How to attract customers’ attention: help your business stand out

If you’ve read Dave Buonaguidi’s book ‘Blah! Blah! Blah!: Memoirs and advice from one of British advertising's mavericks’, you’ll know that he’s a man who’s made a career (or rather, two, now that he’s also a leading UK artist) out of using original ideas to stand out in business. In his Conversations of Inspiration podcast episode with our founder Holly Tucker, he explained how he isn’t afraid of pushing the boundaries in order to get people talking, for all the right reasons — and somehow, his concepts have become headline news overnight (you’ll see why when you see Dave’s brilliant products).

Before becoming an artist, Dave spent 35 years in the advertising industry, where he created some very famous campaigns and worked with some very high end stars including Helen Mirren for a Nintendo campaign. He inherently knew that in order to stand out in business and to get customers to remember you, you have to follow these five, simple rules:

• Take risks
• Be controversial
• Communicate in a way that resonates with people
• Give back
• Love what you do

The importance of taking risks in business to get your business noticed

When Dave launched his book, he created a poster that said, ‘Risk it for the biscuit’ to help market it. He said, “I liked this phrase. I heard a client say it to me back in 1985 at the first agency I worked for. I was inspired by it and have lived by it ever since.” Dave is certainly a risk-taker and has many memorable milestone moments under his belt. One of his most famous was back in 2003, while working at his own start-up creative agency Karmarama. Dave made a poster that said, ‘Make tea, not war’ for the anti-Iraq war march. He knew there would be lots of placards at the march saying, ‘Don’t attack Iraq’ so he wanted to do something more fun to gain cut through without undermining the severity of the point being made. It might have been a flop but he tried it.

Dave had no idea it would make so much noise. “The next day my image was on the front of every newspaper and on the cover of The Sunday Times. We only printed 100 posters, which cost us nothing. It was just a stroke of luck which I could never have predicted.” This poster is now exhibited in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and has been displayed at the Trento Museum of Modern Art, too. The moral is, listen to your gut, be brave and go against the grain if you want to stand out.

The pros and cons of controversial marketing

Dave says, “I’m never afraid to use the odd swear word to accentuate my opinion, I love having an opinion. A lot of corporate businesses find that terrifying but you need it if you want to make noise.” Dave once did a campaign made up of fun but provocative limericks about cyclists going through red lights and ending up dead, which almost got him fired. He said, ‘They thought we were taking the piss out of dead cyclists, but we were taking the piss out of stupid cyclists. I got into a lot of trouble and had to do official apologies. What we were trying to say was, ‘Don’t ride stupid, ride smart.’ and I still think it was a strong message. He adds, “The thing is, working for other people meant I was always a people pleaser, but now I’m an artist, I can do exactly what I want to do. The way that nobody can tell me what to do."

Dave’s lightbulb moment came when he realised that the killer combination of visual and verbal language, and propaganda used in advertising, along with unique imagery and old materials were the key to success. “I remember thinking, bloody hell there’s something in this. I can do stuff that applies the same sort of logic that we do in advertising to send out a simple message to entertain.”

Always do what you love (customers notice and giving back increases customer loyalty)

Customers notice when your company is doing things you’re passionate about or making a genuine effort to help others. Dave created 200 prints of his ‘Full English and a Bloody Mary’ artwork and gave away the first 60 for £30 with all profits going to his local cafe, Jim’s Cafe, to keep it going. He also gave away a thousand posters saying ‘It’s gonna be okay’ to the NHS in the pandemic. “But my accountant told me that I needed to stop giving all my stuff away and earn some money, because I was spending more on Jaffa Cakes than I was making!” Dave knows though that people love a freebie. He believes in helping others and it’s a great way of drumming up some extra PR.

His final piece of advice though, is just to, “Love what you do and you’ll automatically get noticed because your heart and soul will be in it. You’ll automatically get noticed for your passion. People will see it in you and your work. I’ve learnt the hard way that if your head isn’t in it, quit it.” So how does Dave describe himself? “I’m like Charles Bukowski when he famously said, ‘Find what you love and let it kill you.’ That’s what I live by. Life is very short and it’s paramount that you do what makes you happy. Think of all the biscuits you could be eating!”

Attracting customers’ attention: key takeaways…

In summary, if you want to know the best ways to attract consumers’ attention, stand out from the crowd and get your business noticed, remember to…

1. Take risks in business
2. Be controversial
3. Communicate in a way that resonates with people
4. Give back
5. Love what you do