{"id":14987,"date":"2022-07-04T09:43:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T08:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14987"},"modified":"2022-07-04T09:43:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T08:43:18","slug":"charles-vallance-in-praise-of-logic","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2022\/jul\/charles-vallance-in-praise-of-logic","title":{"rendered":"Charles Vallance: In praise of logic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lazyblock-text-full-width-1UpdmS wp-block-lazyblock-text-full-width\"><section class=\"fullwidth text-center\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n    \n    \n    <p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>In his latest column for <em>Campaign<\/em>, VCCP&#8217;s Chairman and Founding Partner Charles Vallance discusses how any creative endeavour needs to pay close attention to detail, but never at the expense of the end-user.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">It is often said that the secret to comedy is timing. However, according to Charlie Chaplin, the secret to comedy is, in fact, logic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This may at first glance seem counter-intuitive, but then comedy and creativity often are. Chaplin did not mean that comedy has to be slavishly logical or linear, rather that there must be a core of logic if a joke is to be funny.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">For instance, two of the most disparaging words in the English language are &#8220;zany&#8221; and &#8220;wacky&#8221;. That&#8217;s because they&#8217;re reserved for things that are trying to be funny whilst abjectly failing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">There is no inherent logic to wearing a zany tie, or a wacky shirt. So there is no inherent mirth therein.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">On the other hand, there is a lot of mirth in creating a comic character who resolutely wears zany shirts and wacky ties, thinking he&#8217;s a hoot, and in the process becomes a parody of the maddening office japester.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is what\u00a0<em>The Fast Show<\/em> did with the character Colin Hunt. Colin brings a narrative logic to what would otherwise be gratuitous zaniness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We understand the absurdity that is being lampooned, the conventions that are being subverted. Chaplin&#8217;s rule is observed. Mirth ensues.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">So wherever there&#8217;s humour, you&#8217;ll find a strand of contorted logic &#8211; from the simplest pun to the most developed comic characters (be it Fawlty, Fleabag or Partridge).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Puns rely on very concise logical inversions, and therefore are often best read rather than heard.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DadJokeMan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">@DadJokeMan<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter comes up with at least one a day. He likes making puns about eyes. The cornea the better.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Advertising works with similar time lengths and attention spans to joke-telling, so the <strong>parallels<\/strong> are plentiful. Just like a joke, people need to &#8220;get&#8221; your ad quickly and rewardingly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This is how to win attention and achieve memorability. But unlike a joke, we don&#8217;t have dozens of opportunities to hone our delivery and comprehension. We have one shot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Which is why, during creative development, it pays to be hyper-vigilant around issues of legibility, audibility and comprehension.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">For me, these are the three main guarantors of logic. And they can sometimes be underestimated. Not deliberately or wilfully or carelessly. It&#8217;s just an occupational hazard that, when we&#8217;re very close to a project, a lack of objectivity can creep up on us.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We can forget that we&#8217;ve been through the idea a hundred times, and can thus start to make assumptions about comprehension and narrative flow. Other priorities such as performance, styling, casting or technique may distract us from the Chaplin fundamental.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">As we pore over the detail, we can overlook the end-user, who will be seeing our ad for the very first time, with no assumptions, no foreknowledge and, moreover, no obligation to pay any attention<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">In the real world, our narrative discipline must be rock solid, otherwise the whole production is flawed. Nobody likes an ad they can&#8217;t understand.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">This was brought home to me the other day when we tested the same ad with two voiceovers, one for the UK and one for Australia. In Australia, the ad flew through research with gold stars and garlands all round.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">In the UK, the picture was very different. The same ad struggled to command attention or generate appeal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We felt that the disparity in response was unlikely to be due to huge national differences. And we were right. The problem was comprehension.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">More specifically, the problem was a single word. A single word that people were not hearing clearly enough, and which was therefore confusing the narrative.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The poor results of an entire test film were down to the slightly muddy delivery of a familiar, commonly used word. We know this because the re-recorded version of the test film sailed through research just as successfully as its Australian counterpart.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Hyper-vigilance is not a natural or particularly enjoyable state to be in (as my feral rescue dog Annie can attest). But fear not, it is by no means constantly necessary (unless you\u2019re Annie).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The sense check of narrative logic and comprehension needs to be applied\u00a0only\u00a0a few times (in creative development, pre-prod and post-prod). But it needs to be applied ruthlessly and obsessively on those occasions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Otherwise, one of the greatest ads you&#8217;ll ever make could turn out to be one of your worst. And that takes some comprehending.