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Making ads that don't sell: What fun!

3/12/2015

 
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Back in the day, a friend of mine--who happened to be the CEO of a client company--sent me that Raymond Chandler quote. Since ad-agency folk are used to being on the receiving end of this sort of abuse, I smiled, but didn't think much more about it. But over the ensuing twenty years or so, I have seen way too much evidence that, far from being a meaningless taunt, the quote reflects a sad reality.

Making ineffective ads

The four-minute behind-the-scenes Bud Light video below is a recent example. What fun these crazy-smart ad-agency folks have! But as you watch it, run these questions through your head:

- Will anything done in the making of this commercial prompt someone to want to order and drink a Bud Light?

- Do many of the costly details in the ad--the eyes on the "ghosts" for example--make the ad more effective?

- Do clients really think ad-agency people are oh-so-intelligent when they utter some of the nonsense spoken in the interviews?

- (Feel free to add questions of your own.)
Here's the really sad part: The result of all that creative energy was not advertising. It was only a (mildly) entertaining short film. 

See, while advertising can be entertaining, entertainment is not advertising. Effective advertising means the distinctiveness of the brand must be the key focus. Yet here, not a single aspect of Bud Light's distinctiveness is part of the ad, let alone its dominant feature. 

But just try offering that critique to the ad agency folks. They'll no doubt whine that you "just don't get it." (Believe me, I've heard that many, many times.) They'll claim their "wildest 'whatever moments' ever" make Bud Light special and distinctive. "Nobody else can match our portrayal of these crazy good times!" they'll tell you. 

No other beer? No other beverage?

Really?

Here are two more short entertaining films masquerading as advertising, both offering nothing distinctive about the respective brands. And both probably sold with that same "nobody can match it" promise when, in fact, pretty much anybody can match it.
How smart do you really have to be to keep a job at an ad agency? It looks like it's not particularly difficult to get clients to sign off on entertainment pretending to be advertising. These client types must be easy marks. Or so insecure they lap up whatever the hip ad folks spin.

But getting the clients to buy advertising that actually sells their brand? 

That would probably take real ad-agency intelligence.

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"Brewed the hard way" goes social: Budweiser's distinctiveness online

3/3/2015

 
Budweiser hammers away at its distinctiveness

Too many marketers these days employ social-media strategies long on cleverness, but short on substance. They count entertainment-based clicks and attempt to measure the elusive and vastly over-valued "buzz." But advertising in any medium--including social
--that only entertains and doesn't contribute to changing behavior, is a waste of money.

Over the past few weeks, it's become increasingly clear that Anheuser-Busch is "all in" on its uniqueness-based strategy to revive the Budweiser franchise. While the SuperBowl "Brewed the hard way" ad continues to air on television, Budweiser's social media is now also focused and delivering on the same strategy. And adding the immediacy, depth, and topicality of that medium to register and reinforce Bud's distinctive properties.

From the brand's website, multiple Facebook posts focus on the brand's new strategy of substance. 

Here, expanding on the beer's ingredient and process exclusivity...
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Here, adroitly challenging the main line of criticism over the years from the craft-beer crowd, namely that "big" is a disadvantage...
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And here, keeping the fussiness/craft-beer-geekiness controversy alive on Budweiser's terms, but with a touch of good-natured humor...
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The road back for the King of Beers

Shortly after this blog was created back in 2013, we published an article entitled "The seven deadly sins of beer advertising." One of those sins was: "Saying nothing about what makes the brand special." We went on: "The #1 job of beer advertising is to make the brand more special and distinctive than the other guy's. There is great peril in failing to do so."

SuperBowl ads to social media, Budweiser's now completely focused on communicating its distinctiveness. And the effort will deliver results. Among current and fringe Bud drinkers who will choose the brand more often. And even among some former drinkers who just may give it another try.

Because that's how solid advertising works. 

And it's how turnarounds begin.

Forward>>

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    The Author

    Dan Fox is a real beer guy.

    For more than half his 30-year career at ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, he ran the Coors Brewing account. Leading a group of dozens of advertising professionals, Dan also personally wrote the Pete Coors "Somewhere near Golden, Colorado" commercials, designed the Coors NASCAR graphics, authored sales-convention speeches, and most important of all, formulated marketing strategy for virtually every Coors brand, including Coors Light, Keystone, Killian's Irish Red and more. His proudest achievement? "Our team had every Coors brand growing at once."

    Over his advertising career, Dan was personally involved in the analysis, planning and creation of thousands of ads for a variety of products and services. By way of this blog, he freely shares his expertise about what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to selling beer.

    If you're in the beer-marketing business--or just interested in the subject--you may want to read what "HeyBeerDan" has to say.

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