With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

On February 5 NBC will broadcast the epic rematch between the Giants and Patriots. But maybe your team didn’t make it to the big game. Will you still watch Super Bowl XLVI? Of course you will. You’ll watch for the same reason about 54% of viewers do — the commercials.

On one night each year the titans of marketing and advertising attempt to wow us with about 50 minutes of the most expensive commercials on television. NBC has sold out all commercial airtime for the big game, reporting that the average cost this year for a 30-second spot is $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million. That’s a 16 to 25% hike from the $3 million average cost last year. With such massive price tags, these commercials better deliver.

Companies know that a Super Bowl spot can make you or break you. In 2005, Go Daddy’s provocative spoof of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction launched the fledgling company from single digits to nearly 50% share of the domain-name registry market, once again proving that you rarely go wrong throwing a bunch of hot, half-naked women at the screen. Go Daddy reportedly saw a 136% boost in site traffic, and went on to become the largest web hosting firm in the world.

But simply spending millions on a commercial doesn’t guarantee success. Groupon caught flak after last year’s Super Bowl commercial, with its seemingly disrespectful take on the unrest in Tibet. CEO Andrew Mason began Groupon as a way to raise money for various philanthropic organizations. Groupon eventually changed its focus to saving consumers money and grew into the $1.35 billion company it is today. Capitalistic sellout? Sure — but the company does retain a philanthropic side. In the 2011 commercial Groupon attempted to poke fun at itself, but instead presented a confusing message and offended millions of potential consumers.

Groupon will recover from last year’s blunder but other companies have not been so lucky. One of the Super Bowl’s worst-received commercials of all time was Just For Feet’s “Kenya Mission” commercial — which, let’s face it, was a bit racist — during Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999. Just For Feet sued its advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, saying it had relied on the agency’s expertise against its judgment. The suit was later dropped, and Just For Feet filed for bankruptcy. Now it’s Just Forgotten.

Some companies spend a surprising percentage of their entire annual marketing budget on a 30-second Super Bowl spot. With that kind of money on the line, they have to get it right. This year NBC has raised the stakes through the roof with prices for precious airtime at an all-time high. So, even though I’d be happy to see the Giants and the Patriots fall flat, I’ll tune in like the rest of America to see what can go memorably right — or painfully wrong — with a little creativity, a bit of daring and millions of dollars.

Paul Pomeroy weighs in on a couple of car ads.

As a guy who works in advertising I often get asked by family, friends, acquaintances and perfect strangers to offer my opinion on current ads in the marketplace. I find this funny because, unlike most people, when I meet doctors, lawyers and auto mechanics, I don’t find a way to wedge questions related to lumps on my back, clauses in my will or an incessant knocking noise coming from under the hood of my car into the course of casual conversation. But whatever. Most advertising people are raving narcissistic know-it-alls who are more than happy to share their opinions on just about anything — especially good ads vs. sucky ads.

OK, that really just describes me. And that brings me to the point of this post.

Good ads can’t be everything to all people. Nor should they be. When digesting marketing material, we make constant use of our eyelids and earlids; we focus like a laser on material that is relevant to us and filter out everything else. Ever notice how when you’re looking for a car all you see or hear are car ads? But when you’re not — white noise.

Therein lies the value — and the importance — of knowing your target market and effectively positioning your value proposition in a smart, concise and memorable way.

So what’s a good example of this? Let’s stick with cars. You may remember the most recent (and final) Mercury car campaign built on the theme line: “You gotta put Mercury on your list.”

You gotta put Mercury on your list? That’s like a high school junior (let’s call him Paul P.) going up to a senior girl and saying, “Hey, when you’re thinking about guys that you’d like to spend some time with over the weekend, I hope you’ll consider giving me a call.” Two words: dead end. I know.

So with apologies to the delightful Jill Wagner — who did all she could to salvage that campaign — a weak value proposition, bad execution and fuzzy definition of the target audience sank this campaign. Sucky ad.

