A useful framework for evaluating the quality of an insight
Strategists trade on trends. They rely on observation, research, and analysis to uncover trends that are meaningful to their brand. When the brand values align with one or some of those trends you get a piece of content.
There are strata of trends. Macro trends that affect all or most people, meso trends impact a community, and micro trend that impacts the individual and those immediately around them.
Strategists have to determine which trends are important or worthy. Often trends that are most applicable to creative strategy are those that uncover and insight. Insights are the result of trend mining and they are the single greatest asset in creating a new and valuable strategy.
For having spent 15 years in media, I still have not found a comprehensive definition of an insight that truly reflects their importance in the generation of a creative strategy — let alone a framework. If you, like me, have debated the value of an insight, then let this framework be your guide.
A simple two-axis framework that can guide your evaluation of the quality of your insight. The first axis is what I am calling “valence.” Borrowing from high-school chemistry valence is “the combining power of an element…” In this case, how much (or how little) does the insights bring together the brand and the observation. The y-axis is scarcity. For this framework, this can be defined a how few (or how many) people are aware of the observation.
Once plotted, the four-box gives us a clear picture of the quality of the insight.
So without wasting another precious minute, here it is. The Insight Quality Evaluation Framework.
Here is a quick summary.
- High Valence & High Scarcity = Good Insight
- High Valence & Low Scarcity = Just a plane old relevant fact
- Low Valence & High Scarcity = Good trivia, but not good insight
- Low Valence & Low Scarcity = A distraction
And just like any good four-box, it provides a common language to talk about why the insight is of high or low quality.
Now with our four box drawn, let’s put it to the test. Let’s pretend that out job is to develop an ad campaign for Milk. The client has asked to encourage households that increased milk buying during the pandemic to continue to purchase as we re-emerge in an increasingly vaccinated world. Let’s evaluate the below “insights” on our newly minted four-box:
- A global pandemic drove sales of white milk to highest in 10 years
- Milk is the #1 beverage of choice for children at breakfast
- 75% of household that try milk alternatives continue to buy them
- Cows often lay down before and during rainstorms
- Clover Farms is the largest privately held dairy farm in Pennsylvania
We might end up with something like this:
This mapping should not be complicated. When you think you have an insight, ask yourself “How many people could know this?” and “How well does this insight combine my strategy to the creative idea?” After asking yourself those questions, test it using the framework.
As someone who is always asked to “find the insight” this framework allows me to grade my own work. What I have found is that getting foundational knowledge is 95% of the work. In order for the insight to have enough exit velocity to jump up to NOVEL quadrant there is original thought. The best way to ensure that the insight is scarce is to create by blending the foundational knowledge with original thought.
I get to see a few hundred “insights” in a given year. What I find is that many times we stop too soon on our insight. In our example above, this stopping point would be “Milk sales are highest they have been in 10 years.” This is on brief, it is good news. Sure we know it and the client knows it, but it fits the strategy of creating another “milk occasion” or whatever the theoretical strategy would be.
See the power of a good insight cuts right to the heart of a brief. HIGH VALENCE and unknown to many. We do not need to create another milk occasion, we need to create one less occasions for milk-alternatives.
The insights on which strategies are developed should have the power to connect a brand and a trend. You know it when you see it, but if you don’t see it, at least you have a way to evaluate. Happy insights hunting!