Ever gone fishing and impaled an earthworm on a hook?
🪝 Gross.
But you don’t have to like it.
The fish does.

There’s a reason I love this old German saying:
„Der Köder muss dem Fisch schmecken, nicht dem Angler.”
(The bait must appeal to the fish, not the fisherman.)

If you’re in marketing or communications, you’ve probably rolled your eyes already. “We know this. Tailor the message. Blah blah blah. Boring.” And yet - after 20 years in the game - I still see creative decisions based on personal preferences, not insights.

Often it’s the most senior voice in the room. Or a team that likes the same things. 
And voilà: The decision goes unchallenged.

It can happen anywhere:
📌 Internal comms
📌 Campaigns
📌 Venue selection
📌 Even hiring

Like this one time, when we were reviewing display ads for seniors.
Visuals featured either:
☀️ Happy, active people or
🩺 Slick, clinical medtech

We showed them to a few older family members, just for fun. Guess which one landed with our impromptu focus group?"That OR stuff freaks me out,” one lady said. “But I like that woman. She looks like me.”

Obvious? Maybe. But both versions had been scheduled to run.
Without awareness, ego sneaks in fast.
Next time you're about to greenlight (or kill) a design, a message, a candidate (figuratively) - pause.

Ask yourself:
Is this the best option for my stakeholders, or just what I like?

That moment of self-awareness?
That’s the real creative edge. 👊

At Skill Boxx, we provide ego-free and pragmatic support for your comms projects. We might challenge you a bit, too.