Five Universal Truths in Marketing & Advertising

In my current gig, I'm doing something I've been lucky enough to do a lot in my professional life, and that's pitch to an entirely new category with entirely new rules of the road. (In this case, pharma to health care providers.) But the more things change, the more they stay the same, and the commonalities might inspire in your own day to day.

1) Relevance and timing always matters.

No matter what you are pitching, getting it to the target with optimal placement, sequence and utility is worth its weight in gold. Otherwise known as why adtech companies exist, really.

2) List trumps offer, and both trump creative.

T'was ever thus. If you aren't playing in the right arena, and bringing the right pitch, it doesn't matter how well you might execute it. I've seen some truly regrettable pieces deliver great results, and perfect shiny objects fail. In so many different categories and channels.

3) Niche players don't care that they are niche.

No matter how specialized a list is -- and in my current gig, we can cut it down more than any provider I've ever worked for -- it's not as if those people wake up in the morning and fail to breathe air, grope for the coffee and struggle with a commute. Everyone is subject to the same kind of challenges and issues that others face. If everything in your consideration set is about the niche, your work will never try enough execution options to learn optimal practices.

4) Tactical wins travel.

There are test results that I've picked up in wildly different categories, and sometimes not even in the same channels, that inform my work today. That's because most creative test wins work for reasons behind niche reasons, especially when the results are conclusive and repeatable. Besides, most of our current lists are affluent, in demographics I've pitched to before, and overlap other clients. Experience, and a good memory, helps.

5) Every audience rewards respect.

A side note. Nearly a decade ago, I was doing acquisition work for a very compromised category that offered financial services to people with poor credit. Dominant art was all about fans of money, and if you didn't read the copy, you might think that you were reading lottery ads. Faced with a sameness issue that highly compromised learning optimal practices, my team and I created pieces that spoke to specific very good reasons why the prospect might have a need for cash fast. Hospital emergencies, transportation problems, services shut offs, and so on.

The ads performed nearly as well on response as the fanned currency. But more importantly, they did dramatically better on conversion. By bringing the point of the ad to the prospect's very good and very real reasons for converting, we put them in a better frame of mind to take the action we wanted them to take. That approach quickly took hold across the industry.

Regardless of category, your prospects are likely time-stressed, easily distracted, and wanting to be efficient with their browsing decisions. Designing and executing your campaign around their needs, rather than branding points or legal dictates, is almost always a clear win.

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