Tuesday 15 October 2013

The end of compromise?

We recently pitched for a FTSE 100 retailer’s writing account and proposed a bold new tone of voice. We’re talking lots of character, lashings of wit and plenty of quirk. It was a risky pitch strategy. Yet we won.

Around the same time, a long-standing client asked us to crank up their tone of voice on an important new product brochure. So, do we have a trend here? Are clients finally embracing risk-taking?

Unique – but not too unique
What's life without a little risk?
The unusual can be unnerving. So it’s not uncommon to answer a brief to ‘push the boundaries a bit’ so well that it makes a client pause. After all, not many of us enjoy that feeling of being stared at for being different.

So the temptation is always there to do the opposite of what branding is meant to do: make something distinctive and maximise its appeal. And that’s the big paradox. Everyone wants their brand to stand out. But, intuitively, most people (and brand marketers are people too), don’t want to stand out too much. At some level, we’re all afraid of doing something outstanding.