Did you happen to see Tourism Australia’s "Come and Say G'Day" advertisement?
If not, watch it before reading any further...
Now, did you like the ad?
If you're not the target audience for the ad... who cares?!?
Or, as brilliantly articulated by Mark Ritson in this article:
"proper marketers pointed out that those who live in Australia weren’t the market for an ad about a trip to Australia. That they should therefore practice that most venerated of marketing moves – shutting the fuck up and being market-oriented.
Remember market orientation, the prime directive of our discipline? That we are not the consumer, but rather the prime agent for the product. And, as a result, everything we think about our product or service isn’t just potentially wrong, its probably massively biased. Because we aren’t the consumer. We are none of the target segments. We are the person selling the thing. And that means we cannot see what that thing looks like to those encountering it as a consumer. You can’t, as the ancient slice of marketing wisdom puts it, see the label from inside the bottle."
Non-marketers evaluate marketing campaigns based on whether or not they like them.
Experienced marketers evaluate marketing campaigns based on how closely they follow the creative brief. They understand their personal opinions about a campaign only matter if they're in the target audience the campaign is trying to influence... and even then, the marketer is only a single opinion, not one necessarily representative of the entire target.
Ritson's article isn't just a good read.
It's something all brand owners should print up, post in their offices, and read before providing their agencies with any sort of creative feedback based on their personal opinions.
P.S. As a Canadian living in Canada, I likely could be considered part of the target audience for this campaign, and for what it's worth, it reminded me of all the reasons visiting Australia is on my travel bucket list!