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":57,"template":"","categories":[191],"class_list":["post-14987","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-agency-news"],"acf":{"author":{"ID":930,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2020-07-02 12:04:34","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-02 11:04:34","post_content":"","post_title":"Charles Vallance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_modified_gmt":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=people&#038;p=930","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"capability_ids":[],"client_id":"","hero_video":"","hero_image":{"ID":14650,"id":14650,"title":"Charles V website","filename":"Charles-V-website.png","filesize":2179106,"url":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2022\/feb\/whats-the-point-of-the-proof-point\/attachment\/charles-v-website","alt":"","author":"57","description":"","caption":"","name":"charles-v-website","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":14649,"date":"2022-02-28 09:02:25","modified":"2022-02-28 09:02:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x432.png","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":360,"large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1024x576.png","large-width":640,"large-height":360,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1536x864.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080,"Header":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1920x720.png","Header-width":1920,"Header-height":720,"Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1920x960.png","Wide-width":1920,"Wide-height":960,"Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x768.png","Square-width":768,"Square-height":768,"Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-307x615.png","Tall-width":307,"Tall-height":615,"Mobile":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x960.png","Mobile-width":768,"Mobile-height":960,"Facebook":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1200x630.png","Facebook-width":1200,"Facebook-height":630,"Grid-Item-Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x768.png","Grid-Item-Square-width":768,"Grid-Item-Square-height":768,"Grid-Item-Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x384.png","Grid-Item-Wide-width":768,"Grid-Item-Wide-height":384,"Grid-Item-Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-307x615.png","Grid-Item-Tall-width":307,"Grid-Item-Tall-height":615}},"meta-title":"A view from Charles Vallance in Campaign: In praise of logic","meta-description":"For his latest column in Campaign, Charles explains how any creative endeavour needs to pay close attention to detail, but never at the expense of the end-user.","social-media-image":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","news_id":"191","related_content_title":"You may also like","relateditems":[{"relateditem":{"ID":14368,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2021-12-06 15:58:18","post_date_gmt":"2021-12-06 15:58:18","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-left\":\"\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eOriginally published in \\u003cstrong\\u003eCampaign\\u003c\\\/strong\\u003e, VCCP's Founding Partner and Chairman \\u003cstrong\\u003eCharles Vallance\\u003c\\\/strong\\u003e unpacks the enforced brevity of social media means people are getting to the point faster, why brands must sit up and pay attention or fail to win that of their consumers.\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eLife is getting pointier. And I'm not just saying that because my third\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003evaccination beckons. In most aspects of culture, commerce and\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ecommunication, success increasingly depends on getting to the point sooner,\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003erather than later.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eSocial media is inevitably one of the drivers of pointiness. We are learning to\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eexpress ourselves with far greater brevity and spontaneity. Acronyms\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eabound, pictures are displacing words. Limits apply on numerous\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003edimensions, from the number of characters allowed (280 for Twitter) to the\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eduration of a post (60 seconds for Snapchat). TikTok, Insta and Snap are all\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003enamed to sound urgent and fleeting.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eThere is a general consensus that multi-tasking and multi-screening have fed\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethe rise of CPA (constant partial attention - keep up at the back, please). This\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ein turn is likely to have reduced our powers of concentration. A study by\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eMicrosoft in Canada found that average concentration spans had fallen from\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e12 to 8 seconds between the turn of the century and 2015.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eWhere technology and social media lead, culture tends to follow. And so we\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eshould not be surprised to learn that the world of literature is not immune to\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethe forces of pointiness. According to The Times (22 Nov), researchers have\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003efound that the average sentence in British fiction has dropped from 12.73\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ewords to 11.87 words since the early 90's. Sentence complexity has also\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ereduced, with a 25% fall in the use of semi-colons. There does, however,\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eappear to be one trend in fiction which might put it ahead of the curve,\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003enamely a significant drop in the use of exclamations marks. Let's hope this\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003etranslates over to social media!!!! LOL!!!