Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Expected Versus Surprise

"Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist, 'Give me the chance to do my very best.'"

Babette quotes Achille Papin, Babette's Feast

Sometimes the artist does their very best and the marketers manage to mess it up or never give it a chance. We know what this results in:

• Hollywood sequel after sequel.
• Prepackaged standard radio playlists.
• Derivative tv shows.
• Boring ads that never get a first glance, much less a second one. 

Of course, none of this lack of creativity is exactly new. That's why "you can't judge a book by its cover" is an old, old saying. It's still as true today as it was back in the day some frustrated author or reader came up with it.

Why?

Here's a key reason. More importantly, here's a solution.

Surprise! (or why unexpected creative works)

“Expected.” Attach the word to a creative campaign and you might as well roll up the sidewalk and go home. You’ll never get the results you’d like. When you tell your story the same way it’s been told a thousand times before, why would your audience take the time to listen? You haven’t given them any reason to.

But surprise them and they can’t help but pay attention. The Old Spice “Look at your Man” campaign is a recent example. Not only is the style and stream-of-consciousness of the script original, but it engages by stepping out of the stream here and there.

When creative concepts venture into the realm of the unexpected it can have a surprising effect on the marketer as well — fear. This is the moment when deep breaths are required. It’s important to combat marketing stage fright with logical reasoning. One has to wonder about the initial client reaction when the agency presented the Old Spice campaign.

After all, stepping out on a limb allows for the possibility that branch will break off and plummet into the void. But unexpectedness attracts eyeballs to your brand. Yes, this may be as terrifying as it is mesmerizing, but keep in mind that if your message is spot on – as it is in the Old Spice ads — those eyeballs will stop looking and start buying.

OnMessage blog

Expected.

Or, as Rose said to me yesterday upon hearing the resolution to a recent creative disagreement with this very subject at its center, "Lame."

Yep. Safe. But "lame."

Surprise doesn't have to be wacky or outrageous. It just has to show us something in a way we hadn't considered before. That's called ... right ... creativity.

OnMessage is a client of ours and when Tom saw this blog post he sent it my way. Spot on.