Today, let’s conduct a little experiment–if you’re up for it.
First, click here and watch the video, then return to read the rest of the article.
Okay, so what did you think? Funny commercial? Well-cast? Silly? Compelling? Now–without going back to the video–what kind of car (make, model, brand) was this video advertising?
I’m willing to bet that many of us don’t remember. And if you did remember–what’s the likelihood of remembering in an hour, two hours or a couple days? Because being engrossed in the humor, style or of a video isn’t the same as gathering product information that leads to a purchase.
Think Hard: What percentage of commercials do you remember a brand from?
Last week I was thinking about this phenomenon: in the past eight or so years, I can remember several commercials that graced a TV or computer screen. Commercials for cars, minivans, pizza delivery–some of them clever, some of them annoying. But the truth is that, for 99.9% of these commercials, I could not tell you what brand they were advertising.
For example: I remember a car commercial where hamsters in wheels were running in place while a cute little car drove past with three non-running hamsters inside. What brand was that car? No clue.
I also remember a pizza commercial with a catchy opera tune (and by catchy, I mean that it kept getting stuck in my head and would not, no matter how I tried, come out). I remember that the background of the pizza parlor was red. And I remember a man with a mustache. But could I tell you what type of pizza they were advertising? No, I can not.
Why Can’t We Remember the Brands?
Several reasons come to mind:
- There’s too much noise. Our world is saturated with advertising–billboards, commercials, website ads, t-shirts–the works. And people have adapted to this. We don’t read every ad, glance at every billboard or pay attention to every commercial. We’ve learned to ignore, tune out, stop listening. That’s why we’ve got things like Tivo–which lets us skip commercials–and the rest of us just use that commercial time as bathroom breaks, food breaks or chat-with-the-other-person-in-the-room breaks. Even when we’re paying attention to a commercial, it’s likely that it’s only partial attention. Of course we don’t remember the details.
- We’re engrossed in a gimmick. Because of the amount of advertising noise out there, most commercials are relying upon some sort of gimmick to get your attention. When we do pay attention to commercials it’s because they’re funny or interesting or capture us somehow with loud noises, bright colors or surprising actions. With this kind of advertising strategy–the brand becomes secondary. This is why I can remember the hamsters running in their wheels alongside the car, but I can’t remember what the car is.
- We aren’t interested. Due to the nature of commercials and the breadth of audience watching them, you’re bound to get a lot of audience members who just are not interested in your products. Again, you may have attracted their interest with an interesting gimmick, but if they’re not in the market for a minivan, the details (such as your brand) don’t matter to them.
Now, here’s where the hope for blanket advertising mediums (like commercials) comes back into play. There is a small segment of the commercials’ audience that is in the market for a minivan. This is the segment of the audience who might pick up a pen and write down the name of your minivan and then go on to do research on that minivan, perhaps ultimately leading them to purchase. For this minority customer, your ad has achieved its goal–they’ve taken down information about your product. But, the question is begged: is this really the most effective way to reach that same audience?
To find out, you need to think about where the audience (in this case, for a minivan, in your case, for your product, place or brand) spends its time. Yes, Americans in general spend a lot of time watching TV. You may reach a family audience by choosing to target family shows. Or, for a fraction of the cost, you could target these Americans somewhere else that they spend time–like Google, Facebook or family-oriented websites.
Google, Facebook and the Web
The beauty of the internet is this: targeted marketing. You can buy key words on Google that your minivan audience is searching for. You can have ads on Facebook that target users that have been posting statuses and information about searching for a minivan. You can find car-purchasing websites or car-information websites (like Edmunds or Consumer Report) and do some advertising there.
In doing this, you are narrowing your audience. But rather than just reducing the number of eyeballs–you’re targeting the eyeballs that matter. You’re targeting the minivan buyers.
Okay, So Where Do Commercials Fit In?
I don’t think this means that commercials are of the past. But I do think it means that it’s more important, for your brand, to gain a qualified audience, rather than a broad audience, when possible.
When you think about advertising: think strategically. Think about who you are reaching out to and what they’re looking for and where they are. Blanket advertising can work–especially if your product (like a restaurant, clothing store, etc.) is something that a very broad audience may be interested in. But, if you know your audience and you know that they congregate in a certain place (book lovers at GoodReads or Amazon.com, car searchers at Edmunds, etc.), reach out to them there.