Recently, I went to go watch a movie with a good friend of mine — it was “Gnomeo and Juliet” and you should see it — and, as usual, we got bombarded with advertisement before the movie started. I saw a Coca Cola ad and I commented saying I wanted a Coke. Now, I wasn’t being serious, but it made me wonder whether someone else in the theater thought to themselves, “crap, I should have bought a Coke!”
Rewind a few weeks to Super Bowl Sunday, arguably the biggest marketing day of the year. Many people watch just for the commercial, and I admit that I was doing just that. I was primarily looking for the Motorola Xoom ad because that’s what techies do. I originally stated that I thought it was a good ad, but then realized that my original sentiments weren’t all that accurate. The reason why I thought it was well put together lied with the fact that I understood the message — Motorola was likening 2011 to 1984 in that people who use Apple products are automatous robots. (I don’t believe that, by the way. I’m a proud iPhone, Mac and iPad user. But I also own a Nexus One, a Dell Venue Pro, and a Zune HD so you can stop the Apple fanboy nonsense right there.)
The minute-long ad showed a twentysomething year-old male using his Motorola Xoom to help him get flowers for his romantic interest. The problem with this ad was that only people “in the know” or “in the industry” would get the message. You had to “get it” to fully appreciate the ad. Believe it or not, not everyone is familiar with George Orwell’s 1984.
While the commercial did show, albet very subtly, that the Xoom has a cellular connection, maps, GPS and a camera, it didn’t do a good job making sure that those features made an impression. If you saw the commercial only once, would you be able to remember any of that? Probably not.
Furthermore, the angle was totally wrong. Yes, Apple leads in the tablet market space but to sell your own tablet you need to spend time talking about it, not poopoo-ing the competition.
Ok, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about what makes an ad bad. So what makes a good one?
The answer is simple: a story.
I’m not going to delve too deep into this, as I already wrote something about this, but a story is great for advertisement. What can I do with this? How can I use it? What can this do for me? If those questions and others similar to those are answered, you’ve got yourself a good ad.
Coming back to the Coca Cola ad, it’s approach is more in your face. I have become desensitized to such ads but they work. (Ever heard of “head on, apply directly to the forehead”?) Its picture alone with the condensation dripping down the sides is enough to tell you that it’s cool and refreshing, answering the “what can it do for me?” question. That’s something many, many tech companies can’t get right.
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