The average person experiences more than 26,000 days in a lifetime, about 2 billion seconds. Finding connections with people in their everyday lives is the way for brands to win with consumers, according to Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Marc Pritchard.
“With more than 7 billion people in the world, that is a tremendous number of moments to consider,” said Pritchard, during a presentation at the Cannes Lions last week. “You may be surprised to find out that when it comes to daily use of personal care products, people can experience a lot of struggles that are associated with them, which opens up interesting ways to dramatize problems to be solved and demonstrate unique ways to solve them with superior performing products.”
For instance, in the past week, 50% of parents have experienced waking up in the middle of the night to change their baby’s diaper. Less than half the people are satisfied with the stain cleaning performance of their laundry detergent, 20% of dishwashing loads have a dish that didn’t get cleaned, so it has to be washed again. Only 1 in 10 women claim to be having a great hair day on any given day.
The CPG giant –whose brands include Pampers, Always, Lenor, Tide, Ariel, Dash, Fairy, Dawn, Cascade, Bounty, Charmin, Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Olay, Secret, Old Spice, Crest, Gillette, Venus – takes these challenges into account when developing campaigns. For instance, a Head & Shoulders campaign that highlights that people who use the product don’t actually have dandruff (since the shampoo is working) and a Lenor ad that addresses the musty smell that can come with clothes dried indoors.
“We’re at another inflection point in the creative industry with our next leap of technology powers available at our fingertips, but sustained growth is only going to be possible when we harness that power in ways that deliver superior innovation and creativity,” said Pritchard.
“When we focus on serving people with better offerings that delight them and provide more value in their daily lives and when we unlock the humanity that we all have inside of us every single day to bring forward the power of creative ideas,” he continued.
“How to make that happen is right here in front of us. Finding creativity in everyday moments, where brands matter and where brilliant creative brand ideas make those everyday moments matter more.”
Pritchard proposed three actions for brands and agencies to consider when developing creative.
- Find those everyday moments that matter.
“That means getting out from behind your computer and spending time with the people that your brand serves. And for our brands, it’s visiting people in their homes where they shop to observe actual behavior in how they experience our products. It requires human interaction to get the true essence of the moment, like the first whiff of that clean, fresh laundry. The importance of a smooth shave when kissing your adorable little grandson or granddaughter. Or the wonderful feeling of that soft, fresh pillow and sheet after a long day. Human moments are the ones that matter.”
- Find out how your brand matters in those moments.
“How does it help you get the job done? Is there a problem they can uniquely solve? Is there a way that using the brand naturally fits into the situation and makes it just a little bit better? Now, it’s important to define how the brand provides a tangible and noticeably superior performance benefit. Like clothes that are fresh and clean as they’re dried outdoors, the cleanest closest shave, irresistible softness and comfort from your favorite fabrics. But you’ll also have to think expansively about how your brand contributes to emotional outcomes and how they make you feel.”
- Find the magic of a creative brand idea to make those moments matter more.
“It’s where both sides of the brain come together to combine logic and feeling. Now, how do you know when you’ve landed the idea? Your spine tingles. Some call it the chills or the goosebumps. It’s that physiological reaction where something really touches you. Logic connects the dots in your brain, and emotion is what makes you feel it in your heart and your soul. And a reminder, and I know you know this, but even with all the technology that’s available to us, the answer will not be found in the data or the algorithms. The answer is in the idea, which comes from the heart and the soul. AI doesn’t get the spine tingles. Humanity matters.”
