I am not a snowboarder nor a skateboarder. So I will openly acknowledge that I’m borrowing what seems to be their-hashtag-and-only-their-hashtag #neverbeendone. The reason I’m doing it is to succinctly and directly talk about something that really matters in advertising, and how Vladimir Jones does it every day.
We match our creative executions and media placements to our clients’ business objectives. Never the other way around. But this isn’t the “never been done” part. Not yet. Fortunately there are many advertising agencies that prioritize clients’ business objectives. What sets us apart is how we do it.
Our approach to making clients’ business objectives our true north requires a human trait that has (unfortunately) become fairly unusual in advertising: humility. And, besides being an absolute necessity in truly getting to know a brand and its product or service (which you have to do to market it well) we’ve also found that humility offers the clearest sight line to invention.
If it can be done, we’ll consider it. But not for our own benefit or for the pleasure of doing something cool. Those filters need not apply. What does matter is whether a given action will achieve a client’s business objective. If the answer is no, or if the answer is yes, but … only a little bit and not really worth the financial investment or the time and energy when you think long enough about it … then we tramp right back to humility camp, check our compass, and pack up for another trip toward purposeful invention.
I’m saying all of this, with a backcountry snowboarding and winter camping trip analogy to match, to set up a forthcoming blog post series wherein I’ll review some of our #neverbeendone creative executions and media tactics, why we did them, and what effects they produced.
I do realize that this means other brands and agencies may be able to adopt these ideas for their own use. I don’t mind, and I can see past that. This humble act of openly sharing how we think and how we problem-solve alongside our clients does at least two positive things:
- It gives credit where credit is due. The VJ team is excellent. Our people are always innovating, and I want to give them kudos when their work really shines.
- It gives current and prospective clients an idea of how we work to address brands’ specific challenges.
And I know from experience that when we do those two things well – lifting up our team and collaborating with our clients – our client brands do well. That is, after all, why we’re here.
Next time you see #neverbeendone on our blog page, it’ll be for a review of creative executions and media tactics aimed at achieving one of these business objectives:
- Engaging hard-to-reach audiences
- Making a message ingrained
- Obtaining first-party data to support future tactics
- Solving another hairy problem
Hope you’re here visiting again soon! Or, if you represent a brand with a problem to solve right now, reach out today.
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