Stop Presenting So Many Ideas.

Too much choice can be toxic.

Every reliable source I’ve consulted on advertising says you go to the client with three options:

The “edgy” one, the “middle of the road,” and the “safe” option.

This is how I thought it would be when I first started in advertising. And now and again, it still is. Until some account manager goes, “Why stop at 3?! Let’s go back with 5!”

This subsequently starts a process of creating novels for clients that take up too much space in their mind — it creates choice overload.

The paradox of choice, also called overchoice, or choice overload, is a cognitive-impairment where people get overwhelmed and have a difficult time making decisions when faced with too many options.

I’ve seen decks where we’re presenting the client with a dozen creative routes or more. And every route has five or six executions. And what happens? They pick the shittiest one every time.

Know what I think? I think we should go back with one option.

“This is what we want to do. This is what we recommend you do.”

If my doctor came to me and said, “here’s five different surgeries, you pick one and we’ll do that,” I’d be pretty taken aback. Naturally, I’d want to go with the safe option. But you tell me, doc, which surgery do I need? You’re the expert.

Yet because the client is paying, we feel like we need to offer a huge choice to justify how “creative” we are.

Being creative isn’t 17 different routes in my opinion. It’s one solid route that we know is right for the brand.