The Rant: Is The Single-Minded Proposition Still Out There?

Volume 27 In a Series By Felix

Scamp, one of my favorite ad blogs, has been doing a bit of planner bashing lately. And something that violently hit a nerve with me was the tirade about single-minded propositions (or lack thereof).

I had to think for a while to remember the last time I saw a pure proposition; one free from bullshit and extras, that simply tells you where to start digging. I had to go back in time to a point where I had more hair on my head and less fat around my mid-section. Partly, this is because of the places I’ve been working. But I also think it’s down to the fact that too many account teams and clients no longer understand what a single-minded thought actually is.

Early on in my career I was blessed to work with some ridiculously good account managers and planners. A lot of them were what I like to call “frustrated creatives.” They had a knack for getting to the crux of the issue, condensing the information from the client into a honed, beautifully crafted thought that any creative could run with.

One I heard about that made me tip my hat with respect was for something called critical illness insurance.

Wow, insurance. I’ll pass.

But the account manager was no dummy. He spent several days going through all of the information to get to the heart of the matter. And what he came up with was good. Very good. It could have been the first headline for the campaign (a quality of a truly great USP). Drum roll, please.

“Don’t let your illness cripple your family.”

There’s nothing in there about low monthly payments. There’s nothing about age restrictions or coverage limitations. There’s nothing about “the best insurance out there” or “value for money.” This was a statement that set the wheels in motion for the creative team, and I know for a fact that it led to some award-winning work, despite the fact that the ads were black and white and were for a dull product.

The work was built on stories of family members who had suffered hardships as a result of a loved one coming down with a terrible illness. One ad that stuck out showed a middle-aged woman with a simple headline that said “Susan. A victim of testicular cancer.” It’s not a huge leap from what the account manager had written, building on that emotional foundation he had established.

Most important of all, the work communicated something that made a direct connection with the target audience. Response rates jumped through the roof on those ads; hundreds of percentage points from the original dry ads that concentrated on rates and monthly premiums. And that’s what we’re all here for, right? To sell stuff.

On the awards podium, the creative team called out the work of the account manager and said that the award was more his than theirs. He did the hard work, they just made it sing. Here, here. Most creatives I know would kill for a decent proposition.

Now let me paraphrase (allow me a little discretion) a recent proposition I got.

“[XXXXXXX] is dependable AND affordable, offering great value for money and an unforgettable experience.”

Apart from the fact that it’s about as inspiring as white, crusty dogshit, it’s crammed with different directions. Do you go for the dependable aspect? Or affordability? Or the unforgettable experience? Or value for money? Fuck me, my head hurts. And when I challenged the team on the proposition, I got this little gem thrown back at me:

“It IS single-minded, it’s one sentence!”

I’ll leave that one hanging out there for a moment. I’m sure some of you need to catch your breath, or rid your screen of the coffee you just sprayed at it.

This is pure laziness on the part of the account team. They haven’t done enough digging to discover what the main selling point of the product is, or had enough discussions with the client to agree on a single-minded thought. Instead, this vapid attempt leaves the creative team (including me) looking under every rock for a way to pull all of this off without producing something awful.

As most creatives do, I honed in on one aspect of the proposition and built a campaign around that. The rest, I covered off in copy. And guess what? The account team and the client were very happy with it, despite the fact that the main idea was missing 75% of the proposition. Again, this is laziness and a lack of understanding. But if I’d delivered on the whole proposition, it would have been a garbled mess.

A single-minded proposition is also a hard thing to stand behind. It requires putting all of your eggs in one basket, saying “yes, this is where we want to go. Right here.” And if you, as an account manager, don’t get it right, you’ve just wasted a few weeks of the agency’s time.

A way to combat these “multiple personality propositions” is to get the creative team and the CD in on the process as early as possible. Invite them to look over the brief and the proposition. When a creative team helps create one, they can hardly disagree with it further down the line.

Also, doing your homework and giving due diligence to the client relationship is paramount. They live and breathe the product or service, they could easily highlight the most important benefit of it. “If you had a gun to your head, what one compelling thing would you say about your product?”

Now, as Scamp has already done, and I’m quite happy to rip-off, I’d like to know examples of your best and worst propositions. Which ones made you dance and sing, which ones made you reach for the Advil? Use fake names and take liberties if you must, but please share. Maybe we can all take some inspiration from the good ones, and have a good laugh at the bad ones.