I hope you find this insightful

The quality of insights offered up in briefs is appalling.   Most aren’t insights at all – they are facts pretending to be insights.   Obvious facts too.

This is one of the biggest reasons why the work coming out of our industry often lacks any real humanity.

Take a look at the last three briefs you worked on and after reading this short article, decide whether any of those briefs contained an insight. (And whether this matters.)

I have a good friend called Shekhar Deshpande who has run beautifully interactive workshops most years at the School of Communication Arts 2.0 , in which he reminds us that insights can be remembered through an acronym H.I.D.E. because insights are almost always either Habits, Insecurities or Desires Expressed.

Our diaries weren't in sync this year, so I decided to run a workshop myself.

I asked one of my students, Imogen Knight to write-up what they learned….

Insights.

It is finding a truth about how people feel. Finding insights is hard because you want to discover fun things. In class, we watched Michael Macintyre. Macintyre talked about how tough it is to be a parent. 

Before Marc's class, I did not know you could learn from funny shows. But Macintyre shared some cool things. Here are a few things I heard.

• Kids find it hard to sit still.
• Sometimes kids don't want to do simple things.
• Parents listen to the same kids’ songs over and over.

I was not sure if these things were important. Then my friends shared similar thoughts. Rose said we could use headphones to block out the annoying songs.

Then Marc asked us, "What about when couples shop together?" I thought about how couples' feelings when they shop.

One person in a couple buys things without thinking.

One person might like shopping online. The other might prefer going to stores.

This task showed how relationships can change what people buy.

The class continued with a fun task to watch funny shows. We had to write down things we heard. From one show, I learned that kids appreciate their parents more when they are alone at home.

In class, we shared things we noticed from watching our shows. I liked what Alex said. Alex said that when the phone rings late at night, it is usually important. It would be cool to pair this insight with voice-recognition.

There was a more interesting insight. Men only say they love each other when they are drunk together. Sports Direct might be an unexpected brand. Male companionship could be enjoyed with a football match.

From Marc's class, I found out that good insights are about understanding what people feel and like. They do not have to be hard to understand. They should make us think in new and bold ways.

Marc speaking again.

Thanks Imi.

When I was a student at SCA, in the early 90's, our old teacher, John Gillard, used to remind us that brilliant work came from creative energy and deep empathy working in synergy.

The best way to have empathy with the audience we want to communicate with is to have true empathy with them.

If LinkedIn posts are more useful for having a list of things that people can do to improve their ability in something, then here are my Top 5 Tips to unlock more insights that you can use in your work; 1. Have real connections, actively encouraging diversity. 

2. Be active listeners because one word can point to treasure.  

3. Practicing mindfulness helps approach briefs with an open mind.

4. Pay attention to non-verbal communication 

5. Read widely and often.

On that note, thanks for reading.  I hope you found this post a little bit insightful.