Why Unique Insights, Don't Exist.

As a strategist, I have worked on multiple brands, while working I have heard my colleagues tell me that my insights should be unique.

"Let's find an insight that is so unique, that it will win us Cannes",

"This is too generic, we all have been through this and know it, there is nothing unique about it"

I usually wonder what do they mean by unique. "Unique is a truly unique term" (I am patting my own back for this one!).

We truly focus on getting insights that help us get closer to our audience and make them go "OMG, this brand gets me!" OR "This is soo me!". We research to find things about our target audience: who is not one person but millions and billions of people. How could an insight that needs to be applicable to a million people, be unique? To find an insight that most of our audience finds relatable is generic and not unique.

So when someone tells me "unique insights" my face lights up with a smile and my brain starts doing a simple calculation. I got to research only one person and then talk to that person to find something unique about her/him. Then it starts thinking in-reality nothing is unique when it comes to insights. If you have thought it, done it, gone through it, you'll find at least 1000 other people in the world who might have too. Finding a unique insight becomes almost impossible than finding an insight that is relatable.

So what is it, Unique Insights or Relatable Ones?