The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

… and I have to be honest, it’s had me thinking a lot.

Because while I acknowledge you can’t take things for granted, when you get lost in the weeds, you lose sight of what you’re working towards and how you do it.

And a lot of people are doing both of those things.

Nothing sums this up more to me than the issue of attribution.

The quest to minimise risk – or ‘optimise value’ – has resulted in brands forgetting that the easiest way to get attribution is to do something interesting.

But instead – reinforced by industry ‘guru’s – we have ended up with a continual production line of commercially responsible alternatives.

Be a one colour brand.

Place brand assets higher than a brand idea.

And – worse of all – have watermarks in your ads.

While colour and brand assets have a role – albeit not a primary role as so many people seem to suggest – if you feel the only way your brand will be remembered in your commercial is to place your logo all the way through it, then you either don’t know how people work or how advertising does.

Or said another way, you’re admitting your brand and your product are forgettable.

Seriously … why would you do that?

Why would you spend millions on something that positions you as uninteresting.

Worse, why would you spend millions on something that positions you as uninteresting and make sure people know it’s you by ramming your logo down their throat?

But somewhere, someone is measuring the ‘impact’ of this approach and finding a way to demonstrate its effectiveness to clients. Letting everyone feel pleased with themselves. Their choices. Their actions. Creating a precedent others will follow in the blind belief they’re being smarter … more optimised … more effective than all their competitors. All the time consciously and deliberately ignoring the critical fact that it’s undermining them rather than liberating them.

Which leads back to that tweet at the top of the page.

Because while knowing how things are going is important, nothing reveals how lost you are than measuring everything but valuing nothing.