Big ads are good ads
Thinkerbell's lead thinker Dom Counahan makes the case for swapping 'UX', 'CX' and 'EX' for 'creativity', 'ideas' and 'fame'.
The best spot to learn agency gossip is within metres of wherever the free chips are dispensed. Like a Zambian waterhole, these places offer the beaten down and overworked an opportunity to congregate, basking momentarily in the inimitable nature of a life in advertising.
“We get hummus on Fridays too!” someone will declare to the newest recruit.
But as we painstakingly list the career movements of ex clients and the launch into brand clogged accounts of a fortnight in Positano, chances are you’ll also here some of these words squeezed in between the crunch of Costco salt and vinegar.
“UX”, “CX”, “EX”, “frictionless”, “frictionlessness”, “synergy”.
These increasingly sci-fi descriptors exemplify adland’s growing obsession with ‘the consumer’. As if the industry has momentarily levitated above itself and determined that consumers sit at the core of what we do. That those people we spy on at night from our office windows are the key to our success.
The notion of consumer centricity, in addition to promising better and more personal experiences, has also proven helpful in lifting the existential burden spaded on to advertisers by the existence of other more noble pursuits.
Being ‘about the consumer’ makes us feel good. And designing communications to match their needs makes us feel smarter. Framing what we do in this way recognises the immense power of digital media to tailor messages while divesting from advertising any idea of its inefficiency and wastefulness.
But this feeling of intelligence buoying the industry could in fact be less helpful than we think. It may foreshadow a return to advertising’s old days when TV (big) ads were sacrosanct, and advertisers clung to pro bono work to validate their existence.
Research into the benefits of advertising wastage together with a revived discussion around signalling theory in marketing may help to support this shift. At a recent MSIX event in Sydney, four marketing science presentations were devoted entirely to this issue, each unpacking the gains to be made from investing in bigger campaigns while earmarking the pitfalls borne from overly fixing on targeted content.
In essence, sunken costs generate confidence on behalf of a brand and if you can afford forking out for a 60’ TVC, you are probably worth remembering.
And while some would argue that advertisers are predisposed to favour big ads given the opportunities for self-aggrandisement they afford; marketing science also makes a pretty good case for why pouring it all into the one big bucket is worth it.
Wiemer Snijder, author of the marketing sciences compendium Eat Your Greens: Fact based thinking to improve your brand’s health calls this the ‘banana’, or as statisticians describe it, negative bimodal distribution – a parabolic sales curve where light buyers account for the majority of a company’s growth and regular buyers account for an equally small minority.
This observation originally articulated as part of the work of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute operates on that idea that people don’t care that much about brands and it’s those one offs that really make the money. It also explains why big, branded messages are important in advertising.
Research conducted by Les Binet and Peter Field effectively says the same thing: that if you can’t attract new users to your brand, you’re toast. They also state that penetration is best achieved via emotional, fame generating campaigns and that measuring campaign communications accordingly is critical to achieving success.
Cadbury’s gorilla was a ‘big ad’
Big ads work because they stick. This concept of residuality puts creativity at the forefront of what we do. Rather than picking off hot prospects that were close to buying that product anyway, it may in fact be worth simply doing something people remember.
A gorilla on the drums.
A paddock of men and women clamouring through a fence.
The callused hands of tradesmen.
Colourful balls bouncing down a street.
The man your man could smell like.
These ideas lodge themselves in your brain and stay there.
So, if people don’t care, consumers are lazy and big campaigns actually make brands money, what then of advertising’s Zambian water hole? What new words can we stuff between the mouthfuls of Costco salt and vinegar?
“Creativity”, “ideas”, magnificence”, “fame”.
Perhaps these descriptors will get us thinking big again?
Dom Counahan is Thinkerbell’s lead thinker.
“A revived discussion on signalling theory” points to research published 27 years ago and cited a grand total of 4 times since…
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Signalling theory is the new programmatic .
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Cadbury Gorilla & Sony Balls are more than 10 years old. If this is what is inspiring the team at Thinkerbell, I look forward to their work on Blockbuster Video and Kodak.
Meanwhile there is a generation of new and emerging brands doing very well out of digital. If I were a PwC client I’d be more interested in understanding those.
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What’s a good analogy for advertising?
A gorilla on the drums.
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I think there is a place for big ads, no doubt.
However, I strongly believe there is no point in having a ‘big ad’ if the rest of the brand experience is sub-par.
It’s not ‘CX’ versus ‘creativity’, it’s both.
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Weird to use such old examples, but it’s important to remember the reasoning behind those big ads. They aren’t just ‘splash money on content’.
Sony Balls – Colour was very important in the move to LCD/Plasma, how can people identify the difference between products or which of the many brands is best? Boldness and brightness of colour is a great signifier of what a good screen is likely to be.
Cadbury Gorilla – Joy is massively important to chocolate, and the gorilla brilliantly gets across the joy that people feel when they think about chocolate. It’s not just content, it’s the brand in a nutshell. The follow up ads forgot to get this across, and hence didn’t do as well.
Old Spice – Based upon realising that women make most of the purchases.
These are all based on ‘consumer understanding’. As is pretty much every good ad ever made. You can’t have creativity without it.
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@Rob how right you are. At the root of every advertisement that has stood the test of time is a good strategy that has provided the opportunity for great creative.
Some of the forgettable big ads have been an execution in search of an idea, or a CD enriching a resume.
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Translates as “can we have a couple million to make a big TV ad please? Then we can have a cafe like Clems”. Lead thinking indeed.
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Exactly.
If planning and consumer insight is good enough for John Webster, it’s good enough for any creative.
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I love this article. Love it. It’s unpopular and not the right thing to say. But it’s right. It a world of tech companies scamming its right.
Best in class is John Lewis, the English retailer. Closer to home is Aldi.
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Yeah, right on. More than ten years old is a great reason.
I think that applies to all creativity.
It just shows you how shit da Vinci, Monet, Gaugin, Michelangelo, Picasso, Mondrian, Dali and all those other old farts were.
P.S. Bernbach knew shit about advertising when he did the VW ads. Wouldn’t sell a thing.
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Cheeky. But possibly onto something (completely out of time, inappropriate and loud, demanding attention but making everyone grumpy…)
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Into that good night.
Rage. Rage against the dying of the light.
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I’m starting to suspect the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute is just a cabal of Boomers conspiring to hold back progress so they can see out retirement without updating their skill set.
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A great big ad, is better than spending money on useless online content that no one gives a s@#$ about.
People actually seek out these great ads to watch on youtube.
So they become great social and online content for these brands.
And as we know, digital and social content works if it’s done well – but right now, it’s not done well.
Unless you can match watchability of cats playing pianos and fail videos, then you’re just wasting your time.
And the current state of marketing departments strangling work with pillars, strategy and ‘ha but not haha’ caution to all work won’t let this be improved.
Bring back the big ad.
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