Tuesday, June 15, 2010

What would be my perfect advert for a Web company?

So here am I thinking

1) Most companies are trying to get people to their websites
2) Online advertising is supposed to attract some of the most creative people in agencies
3) TV advertising is supposed to be dead

And yet...

What television advertising do we get in the UK for online businesses and what format does it take? Surely a web business doesn't need the TV.

But lets see.

1) Fat opera singer - gocompare.com
2) Moonpig.com - moonpig.com
3) Alexander the meerkat - comparethemarket.com
4) We buy any car.com -webuyanycar.com

Non of these are sophisticated.

They rely on catchy sight and sound to create a meme that gets stuck in your head (and I feel they have worked very well much to my disgust).

Now, I expect this is because the best way to get brand awareness for something new, a jingle, a bit of alliteration and a wacky character. The message / service delivered by the advert is less important than getting the catchy tag line that someone will recognise in another occasion.

Is this any different to other TV ads? Well the established brands seem to think they don't need the catchiness to help (honda advert, mcdonalds, cadburys).

Whilst the brand kings have their own approach, I think the newer web advertising represents a renaissance in advertising that works and sticks in the memory - I'm thinking of the following:

Hello Tosh got a toshiba?
For mash get smash
Allwhites lemonade, I'm a secret lemonade drinker
Do the shake and vac...

These were catchy.
We still remember these.
I think that's what the web companies are doing - they are the new pinnacle of advertising and we'll be thinking about them 20 years from now.

If you asked me to advertise for a web company I would do the following

a) create a short jingle
b) create a wacky character
c) use alliteration in a catchphrase that refers to the website
d) Quite a lot (saturation) of advertising on telly (the dead medium)

Basically, a 20 second musical equivalent of "Little Britain" - That is the unfortunate, but effective, pinnacle of advertising for any new brand.

p.s. my actual personal preference for adverts are using those with an intriguing visual with a good soundtrack. Dunlop introduced me to the velvet underground, for which I'm extremely grateful, Cadburys (already mentioned), Most of Levi's in the 80's and 90's and a good proportion of the VW adverts from the same period.

No comments:

Footer

Add to Technorati Favorites