And in case you haven’t noticed, Mercury cars are no longer being manufactured.

Now let’s look at an example of an effective ad populating the auto space:

To be clear, if you’re an urban hipster or a midlife crisis baby boomer looking for a car, this ad wasn’t intended for you. If, however, you’ve recently been to a grade school open house, signed someone up for karate lessons or loaded your DVR with reruns of the Wizards of Waverly Place, you may be a little choked up right now. Good ad.

Have an ad you’re wondering about? Contact AB&C and maybe I’ll check it out and offer an opinion. Who am I kidding? I’ll definitely offer an opinion.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this post are solely those of the author and not of any of his co-workers or other industry colleagues who may cringe while reading this post. Please be sure to formulate your own opinion on all products and product advertising featured here — which is, of course, the entire point of advertising in the first place.

Contagion billboard

This is the coolest advertising I’ve seen since the stunt for Lynx (we know it in the United States as Axe) with virtual angels falling from the sky into the London Victoria railway station. What Warner Bros. Pictures Canada did to promote its new movie “Contagion” could also be considered interactive, on a microscopic level. The movie’s premise is that there is a fast-spreading outbreak of a deadly airborne virus. Panic sets in as the fear of exposure consumes people. So what better way to promote a movie about spreading germs than to create giant petri dish billboards? The billboards were treated with live fungus and bacteria and installed in an abandoned storefront window with nothing but an “IN THEATRES SEPTEMBER 9” advisory underneath. Over the next few weeks, the contents began to grow, revealing some pretty gross-looking mold that spelled out the title of the film. This video shows the process.

Suspense that created engagement, a strong tieback to the premise of the movie and creativity make this a great execution. Let’s just hope these out-of-the-box bacteria billboards stay inside their boxes.

The art show will feature sculptures, paintings and live music

It’s time for AB&C’s fall art show — and we’ve got something special: “Four Spikers” is the first agency art show to feature four members from one very talented family.

Bill, Carol, Mike and Tom Spiker will all be displaying their art at the opening on Thursday, November 4, from 5 to 8 p.m., but the art will remain on display until the end of February. To support our community, the Spiker family will be donating a portion of their sales to the Delaware Community Foundation.

“Four Spikers” will feature a unique mix of paintings, sculptures and live music. If you’d like to join us on Thursday evening for light hors d’oeuvres, beverages and some fine art, “Like” us on Facebook and RSVP to the invite.

AB&C’s semiannual art show gives the agency a fresh look, inspires employees and clients, and offers local artists an opportunity to showcase their talent.

We will be tweeting live from the event so be sure to follow us on Twitter @ABCadvertising!

Making Hospital Commercials Memorable

What commercials stick out the most in your memory? Maybe it’s “Keep your hands off my Doritos!” Maybe it’s the Geico cavemen spots. What makes them memorable? That’s easy — they’re funny.

Now, when’s the last time you told a friend, “Oh, man, you should see this hospital commercial!” Exactly. Healthcare-related ads are typically very subdued: a panoramic view of a hospital floor, smiling doctors and nurses, high-tech equipment, etc. A soothing voice assures you that, as a patient, you’ll receive the best care possible. Ho-hum.

Is there another way to get that message across?

Fauquier Health in Virginia seemed to think so. While their message is typical —you are a priority, your care is personalized — their delivery is anything but. Instead of pleasant but forgettable images of their own facilities, Fauquier’s TV commercials depict just the opposite: a factory-like hospital treating patients on an assembly line. In one spot, anonymous patients roll by doctors in hard hats who shout instructions across the factory floor (“This one’s goin’ to x-ray!”). In another spot, pregnant women are treated like cattle. A nurse hands out cups to mothers without making eye contact, mechanically chanting, “Ice chips. Ice chips.” A doctor almost cruelly flashes a newborn at its mother then tosses the baby into a passing bassinet.

