Not so daft after all
Last year, I wrote a short article, ‘Crowdsourcing - great for creativity, not so great for sales’ – the latest trend in the world of advertising.
Many from the world of marketing, including a couple of colleagues (Judases all!) thought it was an uncool piece written by an out of touch, aging marketer.
Ha!
Far be it for me to say ‘I told you so’ but my prediction that crowd sourced advertisements would soon lose their glitter seems to have been proven right. And I, for one, am delighted. It could just be that the ‘bad days are over’ (thank you Florence) and companies have more money available to spend on creative development and production again.
Or, just as I predicted, it could well be that crowd sourced ads simply didn’t work – how many times have you loved a wacky ad on the box but not been able to remember what it was supposed to be selling? I rest my case.
Over the past few months, there has been a definite return to advertisements that reinforce brand names and propositions through emotional engagement with the viewer. They either make you smile, put a lump in your throat or make you laugh out loud.
The current John Lewis ad, for instance, has reduced grown men to tears while it’s brought tears of joy to the JLP board who’ve witnessed a 40% upturn in sales directly attributable to the ad.
At the other end of the product spectrum, the KFC ‘one big family’ ad is packed full of feel-good images that make you actually believe a box of chicken wings will bring you happiness and joy!
Good advertising should always 1) get your attention; 2) portray strong brand values; 3) use imagery and music that creates a positive association with the brand.
Put simplistically, good creative execution should make you feel warm towards a product and therefore far more likely to buy it. Simples.
