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22.10.08

What are they advertising for?

Not to long ago I saw the coolest commercial I have ever seen. I think the pictures are perfect, the timing is perfect, the music is perfect, but… Yes of course there has to be a but.

Despised how cool I thought this commercial was, and how often I told my friends about it, I could never remember who and what the commercial was advertising for, and that’s a shame. And I still can’t remember the name of the company if you ask me now, but after I have seen it again and again, I now know what the product is.

Is this commercial then a complete waste of money? I don’t think so, if it is part of a plan to show that this is a company, which is willing to take a chance, and doesn’t want to do it like every body else. And the point isn’t to sell a lot more of the product. If this is characteristic for them, then the commercial is very good. If it is not, then it has nothing to do with the company’s authenticity, and is just a cool commercial, which overshadows what it is advertising for.

What do you think? Is it possible for a commercial to be to good, or is it just me who isn’t affected so easily by this commercial? And is it possible to tell anything about a company through a commercial like this, which is so fare from the product?

If you remember what the commercial was advertising for then say so.

Reading your post reminds me of another commercial I saw on TV some time ago. I really liked the spot, but I had the same problem as you pose – I couldn’t remember what the commercial was advertising for. It starts off with eight people drumming, the colours are dark and the music sounds like stomp. After a while with ‘entertainment’ and recurrent confusing about what this commercial is advertising for, it turns out that it is an advertisement for Gajol liquorice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB58-TRe6ys

I like these kinds of commercials. I think it is possible for a company to promote a product with commercials like these, which doesn’t say anything specific about the product it self. As a consumer you connect the feelings the commercial give you to the product. I believe that today you are buying with your emotions and not with our rationale – or said in another way; if you can choose between two products of the same kind, you end up buying the one that you connect with a special feeling (that you got from watching that specific commercial).

This weekend I read in the paper, that Martin Lindstrøm has written a book called buy-ology. It’s a book about our buying habits – and what happens in our brain when we are buying stuff we want. By reading this book you might get an answer to the question about what happens to us, when we are exposed to commercials.

http://www.buyologyweb.dk/

I LOVED this commercial! - watched it all last year in Dublin. And I do remember what it’s for - Cadbury - lovely chocolate usually wrapped in purple paper. I guess it helps if you have lived in the UK where everyone knows Cadbury. In Denmark I’m not even sure you can buy it?! I talked about this commercial yesterday because I’m looking to do a viral campaign as this was voted in the top 10 viral campaign recently. I discussed what the brief was for the commercial with my colleague, because she has a friend who worked for the agency in London who produced the commercial. I was convinced it would have been something like anticipation – but she came back with news from her friend that apparently it was joy – pure joy or something like that – makes sense! I think it worked amazingly because not only was it watched a LOT of times but we are still talking about it know – and I’m sure if we can’t remember what it was for we can go on to Google or YouTube and very quickly be reminded:-)

Thit, I can't help comment on your reference to Martin Lindstrøms Buy-ology. I haven't read it, and chances are, I never will. I am absolutely amazed by Martins skills in selling and branding himself but the depth of the contend doesn't amaze me quite as much. I just stumbled on this Danish ad-industry article on the critique of Martins book and shallow body of work - they call it pop-reading....

http://www.bureaubiz.dk/composite-841.htm

Emotional buying - yes. But why are our emotions virally yanked by drumming-monkey-chocolate?

I think that these commercials are markers of two tendencies in the interaction between the public and the mass media - the HOW we're turned on and WHAT are the turn-ons.

Humans are addicted to stories and highly skilled in decoding stories. It's the way we catalogue the world and put sense where none is, which means that succesful branding and advertising needs to challenge our catalogue in order to distance itself from competitors. The strategy that both commercials sport is to not tell an easily cataloqued story and thus make the experience about how the viewer has to revise his decoding process and also open a new category in the catalogue where sense is individually derived and not told.

The "What we're turning on to" is in my opinion somewhat up the same alley: authenticity. I believe authenticity can be broken down to three parameters: skill, enthusiasm and uniqueness. For the first two, I simply refer to the Idol-Xfactor-talent wave that's going through the western world. We are breathtaken by skilled people, especially if they best or twist our expectations. The latter being my definition of uniqueness, and where the alley smells familiar since expectations is exactly about our excisting catalogue.

So, as a reply to Thit's post, I actually don't believe that a special feeling is created in me if I have to choose between twobrands of chocolate bars. It's just that the Cadbury brand is more accesible in my internal chocolate bar catalogue.

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