Not what you would expect from a hospital. But, no doubt, you can relate to being treated impersonally in a healthcare setting. So, while there’s no word yet on whether these spots have had an impact on Fauquier’s bottom line, they’re probably gonna stick in your mind.

MINI introduces new technology

Clear concise data visualization can truly be a game-changer. The difficulty comes in finding the best way to present your KPIs in a way that is quickly and easily digested.

To celebrate 50 years of motoring mayhem, MINI has introduced Mission Control as part of its limited-edition Camden package. In their words: “By bringing the engine, HVAC and central systems to life via three distinct personalities, Mission Control sets the stage for the future of motoring.” Yes, they have moved the dashboard from eye-level to ear-level, letting you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Mission Control is MINI’s first stab at a useful (while still somewhat cute and quirky) voice-based presentation of car functions by either providing new information or duplicating operating information from the physical dashboard via three unique voices within the car; one personality for the engine, one for the HVAC and one for the central systems. And just like in real life, the three do interact with each other.

This is approach is almost like a mash-up of the Corvette HUD and a standard voice-based GPS system:  audio-only, but represents operating data in a way that lets you keep your eyes on the road in front of you.

The future of Mission Control? MINI has stated that this is only round one of the technology, with voices and personalities easily updated. So can we expect Mike Rowe telling you that you’re nuts for attempting that grade in your F-150 Raptor? Only time will tell.

How ironic - a writer who can't type.

There I’ve said it. The fact that I have 20-plus years of writing experience and never learned to type with any more than two fingers is hardly a point of pride. To me, watching someone type with ten fingers (without looking down at the keyboard) is like witnessing someone spinning a basketball on a fingertip. It’s a wondrous, magical skill. I realize that I could learn to type like a normal person, but then again I could also learn to fingertip-spin a basketball. But let’s face it. I’ll never be a Harlem Globetrotter.

My latest personal revelation is tied to the “Ultimate Typing Championship,” which took place on March 14 in Austin, Texas. Let’s call it “March Madness, nerd-style.” (Who lines up for tickets to an event like this?) The winner, Sean Wrona, broke the world record with a speed of 163 words per minute. First-place prize? $2,000. The event has a website that dares you to match your typing skills against America’s most fleet-fingered folks. (I’d suggest going into battle with all ten digits.)

It's time for the AB&C Spring Art Show.

It’s the time of year for new beginnings — spring is in the air, the Phillies just had their season opener and new art is being hung on AB&C’s walls. That’s right, it’s time for the agency’s spring art show. It’s our tradition to host an art reception every spring and fall. The show helps decorate our walls and inspires agency staff and guests, while offering local artists an opportunity to display their work.

This spring we will be featuring work from artists Adam Kolodczak, Steve Lewis and Katie Lillard.

The opening reception is on Thursday, April 8, from 5 to 8 p.m., but the art will remain on display until the end of July.

We’re expecting record-breaking attendance for this month’s show. If you’d like to join us on Thursday evening for light hors d’oeuvres, beverages and some fine art, become our fan on Facebook and RSVP to the invite.

We will be Tweeting live from the event so be sure to follow us on Twitter @ABCadvertising!

Celebrating the holidays with silver and golds!

AB&C was honored with four gold awards and one silver in the 35th Annual JASPER Awards competition. Sponsored by the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association (JSPRAA), the competition drew more than 265 entries.

Our work with St. Joseph’s Healthcare System Children’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ, won gold for outdoor billboard advertising, print poster material and print brochure, and silver for magazine advertising. We also received a gold award for newspaper advertising created for Underwood Memorial Hospital, Woodbury, NJ, highlighting maternity care.

It’s always great to be recognized with our clients for our combined creative efforts. We’re happy to share this good news with you.

Take a break for the holidays!

The holiday season may seem a little less jolly for some of us this year. Stress levels are high and there are plenty of reasons to feel a bit like a scrooge — lousy economy, job pressures, family needs, etc. It doesn’t help that we’re constantly receiving or sending electronic communications every minute of every day — emails, text messages, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, to name a few.

