I Got Your Account Planning Right Here, Pal
Admit it: whenever you tell someone you work in advertising, they turn into an instant critic. At a family gathering last year, my uncle came up to me and started complaining about commercials. In this case, he was bitching about a couple of Wieden and Kennedy’s Miller High Life spots. We didn’t have a long conversation.
Me: “Do you drink beer?”
My Uncle (who’s about 60): “No.”
Me: “Then what do you care?”
Sure, I could have talked his ear off about target audiences, the advantage of entertaining ads, the lack of USPs in beer advertising, but I would have been wasting my time. My uncle wouldn’t care, he only knows he doesn’t like/get/understand the ad, and “how can a commercial like that possibly sell beer?”
Wait a minute. Didn’t the Miller High Life campaign win awards? That means it MUST be brilliant, right? How come my uncle doesn’t recognize that brilliance?
If I have to try and defend award-winning spots to people, I will definitely have trouble defending the real crappy ones.
What bothers me is I know my uncle is not an anomaly. A lot of “breakthrough creative” goes over consumers’ heads. Not because they’re the wrong target for the ad, or because they’re stupid. Consumers just don’t analyze advertising the same way ad professionals incessantly do.
Ad people sweat the details most folks don’t notice. But often times, it falls on deaf ears: I had someone tell me once, “I’ve never seen an ad that made me buy anything.” And then she drove off, to Pottery Barn, in her Lexus, stopping at Starbucks along the way. You know people like this, right?
We ad pros have convinced ourselves that the kind of advertising consumers say they respond to in a survey or focus group does not always correlate to a purchase. It’s an ever-so-subtle way of thinking we know what’s best for consumers.
In order to bridge the gap between what people say and what people do, we’ve invented all sorts of methods to get “inside consumers’ heads.” My question is: Do we really want to know what’s in there?
For all the talk about understanding our audience and identifying with their lifestyles, why don’t we get some of them to judge award shows? Boy you’ll get a wake up call then.
Let them get in a room with all the work spread out on long tables. Pump them with coffee and let their eyes glaze over. Let’s see what they come up with.
Who would take home Best of Show at a People’s Choice advertising award show—the AFLAC duck? The 1-800-COLLECT commercial with Carrot Top? The Dell ads with that punk kid? (Actually it might be those truly funny Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” radio spots—I’ve heard many non-ad people rave about them. Is there anyone on the planet that dislikes those?)
We’re living in a time where clients are trying to maximize the effectiveness of their advertising dollars, and clients don’t correlate effectiveness with what ad people deem to be creativity.
Advertising, therefore, has become more pervasive and more ubiquitous. We’ve turned up the volume to 11, but it’s the same old song. Is that what consumers, like my uncle, want?
I would’ve asked him, but by then I’d had a few too many Miller High Lifes. Hey, I’m trying my best to consume the products of One Show winners. It’s the least I can do.
Dan Goldgeier
http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/i-got-your-account-planning-right-here-pal-587455.html
January 19th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Poll: How do you know if yahoo is planning on suspending your account?
What are the signs? How many of your question have to be deleted and how many of your answers have to be reported before they delete your account.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
you don’t
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they are some cold heartless fiends.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
They strike without warning….
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
it depends on what the violation is for
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
repeated violations is a huge warning flag.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
you start getting a lot of violations.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
You don’t, I had no idea my last account was going to be suspended.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Been there done that.. you never know.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
they are like buzzards. they swoop down and BAM. gone. ZAP
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
When you tell ‘em to fuck off.
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Well hey, at least you can see it coming.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
You don’t. They just violate you at random.
I know, I have had 100+ lives on here.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I guess they do as they see fit and don’t give any signs
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
they dont tell you
they just suspended it without any warnings
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
if u get like alot of violations, den u kno u are going to get suspended…
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
When you spam like hell like that Randy K guy (who I’ve just reported so his answer will disappear from this list shortly).
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
You receive violations
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
they just strike without warning its pretty gay :0
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
you dont
it just hits you one day
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
They just tell you that you are deleted
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
you dont my friend had like 3 taking away for nothing,they said 1 of his questions was against guidelines after they suspended his account
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