Reuben Webb, creative director of IAS b2b, insists that when all’s said and done, it’s the end of the road for creative clichés in business-to-business marketing.
Early in my b2b creative career I was called into a meeting to
find a client and account manager frowning like rockslides at a
mock-up of my latest DM piece. The client spoke first, "I hate to
have to tell you this… but I love it!"
Long after the cringe factor faded, disappointment remained. My
problem was that the idea on the table was a cliché. It involved a
tape measure and the line 'tailored to you'. Worse, it was an idea
'suggested' by the account manager. I saw it as a wasted
opportunity. I vented at everything: the client, the account
manager, boring old b2b - all were at fault. But in retrospect, who
was to blame?
Experience now tells me that clients are not afraid of new
ideas. They just want to make sure that creativity doesn't
compromise their brand. Put a compelling idea next to a cliché and
they'll plump for the former. The account manager? Well he was
young and desperate to make a smooth sale and keep an accurate
forecast. So he seeded an idea he knew would fly. As for me, I
didn't have the experience to convince people that this wasn't good
for the client's brand or our agency. We were between creative
directors so there was nowhere to turn. I just had to do the best I
could with a tape measure.
So what about boring old B2B? Well I've changed my mind about
that too. Back then I confused boring with complex and challenging
- the things that now keep me interested. That's not all that's
changed. I'm now the creative director and the account team depend
on me to tell them what flies. And I've realised who's to blame for
predictable creative in b2b: the cliché itself. It's a trap waiting
to snare any team without the confidence and determination to work
to the core of a brand proposition, decide what makes it special
and express it.
Unsure of his own brief, afraid that inexperienced creatives
wouldn't deliver, the account manager of my past got seduced by a
tape measure. Certain that it wasn't contentious, the client was
happy to succumb to the snake like charm of the coiled tape too.
And I wasn't strong enough to free myself from its bind. It
wouldn't be such a problem in b2b if there were only tape measures
waiting to trip people up, but there are hundreds of 'creative'
clichés out there. Skateboards and laptops litter the b2b
landscape. So what are you going to do about it Mr Creative
Director? You may well ask. I'm taking a stand is what, and I'm
asking every creative, client and account manager in b2b to stand
with me in defiance of the cliché.
IAS has marked this anti-cliché campaign by entombing the most
notorious offenders in our book, 101 Clichés. It
puts our creative output where my mouth is, because we musn't now
be caught using ideas from a book subtitled 'b2b's most notorious
creative faux pas'. And hopefully, for the sake of our sector,
anyone who reads it will feel similarly obliged. What the book does
is highlight a particular cliché and the most common message it
conveys, then cajoles the reader into disregarding it with a bit of
a rant. To pick a few at random:
The chequered flag: "Be a winner". Winners
don't use clichés. That's because leading business brands work hard
to protect their point of difference and stay in touch with their
markets. The better you understand yourself and your audience the
less likely you are to need a generic message like this one.
The snowboarder: "Extreme performance". Aside
from the fact that this is a cliché, why would you want this sport
associated with your business? Snowboarding is for people who enjoy
taking risks. Does that sound like the vast majority of business
brand customers? Not the ones profiled on our database, dude.
The hive: "Busy on your behalf'. Certain things
are 'a given' when you employ people on your behalf. That they will
get busy doing what you pay them to do is one of those things. The
hive has still had enough airtime to become a cliché though.
Unbelievable.
So if clichés have poisoned b2b, what's the antidote? Clients
and strategists should start with the message they are asking
creatives to convey. If it sounds like one you've heard before,
it's already in cliché territory. Ask yourself, "Where's the magic
going to come from?" If all you can come up with is the same old
'experience, wide-range, professional' crap why should you expect
anything better from the creatives?
But my fellow creatives, there's no getting away from it, the
buck stops with us. First understand the creative process takes
both total immersion in the task and total freedom from it. Ideas
often come when you're not thinking about the brief. This takes
time - demand it! Also understand that clichés are literal
expressions of the brief (I say fast, you say cheetah).
Learn to extract an essence and express that. If other people
can see the link you might just have an original idea on your
hands. If it's not happening you could always dip into our book,
101 Clichés, for a well worn but safe idea, where
we've entombed many more of these serial offenders. The aim is to
highlight these clichés and cajole readers into disregarding them.
If we can raise awareness of the problem, it'll be easier to reach
a solution.