It’s a good time to remember to take a break. Unplug — and unwind — this holiday season. Here are some tips:

Get out. Take a walk. Take your children to the park.
Reconnect. Visit a friend. Call someone you haven’t seen for years.
Be a kid again. Grab a board game. Play tag or hide and seek with your children.
Be creative. Draw or paint a picture. Learn how to knit. Take up scrapbooking.
Be old-fashioned. Write a poem, a love letter or a thank-you note.
Learn something. Read a book, newspaper or magazine.
Give back. Donate food or clothing to those in need. Volunteer at a local nonprofit.
Test your culinary skills. Bake, grill, sauté, roast. Try a new recipe.
Dance to the music. Put on your favorite CD. Play an instrument. Go to a concert.

But most of all, enjoy yourself. And reconnect with family and friends. Happy holidays!

Did you notice the change in tune?

We’ve all seen the Geico commercials with people being stalked by the little stack of money with eyes, reminding them of the money they could have saved by switching to Geico. Have you noticed a certain change in the reception that “Kash” has received from the person being followed? I have and, frankly, I’m not sure what to make of it.

When this campaign launched, people seemed to be a little leery of the creepy money as it snuck up on them. Here’s one of the original ads.

Now, check out one of their ads from the second round of this campaign. See the difference? The person who could be saving that money is now welcoming Kash, instead of freaking out — which makes total sense.

This demonstrates the power of focus group testing — albeit a little late in the game. In retrospect, you have to wonder why Kash was ever creepy at all. But Geico is known for dishing out some serious cash for multiple campaigns at once, so they probably didn’t feel too much of an impact here. Still, imagine spending a year’s worth of marketing dollars before testing to see how the public will perceive your ideas. Oops!

Which occupation do you trust?

When I’m at a social gathering, and people ask what I do for a living, I say I’m in advertising. And the standard response is, “Oh, really? Have you done anything I may have seen?” It’s tough knowing how to answer that one. But I’ve never felt ashamed of my chosen profession — until now.

A recent survey by GfK Custom Research revealed we advertising types are not to be trusted. People were asked how much they trust various professionals. As you could probably guess, firemen finished first (95 percent), followed by military personnel (85 percent), doctors (83 percent) and schoolteachers (83 percent). Bankers took the biggest hit in this year’s trustworthy tally, falling from 63 percent last year to 44 percent today.

But even sadder to me is the paltry number of folks who trust advertising people — 24 percent — or marketers — 27 percent. Of little consolation, politicians finished even lower on the trust totem pole at a dismal 21 percent. Casual research indicates that this distrust of advertising practitioners is a continuing trend. So what can we ad people do to polish up our eternally tarnished image? I’m thinking of starting an agency staffed entirely by firemen.

Boys' Life Magazine

The following paragraph may be lost on you — unless you are a former (or somehow current!) Boy Scout of America. Let me explain. I was in the dentist’s office this morning and spied a copy of Boys’ Life magazine in the rack. Seeing as this was a doctor’s waiting room, I fully expected this particular issue to be at least 30 years old. Imagine my surprise when I saw “June 2009” emblazoned on the cover!

With so many long-standing print publications meeting their demise these days, it gave me great comfort to unearth a current issue of a magazine that had such a profound effect on my boyhood years. I quickly thumbed through this latest issue to get a sense of how much scouting must have changed in America since yours truly roamed the woods. Amazingly, I found a number of Boys’ Life columns and comic strips that have somehow survived the past several generations. (Here comes the inside stuff for “scouts only.”)

