Sometimes when you catch up with friends you haven’t seen in a while, you find out that they have gone and bought something big. It might be a new car, or a holiday or a house, or whatever. And when you ask them why they chose that particular thing, they can always give you one main reason. It might be that they love the way it drives, or that it has heaps of room, or that it looks fantastic. Often, they will go on to also give you a couple more supporting reasons for their choice, but that first big reason is actually the most important one.

This really simple fact of human nature gets forgotten in a lot of advertising. Some brands are so desperate to get sales that they allow their ads to be overloaded with multiple messages; hoping that one of them will excite you into purchase. In most cases, however, all those messages blur into white noise and nothing ends up standing out as a reason for purchase.

Every great advertising campaign is underpinned by one really strong message that resonates with the target market. Because that’s the way that people make important decisions. It’s that simple.