Base One blog

July 21 2008 9:51 AM

For a while at Base One we’ve been questioning the logic ofthe single big idea as the basis of a brand’s campaigns. Having spent years creating consistent and compelling campaigns around a single idea, why change?It’s been proven to work and buyers are still buyers, surely?Well, yes and no. The fact is that buyers are changing, as Chris Tacy, Chief Innovation Officer at brand experience agency Method, implies in his post ‘Is “The Big Idea” Dead?’:’...now we have an entirenew demographic who have grown up not having to take it. And as a result, thecontrol relationship between brands and consumers has changed. And it’s notgoing back. Technology has helped - but behavior is a big part of this. And atthen end of the day…the chickens are coming home to roost. In this newworld…The Big Idea doesn’t really hold water. Without the controlrelationship on the side of the brands, it’s not even justifiable.’It’s this change of relationship that is making us rethink.Brand owners have to realise that they will no longer have control of whatpeople think or say about them. We can influence what they say and think butnot control it. And our buyers fit many personas, so for each ofthem the brand can mean different things. Therefore, we need to startdeveloping clusters of brand ideas that can be relevant to different groups,and yet all relevant to the brand. Strong brands in the future (even B2B brands) need toresonate as part of the sub-cultures that exist within our markets.Sub-cultures are different, yet they overlap; so too must the ideas we place atthe centre of our brands.