How Do You Spell Relief? - Mike Einstein - MediaBizBloggers

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 airwaves. 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!"

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 listening 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!

About Mike Einstein and the Brothers Einstein

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.

Read all the Einstein Brothers' MediaBizBloggers commentaries at the Brothers Einstein - MediaBizBloggers.