Marketing agencies have traditionally prioritized “the big idea.” It’s the sexiest part of the advertising process, and it embodies a lot of the mojo that marketing agencies get paid for – it is often suggested that the big idea is what clients get billed for. The Big Idea is traditionally what elevates a brand’s advertising to something that is bigger, fancier, and even more attractive that the brand itself. It often draws upon assets that may have nothing to do with the brand, drawing the glow of those parallel assets into its orbit. Celebrity endorsements are the most obvious example – if some superstar chooses to eat a particular snack food, then it must be pretty great – right? But does an endorsement actually reveal anything substantial about the product itself?
Sometimes a big idea may highlight a key asset of a brand, and this approach is fantastic if a brand already possesses fantastic assets. WestJet has built its advertising upon a ‘personable personality’ – their people are super-nice, and they have collectively come to represent the WestJet brand advantage. In a service industry, the human touch is almost always the most relevant asset to customers – as long as it’s a positive asset.
With product marketing, most people understand that Coca Cola is the ‘Real Thing.’ Coke was the inventor and originator of cola, so positioning themselves as “The Real Thing” rings true because it is. Their first-mover advantage as the originator of a beverage segment is integral to the brand, and it still seems relevant well over a century after its creation. Apple Computers told us to “Think Different” in 1997, and suggested in doing so that they were thinking differently already. Their approach became a differentiator in a world of computer products that were not differentiated, and in the early days of the internet, this spoke to a very large segment of users who did not want to work with the status quo – they were riding the early days of a computing revolution, and revolutions are best-fostered by those who think differently. Apple understood the power of leveraging a key internal asset to resonate with external audiences.
Marketing agencies that are doing their job well will ensure that a “big idea” will always ladder back to core truths in the brand. They ensure that statements can always be backed up, if not by empirical facts, then at least by measured perceptions and expectations of the brand. “Think Different” worked because Apple computer users already saw themselves as rebels, and people who generally resisted the status quo wanted to join that club.
Marketers sometimes reach for a big idea without doing their homework, and these are the folks that give marketing a bad name. A big idea may seem wonderful in the moment, but if it doesn’t stick in the real world, it isn’t going to work in the long-term – unsubstantiated ideas are just bad sales pitches.
The other side of generating a “big idea” rests in doing your brand research. This homework takes time and it takes insight, but it is a process that doesn’t require a loft office space full of interns to do it for you. Understanding your brand assets and attributes will reveal all sorts of marketing ideas, advertising copy and sales pitches that you never considered, and they will be rooted in brand truth. The process requires a careful assessment and analysis of your brand assets, goals, and your target audience. Navigating this process is fundamentally what marketing agencies do (or should do) – and if the human resources they bring to bear to your project are within your budget, then I highly recommend hiring a professional team to do this work. However, as the owner and key representative of your brand, shouldn’t you be the one to fully understand it? Either way, professionals add significant value, but you may find that you can build this road yourself, and the path will be infinitely more comfortable and familiar as a result.
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