Insights are a load of crap
Paul Hindle is sick of the advertising industry's penchant for labelling every scrap of information as a 'killer insight'.
Yes, I agree, my headline is click-bait.
What I really mean is, most of what passes for insights is a load of crap.
Much of the advertising industry-at-large – and often the media discipline that I work in – appears to have drunk the Kool-Aid that states no worthwhile communications plan can be achieved without an insight. A ‘killer insight’ even, as I occasionally see it breathlessly referred to.
In theory, that all sounds great. Who doesn’t love a killer insight? However, in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.
In practice what I see are mostly observations of the obvious. Some years back, I read a winning USA Media Plan of the Year write-up of a national campaign micro-targeting multiple ethnic groups.
It was a credible piece of work that clearly took considerable effort and some level of skill. And, per the write-up, it all sprang forth from the ‘insight’ that ethnic groups prefer to receive communications in their native language.
Well I never, gracious me Sherlock! Whatever next? Mothers want the best for their children? Teenagers like video games and music? Oh, the insight! Maybe too much insight.
Why is the industry still in this state of affairs? In my opinion, blame the ‘look-I’m-adding-value’ huffery and puffery that’s become associated with all the briefing boxes and planning process stages. If it’s marked ‘insight’, gotta fill it. Fill it with an obvious observation. Or a statistic, or a fact about the consumer, or some brand wish marketing-speak nonsense.
The irony is that data and observations are incredibly useful to campaign creation and planning, as they suggest a course of action a la that Media Plan of the Year. I do not subscribe to the view that every effective approach must stem from a genuine insight. But I do believe it strains the credibility of the presenter if data and observations are offered up as such.
Larry Light, the formidable American marketing sage, has a test to determine, in his words, relevant and actionable insights. He judges them by two criteria:
1. Were you surprised by what you learned? YES or NO
2. Because of what you learned, will you change what you recommend? YES or NO
Only a YES on both counts qualifies as a relevant and actionable insight.
I’d nominate ‘insight’ as the most debased, misunderstood and misapplied term in all of advertising – and that’s saying something. Relevant and actionable insights are rare and take effort to find. They should be celebrated when we do find them. And they shine brighter when we don’t surround them with crap.
Paul Hindle is head of strategy at OMD WA. This post first appeared on his LinkedIn here.
My two favourite “insights”:
– Men like sport
– Young people like music
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THANK YOU!
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Well said Paolo.
A recent favourite. “We’d like your insights by 5pm.” As if that’s how it works.
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“this audience are time poor”
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No worries Rochelle, here are some insights I prepared earlier…
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Ha ha. Splendid. Had to be said.
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Not only are media agencies the least qualified to create genuine insights (an organisation where account management and planning are the same thing can’t prioritise insight generation) they’re also needed the least for planning media. When media agencies struggle to deliver basic information about media consumption i’d rather they focused on that, than another generic un-actionable insight in multi agency strategy soup.
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I really do love this article you’ve summarised it very well, however, even though you may not draw ” new / genuine / action changing insight” from a dataset, the sheer power of data is very strong otherwise you are just a person with an opinion and honestly, there are way too many floating around for anyone to care
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I agree. That’s my point. Data and obvious observations can fully inform compelling, effective campaigns, and indeed in the real world do so far more often than genuine insights. So as an industry let’s be OK with embracing that, and stop feeling the need to stick an insight party frock on them each time.
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welcome to what it’s like to be a creative.
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Agree – and I’m in the ‘insights’ business. That’s why I talk about ‘simple human truths’…sometimes what we uncover is a real insight, sometimes it’s just an articulation of a problem, a challenge, an opportunity, and not necessarily ‘new’, just clearly and simply articulated, so clients can act on it…
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You clearly lack an understanding of how media agencies work… no one thinks account management & planning are the same, in fact the majority of agencies have completely separate planning teams. I’m guessing you’re suggesting that creative agencies are better suited to come up with insights? This despite their lack of data and preference to gut feel over any actual research. Also, I’m reading correctly, you’re implying that media agencies shouldn’t do the media planning? For your clients sake I hope they don’t listen to you.
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@Media it would appear you have never worked with a decent strategy-led media agency before. They do exist! The fact that the author of this (excellent) article has spent most of his career in media agencies illustrates the point. Thanks for your patronising advice as well. As it happens, ‘I’d rather’ you learnt how to write a better-constructed sentence than a 5th grader.
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Two other classics of the genre:
– People value experiences over things
– Mums want “me time”
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