Playing it safe vs. making waves: when should ads challenge culture?

Did you know Trinity McQueen started life as an advertising agency back in the 2000s? Our roots in advertising mean we have a long history of helping brands develop creative work. We’ve always had a passion for ensuring early-stage creative ideas are nurtured in research. So much so, we developed our own techniques so our research does exactly that.

To evaluate early-stage creative ideas, we created an engagement framework across four key dimensions. We call it our Engagement Framework:

1. Personal – What does this creative idea mean to you? How does it make you feel?
2. Brand – Is it obvious which brand this creative idea is for? What does it tell you about the brand?
3. Category –  Is it obvious which category the creative idea is selling? What does the creative idea do for the category?
4. Cultural  – How does the creative idea fit into current culture? Does it feel ‘normal’ and mainstream? Or does it feel odd and uncomfortable?

Does every ad need to be a cultural disruptor?

The cultural dimension of our engagement framework is crucial. It determines how a creative idea will land in the real world — does it blend in or does it stand out? To answer this, research needs to consider the landscape in which the creative work will sit — what’s mainstream and what’s emerging right now.

Not every campaign needs to be a cultural disruptor. Sometimes, leaning into familiar category cues can help a brand feel reassuring and recognisable to customers. Other times, breaking convention is exactly what’s needed to get noticed. The challenge is knowing which approach to take to get the results you want, and creative development research must reflect this.

To break through, or not to break through?

Take toothpaste ads. The clinical white and the blue liquid swirling around teeth are clichés, but they’re also established category signals that instantly anchor the viewer in the toothpaste category.

The same goes for beer ads featuring sun-drenched European coastlines. They immediately place the product in a world of refreshment. These cultural norms reinforce brand categories, making them easier for customers to process and recall.

Sometimes, an ad needs to create cultural ripples to break through. Think about the recent Alpen campaign, where peaceful alpine scenery is suddenly interrupted by a wild, furry ‘monster’. Or the KFC ‘Believe in Chicken’ campaign. These brands have made deliberate choices to be arresting, surprising, and different to cut through the noise.

Make better decisions with research

Research must help brands navigate these choices, and not quash bravery. Yes, that means seeing how people respond to the creative, but it also means understanding those reactions in the context of current culture to assess how the work will be received.

At Trinity McQueen, we have specialist techniques to help us do just that. Our proprietary approaches to qualitative work are done with sensitivity and care, and our award-winning prediction markets take into account cultural resonance by not just asking what people think – but what they think other people will think. 

We help brands make informed creative decisions with a consultancy service that goes beyond a simple score. We help you make advertising that is not just seen, but sticks.