Painting by Numbers: the Art of Insight-Led Marcoms

A wise man once asked me ‘think about the punter, why would he buy into us?’. That man was my old boss at MTV Networks who not only was a great marketer but a marketer that had solid grounding in research and was always on the ball with facts, figures and stats. In short he had his data in check. And those of you reading this outside of the UK, a ‘punter’ in London is a colloquial term used for a customer.

The reason he had hired me as his head of marcoms was to add colour, life and narratives around that data to reach the end goal of what he called ‘bums on seats’ i.e. ratings to our network of channels.

The problem nowadays is that getting the ‘punter’s bum’ on the seat is a tricky conundrum. They’ve changed. The way they get to your product or service has changed. Their path to purchase is non-linear, ‘disrupted’ and they’re savvy about what’s on offer (which has also become ubiquitous), which in itself leads to brand ‘promiscuity’ and declined loyalty.  In a world where there’s little to differentiate products and services and many brands lean heavily on promotional tactics, how can you cut through?

Start with the why

To go back to Chris’s point why would the punter buy us? As Steve Sinek of TED talk fame says you need to focus on the ‘why’ which is the ‘purpose, cause, belief and answer to: why should anyone care?’. He also says ‘people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it’. Brands who focus on the why tend to have better cut through – think about it, who has more brand love – Apple or Microsoft?

The slight snag is that the way we need to approach the ‘why’ has changed. Why? Well, we need to go deeper now. Not just go out there and tell people why but show people why, consistently, across multiple platforms.

Authenticity – show me genuine

Here’s the thing, if the why is not authentic it will be an uphill struggle. Authenticity feels like the ‘it’ word of the century. What’s the deal? Authenticity is defined as 'real, veritable and of origin' – ideas which are at odds with what marketing is traditionally perceived to be. I think its about being genuine – to the core and consistently. In a world cluttered with ‘buy-me’ advertising, consumers have become sceptical and crave something ‘real’. The brands that do authenticity really well are committed to it across platform and format. Cue Skittles who talked the talk on social media by being funny and irreverent.

The punter helps us paint a picture

And now to the ‘punter’ or consumer which is essentially the data part of the ‘why’ algorithm. You need to know what people’s movements are, why they behave in the way they do, what makes them tick. You need to know your customer – their wants and needs and ultimately how you can enrich their lives. Be predictive, rather regressive. None of this is possible without data. But to be clear, the opportunity is to leverage the insight gained from data, not the data itself. There is a risk of being inundated by the data noise so you need to ensure you get the right type of data storytellers in your business or outside that can sift through the data and tell you a story around it and what you should do with it. In other words what my current boss at Gain Theory would call the ‘so what?’ factor.

Painting by numbers

Say you have a bunch of insight about your consumer, the job of communicating the authentic why starts. The idea is to paint a narrative via content, underpinned by the insight.

When I created the ‘Scrubs Moment’ campaign for Paramount Comedy TV channel (later re launched as Comedy Central) I had a ton of data about my target viewer but how did I hone in on the insight that led to a successful campaign?

What insight should I really listen to? I narrowed down the insights I thought were interesting, and by interesting I mean something I could actually act on and then highlighted the ways I could create an innovative campaign with each – was it different? Relevant? Interactive? Then I went back to the drawing board and started the process again. It was then that I stumbled upon an insight that really stood out - the fact that Scrubs viewers had an online currency they called a ‘Scrubs Moment’. It was a ‘thing’, an undercurrent that, at the time, no one else seemed to have picked up on. That was when the Scrubs Moment campaign was born, with an insight at its core. Amongst various cross media executions, we used industry-first Facebook engagement ads to rotate the 'moments' to known fans and others who might be fans. The results spoke for themselves - average ratings to the slot were up 45% and we widened the channel’s 18-30 reach significantly. 

Painting by Numbers: 7 Point Plan

1. Start with your business objectives – this comes before the why, always.
2. Define your ‘Why’ – dig deep into your value proposition to understand why you do what you do and communicate that. Think Apple, not Microsoft.
3. Be genuine – decide what your brand values are in relation to what matters to your customer and ask yourself how you are going to cut through. Think like an entrepreneur and ask yourself how you can really connect with your customer. Then go out and behave genuine, in the right voice, on the right platform and the right time.
4. Insight, not data – don’t drown in the noise. Make sure you have ‘data story tellers’ around you – in the business or through an agency – that can give you the insights not the data noise.
5. Usable insight – define what you feel would be a usable insight. I have a set of criteria e.g. why does it matter, will it have legs creatively, is it different etc. Create your own check list.
6. Go full force – go to town with the insight led campaign – don’t shy away from what led you to this point. Think about next steps after this campaign – how can you create a narrative for the brand across time that helps you cut through. Think like brands such as moneysupermarket, gecko and comparethemarket – think long term.
7. Measure - as the saying goes 'you can't improve what you don't measure'. To do this right you need to think about measurement at the start of the project - how you're going to do this, in what time frame, by whom etc. But always come back to measurement at the end. 

Views are my own. To contact me email [email protected]