Do you remember “The Wacky Adventures of Pedro?” What about “Pee Wee Harris,” the bumbling boy scout? And who can forget the always-dramatic “Scouts in Action” or the classified section called “Tradin’ Post?” Yep, they’re all still kickin.’ And it appears the very same cartoonists are still cranking out the ideas on a monthly basis. I may have long-since forgotten how to tie a square knot, whittle a Pinewood Derby® race car and successfully treat snakebite, but it’s nice to know some new kids are picking up the slack, thanks to Boys’ Life. Go get ’em, boys.

Award-winning work

That’s why I’m happy to report that AB&C recently won 12 awards at the 2009 Aster Awards, a medical and healthcare marketing awards program. The awards —golds, silvers and bronzes — recognized creative work in direct mail, web design, television, collateral and print. Check it out for yourself.

One gold was for our design of the St. Joseph Hospital Website. St. Joe’s old website was packed with information, but you had to take the time to dig through it. And that was the problem — especially because the good people of Greater Nashua, western New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts — the hospital’s audience — are very tech-savvy and look to the Internet as their first source of medical information. So after we impressed St. Joe’s with unique micro-sites for some of their new campaigns, they decided it was well past time to overhaul their main website.The finished product has catapulted St. Joe’s into a digital leadership position. The site has a new look with appealing colors, more images, better organization, easier navigation and attention-getting callouts that direct the viewer to the latest updates and important information. New features include video clips of exceptional patient testimonials, an easy-to-search physician directory, online bill pay capability and online class registration.

We also created a template on the homepage that can be easily updated to correspond with current ads. This ensures a complete brand experience for each consumer. And we can now use the ads to point consumers to a cohesive, attractive, user-friendly source of information on St. Joseph Hospital. And consumers are responding. Hits are up, way up. And they’re using the features we’ve created. Which is now funneling into the creation of correlating resources like a St. Joseph Hospital Facebook page, Twitter feed and more.

Spec Creative

For all you prospective clients out there, we at AB&C would love to have you as a client. We really would. And please, give me a call at any time.

Or, feel free to include us in your RFP process. Just one little thing about that RFP process...

For the record, I've been doing new business development at AB&C for several years now, but before that I was on the client side of the business. So I've been involved in my fair share of RFP processes. Over and over again, search consultants or "agency experts" told me I had to include a speculative creative project in the RFP process.

So I did. And I was dazzled by the pretty pictures and the witty concepts.

And when it came time to put together the actual campaigns, none of those concepts ever saw the light of day.

Why?

Because speculative creative is just that - speculative. It's the "theoretical rather than demonstrable" (thank you, Webster's).

Keep in mind that a well-executed marketing plan - part of that being the creative execution - is rooted in an effective strategy. An effective strategy is formed when two trusting partners share and discuss a volume of relevant background information, digest it together and formulate a deliberate, studied approach.

Yet for years, spec creative - essentially a marketing platform created in a complete vacuum - has been standard practice in the ad industry.

Do you want your campaign results to be theoretical or do you want them to be productive?

Most likely, the latter.

The truth is, speculative creative sucks. Agencies hate it because they feel it devalues the design process. But more important, because good agencies value the role that strategy plays in the creative process, it puts them in the position of compromising their principles. Either way, you're left with work that may look good but will most likely never hit the marks that you'll need it to.

A blogger once wrote that decisions based purely on aesthetics are usually bad ones because of their subjectivity. There's something to this. But that doesn't mean there aren't ways to test your potential agency's mettle.

Challenge a prospective agency to elaborate on its strategic process. Investigate who on the proposed account team is responsible for research and strategy. And ask to see examples of work in which a strategic direction led to creative execution that led to measurable results.

On top of that, never shy away from asking an agency to produce for you what they feel to be their most compelling creative pieces.

Or you can skip the RFP process and try us out for size... just sayin'.

Good ads = good sushi

While walking back to the agency after a really nice sushi lunch today with my coworkers, I was struck by the parallels between creating ads and the tasty Japanese delicacy.

Sink your teeth into this: A really good ad should hit you in the same way good sushi does. It should have an attention-grabbing, almost explosive impact, just as the tastes and textures of the fish, rice, wasabi and soy sauce simultaneously slam into your palate.