\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eThe lesson is very simple. It's getting ever more difficult to win people's\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eattention. Therefore, when you do, you must accelerate to your point rather\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethan drift towards a generalised resolution. The jeopardy of not doing so was\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ebrought home to me by a very senior Client who'd fired his last agency even\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethough they'd done some familiar and well-known work. The trouble with this\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ework, and the reason for the move of agencies, was that it didn't get to the \\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003epoint. People had seen it, but didn't know what to do with it. It lacked a\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ecompelling point of view about what to do next. It lacked intent.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eSo the pointiness agenda can be a very stern taskmaster. We all know that\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eour communication should be distilled and our strategies concise. However,\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003econcentration and compression are easier said than done. To paraphrase\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eGeorge Orwell's paraphrase of Blaise Pascal, \\u0022I would have written a shorter\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eletter, but didn't have the time\\u0022.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ePruning and cutting back are laborious processes. They can also be fraught\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ewith politics. The fight for brevity and compression can sometimes leave\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003epeople feeling left out, as it requires a certain ruthlessness. Sacrifices have\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eto be made and metaphorical toes trodden on. It is easy to complicate and\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003edifficult to simplify, but many people prefer the easier path.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eDescribing someone as 'singular' is seldom a great compliment. It suggests\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethey lack nuance and depth. But for brands, being singular is the highest\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003epossible accolade. Think of any brand you admire and I bet it is shot through\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ewith singularity. Singularity of identity, purpose, values, design, tone of voice\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eand message are the hallmarks of brand pre-eminence, whatever the\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ecategory, whatever the field - from Chanel to Cadbury, from Apple to Ikea,\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003efrom Oatly and O2 to Patek and Patagonia.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eI wrote about the importance of your brand having a 'thing' exactly a year\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eago. My Christmas present this year is to recommend that your thing also\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ehas a point. In his magnificent new publication Look Out, Orlando Wood talks\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eabout the importance of attracting right brain, 'broadbeam' attention. He also\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003echronicles the decline in advertising of the very features that win such\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eattention; things like wordplay, characters, dialogue, distinctive accents and a\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eclear sense of place.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eThese are all fantastic ingredients for pointy, thingy communication. And yet\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003etoo many campaigns are actively failing to use them, a problem which is\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ereflected in the sustained decline of creative effectiveness as observed by\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003ethe IPA. Fear not, however, because at this time of good cheer the answer is\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e \\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003esimple. If your brand currently lacks bite, then, to quote Alvin and the\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003eChipmunks, it's possible that all it wants for Christmas is some new front\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-weight: 400\\u0022\\u003e teeth. On which note I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Thingy, Pointy New Year.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"quote\":\"The lesson is very simple. It's getting ever more difficult to win people's\\u00a0\\nattention.\",\"blockId\":\"761IP\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-761IP\"} \/-->","post_title":"Charles Vallance 'Getting to the Point'","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance-getting-to-the-point","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-12-06 15:58:18","post_modified_gmt":"2021-12-06 15:58:18","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14368","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":14827,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-05-03 09:01:31","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-03 08:01:31","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-left\":\"\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cstrong\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eOriginally published in \\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\\\/\\\/www.campaignlive.co.uk\\\/article\\\/connect\\\/1754246\\u0022\\u003eCampaign\\u003c\\\/a\\u003e.\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/strong\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe live in a hyper-connected world and yet, in numerous ways, connection is becoming harder than ever.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe travel to work in our own media bubbles and, certainly on the wide pavements of Victoria, weave our way between pedestrians watching their phones more closely than the way ahead.