When weighed against all other professions, the sphere of communications careers is what many would consider to be the most liberal and creative.
From the outside looking in, those of us working within that sphere are perceived to be more progressive than conservative, harnessing creativity in unique ways in our day-to-day tasks. But from the inside looking out, there is something to be said for the general state of our work – that which could be described as provocative is in such short supply that it has become practically non-existent.
Upon interrogating campaigns that are produced category-by-category, we can see key themes across each. But unfortunately, the overriding trend is that every brand is aiming to say and do almost the same things regardless of their respective category.
If the main business value (or aim) of a brand was to create an unmistakable idea unique to all other competitors, then many would fail for their lack of distinct identity or messaging. The question is, how did we get here?
How did we get here?
I could theorise several reasons.
Leading the charge, when it comes to global brands localising their messaging for the South African market, there appears to be a much greater focus on consolidating global messaging across markets instead of market-specific campaigns.
And there is strong reasoning to support this rationale. Firstly, there is one consistent (global) message and positioning. Additionally, greater value return across markets based on campaign and resourcing, and longer-term brand planning amongst others. The caveat is that applying global guidelines comes at the price of not utilising local insights to take appropriately relevant (and calculated) risks.
Another factor to consider is a much more engaged consumer who is very eager to voice their opinions (and more often their frustrations) against brands.
The risks vs the gains
While no brand can appeal to everyone, all brands appear to possess the ability to offend. This in turn creates a much greater sensitivity to certain topics and, many would say justifiably so, that creates a more reserved view for many (if not most) brands.
In this scenario, the risks associated with aligning to certain topics are not worth the gains. And in the instance that a brand does intend to integrate with certain topics across culture – with the greatest of intentions – it more often than not includes a significant investment of time, resources, and capital to ensure it lands in the market in the most positive ways.
This informs the last theory – that more brands are under-resourced in both budgets and actual talent.
Constraints in marketing departments in turn affect the respective agencies and their capabilities, making the end-product feel closer to the status quo than the unique alternative to it. It (almost) goes without saying that taking more calculated risks can come with a hard cost, which is an increasingly difficult task to rationalise to a finance department.
The solutions
All of these are clear obstacles, and there are arguably many more to include here. But that does not mean that the solutions to address these challenges are unobtainable. We just need to have a more constructive relationship with both the exact risks we take, as well as how we take them.
The first part of the solution is to take a more measurable approach with how to include more risks for the brand, with the ability to very clearly articulate value creation across both the short and long term for the greater business.
The second is to be very clear about what are the right risks for the right time, as not all risks are made equal. And doubling down on the first point, these are the kinds of activities that more often yield results in the long term than they do in the short term.
Thirdly, the appetite for greater risk-taking needs to be balanced between agencies and clients in a much more cohesive way with a stronger role for agencies to play in managing how to both validate and accommodate the value return for clients.
Jordan Major is strategy lead for culture and innovation at RAPT Creative. He believes in the power of collaborating with culture to connect brands to their customers. In his role at RAPT Creative he works alongside the creative studio to ensure all work is informed by insights and data to ensure that the work is executed holistically in unique territories and across the relevant channels. His Twitter handle is //twitter.com/JordanMajor.
