The Forgotten Consumer
Years ago, I used to think junior creatives simply didn’t know how to present. Though often true, the past five years or so have taught me even many seasoned professionals don’t get it either. The explosion of digital, CRM, and more data than you know what to do with has agencies spending entirely too much time trying to prove they’re smart in client meetings vs. selling in ideas. It’s a curse that paralyzes agency people from all departments.
The basic understanding seemingly missing is that clients are consumers as well. Like all of us, they’re human. Susceptible to the same irrational emotional decisions we all make. The same behavioral economics issues facing our client’s consumers affect the client as well. Paralysis of choice when showing the complexity of a fully-integrated campaign. The power of defaults when it comes to getting them to break out of category standards. Our natural aversion to dealing with money. Etc.
We’re constantly telling our clients we need to “tell a story” and “start a conversation” to get consumers to care about their brand and product. We know it’s the only way consumers bombarded with messaging will listen to us. We really need to work on taking that advice ourselves.
