The C Word

Moderating focus groups is a bit like going for a bike ride. It’s not necessarily something that you look forward to with relish, but once you’ve started you’re usually glad you made the effort.

There is just no substitute for talking face to face with real punters (you can always tell which people on an account attended the groups because they speak with such authority about how real people think). However, you tend to come away with a bit of a flea in your ear about the subject of brands, ads and marketing in general. The usual take-out as you finish off their half-eaten sarnies is something like this:

a) people don’t consciously think about brands as brands, they just buy stuff they like

b) they haven’t seen your ads

c) in fact the only ads they can remember are those ones with Michael Winner about car insurance, which they hate

d) they like eating crisps

Let’s add to this list the insight that Consumers Don’t Want Any More CONTENT.

I don’t run many groups these days (I don’t go out on my bike much either) but at some recent groups exploring a territory that involved some branded content ideas it became all too obvious that one of adlands new fascinations might not be all it’s cracked up to be. The belief that ‘if people don’t want the ads anymore let’s give them more of the bits in between’ is built largely on a false assumption.

The start point for many a strategy is a place where people are hungry for content and have an unlimited appetite to consume more and more of the stuff. Therefore all you need to do is produce some content (not exactly sure what it will be, but it will be really cool), sprinkle it liberally around the web and people will seek it out, consume it and love without question whatever brand it is that attaches its logo to it.

In reality of course most people have more content than they know what to do with. Their Sky boxes are full of programmes they haven’t watched, their shelves full of books and DVDs from last Christmas that they haven’t touched, their phones give them access to hours of fun, but do they really want to watch anything decent on a screen the size of a post-it. Their Facebook pages are now full of videos and games. They don’t need or want any more content.

Charlie Brooker’s piece on this feeling of content anxiety is typically biting. Describing how he bought a book for the second time, forgetting that he had it already, he said that he now “hadn’t read it twice”. Read it here – if you have the time of course.

Remarkable content will always rise to the top, just like remarkable ads, design, art, cheese, etc. If you have six minutes to spare watch this. No-one knows or cares if it’s an ad or a piece of branded content, it’s just my favourite thing from this year.

Link here

(Note: you need to fill in your age, etc to get in, then click on "The Man Who Walked Around The World" in the bottom right corner of the home page)