The video below is just in from the Coors Light marketing brain trust.
Take a look, and then take our short quiz...
Take a look, and then take our short quiz...
Q: What the hell is this?
a) Proof that gullible clients can green-light marketing projects that have nothing to do with their brand, and will produce no sales whatsoever.
b) Proof that ad-agency creative people are intent on creating film-school projects.
c) What you get for wasting more than a million dollars in video-production effort, talent fees, rights and the like.
d) All of the above.
If your answer was anything but "all of the above," you must be new here. Welcome.
What this is not
In spite of a fawning ad-of-the-day review by Adweek (linked below), one thing of which we're certain: this Coors Light film is not advertising.
a) