P&G’s Pritchard At ANA Masters Of Marketing: ‘Cut The Content Crap Trap’

In an effort to create “content,” many marketers and advertisers were creating abominations that didn’t deserve to ever see the light of day, said Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Mark Pritchard.

The 2016 edition of the ANA Masters of Marketing conference rolled out a top gun to kick off the proceedings, as Procter & Gamble chief brand officer Mark Pritchard took the stage at Rosen Shingle Creek, in Orlando, Fla., Thursday morning.

Pritchard, in charge of some of the world’s most iconic CPG brands, spoke about how it was time for advertisers to up their game and get out of the “content crap trap.” “Technology brings a lot of awful guests to the party,” he told some 2,700 attendees. “No wonder we see so much ad blocking.”

Pritchard explained that, in an effort to create “content,” many marketers and advertisers were creating abominations that didn’t deserve to ever see the light of day. Pritchard was not one to shy away from examples from his own company, showing the crowd “bad advertising” from P&G’s Pepto Bismol (“A Boy Raised By Goats,” above), among others. This kind of work was deemed unacceptable within the company, and, as Pritchard expressed it: “We were adding to the noise, and we decided to just stop the noise.”

At the same time, the company decided to “raise the creativity bar” for its advertising based on three keys:

1. Express the brand as a creative canvas. “Explore the edges, do good, express personality, promote positive conversations,” Pritchard said.
2. Elevate the craft. “Use visual artistry made by serious professionals,” he said. “We spend too much time measuring crappy ads. Out patience was running out and we decided that all of our media partners must stop wasting time on crap.”
3. Embrace creativity as a human endeavor. “This is an enormous opportunity,” Pritchard said, “and it takes a vast amount of creativity and diversity to do this. It’s time to turn the page and tap into positive human energy to get people to turn towards the brand.”

Pritchard closed with some video examples of this new creative canvas concept, in which there is a core that persuades, edges are pushed, and the POV has social relevance—all creating a brand masterpiece in the end. The associated brands were Pantene; Tide; Ariel (an Indian brand that tries to break some stereotypes with “Share the Load”); Always (the famous “Like a Girl” campaign); and Secret (“Stress Test”).

“Create a beautiful creative canvas,” Pritchard concluded. “We are continually striving to raise the advertising bar for the most iconic brands in the world. And if we all try to raise the creative bar, together we will all leap over it.”