Cut the brandobabble. Get to the creative work.
When I read an article about branding yesterday (https://nyti.ms/2rgHTKF), it reminded me of a piece I wrote in 2003.
What do you think? Is there too much “brandobabble” in your life?
_________
Cut the brandobabble. Get to the creative work.
By Robert Gibralter
The time has come to stop the brandobabble, get back to basics, and concentrate on the creative work.
Some of the rampant signs of brandobabblism are:
Everyone has a “proprietary model” and the models are getting harder and harder to understand. The consumer couldn’t care less.
The number of meetings, the people involved, and the time needed to make decisions continues to expand. Meanwhile, there is less to spend.
More paper than ever goes into decks, print outs, and explanations of models, processes, and rationalizations. Rarely do people read or refer back to decks.
“Powerpointitis” is an global epidemic. We may be doomed to endure generations of “follow the bouncing ball” presenters. This contributes to analysis paralysis.
“Incrementalism” feeds the onerous spread of brandobabble, stealing precious time, funds, and attention from the creative work. Sadly, it “buys time,” delays decisions, holds up investment spending, and does not fuel growth.
There should be more focus, feeling, funding and fun: presenting, discussing and selling great creative works. Sadly, this is the era of desperation marketing.
The creative work hardly stands out, or hardly works.
There seems to be an endless growth of “branding” literature, seminars, conferences training programs, model-making, agencies, agencies within agencies, conferences, and branding extrapolations.
Stop. It’s time for a wake-up call. If the spread continues, brandobabble will destroy the souls of more commercial artists. Professionals responsible for creative leaps and business growth, wake-up, please.
To help, here are a few ways to recognize brandobabble situations with corresponding tips to encourage a shift back to the creative works.
- You have a one-hour meeting, and you see the creative work after 65 powerpoint minutes of babble. There is no time to react, discuss the work, or adequately plan next steps. Set the agenda to present the creative work first.
- You continue to waste more time, over and over, hearing re-explanations or clarifications of the “Proprietary Model,” how it works, and why it’s unique. Nevertheless, you still can’t understand how it relates to the creative work. Get “it” in one simple presentation, or go to a textbook for the generic model. The rationales should reflect common sense.
- You learn that your agency staffing is more than 50% strategists, planners, suits, and administration. Or, less than 50% of your fees go to the creative work. Put more than half of your funds and efforts into the creative work. Plan it, staff it, nurture it, birth it, raise it. And, put greater emphasis on creative production.
- You want to talk directly with the creative team. They are busy, or you get referred back to the brandobabblers. Offer a nice meal, an interesting cultural or creative experience, and listen to more free thinking. Then offer again.
- You are sitting through another powerpoint presentation. You get a print out. You pay for revisions. You find yourself, even, presenting the powerpoint presentation to others. Show creative work first. Agree to a limit of 5 slides per meeting. Listen, talk, and focus on ideas, plans, and execution of the creative work.
- You’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions for multi-national brandobabble coordination and you don’t love your creative work. Solicit ideas from a diversity of resources, foster competition, and reward creativity handsomely.
- You learn that college students are trying to banish the word “branding” from the Queen’s English.* It’s time to stop leaning toward “branding” as an explanation of the universe. Simply use the word less often.
Get back to basics and talk more about specific creative and media products and services — tv commercials, print ads, posters, point-of-sales displays, package designs, direct selling materials, events, …
__________
*On January 1, 2003, college students at Lake Superior State University issued its 28th annual ‘extreme’ List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, which the world needs ‘now, more than ever.’ LSSU has been compiling the list since 1976, choosing from nominations sent from around the world. This year, words and phrases were pulled from a record 3,000 nominations. Most were sent through the school’s website: HYPERLINK “http://www.lssu.edu/banished" http://www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers pull nominations throughout the year from everyday speech, as well as from the news, fields of education, technology, advertising, politics, and more. A committee gathers the entries and chooses the best in December. The list is released on New Year’s Day.
BRANDING — This word, once properly associated with marking livestock to prove ownership, has been co-opted by the MBA crowd and now seems to refer to any activity that supports a company’s desire to clearly define its products and/or services. Can’t we just say ‘Promotions and PR?’ Nancy Hicks, Fairfax, VA
__________
Robert Gibralter led a creative renaissance at Bates Singapore and was managing director at Batey Ads in the mid-1990s when it was hailed as the most creative agency in Asia-Pacific. He then returned to NY and built the global in-house agency at Avon Products. Robert is teaching “Strategy & Creativity” and is an advisor for Columbia University’s Masters Degree Program in Strategic Communications.
_____
