Making Clients Less Stupid - 2

I know quite a few people who have worked for Lisa Miles, who at one point was Marketing Director at Goodman Fielder. This was back in the day when the company was investing behind the Uncle Toby's brand and putting a really cohesive communication strategy in place that sold products but continued to deposit into the Uncle Toby's 'brand equity bank'.

These marketers felt that Lisa really understood marketing, brand strategy and creative. Not only that, she invested a lot of time with her team to help them become better thinkers.

One simple exercise she did was to sit down with a couple of her marketers, look at other brand advertising and discuss it. What was the insight? What is the ad trying to say? How powerfully do you think the ad is working? What could make it better? How does it stack up creatively? And so on.

Marketers become obsessed with their own world. They think people give a damn about the new seasoning they're about to launch. So sometimes it's good to look at how advertising is working outside of the company walls.

The point is.....marketing teams become better marketers and better at dealing with creative solutions when they're exposed to it and taught it. So when it's driven down from the Marketing Director (or maybe even the agency), the marketing team is going to be better equipped at evaluating advertising and media solutions. Including the more creative ones.

Top down teaching on the client side helps agencies sell more creative ideas.

Should agencies consider putting together some kind of ad/brand discussion toolkit that the Marketing Director can take and use with their team?


PS I don't think clients are stupid, but I think this man does.



The team agreed that the new Radiant ad was built around two key insights