Rob Morrison: Why do you have to be so boring?

Here is a Christmas wish by Rob Morrison on behalf of every creative:

Rumour has it, there’s a fat bloke in a red suit up north getting all judgy about everyone’s behaviour this year. Yours. Mine. Everyone in every agency.

Well, Mr Claus, I have a very specific Christmas wish.

I hope you have a special place on your Naughty List for media buyers. Because, frankly, they’re hurting just about every piece of creative work.

Want an example?

I was in the car listening to the cricket on the radio this week. In one of many rain delays, they played a 30-second spot for a beer brand. The ad itself was pretty good. The writer had used well-known cricket terms to make a point about the beer. They’d added a bit of star power with familiar voices. Even the production was on point. Easily in the top 10% of radio spots this year. Yet I found myself swearing at the radio and changing station.

Why?

Because the same ad played three times in the same break. Not the same campaign, the same 30-second ad. Three. Times.

Want another example?

Let’s talk re-marketing. One of my family recently bought a fridge using our home laptop. Since then, every available banner, button and pop-up is nothing but whitegoods. She’s bought her fridge. No one in the family is in the market anymore. Yet the re-marketing goes on. On on. And on. If you’ve ever searched anything on Temu you know exactly what I’m talking about. (In fact, just by putting the word “Temu” in this OpEd I suspect I’ll be bombarded again).

Want one more example?

I have been working with a client who has a really loyal list of prospects and customers. They know what they’ve bought, how often they’ve bought and when they stop buying. Plus, they’re very smart marketers. Yet, they blast email this list three times a week, every week, all year. That’s 150+ emails a year. That’s 150 occasions the writer has to find or create content that’s fresh and informative and entertaining.

Most of all, that’s an inbox heavily weighed down with thinly veiled product pushes.

So, how did we get here? Once upon a time, media metrics used to focus on both reach and frequency. Feels like now it’s all about the “F” word. More is effing more.

Except it isn’t.

That thinking is hurting us creatively. It has a direct impact on the script you crafted. Or the banner you sweated over. Or the OOH, the POS, the press ad, the email, even the SEO. It means your audience ends up hating your work – no matter how well it’s done.

Ogilvy famously said; “You can’t bore people into buying your product.”

I’m hoping Santa has the elves sewing that onto hundreds of bad Christmas sweaters. Then leaves one in every media buyer’s stocking. Failing that, put them all on the naughty list.

Rob Morrison is a rarity in advertising – a grey-haired creative. Rob’s experience includes time as a Creative Director at Ogilvy, BWM (now Dentsu Creative), George Patts (now VML), Campaign Palace and Wunderman. He now runs his own consultancy – morrison.collective.

Here are two more opinion pieces from Rob Morrison: