I’ve always loved children’s films. Even before my daughter was a twinkle in the eye, my DVD collection was embarrassingly over-stocked with Pixar and Studio Ghibli. Now she is here, I can shamelessly enjoy all my favourites over-and-over-again.

Sitting, watching one of the Harry Potters with her, for perhaps the 10th time, I was wondering why I still enjoy them. I think it is because they reflect so much of what I do day-to-day. Children’s writing is very difficult and an art. Because the best of it teaches incredibly complex and nuanced emotional lessons to an audience that is invariably way away from experiencing anything like those lessons in real life. Pitched at a level that neither over-complicates nor dumbs down. To an audience that has a notoriously short attention span.

It’s a tricky discipline.

But it is a discipline that Financial Services could learn a lot from. Not, I hasten to add, because our audiences need things explained to them like children. But because our discipline should always be about simplicity, clarity and immediacy – earning and holding an audiences’ attention. To explain a concept that, on the surface, they might well have little interest in. My daughter would not have eagerly watched 8 Harry Potter films if I had pitched them as lessons on coping with the death of parents and those you love. But tell her it’s a film about a school for witches and wizards and she’s in.

All advertising is at its most effective when it sticks to the same principles. When ads convey complex brand offerings or products in ways that don’t over-complicate or dumb down. But instead are simple, clear and engaging enough to command attention.

I often show my daughter ads we are working on and she frequently says she loves them. Which I take as a sign that we’re on the right track.

Then again, she usually follows up with a request for a treat, so maybe I’m just being told what I want to hear…