Ai is a perfect tool to find different patterns. But if you want to find your own tone of voice it’s a good tool to distinguish what not to do. That’s because ai doesn’t really create anything new. It is always mimicing of what have been done before and that’s why it just sounds about right.
If we feed any ai a bunch of tech startups descriptions, quotes, examples of their tone of voice we will get the answer of “innovative solutions”, “seamless experiences” and other glichee tones fot the industry. So this is all an echo, it’s not Your brand voice, it’s generic echo of what other have already done and worked through. It might be a sophisticated echo but nevertheless an echo. Because ai doesn’t really have a point of view, it reflects on the data. It doesn’t generate trends it only follows them. So the best way to approuch how to find your voice is to analyze the echo, find the patterns and then break them to find yourself.
Maestros of Creativity Breaking the Pattern Loop
David Ogivly is an amazing copywriter. He had a lot of great principles to follow but his timeless philosophy centers on a simple rule: If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative. Creativity is about breaking the patterns. In the 1958 advertising scene, the most common approach was to rely on vague, hyperbolic superlatives, lifestyle aspirations, and emotional appeals. Most car advertisements focused heavily on glamour, status, or catchphrases. David did the oppiste and focused on unbelievably specific fact: “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” The long headline was followed by 719 words of product facts and not one empty adjective. Rolls-Royce sales rose 50% the next year. Good job David!
Automotive industry in advertising and branding is one of the most interesting ones. And we are also working on one industry brand right now. So I’m adding another industry example through Bill Bernbach and Volkswagen. Volkswagen was a small and ugly car from another country that nobody really wanted to buy. People wanted to show off their status with a car so buying a VW beetle sounded ridiculous. In 1959 Bill as creative director, art director Helmut Krone and copywriter Julian Koenig came up with “Think small”. This made a revolution in the industry. Now buying a VW beetle allowed you to show off that you didn’t need to show off. Genious!
The convergence of these two campaigns in 1958 and 1959 was not a coincidence. It was a direct reaction to a “perfect storm” of economic trouble and cultural cynicism that shattered the post-war American dream. And I think we are near the perfect storm ourselves with all the changes happening in the world. And definitely ai is changing the creative people work giving us new tools to work wirth not make the work for us.
How Do You Know That You Are Breaking The Pattern
It’s actually quite easy. You feel it. When something really good is created you physically feel it. The hair on your arms rise up and you’ll get the goosebumps. It’s not a safe option I can tell you that. It needs courage. It has to be something that will make people stop and stare thinking “holy shit, they actually did that.” Then you might be near doing something great maybe even legendary.
If you are letting Ai write your brand voice, you’re making your brand average. And average is by definition forgettable. Read Your webiste, read your social media – does it sound like you or is an echo of everybody else?
I’m actually sad to say that 90% of our clients also want to sound average. And this is one of the hardest thing on this job to convince people to not pick the safe average directions that everybody are doing and be courageous enough to stand out and make people stare. If You Feel brave enough to stand out, write us and let’s make everybody around us shiver.