Commit and trust the landing
Ads that stick do the opposite. They refuse to behave like ads. A hook that sounds like a question you'd ask yourself, a line that feels like it gets you instead of targeting you. And like in comedy, the idea is maybe 10%; the delivery is the other 90%. It's less about what you say than how you say it, and whether you'll commit to it.
In one of my favorite series, “Nathan For You”, Canadian comic Nathan Fielder poses as a business consultant and talks real, struggling businesses into terrible ideas. To save one failing coffee shop, the plan was to remodel it into an exact replica of a Starbucks and put "Dumb" in front of everything. By his logic, it was all protected under parody law. He opened the doors with no announcement at all, and people lined up around the block, not knowing what they were even looking at: a stunt, an art piece, maybe even Banksy. The whole thing made international news.
And that's the brilliant part. On paper, the idea was nothing. Pretty much everything rode on the delivery. Fielder committed all the way to the joke, without ever softening or explaining it. That nerve is what made it land. There was no pitch to brace for, nothing to see coming, so instead of tuning it out, everyone just leaned in.
It's something the best comics seem to understand instinctively. Surprise might get your attention, but conviction is what actually holds it. They're willing to stand behind a bold idea without hedging, and patient enough to trust that it'll land.
A good campaign works the same way. Coming up with the idea is rarely the hard part. The real daring is in standing behind it and resisting the urge to play it safe, and that's where we come in. We make bold work, and just as importantly, we give the people we work with the confidence to take that leap with us.
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