‘If it was my money I’d…’ has to be one of my most over-used client-meeting phrases. But there’s a good reason why – especially when you’re dealing with Outside London sized marketing budgets it’s easy for clients to try to be all things to all media channels, and master of none.
I’d always advocate for doing one or two things brilliantly rather than faffing about and doing lots of things not very well. I’m not saying you can’t try lots of new things and be always in beta. I’m now a big fan of Russell Davies’ Idea Buckets, which are vague brand ideas that accommodate all sorts of other, often contradictory thoughts and allow you to try lots of stuff and see what works.
But you can try lots of things within the confines of a few media channels, or aimed at a specific target audience. It’s when brand owners want TV, press ads, DM and PR on a five figure marketing budget that I start to get nervous. Or there was the time I saw a creative brief that under target audience simply said “Anyone. They’re desperate”.