Sure, the Darth Vader spot is cute if you like “Star Wars” and you like kids. I thought the spot was cute, for sure; it made me smile. But since advertising is my job, I look for more than likability (although this is very important, too) in commercials: what was the strategy? Did it deliver the message? What is the take away for the brand? What is the take away for the product being promoted?
This morning as I watched actual “news” coverage of the spot and an interview with the child actor that was in the Darth Vader costume, I hit my tipping point of curiosity and started searching for some explanation for the strategy of the spot. The majority of the talk online, much like that “new” segment I saw this morning, talks about how “cute” the spot is and how much everybody liked it; there was little, if any, mention of the brand or the product. While I can accept that it is a brand ad and they are not necessarily trying to sell Passats, can it be considered successful if no one remembers/talks about/notices the VW brand itself?
It was on AdAge that I finally found a real review of the spot:
“But if we were VW, we wouldn’t be too triumphal too quickly. Another name for the Relationship Era is the Listenomics Age, and if you listen to what was being said, you’d notice that the vast majority of the Twitter traffic mentions the ad, and not the car. Not even the model — which happens to be a Passat. Certainly nobody mentioned the ad was nominally promoting keyless ignition, and no wonder: that’s all but a generic feature.
“So, yeah, VW got some positive attention, and that’s good. But the attention wasn’t on automobiles. That’s bad. This could have just as well been a McDonald’s commercial. Which just goes to show: If you’re peddling entertainment instead of products, cultivating smiles not constituents, the Brave New World will be just as easy to squander resources in as the cowardly old one.”
It seems like this commercial comes on every morning during MSNBC’s Morning Joe and it just makes me smile. Music can have such a huge impact on commercial likability. Enjoy.
Remember the days when news anchors did the advertisements too? I don’t. But, I have seen video of it. It seems that in our days of DVR, television shows are trying to find new ways to generate advertising revenue from those advertisers who are trying to avoid being fast-forwarded. Jimmel Kimmel Live now has its host (Jimmy Kimmel) giving live ad-lib commercials to those who pay. This is brilliant. You can read more detail here. This “new” technique is so popular that the show is almost sold out through the end of the year. And, according to IAG Research:
“‘They are a good story for both the networks and for advertisers,’ says Rachel Mueller-Lust, executive VP of the network division. Mueller-Lust explained that IAG tracks ads shown alongside live commercials and those that aired standalone without any reference to program content. Live commercials coupled with a media buy give a huge lift to brand recall. ‘It is a very successful approach,’ Mueller-Lust said.”
I love research: usually there is a nugget of information that is revealed and gives us an “a-ha” moment. But I also love research because it always confirms things we instinctively know, but provides the data to support those instincts. That is what an article in today’s WSJ does for me. The article is all about recall of commercials watched through fast forward on a DVR. Some key findings reported that the most successful ads:
Concentrated the action and the brand’s logo in the middle of the screen.
Didn’t rely on multiple scene changes, audio or text to tell the story.
Often used familiar characters.
Were more likely to have been seen once before live.
Duh. But the implications are interesting:
Advertisers may want to unveil new campaigns during live events like sports games and then re-run spots during programs likely to be recorded.
Advertisers may want to test multiple edits of a spot to see how it performs when it is fast forwarded.
Coming off the Super Bowl surge of popularity for advertising (when commercials get higher audience than the game thanks to DVR devices), a NY Times had an article today noting the importance of the web for additional viewing of popular commercials. In fact, marketers should be thinking about ways to post all spots on the Internet on various sites:
“The ‘torture test’ for brands beyond their Super Bowl ads is how to make it easy for consumers to find the ads and engage with them, whether you put them on Web sites, on YouTube or make them easy to search for on Google,” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at the Nielsen Online Strategic Services division of the Nielsen Company.
With broadcast production costs rising and media placement costs continuing to rise, it just makes sense to take the spots that have been produced for the paid media placement and use them in free media outlets that consumers actually seek out. As an advertising agency and strategic partner to our clients, we should be recommending that all produced spots are placed on the web.
