Good Trouble for Dull
How the industry defaults to dull
Dull is a choice. Dull is everywhere. Dull is multi-dimensional. Dull is surprisingly expensive, and Dull is a choice. Nothing is intrinsically dull, but that we make it that way, or at least allow it that way…Let’s decide to stop going out dull because where’s the fun in just dialing it in? — Let’s Make This More Interesting
It seems the industry tasked with commercial artistry is perhaps a serial offender of the bore.
75% of US ads can be classified as dull — System 1
This isn’t 75% of the advertising that people see either. That’s likely much higher. Dull Creative has to work harder to hit the same performance as non-dull (aka ‘fame’) pieces of work.
What is dull costing us
If three-quarters of all advertising is dull, how much $ does that amount to?
$46B in TV alone. Not to mention the $85B spent on digital. Dull means you have to spend more to break through, effectively hammering people over the head with your message.
Need more proof? In the US, just over 50% of adults use an ad blocker on their desktop. In another survey, 66% stated they always hit skip on an ad if given the option.
As marketing and effectiveness expert Peter Field says, Advertising has been getting increasingly dull thanks to the impact of 15+ years of performance marketing.
Dull is more expensive than we think, and therefore…
We all ought to be more angry about dull
None of us set out to be dull, but for a variety of reasons we’re likely ending up here:
- Constrained by metrics, that push you to dull because they’re pushing you to safety
- In categories where dull is the norm, driven by ‘best practices’ which further push us into playing it safe
- Performance marketing think, which has become applied across the entire marketing funnel (not just bottom)
- We’ve lost sense of what is interesting to others (hint: it’s not your new feature)
If you’re not fine with being third, fine isn’t good enough
First off, when was the last time someone said they were increasing the marketing budget? More likely today decreasing it. And decreasing the KPIs accordingly? Ha, never. Those are staying flat-to-up.
The opportunity to do interesting is to both stand apart. To be distinct. But more importantly, to outperform the others by a factor X.
Or as the producer of some of the biggest reality shows in the world put it, I think our audience would like a bit better than fine.
Recalibrating Dull
What is dull?
Dull is talking about something the audience doesn’t think they care about.
Dull is talking about a subject they think they already know.
Dull is presenting it in the same way as everyone else.
Dull is presenting in an unengaging way (like this list. Straightforward and too rationale).
(Dull) in (Dull) Out
At first, I considered summarizing some of the great lessons in the series. Things like the power of little dramas to teach lessons from Sesame Street. Or how the same thing that gets you cast on Big Brother rings true for advertising- say something memorable. Or the secret to getting videos to go viral is to Give the Gold tell them what’s interesting right away.
But that’s too dull, too(?). Much better to listen through these yourself.
Instead here are a few ways I believe the industry’s process leads to dullness (75% remember).
Dull leads to dull:
When you demand logic you pay a hidden price. You destroy magic. — Alchemy
- Research — we take to it too literally
People are terrible at telling you what they really think or feel. Listen, but go beyond.
The art of old-school poster design. That’s what a good slide is. It’s like a crisp expression of a single thought — Russell Davies
2. Presentations — have become info-data dumps
When we attempt to capture/regurgitate everything we hear, we set an expectation it will appear in the ideas. And it does.
The bar is much higher (in the real world) than the bar we seem to think it is inside our company — Nick Reed, Shareability
3. Competitive — we don’t know what we’re really competing against
Monkey see monkey do. When we allow our worldview to be dominated by ourselves and our competition, we’re going to tend to look, act, and sound just like each other. We exist in culture and compete against it.
But one thing is for sure — no one looks in the mirror and says to him- or herself, “I’m a Comfortable Progressive.” — For the Culture
4. Consumers — we adopt market-speak
These labels may help product development picture who to develop for but they don’t help the message connect emotionally. Think audience>consumer and you’ll start to think about how you earn their attention first.
I think our audience would like more than fine. — Maz Farrelly, Big Brother producer
5. :06 — throwaways
Unfortunately, ultra-shortform has become the norm. But we can’t just Byron Sharp our way through it. We still need to respect the audience and earn their attention. Think Little Dramas from Sesame Street. Tell stories to teach.
And now I’ve done it. I’ve gotten dull. So best to end it here.
Related:
The Issues With Briefs And How to Make Them Better — more thinking from Peter Field
Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life by Rory Sutherland, vice chair at Ogilvy UK and founder of its behavioral science practice — a book I’m reading now
For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be, by Marcus Collins former CSO WKNY and assistant professor at Univ of Michigan — and a book I find myself referencing a lot
Exponential: Transform Your Brand by Empowering Instead of Interrupting, by Jeff Rosenblum
