What’s Salt Fat Acid Heat’s equivalent in Advertising?

Dear Creative,

I spent my weekend binge-watching a new Netflix show called Salt Fat Acid Heat, based on the book with the same title. I just loved the way Samin Nosrat describe her passion for cooking and the way she simplified — in four simple elements — the composition of a great dish. I couldn’t stop thinking about how this simplification could apply in advertising today and what would those four ingredients be that make a great ad. This is not a formula or an answer by any means, this is just an observation. I love advertising and I’ve been studying it for years. No matter the product, brand, industry, medium, or even the budget, making a good ad is a lot like making a good dish.

Based on Salt Fat Acid Heat, here are the four elements that — in my humble opinion — make or break a campaign:

Insight — An unspoken human truth. Yes it’s a trendy buzzword, and yes, it’s overused. But when you connect it with the product truth, something amazing will happen. People will remember the ad and consequently your brand.

Craft — An emotional speech. Jaw-dropping shots. Stop-motion animation. A timely execution or a powerful music. Simplicity is the key. A single word, the right song, precise art direction could ignite everything. Craft can make a spot unique that otherwise would’ve been stale. Craft will make people watch the whole thing instead of skipping it. Good craft could silence a bar during half time of the Superbowl. Craft leverages other elements that make a great campaign. Simply put, craft makes advertising beautiful. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, a great ad is 50% and 70% its execution. Craft is that execution.

Purpose— What’s the meaning behind the ad? How should it make you feel? And why are we even doing it in the first place? A good advertising will make you curious, laugh, or cry, but ultimately, it has to make you buy. What’s the reason behind this. What’s going to stay with the viewer when the ad’s over. Sell me something or get out of my face. Sometimes we forget that before creatives, we are advertisers. A nice idea is nothing if it doesn’t help the brand, and that gap is the one that some creatives have a hard time closing. You need to create something that makes you feel good but primarily, that adds value to the client. What’s the goal behind this campaign?

Mischief — A good insight will make you memorable, a good craft will make you different, and the right purpose will determine your success. But a dose of mischief will make you transcendental. Those campaigns that read the context and understand not only the brand but also the audience, culture, politics, social thermostat, know exactly where that tension belongs. Tension makes people alert, tension is part of the conversations at every table, tension will make the audience pick a side, have an opinion and share it with the world. Mischief is rebellion, it is doing or saying what nobody else had the guts to do so. Mischief is uncomfortable, unsettling, and make you think.

Anyway, these are the ingredients I believe you need to create that ground-breaking ad. I know that out there everyone has different ways to get there, a different process, wireframes, etc.

But the secret for a great idea — just like a good dish — lies in the little things: Keeping it simple. Enjoying the process. If you force it too much, you’ll lose the sauce, that uniqueness that makes it flavorful. In the time of information, we’re obsessed with finding the right formulas, the exact calculations, the different methods, when in reality the power is in the time we put into these things, the joy, the care. That’s why great advertising people are those who are passionate about it, those who may complain and hate it at times, but deep inside, they couldn’t live without it. Don’t get me wrong, they could live without advertising, but they couldn’t live without solving problems, creating, finding new ways. A great agency should work like a Michelin starred restaurant: Passionate and resourceful chefs (creatives), natural and fresh ingredients (strategy) coming together to create that unique dish that leaves you craving for more.

And for you, what are the ingredients that make a great idea?