If you want insight, get out of the building

One of the things I found weird working for different agencies and with marketers is that they always talk about understanding the customer. Yet they never leave their building to truly experience their audience. A pitch comes in for an FMCG brand and the first thing they do is organise focus groups. What about just walking down to the local supermarket and just standing in the aisle for a while.

Quite a few years ago now I did a brand planning course where at the end we had to create a strategy, creative brief and creative concepts for a chocolate bar that had no fat. I did some data analysis and detailed that the bar should go after the chocolate bar market not the health bar version. I also did two particular pieces of research that stood out. I walked around a supermarket watching women in the chocolate aisle. What I found was that women would be less likely to grab a chocolate bar in the aisle and more likely to grab it closer to the counter. This insight around 'shame' felt like fertile ground. I then created some concepts and set up a movies night at my girlfriends house with a group of girls in the target audience, the perfect environment for chocolate. I let my girlfriend run the session as I thought the depth of understanding of that 'shame' would be harder to say to a guy. They not only validated a concept but built on it making the language more feminine and more specific.

I topped the class on the assignment and the teacher highlighted the amazing effort I'd gone to mixing a strong analysis of the market and a deep understanding of the audience. Building it all into a great concept and good creative work. That act of observation, creation and validation was very simple and all of it cost me not much more than a couple of chocolate bars and making dinner for my girlfriend. Yet I've sat through piles and piles of expensive research and got very little insight to that depth that can truly be successfully used for any advantage.

If you are in the business of understanding people why not get out of the building and actually experience those real people. There is something very human and empathetic about interacting with people in reality not just reading about it. Not just treating a situation like a test subject just being a human being in a human space. Then having the ability to truly pull out what matters to whomever you are studying is still a skill that is hugely undervalued.

The need to know about people still hasnt changed

₪ Cobija: Corporativa al atardecer - Flickr Meeting at Tusk ₪, originally uploaded by ►Voj►.

I think with a month away in the sunshine I seemed to have simplified everything considerably to my somewhat lazy brain can comprehend it.(Life is simple in Australia and maybe a month there has done that to me). But I read an article in this weeks campaign called 'Is insight more crucial than creative'?. Why does someone have to win this game. Insight is freaking important. Creativity is freaking important. Its like the rant I had about planners and creatives over at amelia's blog. We need to work together, stop trying to fight

Once again I think we are over complicating something that is really simple. Clients pay us to understand things they don't and do things they can't. Some of the best clients I have had have simply said. Mike give me a real life run down of the audience. Not a 90 page presentation. (even though I had written and read about 8 of them) they wanted for me to explain it like it was a they know person. It seems the bigger the client the less they know. I have sat in huge business parks where I sometimes question whether they ever leave that place and also what lives they live outside of that bubble. But that is a huge role we have and always will play. I know its a cheap trick but a couple of vox pops on the street still does wonders for the drama of selling your argument.

INSIGHT + CREATIVITY will always matter. Some clients will care about one more than the other. But that's business and that's people. Where the interesting bit starts to happen. Is when your insights start working outside of advertising and into the business. Insights that started for an ad and ended up creating new products and services. But this can also happen with creativity. An idea can sporn as an ad and end up being far greater. I think that HP's Hype Gallery is a prime example. The other interesting part I feel is moving away from what I deem 'boardroom understanding' I have written here a few times about empathy and how there are new ways that we can address to gain a better understanding of people. Lets treat them as people. Not as images on powerpoint or numbers of data. My research department always say to me 'the only reason you like ethnographic research mike, is cause you like following people around'. Its true. I am fascinated by people. Their differences, their similarities, everything.

In light of this my sister is starting a therapists course on sexual offenders this year. I bought her a computer for Xmas , but she hasnt used a computer in years so it should be interesting. In less than a week she has already stated that she is going to start going into forums and chat rooms to find and get a greater understanding of these people for her own research.(must be a family issue) Simple but so useful. These simple things are what people do to find out about each other. Why cant we just do simple things to find out about each other.

Anyway I have had my rant. So in summary. Insight and creativity are like the left leg and the right leg. Without both ... you're in trouble. But I believe that we need to progress our insight development and processes away from the boardroom into the real world... with a little more empathy. Bringing all the information together for a client I am a huge fan of telling a story of something I have seen in real life... turning it into an analogy of the clients problem. Then linking it directly to some really expensive research they conducted. Usually works a treat

Great ethnographic studies from Flow and BBC

I just found this cool little rap up from Flow Interactive about some research they had done on teenagers and how they find new music. Have a look. It is nothing you wouldnt have known instinctively and they have limited the amount they give out (I dont know why...BBC is government not commercial). But Im posting it to have it on file.

Some co-creation going on at Universal Mccann

Follow me - let your mind be free, originally uploaded by Kursiv.

I have discussed my love for co-creation here many a time. The comments are usually in terms of digital's and its role it making it all easier. But without selling it too much. We have a cool research technique we use at UM called ImMEDIAte Futures (like what I did with the letters) that we devised with a company called Skylab in the US that works with creating ideas for reality TV shows. Here is a great article from my colleague Cate which explains what it is all about. I have run some of these sessions, which I think are brilliant and really useful. I often have a negative view towards research. But I think this technique is awesome at uncovering real insight and also giving the people you are trying to target a chance to affect their own products and marketing. Have a read and tell me what you think.

Everyone loves co-creation

Participatory Marketing - What it is, How it Works

View SlideShare presentation (tags: marsden clickadvisor advocacy brand)

Great presentation from Paul Marsden and his company click advisor
I have seen a few different presentations from Paul at different points. He has done some great work on advocacy and how co-creation can drive it. Check out some of his presentations on slideshare.

Ethnographic research at its best .... online

I love this site. I found it late last year but forgot about it. Overheard in New York would be a great research tool like weird qual research. I just use it when Im in a bad mood and need a laugh