Want to prove how quiet something is? Give it to someone who needs silence. Want to prove it works hands-free? Find someone who cannot use their hands. Want to expose an overlooked problem? Let the people living with it do the talking.
Most In Need Perspective starts with a simple question: who would value this more than anyone else?
Here are three ways into the tactic.
- Set the Highest Bar
- Borrow a Ready-Made Character
- Hand the Mic to the Real Underserved
1. Set the Highest Bar
Prove the brand’s value where the need is hardest to satisfy.
Aid Aisle — FreshChoice · dentsu · 2024
FreshChoice went looking for a moment when even the most ordinary items could feel essential. It installed a supermarket aisle midway through an ultramarathon, stocked with everything exhausted runners might suddenly need: energy snacks, hydration, blister care and chafing relief. Fifty kilometres into the race, product range stopped being a retail claim and became a genuine rescue service.
Ketchup to the Rescue — Curtice Brothers · Ogilvy · 2022
Winning an award is one way to prove your ketchup tastes good. Improving some of the worst food in town is rather more persuasive.
Curtice Brothers supplied its ketchup to badly reviewed restaurants on TripAdvisor, then monitored whether subsequent diners had anything nicer to say. By putting the product into meals most desperately in need of saving, the campaign created a wonderfully unforgiving product demonstration. If the ketchup could help here, imagine what it could do for dinner at home.
Laundry Records — Miele · Serviceplan · 2021
A quiet washing machine is useful in almost any home. But it matters even more if you are trying to record an album beside one.
Miele invited musicians to create music inside a laundrette filled with its machines running at full spin. They released the resulting tracks on streaming platforms as Keep Spinning. Musicians became the people most in need of silence, letting the finished music—not a laboratory figure—provide the evidence.
The creative move: Find the person, place or moment that places the greatest credible demand on your benefit. Make successful performance there stand as proof for everyone else.
