Wayne Fletcher: Humans First

Among the myriad effects evolving technology has had on advertising, have changes in the way the audience relates to brands really been noted? Neal Romanek talks to Wayne Fletcher, psychologist and Naked Communications’ global chief strategy officer, who ponders ‘big data’ that tells us less than smaller data, consumer analysts putting carts before horses, and social media that projects make-believe over true selves...

An understanding of marketing, business or design is vital for success in advertising. But in concentrating on this essential machinery of the industry, companies can lose sight of the most important element – human beings.

Wayne Fletcher earned his PhD in applied psychology from Leeds University. He has been global head of strategy at Universal McCann and was president and CCO of IPG-Sandbox. Earlier this year, Fletcher left his post as a partner at McCann Erickson moved back to Britain to be part of a new project at Hypernaked, the UK branch of Naked Communications.

 “One of the things about working for a company like Naked is that it has always attracted talent from a diverse set of backgrounds,” Fletcher notes. “I’ve competed against Naked for a number of years and always thought they were a strong competitor doing things that were really exciting. So we’re in the midst of creating something that will be announced in a few months time and it is very exciting.”

In 2007 he was appointed visiting professor University of the Arts, London. His passion for advertising began when he attended a course on advertising while studying psychology at university. It was a moment of genuine inspiration for him and he suddenly saw advertising as the most creative of all industries.

The revolution starts here

Fletcher soon came to believe that understanding the psychology of the consumer and all consumer relationships is the fundamental from which advertising must spring. Without understanding the human element, and how it operates at this particular point in history, advertising is inefficient, at best, and at worst, an utterly wasted effort. With today’s ubiquitous digital technology affecting and changing human behaviour, that understanding is more essential than ever. “Psychology is about three things,” Fletcher observes, “the way that people think, the way that they act, and then the way they interact with one another and the things in their world. And that’s always been the case. But what is really fascinating today is that technology is shifting all of those things. If you speak to some neuroscientists, there’s quite a lot of research into the impact of technology on the way we think. So the way we think is changing, and the way that we act is changing, and the way that we interact is changing. It’s a really interesting time to try to look at people in different ways.”

Advertising has always had to adjust to the changing mindset and behaviour of consumers, but Fletcher reiterates that the technical changes happening within the advertising industry are more exaggerated than they have been for a long time. “We’re in the midst of a revolution, not only in terms of digital technology, but a revolution in branding. If you’re not trying to find new ways to create value for people outside of the traditional ways of advertising, I think you’re going to struggle to succeed in the future. I think consumers have changed dramatically as a consequence of their access to information and their use of different types of technology.”

In October, Fletcher spoke at London’s Cross-Media Forum, which brings together creative innovators from around the world who are using technology and lateral thinking to create new ways of entertaining, educating, and engaging people.

One of the recurring themes at the annual event is the idea of the audience as participant, rather than the subject, that the audience as a piece of entertainment or message or experience is an essential part of the creative process. The 21st-century consumer not only wants to be part of a cohesive experience but, in many cases, wants to be involved in the development of the product itself. “We talk about unified brand experiences – that consumers want these wonderful brand experiences that are indistinguishable from a product experience, a piece of design, or a piece of marketing, but we as an industry aren’t structured to do those things.”

The vagueries of social media

Though many might agree that consumers are changing, most companies continue to try to operate in exactly the same way they did a decade ago. To recognise that the consumer is thinking differently is only part of the picture, and not the most important part. The key is that advertisers and brands themselves must also think – and act – differently. For Fletcher, that’s not just a slogan or a mission statement but a physical reality. “You have to almost start from zero, in many respects,” he says. “One of the most difficult things for anybody in any industry is to strip away convention. It’s really difficult to say: ‘These ideas, these philosophies, these ways of organising ourselves are no longer relevant.’ I think we understand that the world is changing, we understand that it’s moving quickly. Where we struggle is trying to identify how to adjust to those changes. And it will have to involve moving into different types of financial models, different ways of working, different skillsets. That’s where it becomes quite difficult, particularly for a lot of advertising institutions that are used to operating in a certain way.”

“Advertising has typically just been concerned with the way that people act,” Fletcher explains, “But you need to think about everything: you need to think of how people are going to interact with one another and the reasons why they want to interact in those ways, and think about the ways people want to interact with brands, and why they want to interact in different ways in different circumstances.”

The title of Fletcher’s talk at the Cross-Media Forum was The Stories We Could Tell, focussing on the human side of looking at data. For some, large data sets – dubbed ‘big data’ – has become the new oracle that promises to reveal every last detail about consumers if we can just learn to analyse it properly. But Fletcher thinks we may have placed the cart before the horse, and that big data can sometimes obscure as much as it reveals. “We have gotten confused about the potential of big data. It isn’t about size. It’s about quality. Technology does allow us to learn about ourselves, but looking at social media, for example, people don’t use social media to reflect their true selves. They use it to reflect their desired selves. So the social media data we get isn’t a true reflection of humanity.”

The future is not the way forward

Fletcher believes that the modern obsession with constant innovation is not necessarily the best way to run a business. Business can be difficult to operate when there is no clear structure in place with a clear economic value at the end of it. Perpetually striving for new innovations as the principle means of engaging consumers may not be the way forward. What the industry needs, Fletcher says, is an entirely new way of thinking about audience interaction with brands and one that is expansive enough to accommodate new types of creativity.

“Where [advertising is] at the moment is: Any idea is a potentially good idea and we will test and learn. And that’s fine, but that’s only sustainable for a certain amount of time. At some point, the business needs to have a system in place whereby it knows how to make money. In the same way that the film industry knows how to make films, and the creativity is centered around the types of films that you create. We’re not at that point in advertising yet. We know that there is this thing beyond advertising involving digital technology, but we haven’t created that new system. It’s that system that’s going to truly allow business to flourish. You need a bigger way of thinking about what interaction needs to happen between people and brands, and what exactly is the fundamental thing that we’re trying to encourage people to do.”

“When I was studying psychology, there was a model that if you liked the ad, you’ll like the brand,” continues Fletcher. “The key responsibility you had in advertising was to create communication that was so wonderful that people would actually want to go out and buy your product. That kind of model is fading away. I think we need to encourage people to do things, because we live in an interactive world. It’s far more important than just getting them to feel things.” Fletcher points to Nike as one example of a brand that has moved beyond merely trying to sell a product. Nike is a product, but it is also a marketing campaign, and a data collection entity used as an insight tool. The lines between product, experience and service begin to blur. But Fletcher notes that such a thing is rare within the industry.

“I’m passionate about psychology in advertising in that I believe there are new, more imaginative ways to connect brands with people by thinking more deeply about people as people and trying to figure out how to make them care about the things that business should care about, rather than just care about the individual product. Perfecting the interaction between brands, businesses and people is really what is at the heart of our industry right now.”

If Fletcher is right, the way forward for advertisers may be to look less at the numbers and more at the human element – and the first people advertisers should examine is themselves.