Like sushi, good ads:

• Are fresh
• Are tasty
• Are potent. It’s been said sushi should provide “the universe in two or three bites.” A good ad should make its point at a glance. Or two.
• Leave you wanting more. Hey, unless you’re spending $30 on sushi, you’re still hungry. So, too, a good ad should make you want the product — and more good ads.

What else is good advertising like? Hmm, I sense a whole series of blogs...

Using sex to sell Hardee's

Sex. Duh.

And it was proven yet again with the latest ad from the fast food chain Hardee’s. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. It features Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi...umm...enjoying one of Hardee’s new hamburgers.

I’m sure this phenomenon is not news to any of you. If it is, I’m sorry. Either way, Karlene Lukovitz, a writer for MediaPost Publications, wrote a good article about the new commercial and it’s worth a quick read.

Now, how can we make tobacco cessation and highway safety sexy? Think, people!

Award-winning work

AB&C earned 11 awards, including a “Best in Show,” at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards, the nation’s oldest and largest healthcare advertising awards competition, sponsored by Healthcare Marketing Report. Click to see the winning creative.

AB&C took top honors (the “Best in Show” award) for developing a Physician Recruitment Showcase Book on behalf of Geisinger Health System of Danville, Pennsylvania. Physician recruitment is challenging and highly competitive —particularly for Geisinger Health System, a renowned but remote health system in rural Pennsylvania. Recruitment branding has always represented Geisinger as a place where physicians are thought leaders and innovators — where they can be heard, do research, teach and pioneer revolutionary treatments and modalities.

Our idea was to create a showcase book that would capture the essence of the Geisinger physician experience. The book parallels scientific/technologic photography with quotes that aren’t so much inspirational as they are aspirational. We chose quotes from contemporary sources rather than “dead Greek guys.” Other photography captured the lifestyle of the physicians with captions that contrasted their leisure pastimes with their clinical pursuits. Response has been good — the piece has gotten high marks from physician candidates.

The reality of cruises

Think of any Caribbean cruise TV commercial you’ve ever seen. Most likely you’d envision endless “beautiful people” cavorting in sky-deck swimming pools, working out in floating fitness centers and toasting each other in seagoing gourmet restaurants. After spending a vacation day aboard a well-advertised cruise line ship, I’m here to tell you: Nothing could be further from reality. During the last week of February, I attended a wedding aboard a colossal pleasure craft that sat docked in the Port of Tampa, which gave me a few fleeting hours to drink in the surroundings. The ship was about to set sail and wedding guests were granted temporary access to witness the ceremony.

This gave me the opportunity to spy on the hordes of excited passengers boarding the ship—and each was more than ready to cannonball headfirst into the party atmosphere that awaited them on this week-long trip for the budget-minded. Some groups arrived draped in Mardi Gras beads. Most of the male passengers I saw wore T-shirts proudly promoting every sports franchise from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Knoxville Ice Bears. And instead of nonstop beautiful people, I saw dozens of folks in wheelchairs, on oxygen and strapped to what appeared to be hand trucks. (I’m guessing there may have been a few machines free in the fitness center during this cruise.)

I learned that each cruise ship has its own unique theme. My ship was created to honor the “legends” of Hollywood’s cinematic past. The boat’s interior design can only be described as Studio 54 disco meets Graceland, with a heaping side order of RuPaul thrown in. The soaring main lobby featured four glass-enclosed elevators that were every bit as ornate as one of Loretta Lynn’s engagement ring settings. Everything on the ship – from the piped-in dance music to the air conditioning to the beer taps – was already pumping full blast.

The universal currency of this entire enterprise was the English language. Talk about a floating United Nations. One thousand crew members of almost every nationality scurried about in an effort to serve the 2,000 newly arrived passengers. And every worker had a specialty. The more menial the task, the less likely the crew member was to speak English. For example, the instant a tropical drink accidentally hit the deck, along came a young foreign kid with a wet mop, followed by a damp mopper, followed by a dry mopper. Just don’t ask these moppers where the sky deck is.

