Brand new and no different.
Something keeps playing on our minds. Advertising has gone a bit… well… downhill over the last 10 years (or probably more) and it’s bothering us. There’s been so much written about it by people far wiser than us, so we don’t want to go over old ground. But we do want to offer our perspective. And then tell you what we intend to do about it.
We better first clarify our sweeping assertion. We’re talking about positioning. All the great ads position the brand - they find and own a space in the mind of the prospect that wasn’t there before and then, over time, that brand becomes a mental short-cut to their purchase decision-making. We know this. It’s been proven for decades. We’re saying nothing new here. But, what we think has changed is the power of ‘the advert’ to truly position brands. It is becoming more and more impotent.
The amount of messages people are subjected to is an ‘assault on the mind’.
Al Ries and Jack Trout said it over 40 years ago in ‘Positioning’ (still one of our favourite books on marketing), that ‘communication itself is the problem’. Even back then, they saw that the amount of messages people are subjected to as an ‘assault on the mind’. What would they think today, with the endless multitude of channels and social media platforms trying their best to suck our eyeballs from out of the sockets?
Good agencies have become slaves to ‘content’, having to deliver to relentless multi-channel schedules and we are now literally pumping it out. We have become pre-occupied with getting it done, getting it out there, and less focussed on ‘is it good?’, ‘will it work?’ and ‘will this help position the brand?’.
The age of the ‘advert’ positioning the brand and doing all the heavy-lifting is over. It’s too much to expect of advertising. The days of ads that launched ‘Think small’, ‘We try harder’, ‘Think different’, ‘I never read the Economist’, ‘Colour like no other’ and all the other great ads or campaigns that just lasered brands into our minds, have surely passed. There is too much of a burden on advertising and ad agencies to do it alone when there is such a voracious hunger for more ‘stuff’ to put out there (we’re not saying that’s right by the way, but that’s for another day).
The ‘battle for the mind’ is still the most important battle.
We believe in positioning. For us this is the single-most important job in creating a brand. And we must start with it – get it right, before even thinking about marketing communications or ‘the ad campaign’. It may appear that we live in a world that is ‘branded’ to within an inch of its life. Every independent coffee shop, barber, online retailer or new app service has a slick logo and flash visual identity. But this is not ‘brand’. This is ‘branding’ and, as consumers, we’re numb to it. Brand starts with clarity of positioning; being clear on the space you want to own – yes, the ‘battle for the mind’ is still the most important battle. And, unlike Al and Jack’s provocative final word on the matter that ‘creativity is dead’, we believe the only way to win is with creativity. Today as much as ever.
We’ve learnt that a brand’s long-term success lies in having rock solid foundations and a crystal-clear positioning and the work we do provides a launchpad for business growth
That’s why we have launched a brand agency. In fact, we think we’re the only brand agency in Birmingham, dedicated solely to the creation, definition and development of brands using our unique combination of strategic and creative skills, which we call Clever Creativity. We’ve learnt that a brand’s long-term success lies in having rock solid foundations and a crystal-clear positioning and the work we do provides a launchpad for business growth – ensuring that every effort, every bit of activity (including advertising), and every pound spent supports a brand’s positioning. We see it like this: the stronger your foundations, the higher you will fly. Guess that’s one of the reason’s we’re called L-E-A-P.
What we’re doing is brand new and yet no different to what has always been of fundamental importance in creating and building brands – it’s just been forgotten by so many and we are putting primary importance back on it. So, here’s our rally cry as we kick off our new venture and look to make our mark…
We will work with businesses to do what we do amazingly well: creating clearly positioned, tightly screwed together brands with substance that will allow others to do what they do best: hopefully making highly creative and potent marketing communications that will connect with the target and, just maybe, will have a better chance of truly positioning the brand in their minds. And our hope is that the role we play helps make an industry we love better. Better work, for better brands that maybe even make the world that bit better too (why not?). That’s our commitment and we look forward to playing our part and making a difference. We’re ready to L-E-A-P and we hope you are too.