13th
Being Relevant, and human too
Ideating can (and does) exist in a void, driven by the aspirations of the creatives involved. Too often are the wants and needs of the intended audience missed, or, more likely, not researched deeply enough to grasp motivation.
Or, also likely, said audience is not defined tightly enough to construct an accurate model of said wants and needs.
Or, the most likely of all, we forget we’re speaking to humans, as humans, and not WMF 35-42.
We, as humans, are naturally empathetic to a degree. Other animals, not so much. When was the last time you saw an owl move on because a mouse was limping? Never. It’s one of the things that separates us — that, and sitcoms. Or so I’ve heard.
Anyhow, you can come up with a great idea all day long. An idea that would kill as a facebook application, or a blog, or a fifteen second tv spot. But if you don’t also weave into that idea why people would like it, or what problem it attempts to solve for them, it will not work. It’ll look great on facebook with all its 10 users.
What to do? Spend time, upfront, looking carefully at a specified target audience. Find someone who is it. Or better yet, a group. I’m not saying form focus groups, but be more informal. See what they like, what they need. Find a connective thread between them of an unaddressed issue, need, or concern. Then base your ideation off that thread, that problem set, rather than the image of the audience themselves. Use your empathy for the audience’s problem set to drive your inspiration.
Because solving problems is when we actually get to be and act like humans. And that’s the best chance you’ll have at someone using or interacting with whatever it is you come up with. That’s when it’s not an ad anymore. It’s more. And it’s what I got into the business for. Don’t know about you.
So dig deeper, look closer, find people, reframe the question and the answer will come naturally.
