiveness?  Those tube ads that catch us dreaming of places in the sun or worrying about the fragrance of a fellow passenger’s armpit. Tap into the big wide world, become part of every day conversation and dialect.

Take the two meerkats that are now omnipresent in society and still continue to evolve, most recently in an unlikely partnership between AutoSergei & Paul Hollywood.  Or the empowerment of This Girl Can that started a movement and passion for women and sport even before we realised we needed it but now can’t imagine living without. And then there’s the brand ‘you should have gone to….’ that has been consistently using the same message and tagline for over 20 years and is spot on every single time in reacting to trends across social media. The list goes on… but consistently, relevance in key. Always look out of the window, before you look down at your laptop.

Get in touch with Rachel to help make your creative even more interesting, she is the creative problem solver you’ve been looking for. Embedded within in-house agencies, she’s been the brain behind the creative direction of some of the UK’s biggest broadcast media brands and titles. When it comes to a brief, she brings a strategic, laser-sharp eye for creative clarity and fresh thinking. She champions collaboration and inspires those around her with infectious energy and a passion for standout solutions. If you’re after bold ideas, crafted storytelling, or original thought starters she’s your woman.

And for everything else there’s White Camino 😎.