SeeMartin

One commercial on Versus that I particularly like is the Turtle Wax Ice commercial below. It nails down everything – the message, the execution, the channel, everything! I think that commercials like this are the earthly appearance of (and justification for) focus groups, zmet analysis etc. theoretical tools. It clicks with me – I associate with the guy, it’s on Versus – the boys channel, and most importantly – I REMEMBERED the product after the first viewing: Turtle Wax Ice. It is not often to see such a quality commercial for such a niche, relatively inexpensive product.

Banner advertisement has gone a long way from static images, through blinking animated gifs, through obnoxious sound enhanced flash to what you see on the right. A cool banner on weather.com that snatched the zip code I entered to customize the town, got the time right to the second, and showed me the weather forecast within the banner. Amidst the privacy craze this is an example of how personal (but not personally identifiable) information is used to benefit of the visitor. Being smart about sharing information online does not mean “not sharing” information online. I’m happy whenever semantic Web sites like Amazon, Netflix or Bing micro-target me and suggest a book, movie or service that is relevant to me. That’s as close to the personal attention the salesman can give you as it gets. Moreover, behind these recommendations is the wisdom of the crowd (btw, the book was suggested to me by Amazon after I purchased Freakonomics – mucho gracias, Amazon)

Last night I saw a hideous TV commercial by a local Hyundai dealership. The opening frame was of rows of marching dollar bills in sync with the sound of marching army boots (did my best to find the video but couldn’t). Then it continues to a quick and dirty animation of a Hyundai car rolling on top of the bills with an overly exciting voiceover repeating frantically the dealership’s name and “lowest prices”.

 Something tells me that the “mastermind” behind the storyline was the owner of the business and his thinking was along the lines “If I’m throwing my money for TV ads, I’ll make sure I’ll hammer my dealership name in their brains by repeating it 3 times a second” Might be an overgeneralization, but most dealership owners are old-school businessmen with an I-know-best attitude, hence the abundance of cheap, out-of-line commercials on the local channels.

I like the Hyundai brand. I like their corporate advertising too – it appeals to my taste for logical reasoning and consistency and more importantly – it perfectly fits Hyundai’s aspirations. They are slowly but methodically repositioning themselves in a very competitive industry. To that end, this dealership ad did not do justice to the brand. I wonder how the marketing people at Hyundai feel about commercials like this one. Some manufacturers are doing better job than others in controling their message.  I know that Hummer, of all brands, had very strict rules imposed on their dealerships in terms of local advertising (albeit insufficient to compensate for bigger – no pun intended problems).

A few years ago I worked for Startec Global Communications and as a member of the marketing team I participated in brainstorming sessions focused on the creative of the campaigns. During one of these meetings the VP made a comment about the order of the bullet points on a direct mail piece. He requested that the benefits of the product are listed before the features of the product. That was a keeper for me as I love all sorts of operational tips, best practices, rules of a thumb etc. At the time I was not interested in the theory behind benefits-before-features mantra, I just accepted it. Later on I came across the same rule in marketing classes, this time backed-up by scientific explanation. A few days ago I came across a good blog post that touches on the subject by Dr. Sharon Livingston on Branding Strategy Insider—one of the best blogs on branding. The post is somewhat hard to digest as it mixes psychology, ZMET, semantics, and philosophy but is very good nevertheless.  I particularly liked the excellent examples of benefits and features at the opening.  To illustrate the practical implications for designers of wisdoms such as “benefits before features” I’ll recycle one of the examples she gives:

Time-release (feature) products are purchased because they are long acting (benefit).

Let say that you have to design a magazine ad for the product above and you want to use a bulleted list to demonstrate the awesomeness of the product but you only have an inch of space left and have to pick 3 of the statements below:

• Time-released
• Long acting
• Enteric-coated
• Will not irritate the stomach
• Easy to carry
• Flat bottle

Apply the “benefits before features” rule and you get:

• Time-released (feature)
• Long acting (benefit)
• Enteric-coated (feature)
• Will not irritate the stomach (benefit)
• Easy to carry (benefit)
• Flat bottle (feature)

So the list will end up being:

• Long acting (benefit)
• Will not irritate the stomach (benefit)
• Easy to carry (benefit)

I’ve been following the Geico commercials for quite a while and the latest theme made me think that there must be a more strategic way to manage their ad campaigns. Being owned by Berkshire Hathaway it is not surprising that they pour a fortune in TV advertising but it seems to me their ads are loosing focus. There are at least four distinct themes: “so easy the cavemen can do it”, “15 minutes could save you 15% or more”, the gecko and the CEO talking about trust, relationships etc., and now the one below. What is their value proposition? Easy to get a policy? Savings? Customer service? All of the above? Undoubtedly, if you advertise so aggressively you’ll gain some market share, but what is their ROMI in comparison with Progressive for example? Progressive’s ads are very focused, very consistent and with clear message. It would be interesting to hear what industry analysts can say about the two companies head-to-head.