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eOur attention spans are shrinking, our media habits fragmenting and our communities morphing from real to digital.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eAs a species, we have an innate need to connect but, as an industry, we tend to prioritise content over connectivity. Far too many conversations about the content we create happen in isolation of, rather than in unison with, the business of how people will connect with it.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eMedia and creative output are too often dislocated. Creative awards are too often allotted to work that has barely been seen or celebrated in the real world.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis highlights an irony for an industry that sees itself as content-driven. Because, contrary to the received wisdom, content isn't king. Connectivity is.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis may sound heretical at first glance, surely it's all about the work? Yes it is. But only in so much as the work connects people and gives them something to share. Otherwise, the effort is close to worthless.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThere's little to be gained from making the best ad no-one ever sees or, if they do, have no desire to talk about. Hence my reference to EM Forster's authorial homily in\\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eHowards End\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e; \\u0022Only connect! Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.\\u0022\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eConnection is the opposite of isolation, and it is the lifeblood of brands. But we constantly face the competing forces of fragmentation. These are the modern beasts and monks of our trade, time-shifting, micro-casting, multi-screening and isolating what used to be shared and consumed collectively, in real time, by social groups (known as families) on single devices (known as tellies).\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eFear not, though. The future is better than the past.\\u00a0\\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\\\/\\\/www.campaignlive.co.uk\\\/article\\\/uk-adspend-hits-all-time-high-smashing-predictions-does-pride-fall\\\/1754266\\u0022 target=\\u0022_blank\\u0022 rel=\\u0022noopener\\u0022\\u003ePartly because levels of adspend have never been higher\\u003c\\\/a\\u003e, and partly because the ways we have to connect with audiences have never been more diverse or prolific.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cdiv id=\\u0022c502Ad\\u0022 class=\\u0022commercialSlot\\u0022 data-location-code=\\u0022C\\u0022 data-sizes=\\u0022300x250\\u0022 data-google-query-id=\\u0022CJyGubXswvcCFZe-UQod2zYIwQ\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/div\\u003e\",\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe can build connections that were simply not conceivable 10 years ago, we can create partnerships and activations, platforms and experiences, which are both more immersive and interactive than traditional media channels.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eFurthermore, traditional media is fighting back. Television is enjoying soaring demand, with better products, a more entrepreneurial business model, more destination programming and more appointments to view.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eJust as the Jeremiahs were predicting the demise of linear viewing, it is back in demand, precisely at the point that Netflix has suffered its first setback in years with a drop in subscribers prompting a 35% share price correction.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eAnd the possibility of it introducing an ad-funded model. A bit like, erm, linear TV.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003ePut simply, there's more content out there, on more platforms, that's more accessible, of greater variety, of higher quality and available via more devices, more flexibly in more places on more occasions than ever before.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis is not to suggest that quantity is inherently an advantage. To the contrary, one of the challenges that the content industry now faces is the sheer abundance of choice being produced (and attendant subscription costs).\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThere is a danger that this creates a replaceability spiral where the level of supply exceeds the strength of paid for demand.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eMargaret Schlegel, one of the main characters in\\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eHowards End\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e, draws a similar conclusion, albeit about life in early 20th-century London: \\u201cThe more people one knows, the easier it is to replace them.\\u201d\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThe same applies to brands. Which is why the greatest creative challenge for our industry isn't how we add to the weight of content out there, but how we help our brands connect with it.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eCharles Vallance is chairman and founding partner of VCCP\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"Yfkyh\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-Yfkyh\"} \/-->","post_title":"Charles Vallance in Campaign: Only Connect!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance-in-campaign-only-connect","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-05-03 09:01:31","post_modified_gmt":"2022-05-03 08:01:31","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14827","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":14649,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-02-28 09:11:42","post_date_gmt":"2022-02-28 09:11:42","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-left\":\"\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cstrong\\u003eWhy hard product truth always lies behind any emotional selling proposition.\\u003c\\\/strong\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u0022I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.\\u201d\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThis famous quote from Maya Angelou can come in very handy when you're trying to persuade a decision-maker that it's better to underdo rather than overdo the rational component of their advertising.