Let me tell you a secret: people don’t actually know what they want.
I didn’t say that—Steve Jobs did. Actually, let’s go full quote here because it’s too good to paraphrase:
“Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”‘ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
Read things not yet on the page.
That’s the job. That’s our superpower. Not churning out algorithm-pleasers or Frankensteining together a campaign based on “what worked last quarter.” If you can point to five other campaigns that look like yours and say, “See? This is why it’ll work”—then it won’t.
Because great advertising doesn’t look like anything else. It’s not recycled. It doesn’t play nice. It punches you in the gut and then hugs you while whispering, “You’ll thank me later.”
So, how did we end up here, elbows deep in dashboards and data vomit?
If we are being honest—a LOT of the ads today feel like they were written by committee and tested into oblivion until the edges were sanded off and the soul was gone. Campaigns that sound like they were optimized for click-throughs, not connection. It’s creative by way of the calculator.
We need to shape culture, not endlessly chase trends. We need to create campaigns that people will remember for years instead of hoping someone sees it before it disappears into the void of Stories and swipes.
And yes, I get it. Data matters. Analytics are useful. But they are not the destination—they’re the map. You use them to understand the terrain, then you blaze a trail no one else has dared to take. You don’t let the GPS drive the damn car.
We’ve got to stop acting like success is only measured in conversion rates. What about impact? What about building a brand so iconic that people tattoo it on their bodies and name their kids after it? (Okay, that might be extreme, but you get my point.)
So, here’s my call to arms: To the dreamers, the weirdos, the slightly unhinged creatives who got into this business to make something new—we need you.
We need your gut instincts, your 3:00 am ideas, your boldness, your insanity. We need to stop treating creativity like a liability and start treating it like the nuclear fuel it is. Let’s put the magic back in advertising. Let’s make stuff that scares the client a little. That makes people talk. That makes other brands go, “Damn, I wish we’d done that.”
Use the data to inform your launchpad, not to water it down into a safe, beige mush that appeals to everyone and resonates with no one. Let’s stop crafting campaigns for approval and start creating them for impact! Not just clicks. Let’s build brands that don’t just live in people’s feeds, but live in their hearts and minds. Because when you stand for something bigger, people stand with you. Find your people — and light a fire under them.
Because if we don’t? If we keep sliding down this slope of safety and sameness? Creativity dies. And I, for one, didn’t come into this industry to give the people “a faster horse.” I came to build a rocket! Now let’s light that fuse.
Gigasavvy is an award-winning content creation, brand and creative agency that position clients for long-term success. Connect with us to chat about how we can produce impactful content for your business.
