Stop being baffled and start being surprised: Lessons from the US election

Opinion

Understanding human psychology and behaviour helps us find real insights. But this approach tends to be absent when it comes to the comms plan.

I won’t begin to understand the complexities surrounding the US election result. Nor will I offer politics in this.

But I do think there are some lessons brands can take from it.

Research from Havas Media Network recently found that as many as half of young consumers (aged 18-44) and nearly a third of all consumers now believe brands should participate in political discussions.

Edelman’s research supports this, finding that eight in 10 now see brands as political.

For the past two decades, brands have mimicked political parties in their strategies. They write “manifestos”, “target” consumers with reasons to switch, go heavy into geographic propensity mapping and knock hard on the doors of those most likely to swing.

But when it came to the US election, many brands ran a mile at any association with either political leaning, notably McDonald’s “We’re Not Red or Blue But Golden” campaign.

Look at the reactions

In the case of elections, I don’t think it’s the politics itself that can teach us the lessons — it’s the reaction to the results that we can learn from.

If we were to believe the polls and data, they broadly predicted a close call, with Kamala Harris in parts ahead. But the journalists who had listened to the people in every state across the US were not baffled when this failed to play out.

I was somewhat baffled at just how surprised the world was on 6 November.

It reminded me of John Harris and John Domokos, and their 10-year-long Guardian video series Anywhere But Westminster, in which they spoke to people across the UK on all kinds of issues. While much of the nation woke up shocked on 24 June 2016, the duo had called Brexit, despite the polls and statistics predicting otherwise.

The surprising stuff

I’m not saying data analytics or statistics are wrong; I’m saying if we neglect using immersive understanding of human psychology and behaviour, we’re missing out on half the puzzle.

And, crucially, we miss the surprising stuff: the real human insight. For brands, this is the weird and wonderful stuff. A brilliant example is Burger King’s recent campaign (pictured, above) perfectly summing up the somewhat secret post-birth first-meal desire.

Over the years, businesses have invested in immersive research and deep qualitative ethnography to build products and “design” them into lives: understand how people eat Jaffa Cakes, open yogurt pots, put sugar in their tea, navigate websites and be the user in the experience.

As we all operate at a pace on fast-forward, spending time with people is critical.

Our clients are better at this than any of us. They spend weeks and months working out how products sit and work in homes. Take, for example, any of the wonderful work with Seymour Powell.

And our media partners are also outstanding in this space, such as ITV. Its access to the homes of its community over time and beyond campaign quarters has given us unrivalled insights into the human condition with its What Unites a Kingdom report.

What about comms planning?

But this approach tends to be somewhat absent when it comes to the comms plan and the insight needed to communicate products.

On both levels, I think we could get better: 1) on the insight; and 2) on understanding how people will see and hear a comms plan.

As media strategists, we still aren’t good enough at “designing” plans around people — running around last minute, with the agency clamouring for an off-the-shelf ecosystem.

How about designing the plan around a real “day in the life”? What would the campaign really look like?

Kate Watts, CEO of creative consultancy Long Dash, vouches for an ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis.

Her approach is based on the idea that “brands need to think like journalists”. As she explained: “They need to investigate their place in the world, anchor their core narrative and then express that narrative through every touchpoint in the user journey.”

How to do better work

I believe by doing a few things just a little bit better, we will see better work — and it’s not “getting into the wild”, as others have rather patronisingly put it.

Think more like a journalist for the long term: Spend time with diverse corners of the country over time, not for next month’s campaign fix.

Respect the people you market to: As David Ogilvy said: “The consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife.”

Design your comms plan around humans: How will they see your work? What will they think, see, feel? Live that comms ecosystem.

Slow down in the mission to uncover insights: Spend time with people, open your eyes and your ears around you — you never know what you might find.

Several hundred things in my own postcode surprised me recently, from just how hard the micro-passions had gone (think cherry fetishes at the farmers market and bibles on mushrooms) to the darker side of individuals’ political views.

People should never cease to surprise us. And, for brands, that’s the magic.

Emily Fairhead-Keen is head of strategy at Havas Media UK