In August 1962, Stan Lee’s comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 was released. The panels within depict everyone’s favourite web-slinger experiencing a unique feeling for the first time. A gut instinct that leads him from danger and towards triumph. This would go on to become known as Spiderman’s “spidey-sense”.
But what if I told you this superpower wasn’t confined to Peter Parker? Or even fiction for that matter? Because the reality is, we all have it.
Let me repeat that.
You have a spidey-sense – even if you don’t cling to walls, or shoot webbing from your wrists (though I’d seek medical advice if you do).
It’s a deep, primal intuition, guiding you to what ‘feels right’. The same gut feeling that steers you towards good company, and tells you not to get into that truck cab while hitchhiking in a foreign land.
It’s a muscle that is often overlooked. Yet we all have the ability to flex and strengthen it.
As advertisers and creatives, we’ve all experienced this in our work. That little voice that draws you to an idea, and makes you say, “There’s something in this”. That’s your inner compass, pointing you towards that which excites you, unclouded by logic or higher analysis.
Don’t get me wrong, logic and data have their place – giving us valuable insights into our audience's habits, their preferences, even what they had for breakfast. But logic alone doesn’t form tears, make hearts race, or open wallets.
If we were truly rational creatures, late-night Netflix binges wouldn't exist. But the fact is our emotions often hold more sway than logic, and people respond to our work accordingly. If that emotional resonance is missing, your meticulously crafted campaign risks fading into the background as yet another piece of very expensive wallpaper.
As Rick Brim, CCO of Adam&EveDDB, aptly puts it, we need to "punch them in the feels."
The emotional pull on the heartstrings from John Lewis’ “Monty the Penguin” TV spot is palpable, despite taking the audience on a mostly make-believe journey. Likewise, the “Nothing Fills a Hole Like Pot Noodle” campaign flies in the face of food category conventions by making the audience feel absolute disgust – a distain that led to increased sales. It's that visceral reaction, that gut punch, that makes people truly feel something, and therefore remember your brand.
A common trap is that we tend to overthink, overengineer, and overcomplicate the work. We’ve all fallen victim to the ‘death by committee’ approach – where endless feedback loops chip away at an idea until there's nothing left but a bland, inoffensive husk.
As John Ward of England’s B&B Dorland once noted, “Advertising is a craft executed by people who aspire to be artists, but is assessed by those who aspire to be scientists.”
The reality is, we can use all of the data-points and focus groups available to us. But without a clear, simple message, crafted in a way that elicits a true reaction – be it a smile, a wince, or even a turn in the stomach – everything we say falls on deaf ears. The audience aren’t eagerly anticipating your next ‘reason-to-believe’. To them, you’re just another distraction in the vast ocean of messages they receive everyday. But your intuition, when finely tuned, can be a mighty tool in your creative belt, guide your thinking to create an emotional response and cut through the noise.
So, the next time you're faced with a creative challenge, or thinking about an idea, take a moment to tune out your mind, and listen to your gut. You might just find that you’re onto something powerful. And you didn’t even need a bite from a radioactive spider to do it.
Alex Ward, Senior Art Director at Ogilvy Sydney.