When the World Zigs, Zag. Why It’s So Critical to Be Distinctive

Brands must seek inspiration from beyond their category. If they do so, they will see one of the common factors of the few brands who have created a genuine step-change in their category is that they were highly distinctive. As the founder of BBH, John Hegarty, put it in his ad for black Levi’s, “When the world zigs, zag.”

—This is an excerpt from Richard Shotton’s The Choice Factory, a new book about applying findings from behavioral science to advertising. Shotton is deputy head of evidence at Manning Gottlieb OMD, the most awarded media agency in the history of the IPA Effectiveness awards. He tweets about the latest behavioral science and advertising findings from the handle @rshotton.