Consider the musician who believes the hype and forgets the fans. The parent who never sees their child. The creative who chases awards.
If you lose the connection with what’s important, you lose everything.
Currently, 18% of UK adults already use adblocking software. It’s a number that’s bound to grow as the technology becomes more sophisticated and people
demand greater freedom to turn down our ads. So we need to start showing our audiences more respect and give them a reason to keep considering us, because they aren’t numbers or segments, just the way that advertising isn’t only design or technology.
Advertising is people.
It’s your loving mum in Manchester; your mate from Swindon; the lady with a glamorous past who lives next door. That’s who we go to work for every day: our people. Not just creative directors from Notting Hill, or planners from Hackney.
The kind of work it takes to speak to our people is often as delicate, irrational, spontaneous and passionate as they can be. It needs to be handled with care and defended lest it lose its soul.
I ask you to try this on your next brief: think long and hard about your people, and with genuine empathy and understanding. How will you be creative for them?
How will your work spark something inside them? Something they will find useful and perhaps remember you by with affection.
Think of the people behind the brief and you will win back your audience –
and in doing so please your clients, peers and maybe even your creative directors.
Simone Micheli is executive creative director at FEED
This advertisement feature is paid for by the Marketing Agencies Association, which supports the Guardian Media & Tech Network’s Agencies hub.