I figured most of the guests had probably never been near a body of water as vast as the Gulf of Mexico, nor been waited on by such an army of eager-to-please cocktail servers. The actual cruise experience may be worlds away from its upscale TV depiction, but this crowd didn’t seem to mind. You could readily tell that the majority of these partying passengers bought the cruise ship’s sales pitch hook, line and sinker.

The E*Trade Baby

During the month of March, most of America’s sports-minded souls have found themselves “on the road to The Final Four.” I heard that CBS-TV broadcast 96 hours of college basketball action in one weekend alone.

And, if you’re part of an NCAA office pool, you’ve probably spent a lot of those 96 hours glued to your TV. That’s because gambling helps the sports world go ‘round.Which brings me to the ubiquitous E*TRADE TV spots starring the wisecracking “trading baby.” Love him or hate him, you can’t go a TV sports half-hour without seeing this computer-enhanced, smart-mouthed toddler. Are you like me? Do you wait for a new E*TRADE spot to debut so you can see what nutty high jinks the kid is up to next?

Catch some baby outtakes at etrade.com/baby.

But the whole thing leaves me wondering, how many consumers know who the baby is but not the brand he’s pushing? So the big question is, do the continuing adventures of this kid really move the sales needle for E*TRADE? Does this sort of approach engender trust in a financial services company? Or are the E*TRADE folks simply the biggest gamblers of all?

Marketing for non-profits

I know, I know, I know...everybody's got something to worry about or stress over with the economy plummeting down the tubes of Americans' own greed and poor planning. It only makes sense that companies are looking to their marketing departments to start cutting corners wherever possible.

However, in our beloved advertising industry, we cannot let that stand in the way of our creative teams continuously expressing their imaginations and keeping their ideas fresh. In scouring the AAAA SmartBrief that many of us receive on a daily basis, I stumbled upon an article that suggests ad agencies look to noble causes or non-profits to allow their creative teams to stay on top of their game.

Check out the article here.

The idea of working with non-profits is not a new one for AB&C, as you can see by looking through our work, but maybe we can all take it a step further.

Rob Walker, the writer of the article, suggests starting a campaign against drinking bottled water and opting for tap water. In doing so, try some sort of crazy and off-the-wall creative that none of our clients would think to go with. In the next new business pitch, do you think any of our competitors will be able to say they played a part in saving the planet? I doubt it.

Copywriting

I sometimes wonder whether some agencies even read the copy aloud before it's approved.

Two examples come to mind: A prominent lizard has been the spokes-reptile for an auto insurance giant that frequently tells viewers that they can save "... hundreds of dollars or more on car insurance." Moron car insurance? I don't want that! Or how about the pharmaceutical hair remedy whose ads claimed that in clinical studies, "most grew some hair." Most gruesome hair? I want none of that either.

My point? Just remember that you need to look at the creative product from all angles before it leaves the agency. You never know who may look at the work the wrong way.

Creativing and Advertising

Here are five observations on getting the most out of the people you depend on for breakthrough marketing communications, or what 10 years on the client side and almost 30 years on the agency side have taught me. Among other things.

1. Creativity isn't a commodity. And you won't get it out of your agency team by saying, "This project is really important," as if you expect someone will hit F8 on his or her keyboard and good things will happen. Creativity is an art, and great art takes time.
2. Out of fast, cheap and good, you can only have two.
3. Rate your agency on value - not cost. Over the long run, you get what you pay for. One great campaign can more than make up the cost difference between a good agency and the boss's nephew who's "darned creative and a whiz on the computer."
4. Give your agency a stake in your success. This can happen two ways. In exchange for lower media commission or account management fees, figure out a revenue-sharing incentive arrangement. For example, if an ad campaign is a big hit and increases sales, share some of the profits with the agency. This is happening more and more in media price negotiations. Another way is to give your agency a regular "seat at the table." Not just across from you, but with your boss and the president or the EVP. The honchos. The wheels. When the agency pitched you, all those big shots were there. The agency was at the top of its game and there was electricity in the air. Nobody wants to underwhelm the president.
5. Treat your agency as a partner. Never think of your agency as a vendor. Nothing is more relationship-harming than this seemingly innocuous reference. See No. 1 above, one more time.

