MOST POPULAR ADS OF THE NOUGHTIES: WHAT DO THEY TELL US?

This week on the main terrestrial commercial TV channel in the UK (ITV 1), they had a program that counted down the twenty most loved ads from the “noughties” (the last decade)based on over 8000 TV viewers from a list put together by the station

The top 5 were in ascending order:

5) Cadbury “Gorilla”
4) Honda “COG”
3) Compare the market “Meerkat”
2) Skoda “Cake”
1) Hovis “Boy through time”

What was a little bit scary for me is that as a marketer I think pretty much of all them are terrible ads, and wondered if that is where it all goes wrong! In fact some I think are almost dumb and perplexing, and I am fairly sure would not have made it past the 1st presentation. Also I am still not sure as a consumer that they would have had much affect on me. So I started to ponder that, this and the meaning overall and here are the 4 things that I took from it all:

1. UK consumers love ads that entertain. They love the indirect sell, the clever and the quirky. And they really like humour. Though when they mde their final choice it was nostalgia that wins through. Especially in the uncertain times, it was interesting to see the very clever and thought provoking ad from Hovis bread was the number one.

2. They all are quite long, up to 2 minutes for the full Hovis ad. Does length mater after all? They are big, memorable and would seem small in short ad lengths.

2. We have no idea if they loved the ads and acted on them. For an ad that does not sell or change perception and sell is not worth it all. Personally, the one ad that did make me change was the Compare the Market ad, which is just about brand recognition and recall so when it was time for new car insurance their name popped straight into my mind. There are reports that Cadbury sold more chocolate after the Gorilla ad, and the huge PR and talking point it created. So maybe there it was more the buzz and the top of mind again that worked.

3. We have no idea what the brief was and if they met it. If the brief was “get my brand talked about” then 4 of the 5 on this list interesting did and a lot. There were written about, discussed and covered in all sort of media. But did it deliver the brief.

4. It would have been a dull show if the ads that sold lots of products only were in here, as suspect it would have been a drier and more message driven show. Nearly as dull as many of the breaks these days.................


Scary as most with marketer hat on I despaired of at the time as felt they were more production than selling

WATCH THE TOP 2 ADS

HOVIS BOY on YouTube (full long version)

SKODA CAKE: click here to watch on YouTube

THE SUN NEWSPAPER SPOOF APPLE IPHONE

As readers of the blog know, I am a fan of and interested in spoof ads as I think they are not only entertaining but more importantly they show when advertising has caught a nerve (good or bad) and also have a creative idea or format that people identify with and is so clear that they can replicate it.

Sometimes of course it is consumer generated, and less often by other manufacturers or service providers.

One of the spoof/parody ads that is currently being written about on blogs, Twitter and online generally is The Sun newspaper in the UK.

The Sun newspaper has done a very clever parody/ spoof inspired by Apple iPhone and the way they communicate on features and benefits.
Watch the ad on YouTube: click here

THE BRAND GAP: AN INTERESTING PRESENTATION

I was sent a link to a presentation about branding titled “The Brand Gap” that the Creative Director at our ad agency came across by one Mart Neumeier.

It was a great read (170 very visual slides with very visual ideas).

There were 2 things that really resonated for me, as they are things that I have written about in the blog, and these were:

1. You need to be different to STAND OUT and be noticed by your target. The point he makes, which I had not thought of before, was that we have so much information and stimulus to digest constantly that we are “programmed” to only really notice things that are different and enexpected. Anything that is very similar or the same we do not tend to notice and register. Good point!

2. If you are really trying to INNOVATE, then you need some strange ideas that feel uncomfortable and make you feel a bit nervous. If not them they are far too familiar and safe, and probably are me-too. Another good point

The full presentation can be found at:

http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/0321348109/goodies/The_Brand_Gap.pdf


Who is Marty? I have not met him but the presentation says: Marty Neumeier is president of a San Francisco-based brand consultancy, Neutron LLC. Neutron supplies the “glue” that holds brands together: brand education programs, seminars, workshops, creative audits, process planning, and more.
Visit http://www.neutronllc.com/. (though if you visit you will see they have merged with a company called LIQUID)

Big and Small: the 2 ways of the future. The Economist agrees..

This is an update on my posting about how it feels to me that to succeed you increasingly have to be really big or small but tightly targeted.

I was interested to read in the "economist" magazine of 28 November their article "a world of hits". It referred to the "long tail" book by Chris Anderson - but argued that what has happened is that big hits in films are getting bigger - and the very targeted are selling nicely... But the ones in the middle are struggling. The same is true of newspapers (big titles doing ok, and the very narrow local ones doing just fine).

The article is worth a read:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14959982

ANOTHER TREND? NO ROOM IN THE MIDDLE ANYMORE? BIG AND BROAD VS. TIGHT AND TARGETED?

As readers of my blog know, I tend to have my “theories” about trends and areas to focus. One of the recent ones was around the emergence of SIMPLICITY as a trend that is being driven not just by the economic crisis and challenges that mean suppliers of products and services are stripping back offers to the core offer to help make them more affordable, but also by the increasing uncertainty about safety of so many ingredients, products and the such like making simple offers feel better choices.

Another thing that I have increasingly been observing is that to compete and succeed there are also 2 clear way to proceed: either be big, broad and loud or highly targeted, niche and specific. Think the middle ground is doomed territory.

Here are some examples

From the world of TV
Big event shows are booming. Take a show like “X-Factor” in the Uk (or “American Idol”, “Britain’s Got Talent” etc). These are big shows that are capture the imagination of the public on a broad and big scale. They become intensive shared experience viewing, and create spin off content, comment and interactions across many media and medium (blogs, newspapers, twitter, Facebook). Many (like me) watch the show with a dialogue going on via Twitter, Facebook with friends and others. They are loud big and dominate media for a period of time.

Then on the other extreme are smaller, highly targeted and specific shows and channels that have a tight and dedicated target that watch and get engrossed in. The numbers are not huge but they are very attractive and make money because they are efficient at reaching and talking to that target and interest. The problem is all the stuff in the middle that is expensive to make and get good enough viewers but neither huge to sell broad appeal advertising to or specific enough to sell very targeted stuff. It seems that Drama series fall into this area. They are expensive to write and make and even with several million viewers they just cannot make money.

From the world of news/ newspapers
There are 2 things I consume. The Times (a general interest newspaper that gives me a broad view of the world) and the CHiswickW4 (a weekly email with news from the suburb I live in). I love both. They are not on the same scale as the TV example but interesting. ChiswickW4 runs ads for local events and services and always helpful, The Times the big new things and services.

It is also clear that people will only pay for content (especially online) if it is specialist and expert, and not big general things like day-today news.


I think it is time to think about one’s product offering. Maybe within a brand there maybe some big, broad offers and then tight efficiently targeted lines that can be very efficient and profitable as you only need to talk to a small tight target who can be reached through tight media/ medium offering.

MARKETING UNLEASHED PODCAST NOMINATED FOR EURO PODCAST AWARD

My Marketing Unleashed Podcast has been nominated for a European Podcast Award. PLease vote! Thanks