There was a time when advertisements were about selling us things. There were the women that got over-excited about washing detergent and the chocolate that helped you “work, rest and play”. But it's not like that anymore, is it? Now we get bionic women dressed head to toe in white leather, set against an all-white futuristic landscape, spraying out white paint at a red car that races through the city. At the end of the ad, underneath the car manufacturer's logo, the strapline says 'Fight conformity'.
As advertisers we argue that these campaigns are needed to cut-through our media saturated landscape. But we must be careful.
Many a time the consumer is at a loss as to what the product is, never mind the brand name. Lately, I’ve seen ads where instead of thinking, ‘I’d like to try/buy that’, I’ve been left wondering what I’ve just seen has to do with the product being flogged.
This is propagated by the current tendency to be caught in a self-referential loop where advertising is mostly about advertising. Never mind the stupid soft drink, feel the art direction. ‘Look at me, I’m a really interesting ad’, screams the graffiti-proofed poster which could be for IKEA, a kitchen appliance or a charity. You can never tell…
However, there is another, more exciting and appealing trend, where advertising again, it seems, is no longer about the things it sells. Indeed, it’s not even about the things at all.
No, it’s about ideas that build positive impressions of your brand, that in turn build brand loyalty, that in turn build an army of consumers that will not only buy your products but keep 'em coming back for more. So the argument goes, if you give people a reason to love your brand, people will (repeatedly) buy your products. In particular, ideas that get people taking about you are held in high esteem, like Cadbury's Gorilla that brilliantly captured the essence of Chocolate - happiness - and generated 3 million views on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo)
The old paradigm was to identify ideas about brands. The emerging notion is to think of brands as being about ideas. For example, Jeep talked about all the stuff they had done over the past 50 years and summed it up with ‘There is only one Jeep’. In essence, Jeep’s communications focussed on the things it was trying to sell - Jeeps. Jeep decided to re-evaluate this strategy. They took a few steps back, looked at their vehicles and realised a plain truth - their cars were simply about fun. They switched tack with the end line ‘Have fun out there’. There were a bunch of people out there that wanted a fun experience with their SUV. And Jeep wanted to say to them, ‘Yeah, we’re into that too’.
The latest brand buzz word is content, as in if you don’t have a cool product then creates cool content that will give your brand the desired positive impressions – it’s not about the things your selling. We talk about giving is the new taking. We talk about legions of marketing aware punters not wanting to be stalked like targets (segments). We talk about them wanting to be surprised and delighted where brands help them in unexpected ways, like, for example, a bank that sets up branded lockers at a beach for them to leave their clothes and stuff while they have a swim.
This is all good stuff and successful brands will adopt (if they haven’t already) these approaches…but we mustn’t forget, as well as building positive impressions of the brand, we’re - ultimately - here to flog stuff.
To highlight what I'm talking about take the latest campaign from Carlton - 'Made from beer'. It's an ironic, self-referential pastiche that keeps things strikingly concise and simple. It appeals to the sensibilities of the no-nonsense beer drinking audience and will help Carlton stand-out from the bewildering clutter of beer competitor communications. It combines a neat idea with flogging beer. It has sublime balance.
As advertisers we argue that these campaigns are needed to cut-through our media saturated landscape. But we must be careful.
Many a time the consumer is at a loss as to what the product is, never mind the brand name. Lately, I’ve seen ads where instead of thinking, ‘I’d like to try/buy that’, I’ve been left wondering what I’ve just seen has to do with the product being flogged.
This is propagated by the current tendency to be caught in a self-referential loop where advertising is mostly about advertising. Never mind the stupid soft drink, feel the art direction. ‘Look at me, I’m a really interesting ad’, screams the graffiti-proofed poster which could be for IKEA, a kitchen appliance or a charity. You can never tell…
However, there is another, more exciting and appealing trend, where advertising again, it seems, is no longer about the things it sells. Indeed, it’s not even about the things at all.
No, it’s about ideas that build positive impressions of your brand, that in turn build brand loyalty, that in turn build an army of consumers that will not only buy your products but keep 'em coming back for more. So the argument goes, if you give people a reason to love your brand, people will (repeatedly) buy your products. In particular, ideas that get people taking about you are held in high esteem, like Cadbury's Gorilla that brilliantly captured the essence of Chocolate - happiness - and generated 3 million views on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo)
The old paradigm was to identify ideas about brands. The emerging notion is to think of brands as being about ideas. For example, Jeep talked about all the stuff they had done over the past 50 years and summed it up with ‘There is only one Jeep’. In essence, Jeep’s communications focussed on the things it was trying to sell - Jeeps. Jeep decided to re-evaluate this strategy. They took a few steps back, looked at their vehicles and realised a plain truth - their cars were simply about fun. They switched tack with the end line ‘Have fun out there’. There were a bunch of people out there that wanted a fun experience with their SUV. And Jeep wanted to say to them, ‘Yeah, we’re into that too’.
The latest brand buzz word is content, as in if you don’t have a cool product then creates cool content that will give your brand the desired positive impressions – it’s not about the things your selling. We talk about giving is the new taking. We talk about legions of marketing aware punters not wanting to be stalked like targets (segments). We talk about them wanting to be surprised and delighted where brands help them in unexpected ways, like, for example, a bank that sets up branded lockers at a beach for them to leave their clothes and stuff while they have a swim.
This is all good stuff and successful brands will adopt (if they haven’t already) these approaches…but we mustn’t forget, as well as building positive impressions of the brand, we’re - ultimately - here to flog stuff.
To highlight what I'm talking about take the latest campaign from Carlton - 'Made from beer'. It's an ironic, self-referential pastiche that keeps things strikingly concise and simple. It appeals to the sensibilities of the no-nonsense beer drinking audience and will help Carlton stand-out from the bewildering clutter of beer competitor communications. It combines a neat idea with flogging beer. It has sublime balance.
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