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eYou will never argue someone into liking you, you have to make them feel something first.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eMost advertising theory now accepts this principle, that the heart should have primacy over the head. That's why we get models such as love-choose-buy and its various iterations (eg feel-think-do).\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThe argument that love or feeling should come ahead of thought or reason has been considerably bolstered in recent years by advances in neuroscience, not least our understanding of intuitive System 1 thought processes (or, more accurately, lack of thought processes).\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThat said, a few years ago the model was threatened by the rapid ascendancy of performance marketing. In contrast to the hard metrics associated with programmatic, SEO and clickthrough, softer measures such as brand fame and brand love came under pressure.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eBut, after some notable U-turns from some prominent doubters, the big ad and the big feel are back. Indeed, given current double-digit levels of TV media inflation, the return of emotion might well have further to go.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eWhich leaves a question hanging over the middle tier in the layer cake of love-choose-buy. Just like love, the role of buy is assured. Yes, performance budgets might have been reined in from their peak but, given their inherent accountability, they will continue to command a significant chunk of overall spend.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eIn light of this, a client might well decide to focus more and more of the remaining budget on appeals to the heart (love) rather than the head (choose) so as not to dilute resources.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eIf we put our foot on the ball for a moment, this is all a long way away from concepts such as the USP and brand differentiation which guided a lot of thinking in the 1980s and the 1990s.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eIn one of my numerous advertising apprenticeships (at WCRS) I was taught to \\u0022interrogate the product until it confesses to its strengths\\u0022. No mention of anything so woolly as a brand, let alone feelings. The starting point for most briefs was a product story, a proof point, or a reason to believe.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-size: inherit;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif\\u0022\\u003eOf course, there was always more to it than simply rational substantiation. In another of my advertising apprenticeships (at BBH) I was taught the concept of the ESP (emotional selling proposition).\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cspan style=\\u0022font-size: inherit;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif\\u0022\\u003eLike many things you learn young, this has stood the test of time. Perhaps because it was ahead of its time in game-changing campaigns for Levi's, Audi, Boddington's et al.\\u003c\\\/span\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eBut the ESP was, in itself, something of a sleight of hand. Scratch any one of the campaigns mentioned above and you'll get to a hard product truth, whether it was stone-washed for Levi's, Quattro for Audi or smoothflow for Boddingtons.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThe trick was to wear these product truths sufficiently lightly, so that they didn't become an impediment to emotion.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eWhat was true then, is 10 times truer now. To use a meteorological analogy, where brands once competed with the equivalent of a headwind in the fight for attention, they now compete with a storm Eunice.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eWhich means we have to fight harder and harder to be remembered, to achieve the gold standard of branding which is, of course, a tiny little bit of real estate in the mind of your prospect.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eCall them what you will \\u2013 distinctive assets, fluent devices, brand properties, sonic or visual equity, branded language and nomenclature \\u2013 these are the new vehicles for the only measure that counts. And that measure is mental availability. Without mental availability you might as well whisper into the face of the storm.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eWhich is why Angelou's quote is so salutary. If brand distinctiveness is the vehicle to unlocking memory, then emotion is the key. You can say what you like, you can even do what you like, but without emotion you will be forgotten. People only remember what they feel.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eDespite appearances, this is not an argument against the layer cake's middle tier of evidence and substantiation. I remain a firm believer in the proof point and the reason to believe.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThe only caveat nowadays is that the point of the proof point has changed. Where once it was an end in itself, it is now a form of logical permission to leave justification behind (perhaps in the body copy or on the website) and take your brand up to the altitude of emotion.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThis is where memory resides and Eunice is a mere breeze.\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eCharles Vallance is a\\u00a0founding partner of VCCP.\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"Z4iJBg\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-Z4iJBg\"} \/-->\n\n<!-- wp:lazyblock\/quote-full-width {\"quote\":\"You will never argue someone into liking you, you have to make them feel something first.\",\"quotee\":\"Charles Vallance, founding partner of VCCP\",\"blockId\":\"nLJ3k\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-quote-full-width-nLJ3k\"} \/-->","post_title":"What's the point of the proof point?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"whats-the-point-of-the-proof-point","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-02-28 09:33:03","post_modified_gmt":"2022-02-28 09:33:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14649","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"hide_related_items":[],"visible_on_home_page":["1"],"websites_to_publish":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}