The Venn Diagram: A Perspective on Advertising

Written By: Jackson Borman, Copywriter

If you’ve spent any time in the spheres of social media, you’ve likely seen a meme or two in the form of a Venn Diagram. My personal favorite format for digital humor, the goal is to pick a few subjects and have the overlapping segments of their circle result in a witty similarity. Here’s an example:

List some things. Figure out how they overlap. Make it fun.

When English Mathematician John Venn popularized his famed diagram, he likely had greater ambition than an internet joke or a kindergarten activity, but my guess is that the last time you constructed one was likely in elementary school.

With some four-eyed teacher looking over your shoulder, you probably grouped a mouse, a rabbit, and a beaver in one circle that intersected another containing an owl, a robin, and an eagle. In the overlapping sliver, you wrote a magical word, “Platypus.”

The way I see it, we are in the business of promoting, creating, designing, and wordsmithing our own platypi.

Let me explain.

Within advertising, creative is often a game of connecting unlike ideas via a common thread. The simple explanation of our work is to take some tidbit of information about a product or a company, and give it some life by turning it into something that the target audience will be interested in. A great end result needs to makes sense, but should also be captivating, funny, or otherwise memorable.

Take this ad for example:

This is a platypus.

You can see the two ideas that are represented here. On one hand you’ve got Guinness, and on the other you’ve got unplugged, face-to-face interaction at a bar. Perfectly situated in the middle is the creative concept that charmingly says, “please put your phone down and have a beer, friend.”

Showing a product benefit (a conversation over a Guinness) in a creative way (the visual of the stack of phones in the iconic shape and color of the product) takes combining ideas in a way that makes sense.

Phones down. In the shape and colors of the iconic pint.

Outside of creative, Venn diagram thinking is equally useful in the realm of the account team. Whether it is a commercial, radio spot, social media post or anything in between, you want the deliverable to land perfectly in the overlapping section of the Venn diagram between creative and business strategy.

We specialize in ideas that are both creative and strategic.

There are great creative ideas that are off the charts funny, or so charming and attention grabbing that audiences will interact with them for days. But if they do not match the client’s strategy, they are solely entertainment and will do the client little good. That being said, the idea should not just regurgitate the strategy without throwing something interesting in as well. Those ideas aren’t going to get you very far either.

The winning idea is both creative and strategic. One that will accomplish business objectives while still delighting its audience.

The platypus of ideas.

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