Why Is Normal So Seductive and Yet So Dangerous?

On a mission to make a real impact with all the work that they do, the team at creative agency Recipe believe that when it comes to advertising, ‘normal’ and ‘safe’ aren’t going to cut it. Safe is, ironically, inherently risky.

So why do most ads fall into the trap of being ‘normal’? In order to investigate the topic and delve into the perils of staying safe within advertising, Recipe invited a group of industry thought leaders to open up on what ‘normal’ means to them and where brands are currently going wrong.

Moderated by LBB’s editor in chief Laura Swinton, the panel invited Recipe founding creative partner Dan Jacobs and planning director Dom Roe alongside AutoTrader marketing director Camilla Ellerton, Grupo Bimbo UK Head of Marketing Christina Honigfort and What’s Possible group strategy partner Catherine Aithal to discuss what fits culture today and whether brands should be doing more to step outside of what’s expected in order to have the biggest impact.

To kick things off, the panel defined ‘normal’ as an ever-changing definition tied to the zeitgeist of the day as well as geographical location. What was normal 20 years ago is not necessarily what would be considered as normal today. “Take the cost of living crisis,” Camilla offers. “You can see that advertising is heading in that direction, being quite hard-hitting with ‘saving’ messages.”

“I think about predictability,” adds Christina, “There are many industries that will go down the same thought process with a predictable ad that’s easy to understand but there’s no deeper meaning - no spark.”

Dom notes: “Marketers are generally drawn to trend watching. Everyone wants to have a go and jumps on the trend if it’s successful. Then that unique first-mover advantage becomes a massive cliche.”

“As marketers we need to consider all sorts of different factors,” Dan states, “from the tone of the brand and where you can break conventions within the category, to your own personal ‘normal’ and the consumers’ personal ‘normal’. So to create something that is going to stand out can be tricky.”

“I think media technology and strategic thinking will play a massive role in how we evolve our thinking and how we make something more exciting,” Christina shares. And for Camilla, “it’s also down to making sure that the creative is just so different that it can puncture the norm.”

Introducing the concept of disruptive consistency, Catherine explains that “being quite consistent as a brand for a number of years and then becoming playful around those brand attributes” can be super effective, citing Specsavers and Marmite as two examples of brands doing this particularly well.

“Having a single-minded strategic position is fundamental,” Dan agrees. “A commitment to creating work that is not normal is a system beyond that. Creative agencies and marketers must genuinely try to create work that stands out in the market, using a brand’s strategic position as a foundation to build on top of.”

“Our job is to come up with something original and unique that sits within a brand’s positioning,” Dom reiterates. “Consistency can be so important for brand building and it’s about thinking of a different way of expressing that big creative idea rather than ripping everything up and starting from scratch.”

“It’s about having an attitude and an opinion,” Christina notes. “The brands that resonate with people are those with a point of view.”

And let’s not forget the element of diversity. “If you genuinely want to create ‘not normal’ work, you need to have more diverse people on the team,” Catherine highlights. “One of the issues we have in this industry is that we are all in a similar echo chamber. We need to be much more proactive in driving diversity so we can create genuine ‘not normal’ thinking throughout the business.”

As Dom points out: “The homogenous nature of advertising at the top level makes it very difficult to push ‘not normal’ opinions through. There is a massively disproportionate skew to what we think is normal compared to what the general population thinks is normal.”

“It’s all well and good recruiting diverse people,” Camilla adds, “but we must give a voice to everybody in an organisation in order for it to have an impact on what we do.”

 

A worrying insight from Catherine reveals that measurement has killed a lot of creativity. “Clients ask us not to put anything on the plan that we can’t prove works. "So people aren't being as courageous any more, where we used to be able to encourage clients to take risks. This stifles creativity."

And as Camilla puts it: “That just leads to short-term results rather than long-term brand building.”

“It comes down to the propensity to risk,” Dan adds. “If you have a strong brand position then you feel like it’s less risky to push the boat out.”

“You’ve got to have a principle of failing fast,” Catherine explains. “Having an organisation that’s willing to support risky decisions is what is going to pay off. If you can find an approach that also helps to demonstrate business sense, that’s where ‘not normal’ can be palatable and not so risky.”

“You don’t have to be aggressive about it,” she continues, “you can just be very honest about the risk that you’re taking. There are a number of ads out there where people put themselves on the line and thank goodness they did because otherwise we’re not going to push forward, we’re just going to have very bland advertising.”

"If we have a great idea that hasn't been bought (by the client), that's on us," Dom notes. “We need to be able to explain it well with rationale so that it goes through.”

“We need to be able to understand our gut instincts,” Dan says. “Understanding the tone of a brand is what will help you decide whether your gut is right or wrong but at the end of the day it comes down to gut.”

“Once you 100% believe in something, you can sell it to anyone,” Christina sums up.

Moving on to the topic of embracing ‘not normal’ for the sake of controversy to be able to connect with an audience, Dan shares that many brands embrace this. “But it has to come from the right tone.”

“Using controversy as a tactic can be really risky because you haven’t bought into it across the whole business,” Dom warns. “The brands that are the most controversial are controversial because it’s a top down controversy. If you're working with a brand that is quite risk averse, there’s no way a marketing team can go in and sell controversy as part of the strategy. There has to be a cultural desire to be mischief makers. You have to act a bit like a challenger brand to not be worried about creating a storm. If you’re the type of brand that has that in your DNA then you can get away with it incredibly successfully.”

To wrap up, the panel discusses the advent of AI. “From a creative perspective you have to embrace it,” Dan states. “It can save a hell of a lot of time and it allows you to be more conceptually organic. The better you prompt the better the output.”

“However there is no substitute for human thought and gut instinct,” he adds. “But there are now tools to help you approach it differently and think differently.”

“If you don’t embrace it, you’re going to be left behind,” Christina agrees. “I’m an advocate of new technologies being able to teach us new lessons and help us break category norms. Let’s just see what happens!”

“Get that first mover advantage, but make it sustainable,” Dom concludes. “Go for the things that can’t be replicated by everybody copying. You don’t want to get lost in it and lose the fundamental differences that are unique to your brand in the process.”