How Do You Spell Relief?
By Mike Einstein

We see and hear a lot these days about declining media
performance. Since when is it the media’s job to perform?
I thought that was the ad’s job.

Late last year in this space, prior to the government
bailout of all those businesses that were deemed “too big”
to fail, I bemoaned the dearth of creativity across the
advertising landscape, to wit: “The beginning of the end
was the disappearance of original jingles from the air-
waves. I can see the empty suits sitting around the table
at GM now extolling the virtues of “Like a Rock” as a more
expedient path to consumer top-of-mind than Dinah Shore’s
iconic See the USA in your Chevrolet. And heaven knows
that GM could shore use a little Dinah these days.”

In the ensuing 9 months, media “performance” has continued
its inexorable march backward. GM has gone into and come
out of bankruptcy, and now exists on subsidized bribery
(not exactly the USP they were looking for, but arguably
their most successful campaign in years). Is our lousy
economy to blame, or did GM simply fail to communicate a
decent reason to buy a Chevy?

I think the two go hand-in-glove. It’s tough enough to
break through the growing clutter with a good message,
and, as we’re seeing, clearly impossible without one.

Then there’s this whole “on-demand” thing and the sober
reality that, given the choice, nobody demands more
advertising, let alone the insipid crap that clogs the
bandwidth these days. This mess reminds me of Curly Howard
in A Plumbing We Will Go, when he mistakes an electrical
conduit for a water pipe: “Hey, no wonder the water don’t
work,” he exclaims. “The pipes are clogged up with wires!”
To which Moe replies, “A fine place for wires!”

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So, what’s a brand to do?

Well, for starters, brands need to get out of the who,
what, how, when and where business and get back into the
why business. And that means shifting emphasis from the
media back to the message. The media can’t convey a
benefit. Only a good message can do that.

A good place to begin this creative renaissance is to fire
anyone who uses the words algorithm and advertising in the
same sentence. Insist on writing samples of more than 140
characters from the folks working on your account, and if
you don’t see anything you like, keep looking and listen-
ing until you do (attention Home Depot, time to fix that
radio ad where if you get to the such-and-such aisle you
went too far).

Don’t focus on an ad’s relevance to your audience, focus
instead on its relevance to your brand.

Don’t target consumer behavior, tap it with a clever call
to action. Remember, brands don’t want consumers with good
taste, they want consumers who taste good.

Most importantly, don’t spend another penny on media until
you have something worth saying. In the meantime, soothe
that ache in your gut with a good antacid. And be sure to
study the label carefully. Because that’s how you spell
relief!

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Mike Einstein is one-half of the Brothers Einstein, a
creative strategy and branding boutique. The Brothers
Einstein work with very select rapid-growth clients to
help define and execute healthy brand strategies in a
toxic media environment.

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