Trust your instincts

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One of my most satisfying moments recently was when a marketer was complimenting me on a highly successful campaign for one of our clients. What made the moment so sweet, was the question posed, “What research was conducted to determine that the campaign would be successful?”. And my ability to respond, “Nothing, we presented the idea and the client said, ‘I love it, let's do it'.”

At that very moment, there was an expression of awe on the face of the marketer, confirming that he had just heard of one of the greatest and rarest things in our industry today – someone trusting their instincts and taking a risk.

Let me pause to clarify. I am all for research of the kind that brings understanding of the consumer, but once you have the insights there are times when it essential to trust your instincts, and not kill an idea with research.

Trust your instincts

Because without instinct we cannot lead – and if we cannot lead, consumers will not follow. In order to lead, research does play a vital role as we need to understand consumers, their mindset, their make-up. We need an outstanding grasp of our brand – what it stands for, what makes it unique. We also need to understand our competitors, what they do and what we do differently. It's the kind of research that we need, the kind we don't do enough of, the kind I'd happily fund. However, I stress again that once you have these insights, you need to trust your gut and to make your own decisions.

An example of this is the campaign I refer to which was for Golf GTI. The brief was to affirm the new GTI as the benchmark within the compact performance car segment and to execute it in an exhilarating way. We used a simple idea with an emotional connection to create a great TV ad. The concept of the commercial likened the Golf GTI to a great set of drums as a metaphor for the feeling you get when you drive the new GTI.

It was high energy, optimistic and thrilling ad that resulted in winning one of only two Gold Loeries awarded for TV in that year and such high demand for car that there was a waiting list.

Ignoring research – sometimes

Michael Tchao, head of Nike's Techlab, recently told me that the Nike Ipod idea bombed in consumer research. But because they had the insights into the psychological make-up of runners and because they understood their product and what value it could add as a running partner to consumers, they chose to ignore the research findings and they launched the product anyway.

The subsequent worldwide success of the Nike Ipod product is just one of many great ideas out there which proves that there are times when one should listen to consumers – and there are times when one should not.

Michael argues that as a leadership brand consumers expect Nike to do exactly that – lead. They expect the brand to bring them fresh thinking and explore new territories – to challenge them.

Fresh thinking

I suspect that this holds true for many brands that consumers love and adore. I suspect that they want brands to present them with fresh thinking, to lead them to new discoveries. I suspect that consumers are secretly hoping that brands will bring them the magical experiences that cannot be developed through a series of focus groups. And I suspect that if we offered this to our consumers, failing now and again would also be okay – because after all, consumers understand that what it takes to risk failure is also what it takes to achieve success.

The Ogilvy Verge Digital Africa Conference will be held on April 15 at The Forum in Johannesburg and on April 17 in Cape Town. The conference will inform businesses about the boundless new possibilities the digital revolution presents for South African and African brands. Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, and Michael Tchao, General Manager of Nike Techlab, will be keynote speakers at the conference.