Now, I realize that I could be accused based on this analysis of advertising effectiveness of being a Luddite, or a spoilsport, or, worst of all, that I don’t get it.
I do understand that advertising on the big game is a different aspect of marketing, one unto itself, and that such advertising might or ought not be subjected to the same rigorous standards that most marketing campaigns. Granted!
I’m not suggesting that creative, innovative, splashy ads have no place in mass media (or elsewhere). I’m also reminded of the famous (or infamous) Apple ad in 1984. One mysterious and inscrutable ad–huge response.
But does the response to one ad, more than twenty-five years ago, warrant so many imitators? I postulate not.
Years ago I did a project for my then employer where I looked at direct marketing direct response campaigns (television based). I trekked into the archive of the Direct Marketing Association and spent several days pouring through the records of ECHO award winners. I came across Ginsu knives ads, which, if you consumed television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you simply could not avoid. Cheesy, cheery, bombastic and yes, annoying in many ways, literally millions of sets of Ginsu knives were snapped up by enthralled consumers.
In the advertising world, the Ginsu ads were the epitome of crass, bottom-of-the-barrel ads, recalling state fair sideshows, strip joints, and, gasp!, local car dealer ads. But they worked. And phenomenally well.
I had personally found these ads both humorous and repulsive, part of me knowing that the ads were so pushy, so “out there,” as to be implausible, a come-on the likes of P.T.Barnum, while another part of me was so enthralled that I almost reached for the phone to place my order. I never did, but I remember considering the possibility.
Millions of other consumers did not resist and made the call.
This finding has stuck with me. Not as an argument that direct response come-ons are the best form of advertising, or that ads must be ruthlessly measured against direct sales, but that ads have to have some grounding in the realities of the marketplace rather than simply satisfying the egos of those involved in making them.
As a market researcher, my dictum is test, test, test. Find out if a proposed ad is doing what it is intended to do. Then, if it makes a big splash, or makes it into the popular lexicon as “Where’s the beef?” and “Can you hear me now?” have do, so much the better.
But cover the fundamentals first.
Comments welcome!
Dr. Bob
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