Do you remember the days when the consumers were choosing a product just because they felt like it? Or they liked the color of the package? These were the days when the advertising land was a place of pure happiness and people had nothing to worry about. Just to perfect their fake smile. Now, the advertising land has changed. It's still a perfect world, but too serious and heavy.
In his presentation at IAA Global Conference „Creativity4Better”, Bruno Bertelli, Global Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Worldwide, talked about the golden rules of marketing. With 81 Cannes Lions, Bruno is the most awarded Italian creative in the world and a regular judge and speaker at global festivals including Eurobest, Cannes and NY Festivals. During a very short break at the conference, we talked with Bruno about the perfect worlds that advertising is creating in 2019 and how the brands should fight the pressure of right causes.
Too perfect
The Advertising Land is not a perfect place anymore because it is too perfect. Because it tries to be perfect. That's the problem. It's not fun anymore. It's not trying to do things differently. We tend to do the right thing. We tend to tackle the right causes. And sometimes, the person who always does the right thing is boring. Is not fun. You don't want to go out with the nice guy, you want to go out with the nasty guy. This is what is missing in advertising today.
New dilemmas
My challenge, today, as a creative, is how to differentiate brands. To use all the tools that we have, like data, not to follow the path that other brands are following, but actually to try to be different. And to create your own path. And it is not that easy.
Data
Data, like any other tool, is great. It's fantastic. It's just changing the environment. The situation. It's like when we started using the computer. It didn't get worse or better. It just changed the situation. I think we don't know, yet, how to use data. There is so much information and we need people to read the data and to find the right thing. It's like you are reading a book. Sometimes you see a line that you want to underline. It's about that. Finding a thing that opens up a door that gives you the direction.
Surprise
I think that brands should be surprising. I really believe that there is one big problem: today brands are very serious. We are taking all these causes and we are very serious. And heavy. I think that the role of communication and brands today should be to take life a little less seriously. The succesful brands are the ones that say: You know what? Who cares? Have fun. This is a direction that we should try to tackle. This pressure that we have is heavy. Everybody is feeling this pressure, this seriousness, the world can end in 8 years. You see? We should live a little.
New consumers
They are more serious and more conscious of all the consequences and they feel the pressure of making a choice in everything. Before picking a product, they check if it's environmentally friendly and this kind of things, so every choice they make is very well thought. And sometimes, it's tiring. It's not that easy. I used to go to the supermarket and chose products by the color of packaging. It's not happening anymore. Everything now has to be well thought.
