Capture Your Client’s Personality 

What’s your client’s “personality” and how can you use it to help them succeed? 

In my seminars to broadcasters, advertisers, ad agencies, writers & producers, I talk about and play examples of “personality” spots – how to capture the personality of the advertiser and transmit that to the audience. 

Personality: the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character. 

In one of my seminars, called Stop Writing Commercials, I demonstrate how each organization has a personality, a culture. The owners and staff members each have their own personalities. Decide whether a company or an individual personality will work best to carry the advertiser’s message. 

You want potential customers to feel what it’s like to walk into the advertiser’s store, call them, interact with them, visit their website, buy from them, or be cared for by them. Then they’ll associate that anticipated good feeling with the experience of dealing with the advertiser. 

How do you find the advertiser’s personality? 

If it’s an individual, what are their special interests – pets, kids, charities? Does their website offer any insights into the personality of the owners or their company? 

Are they a superhero, a nurturing parent, a tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners advocate for their customers; a hip, cutting-edge company; a quirky group; a boring, quiet, just-get-the-job-done person with solid results? Each personality type should inspire a creative campaign. 

We’ve created OCD personalities for auto dealers and house cleaning services.

We’ve made mortgage lenders, plumbers, home repair experts, and office supply companies into superheroes. This could work for any business if your client appears onsite and makes everything all right for their customers. 

Are they a fun team, like the famous fish tossers at Pike Place Market in Seattle, funny bartenders, or eye candy like the waitstaff at Hooters or the new male equivalent venues? 

You could take the buddy approach – casting the client as a trusted friend with his arm around your shoulder, giving you advice based on years of experience. 

Maybe the advertiser is a trusted advisor, mentor, or wizard. 

They could be fellow adventurers, sharing the same interests and participation in extreme sports, games, technology as us, or fighting the “us against them” on our behalf. 

We’ve all heard stories from former IRS agents, cops, military personnel, hackers, ex-cons, athletes, or stars who have access to insider information that makes them a valuable resource to potential customers. 

Sometimes you have to gather what you can from the info you’ve been given and create one out of thin air. 

Make the “personality” of the commercial match the true personality of the advertiser.