I saw a lovely little print ad before Christmas. A festive greeting spot from Dulux’s Nigerian branch. Someone posted it on LinkedIn. Dead simple. Dead fun. Dead effective.
It’s practically a box-ticking exercise for Dulux’s brand messaging.
It’s vibrant. Look at that red. That’s a proper festive crimson.
It’s simple to use. One roller. No faffing about.
It’s accessible. That’s just a normal wall in a normal house.
We did some work for Dulux a year or two back, and those were the sort of messaging touchpoints we had to make sure shone through. So I saw that ad, smiled, gave it a mental thumbs up and scrolled down.
To see this comment.
“We’ve all created a visual solution ad at one point. Archives are full of them. It’s clever and fun, but it’s not a big idea.”
Not a big idea.
What criteria is this bloke (c’mon, you think that’s the comment of a woman?) using to judge his work?
✅ Does it fit with the brand’s messaging? Yeah, we’ve ticked that off.
✅ Is it relateable to the audience? I’d say so, it’s elegantly simple.
✅ Does it show off a key benefit? I mean, look at the coverage! That’s one coat. Superb.
❌ Is it a BIG IDEA that will wow other ad people and win awards? No.
Sorry folks. It might tick three of the boxes, but nobody’s getting a golden pencil for it, so wing it in the fucking bin.
Cheers.
I’d hate to work with this bloke. I mean I’d probably earn more, and have a Cannes Lion in the downstairs loo, but I’d also have this sinking feeling in my guts that I wasn’t writing work for my clients. Or my clients’ customers. I was searching for BIG IDEAS for awards panels.
So maybe I wouldn’t hate to work with this fella. But if I was a client, I’d definitely hate myself for hiring someone with that mindset.
Sometimes you don’t need a big idea. Sometimes a small, tiny, reassuring message is what speaks to your customers. It’s not about size. It’s about selling. And we’d do well to remember that this year.
Something mint - this bank advert that uses a small message to big effect
Yeah. I made a note of this one at 2am on December 28th. That’s how dedicated I am to this newsletter. It’s for a Canadian bank.
One of the things we discussed in depth when we were codifying “message first” for our new website was how similar brands use it. Think of the UK retail scene. Aldi and Lidl, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, Marks’ and Waitrose. They’re all stepping on each others’ toes with their marketing. Battling at the same trough. Similar messaging about price and quality.
Banks though, they’re different. HSBC is the world’s local bank (lovely message for two audiences there). Barclays is your guide to the world of finance, almost an on-hand financial advisor with messaging about safety and security. And Santander are celebrity-obsessed wankers who you shouldn’t trust with your money.
Then there’s Tangerine in Canada. Much like Chase and their decent enough David Tennant-voiced ads in the UK, their message is one of simplicity. Banking’s changed. Thanks to the internet, it’s a piece of piss. So they went with the clear, simple message of “you don’t need to jump through hoops.”
That LinkedIn chap above will be fucking fuming. “It’s a cliche! It’s an overused idiom! It’s not taking a political stance at all!”
It’s simple, it gets the point across, and it’s visually striking when it’s translated to TV in an extremely literal way.
Clear message. Clear benefit. Clear winner for me.
Won’t win any awards. For that, we’d need some pious bullshit about polar bears being bombed in the third world that maybe tangentally mentions the service.
I know which one will generate more sign-ups.
And so do you.