“Because they’re sheep — and sheep get slaughtered.”

One of my favorite scenes in cinema is from “Wall Street” (1987), where Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox are in the men’s locker room getting dressed.

This premise of this film is of a stockbroker working for a leading Wall Street investor, willing to do whatever it takes to prove himself.

In this scene, Gekko give Fox advice: 

“You ever wonder why fund managers can’t beat the S&P500? Because they’re sheep — and sheep get slaughtered. Most these Harvard MBA-types, they don’t add up to dog shit. Give me guys that are poor, smart and hungry — and no feelings.”

Which is all true in the world of finance and stocks.

However, the part on how sheep get slaughtered is even truer in the world of marketing.

Don’t get me wrong, there are standard marketing practices that are requirements within certain business models.

Running social media ads, sending emails and creating TV commercials are all crucial marketing initiatives that get a brand in front of an audience.

Where the ‘sheep’ part comes in is not in the channels just described, but in the methods.

More so, the created content follows an industry-expected layout, rendering it to be sheep-like — one exactly like the other.

The issue with copying what’s expected is that we run into the innovation adoption curve.

To help illustrate this, imagine a bell curve where the left side represents people super early to a party and the right side represents people super late to a party.

Depending on where we’re at on this curve, in respect to the creative, can say a lot about whether a campaign will be a success or not.

Are you early or late to the party?

This reminds me of a blog I wrote the other day about the ad read on Rick Rubin’s podcast.

First off, in my opinion, the podcast industry is exhausted; there’s just too many to choose from.

Regardless of whether you’re famous or are expert in your respective field, if you choose to start one now, you’ll fall into the late majority, laggards category of the innovation adoption curve. 

With thousands of podcasts to choose from, comes tens of thousands of ad reads.

With tens of thousands of ad reads comes predictable scripts with predictable cadences, music and messaging.

Rick Rubin’s podcast handles the ad reads slightly different, actually making me want to listen to them.

The issue with ads in a podcast aren’t that they’re there — it’s that they’re predictable and feel scripted.

Straightforward ad reads have zero chutzpah and fall on deaf ears.

Bland and boring — the sheep of ad reads, let’s call it.

The ‘slaughtered’ part is when your ROI on your ad spend is poor.

All because you decided to play it safe.

If you’re using the same strategies as everyone else, the same colors, shapes, music and styles, then your campaign can find itself on the latter part of that curve.

Anyway, I feel like I’ve made my point.

I’m going to end it here with the ending of that scene I mentioned at the start.

Gordon Gekko saying to Bud Fox, as he takes one last look at himself in the mirror, adjusting his hair, then tie:

“I got twenty other brokers analyzing charts, pal — I don’t need another one.”

— George