Scamp CD Simon Veksner: Double-Headed Propositions And How To Decapitate Them
September 16 2012, 5:50 pm | | 6 Comments
It’s more than 70 years since Rosser Reeves coined the term USP or Unique Selling Proposition.
For at least the last 18 years (as long as I’ve been in the industry), the proposition box on a brief has been labelled ‘Single-Minded Proposition’.
6 Comments
Simon’s thoughtful pieces are one of the best things on the blog – more so because of the reasonable tone of voice so lacking in most of the reactive and boorish comments on this blog. Yours pompously…
Agreed, Old CD Guy. Always look forward to reading Simon’s thoughts.
I second that motion, Old CD Guy.
I wish to God this kind of thinking was in evidence in any of the many agencies I’ve worked in. I quickly get a reputation as being ‘difficult’ because I question briefs with bad props (I don’t think I’ve seen a true USP) since Award School.
Why is it that ideas/ads always get interrogated, sometimes beyond belief, yet briefs seem to sail through unscathed?
I think briefs should be critiqued just as heavily as the creative work is.
Then you’d end up with better briefs. And better work.
Can I offer a tiny tid-bit of information that’s worked for me many times…
If the brief’s vague, see it as an opportunity to interpret it however you see fit.
Which means come up with an awesome ad and go ‘oh…. how is that off brief? I mean I was just looking at this part of the brief out of the million other ones….’
Loose briefs are a blessing in disguise. It’s the tight as a nun’s nasty ones you need to worry about.