Advertising

I suspect many people will find this ad from Cadburys hard not to watch, appealing as it does to whatever morkish sense of curiousity causes people to slow down and stare at the scenes of car accidents and, in years gone by, flock to circus freak shows. But does that make it a good ad? There’s no denying that getting your advertising noticed is increasingly difficult. Viewing is fragmented and people skip from channel to channel during ad breaks. In part this is a problem of advertising effectiveness measurement; most companies use consumer research to track measures like top of mind awareness, advertising awareness and recall of key messages. Many include a prompted measure, where respondents are shown a still from an ad and asked if they recall seeing it and, if so, what it was advertising. Unfortunately, as is the way with almost all consumer research, this is measuring […]

Here’s an ad that performed the rare feat of wrestling my conscious attention away from its unconscious meanderings and then, having drawn me in, manipulated my unconscious mind to boost my perception of a brand. So what is it that makes this ad such a powerful success? And why am I convinced that it will attract customers for the company that made it? I won’t say anything further until you’ve had a chance to see it for yourself… I suspect that the ad got my attention because it aroused my curiosity. The simple black screen stating a time and place is unconsciously associated with documentaries: it triggers the idea that something noteworthy might be about to follow. Clearly something significant happened at Liverpool Street Station recently and, if I watch, I will find out. The silence, against the highly compressed auditory backdrop of competing jingles and the like is a […]

It can be hard to divorce the assessment of an adverts ability to connect with the mind of consumers and influence their behaviour from the subject matter of the ad. But I saw the following advertisement recently and it grabbed my attention, shook me and made me hate it. So, much as I can see how the cause is a worthy one, I have to assess it purely as a piece of communication if I’m to understand what I think it is that doesn’t work and why. The ad opens with a classic British comedy-sketch-style set up. I suspect my associations with comedy shows like The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O’Clock News were triggered and my unconscious was primed for an entertaining, dopamine-releasing pay-off. My unconscious was in for a disappointment. Whilst, I could personally identify with this unhappy scenario, I found the characters portrayed smug and dislikeable. […]

It’s not too hard to speculate on how the artificial nature of the research process could have arrived at this ‘insight’. Frequently market research implicitly requires respondents to justify unconsciously driven purchase decisions at a conscious level. Human beings are adept at conscious post-rationalisation – it’s what we do all the time to feel in control of our lives. So people asked why they buy a particular drink don’t say things like, “Because squirrels whispered the name to me at night”, they say, “Because it tastes better.” Probing what’s better about the taste simply compounds this problem. Tasting the product and those of competitors in the exercise compounds it even further. But the agency made a fun advertisement: indeed all of the ads get great ratings on You Tube. I expect they attract attention and they’re probably pretty memorable too. So by almost every measure brands use to track their […]