We’re Marketing to Humans, So Let’s Understand Them
The above video interview is from the Effie Awards judging event in NYC.
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Nathan Brown is of the school that people make decisions first with their hearts, then their heads.
As SVP, Strategy Director, J3 / Universal McCann, Brown leads consumer insights for client Johnson & Johnson. He sees people sitting up and paying attention when a brand says something they perceive is about an aspect of their own lives. In this interview, Brown discusses how J3 is working with its creative partners on content that relates to the consumer as an avenue to introduce product elements.
He uses J3’s work for Listerine as an example. Whether for kissing or communicating, mouths are important in people’s lives. Content looks at the human element of what makes mouths interesting, spotlighting it as more than just something you need to clean. This is used to lead consumers to the product and its competitive set.
He also cites the current Johnson Baby campaign that pulls away from speaking about the product, connecting with contemporary mothers with an understanding of how hard they work to balance the demands of their lives. It focuses on the joy they can experience from their kids through simple activities, such as bath time.
Brown challenges the notion that channels — whether TV or Facebook — are limited in what they can successfully convey. Channels are used differently by different kinds of people. In addition to better understanding the context of individual channels, Brown is investing in business analytics that tracks the relationships among channels to better orchestrate multiplatform campaigns.
