After 25 years of hearing ideas dismissed as “off-brand,” Paddy Gilmore MBD (Member of the Order of The Drum) challenges one of advertising’s most convenient creative vetoes.

This month, I’m going to “advance a thesis,” as they say in academic circles. Normally, you spend four years writing a PhD, eating beans on toast beside a rusty stove, before defending all 637 pages in front of a panel of dried-up academics.

I ain’t doin’ that. I chose The Drum. Sure, I won’t get the letters after my name, but I might get more readers. [We gave you some letters in the standfirst].

So here’s my thesis:

Pick, if you will, a comedy double act. Whichever one you like: Morecambe and Wise, French and Saunders or Laurel and Hardy.

You know the structure. You have the funny one and the straight one. The straight one often provides the setup before the funny one delivers the gag. 

Wise: “What’s on the TV?” 

Morecambe: “A fruit bowl and an ashtray.”

The straight one is dependable, unremarkable, even dull. The spotlight inevitably falls on the funny one. They get the best lines, but without their foil, as they well know, they would be nowhere.

Now here’s my thesis. Imagine brands are the straight one and their marketing communications are the funny one. The brand can be, as I’ve noted, dependable and unremarkable. Its communications can, and I believe should, be witty and entertaining, although brands need to judge when a joke suits the moment.

I mention all this because one brand has stood out over the summer: Aldi.

Obviously, Aldi wouldn’t describe its brand as unremarkable, but it is a supermarket. As such, what do we expect? Full shelves, ripe peaches and a cart without one wheel heading north by northwest. 

So far, so unspectacular.

But its communications? Beautiful. During Wimbledon, it came up with this:

During the World Cup, it focused on the hydration breaks and came up with this:

As the heatwave intensified and more of us had to stay home, it hit us with this:

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And it is happy to jump on a juicy meme. 

Its #FreeCuthbert campaign even won the Grand Prix at The Drum Awards for Social Media:

And even some confrontation with Nandos:

All superb, witty work.

So why does this matter?

I’ll tell you why.

I’ve worked in marketing for 25 years, initially as a creative and later as a hybrid: a creative strategist or strategic creative. You know the type. I bounced around, doing stints at various agencies, including McCann, BBDO, Rapp and 101 smaller agencies.

Over time, I noticed something. All too often, I would come up with an idea, execution or scamp, only to be told:

“It’s not really … on-brand.”

Often, the person telling me this worked in client services or account management. Y’know, a true expert of brand…

“It’s not really … on-brand.”

I heard it a lot. Was it because I wasn’t good at my job? 

Maybe. 

Perhaps I should have pursued a career in taxi driving or taxidermy. Or both.

Still, like most people in advertising, I had my hits and misses. Advertising is the closest thing business has to baseball. But I heard the phrase again and again.

“It’s not really … on-brand.”

Many ideas, far too many of them, and not only mine, have been thrown on the bonfire for failing to be “on-brand.”

Is it shorthand for “I don’t like it”? 

Perhaps. 

Or perhaps it is the fallback position of many agencies, especially in today’s fearful climate: “The client might not … like it.” 

Perish the thought of challenging the client’s thinking. Or evolving it. Or improving it. 

Here’s what I think: the argument is complete nonsense. 

A campaign and a brand perform different jobs. There is a dotted line between them, of course, but hardly an umbilical cord and certainly not a handcuff. A brand delivers what we need. Its communications generate interest, amusement and engagement around why we might need it.

Looking at an ad and saying it is “off-brand” is a bit like looking at a dog and complaining that it doesn’t moo.

Voilà! 

There is my thesis. I’ll now defend it with a graph showing Aldi’s growth over the past two decades.  Aldi’s commercial decisions will not always work, but its rivals should recognize that the supermarket is doing something very, very well. 

Frankly, the joke’s on those that don’t.

Paddy Gilmore is managing director of Studio Gilmore. Read more opinion from Paddy.

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