NORTHERN PLANNER

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Humble pie


 

I've said in the past that's one should think very carefully before criticising someone else's work. I forgot my own rules with this post about sausages. Amidst talking about the food, I got carried away and had a go at this work for Richmond. Personally, I hate Richmond and all it represents, I hate the uniform pinkness of the sausaged in the commercial, but I did something I hate in agency people even more than Richmond sausages, I got all elitist and forgot that somone worked very hard to produce something they thought was right for the audience, who don't live in adland's ivory tower, and the client.

What made it even worse was the way John good naturedly set me straight in the comments. You cannot argue with return on investment on that scale. So John, I salute you and your patience. Next time in London, I owe you coffee and some gourmet sausages.

And I should have known better, since I was responsible for this:roundly criticised in some parts, deliverered £21 million in revenue – we knew the business problem and what we had to do and this did the job.


 

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3 responses to “Humble pie”

  1. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    It’s a very difficult thing to balance. As one of the people who publicly criticised that Co-operative piece of work I should know..!
    The issue for me was, perhaps in a similar way to your dislike of the Richmond product/brand; I felt very very strongly about the potential of the brand and all it stood for, and it seemed to me extremely disappointing that they went with something so formulaic. It delivered results, but for me it missed the opportunity to do more for the brand itself.
    (That said, there were some nice thoughts in there, and again it was disappointing they felt so hidden)
    I think I learnt a lot about how to go about commenting on campaigns from that one. Though I subscribe to the view that I’d rather be passionate enough advertising to say the odd harsh comment than ignore the bad stuff and make out we are all perfect!

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  2. northern Avatar
    northern

    Without wishing to get all defensive, and with all due respect, you haven’t seen the effect the work had on consideration and persuasion measures, which shifted considerably, not to mention the all important emotional stuff about how it made them feel.
    It’s often overlooked how irrelevant messaging sometimes is next to ‘feel’ (what’s the explicit message in the M&S clothes commercials)and that was delivered on a brand level and, intereestingly, the data shows that this was what delivered the footfall and money, not the tactical ads that built on the engagement stuff
    Like I said, it’s hard without full knowledge of the business position and all the data

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  3. Rob Mortimer Avatar
    Rob Mortimer

    I agree absolutely on the importance of feel and emotional relevance. To me it felt like very generic Christmas in feel, but obviously the audience got more out of it. Even though I wasn’t a fan of the end result, at least it’s good to know there was enough solid thinking behind it to get it to the people that would identify with it.

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