Dangling Modifiers

First of all, a modifier is a word or phrase that describes something or someone. So you have to ensure that the modifier is modifying the thing it’s supposed to be modifying. Let’s say you’ve been going to pogo-stick conventions for a number of years. You attend a really cool convention in Wisconsin and you want to tell fellow enthusiasts about it. You start out: “As a 15-year veteran of pogo-stick conventions, the most recent shindig in Sheboygan was a stellar event.”

What’s wrong with that?

What’s wrong is, the modifier is dangling. Why? Well, what’s the subject of the sentence? The subject of the sentence is “shindig.” And the shindig is not a 15-year veteran of pogo-stick conventions — you are. So, for the modifier to un-dangle, it needs to be modifying you. Thus: “As a 15-year veteran of pogo-stick conventions, I found the most recent shindig in Sheboygan to be a stellar event.” See? Now the subject is “I.”

Are we clear on this?

Radio

What do people hate most about radio? The commercials! The steady growth of listenership to commercial-free satellite radio music formats offers compelling proof. A growing number of listeners are more than willing to pony up $12.95 a month to be spared the relentless onslaught of irritating, irrelevant radio spots.

Now, think of some recent memorable (and successful) radio campaigns. The Motel 6 chain built an empire on the voice of folksy humorist Tom Bodett. For more than a decade, Bodett’s quirky, whimsical radio spots helped put millions of heads in Motel 6 beds. And Anheuser-Busch tapped the humor vein for all it was worth with their award-winning “Real Men of Genius” radio campaign for Bud Light beer. Instead of reaching to change the station, listeners sat intently while they drank in the hilarity of hundreds of these inventive commercials. So the truth is, if you reward a radio listener in some way, be it with humor or just a simple homespun story, you’ve made a positive impression and, quite possibly, a sale. It’s building a brand, one chuckle — or memorable moment — at a time.

For some reason, many advertisers are willing to spend a fortune on media, yet they invest next to nothing on creating the message. Since the invention of the medium, radio stations have offered free spot production as part of their “value-added services.” And inevitably, many local advertisers take the bait. More often than not, they get exactly what they pay for. Often it’s a poorly written (and acted) script performed by radio station personnel that does next to nothing to make a brand stand out. And sometimes the client takes a crack at it.

Local advertisers tend to make this mistake over and over again. Their thinking must be, “This message is so important, we’re asking our boss to tell you about it!” The talent selection process probably goes something like this:
“Do you have an acting background?”
“No.”
“Do you possess a compelling on-air personality?”
“No.”
“Have you ever done anything like this before?”
“No.”
“Well, then, you’re the perfect spokesperson to represent our precious product!”

And the biggest problem with having some sales manager — or worse yet, the owner’s wife — reading the script is that no one is there to tell them this strategy is a lousy idea! Radio salespeople want their client’s media dollars, so why would they offer any criticism? And that sales manager’s staff wouldn’t think of putting down the boss, no matter how mediocre the performance might be. So you’re left with an amateur spokesperson droning on for 60 insufferable seconds.

So is it any wonder the tune-out factor is so high when it comes to radio spots? Local advertisers would be far better served to consult the experts. Seek out a firm that has experience in creating memorable audio messages. Ask to hear a firm’s radio reel. Then compare it to what you may have planned. A little front-end investment in crafting breakthrough creative has a much better chance of paying major long-term dividends.