crazy ad guys and the theatre of insight

This report in Business Week about Crispin Porter reminded me of one of the hidden purposes of planning which we're never really supposed to talk about; the theatre of insight.

The problem with advertising (and a lot of creative businesses) for journalists and clients alike is that the story of the process just isn't that interesting. ('We all sat around and talked about it for a while and then some of the guys came up with quite a good idea and we noodled with it for a bit, argued about it for a bit and it turned into something good'). When a journalist turns up, or when you've got a pitch or something you want a more dramatic story to tell, something with a bit of tension,discovery and ideally some appearance of intellectual rigour. That's where planning comes in (or 'cognitive anthropology' in Crispin's case, I know, I know):

"Two-hour in-home interviews with two dozen GTI buyers, all men 18 to 30, were done in five cities. The researchers sent the subjects an assignment in advance of visits: Make a collage with magazine pictures to illustrate how they felt about Japanese "tuner" cars, like Honda Civics, on which owners tack thousands of dollars in speed-enhancing and cosmetic accessories. Then cut out pictures representing the European tuner cars like GTI and BMW M cars that are accessorized at the German factories. One GTI fan contrasted cutouts of Tweety Bird and a tuner "dude" wearing a chrome dollar-sign necklace to represent the Asian tuner "posers" with images of a black wolf and Ninja warrior depicting the "more authentic and serious" Euro tuner crowd.

Crispin's researchers then asked them to write epitaphs on paper tombstones after the phrase "Here Lies the Japanese Hot Hatch," and recipes that begin with, "My perfect recipe for driving is..." One recipe reads: "One S-curve, a pinch of fishtail, two parts turbo toast, an ounce of hard rock music. Combine and bring to a boil." The strategy drawn from all this was to flog the GTI as tuned in Germany by speed-happy engineers rather than at some U.S. neighborhood retail joint."

It's a bit like the famous Goodby Got Milk research. It's not just great strategy, it's a great creation story. The drama of the story, the thrill of the chase, the excitement of the solution. Sure you could have got to the same place through common sense and a couple of hours around the big table, but that's not the point; planning is drama, planning is story, planning gives you something to talk about. Planning gives you that all time favourite pitch strategy - The Theatre Of Insight.

I'm not knocking this in any way. It's a valid use of the craft, I just think it's worth acknowledging that often what we're doing is looking for an interesting idea creation story, not neccesarily splitting the strategic atom.

Comments

[Andrew Hovells]

Great stuff. This type of thing works really well in creative briefing, anything that sparks them off.

[Alex Lewis]

This is great when you are presenting something that’s genuinely new or need explaining, but you could say that it’s also led to the tyranny of insight theatre.

As we speak, I’m putting together ‘a few slides’ for a press ad we’re presenting to the client tomorrow. The ad will run once in the programme of a forth-coming motorshow to drive visitors to their stand. It’s a quick and easy, simple thing. It’s unlikely to be featured at Cannes. Yet some people still feel it’s necessary to give it some sort of elaborate set-up, chronically the complex journey we embarked upon to arrive at this strategic breakthrough.

Perhaps it comes down to clients in the end. Some seem to have a deep-routed need for this sort of thing, others just want you to cut to the chase.

[Dan Sicko]

No shoes? That's just crazy!

[Rob@Cynic]

Having worked with Crispen's and having friends at Crispen's ... I can honestly say they are a great agency who do great work.

However, whislt they truly understand the concept of creative research techniques and entertainment [which is always great] the article smacks of a bunch of people desperate to be seen as 'serious' rather than a 'novelty'.

It's what we call the 'Jim Carrey' syndrome.

This is when an actor becomes incredibly successful with a style of movie but craves the acceptance of the industry to be seen as a 'real' actor.

What they end up doing is a bunch of serious roles [or call their planners 'cognitive anthropologists'] because they believe this is what it takes to be regarded as a real artist.

Of course they never really get there and even if they think they do, like Tom Hanks, people still go - 'Are you the bloke from 'Batchelor Party?'

Personally I don't think Crispen's should worry about any of it ... they're doing better work than 99% of the agencies out there AND have client cred ... and whilst the article will be a great new biz generator, I have to say that they've gone down in my estimation a little bit [sorry steve!] because no one likes people with 'tickets on themselves' ... except maybe the Yanks, hahaha!

[Andy]

rob: we've just read your post and the office want to know if you think you're a bit hypocritical slagging crispen's when we're about to publish a book on how we work with an fbi profiler, comedian and economist to get better insights for our clients.

just wondering?

and you spelt Carey's name wrong!

[Rob@Cynic]

Andy ... stop trying to show off in front of all these people, it's not big and it's not clever - abit like you really!

Rx

[Tom Beakbane]

Russell - nice insight.

Good advertisements tell a story and similarly to sell a concept you need to tell a story. As managers we like to think of ourselves as logical, but facts themselves are generally tedious unless they are set in a context that helps us understand them – and stories do that.

Planning is theatre - it is also therapy. Advertising strategies provide managers with ways to understand their situation and with reassurance that the future will work out.

(Freud didn’t get famous because his ideas were logical and scientific – he was a captivating storyteller, and his stories helped his audience make sense of themselves.)

Follow your blog and love it – from a transplanted Brit in Toronto.

Tom Beakbane

[harshal]

Thanks for this post. Reminds me of a Jeff Goodby quote on "Got Milk" - i'll paraphrase it here - Strategy folks think that they've got it all figured out, and that the job's done. But that's only half the work done. Writing is the act of creation..or somesuch

It is indeed theatre, but we like it, just as much as client deign to, at times :)