I read with interest this piece from Adweek about how ad agency Wieden + Kennedy’s success on the Old Spice campaign has supposedly caused Procter & Gamble to throw caution to the wind and bypass its usual ad-testing procedures.
I’m certainly aware of the dangers of death by focus group and have heard the stories of all of the long-running TV shows and award-winning ad campaigns that tested poorly or were nearly killed during the research process. Some ideas may be too subtle or too hard for respondents to wrap their brains around. But I would still argue that a little testing isn’t a bad thing.
And, the ad geniuses and marketing savants must keep in mind, it’s not always the consumers who “don’t get it” – as one witty commenter pointed out. In response to the author’s assertion that the some of the Old Spice campaign’s stranger images “would have garnered quizzical looks in focus groups,” this person quipped: “‘Quizzical looks in focus groups.’ On which side of the glass?”