In advertising success means giving your audience a kick of pleasure or purpose. One of the ways to please your audience is to tell a good story. And there’s another thing: actions speak louder than words – so demonstrate your commitment to us beyond the flash in the pan advertising. Reality is the best advertising.
Telling a good story is not an easy thing to do in half a minute or less. It means constructing a world quickly that makes sense, that entertains, that communicates a memorable message and passes the bottom-line test: does the ad cause people to buy the product you’re advertising more than they already are?
Rocks
When you invent a really good story (in the world of advertising), the audience get to know and love the characters, and from then on, life can get a whole lot easier. You can use the same formula, build on it, and quickly convey clever messages because your audience is already up to speed with your story. Vodacom, in contrast to MTN and Cell C, have used characters (the Jewish guy and black Gogo) in a story to promote their service. This is why Vodacom’s ads are a lot more effective – because they’re personal. What’s personal about people throwing Frisbees around? Having said that, Vodacom’s latest Ghostbusters ad is a bit of a dud.
The Caltex ads with Boet and Swaer were also excellent, but seem to have disappeared. New account executive perhaps?
So what rocks right now? The CTM ads are still going strong, and their latest offering is excellent. Nige and his buddy are at the Waterfront (somewhere in Cape Town) and using the background of a ship coming in (loaded with CTM branded containers) it’s explained how CTM manages to keep the prices of their quality product so low – by buying in bulk. The wordplay as usual, is classic.
Huh?
How do you advertise televisions? The best place is either glossy magazines or by making a very good radio ad (where perhaps an untuned radio is used as a metaphor for a badly tuned or visually inferior television). I’m guessing, to sell televisions you really need to awaken the imagination of your audience, and audio is the most effective medium to do that. Advertising gurus will argue that at least you find your target market (with the appropriate disposable income) through the television medium but I disagree. Plenty of well heeled people listen to the radio in their luxury cars on their way to work. Advertising TV’s should awaken the imagination. Samsung’s ad is much clever than Sony’s (about giving up tickets to a soccer game…another story).
Television, after all, is a medium that shows (more than it tells), so we are left in a passive role, going into a sort of imagination-paralysis. That’s the last thing you want to do. To sell a TV you have to do the same thing you do when you want to sell something else big, and expensive, like a car, or a house. You need to inspire. You need to fire up the imagination, to thrill with the wonder of possibilities. The main reason why Sony’s Bravia LCD TV’s don’t quite make sense is you need a television to see it. If you already have a television you’re unlikely to rush out and buy another one. And since they are advertising how good it is by showing all these colorful bouncing balls, and it’s just a festival of color *on your own TV*, why are you going to buy it? Maybe when your television breaks down (when you can’t see the ad anyway). And when’s that? Sorry, Sony ought to wise up on this one.
Rubbish
I like KFC’s ad with the boys in their treehouse den, and the other one with the teenagers coming over to a pretty girls house because her mum has ordered KFC. I mean they’re okay, they’re not great. Seems there’s a little boys ad, a teenage girl ad and another ad featuring a grown up loving couple. He invites his girlfriend to his favourite restaurant (without telling her specifically that it’s KFC) and so he goes to KFC and she goes somewhere else. I would too. I don’t think it’s an ad that will appeal to many women. What does it actually communicate? Even men may be reminded of the downside of relationships – not a good metaphor to be associated with.
Finally I’d like to mention Virgin’s advertising. Virgin wants to go global but lacks infrastructure, and so have to rely to a large extent on clever promotion and marketing. It is clever. It stands out. This is how Virgin has managed to stay successful. To a large extent Virgin relies on people choosing them just out of preference, for reasons that don’t go far beyond likeability. But likeability is important. We like Richard Branson, and we associate him, and his story with his products (however good or bad they may be).
I’m tempted to change credit cards just because of that likeability factor. The fact that my bank charges me more bothered me, but not a lot. Having heard Sir Richard talk about it, I do think there is a lack of competition here, and the fact that you’re charged at every turn, even to deposit money is ridiculous. Banks in South Africa are starting to remind me of car guards. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’re supposed to pay a tip. That’s not right. When I wanted to transfer money to a non ABSA credit card I was told the charge might be as much as R300. So I’ve had to transfer the money manually. How much do I like ABSA now? The fact that I like Virgin (just by virtue of their image, and advertising) provides that extra little oomf that may get me to change. In the first paragraph I mentioned telling a good story: watch Virgin Money’s ad on a fictional country full of millionaires. It’s extravagant, it’s gratuitous, and it’s over the top. But I like it for its freshness and originality – two things I can’t associate with Absa. The Virgin Mobile ad featuring a fella on his way to heaven is also a good story.
Will I leave Vodacom for Virgin Mobile? Once I’m able to compare the actual costs, and once I know that there’s number portability, I will. In 1999 I worked for Virgin Mobile in Bristol, and Britain used number portability then. Why, 7 years on, has it still not happened in South Africa? Because the three current operators want their so-called consumers to be nothing more than uninformed suckers. Are local banks any different? Hooray for Sir Richard and the hero brands who like us, want us to like them and see us as their customers, not mere consumers or worse.
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