I get lots of emails from PR companies.
None of these have anything to do with me, but they send their mass-mailings to everyone, indiscriminately.
So to even understand what they’re saying I have to decipher the language used.
Like a bad brief, its written not for clarity, but to impress other marketing people.
Here’s an example, one I just received:
“Times of economic uncertainty naturally put pressure on the high street, increasing the emphasis retailers need to place on winning consumer confidence and trust. Automated marketing is a key driver for engaging consumers, from self-service kiosks to interactive displays, and it is crucial that retailers utilise this in order for the high street to survive. To attract and retain consumer attention, retailers need content, and they need it regularly across all channels and markets. Leveraging technology powered by a creative automated engine, marketers can have greater control to deliver innovative campaigns across various markets, deploying content more efficiently across localised stores and localised markets. With budgets being tightened, creating powerful and impactful campaigns to engage consumers is more important than ever. It’s time to leave behind legacy ways of asset creation or risk the high street falling further.”
Obviously, I’m turned off by the language but, as a creative director, my job is usually to translate bad briefs into English for junior creatives.
So doing that here, what would this message look like in plain English?
“Times of economic uncertainty naturally put pressure on the high street, increasing the emphasis retailers need to place on winning consumer confidence and trust.”
(Translation: Times are tough)
“Automated marketing is a key driver for engaging consumers, from self-service kiosks to interactive displays, and it is crucial that retailers utilise this in order for the high street to survive.”
(Translation: Technology can help)
“To attract and retain consumer attention, retailers need content, and they need it regularly across all channels and markets.”
(Translation: They need lots of content)
“Leveraging technology powered by a creative automated engine, marketers can have greater control to deliver innovative campaigns across various markets, deploying content more efficiently across localised stores and localised markets.”
(Translation: Chat GPT is the answer)
“With budgets being tightened, creating powerful and impactful campaigns to engage consumers is more important than ever.”
(Translation: It’s cheaper)
“It’s time to leave behind legacy ways of asset creation or risk the high street falling further.”
(Translation: We don’t need humans)
So we see, the whole impenetrable paragraph could have been expressed in six lines.
But we all know why they didn’t do that.
The content, the actual thinking, what’s really being said, is so banal.
Which is why I’ve always found the quality of the thinking is inversely proportional to the complexity of the brief.
Let’s see if we can remember why it was called ‘a brief ‘I the first place.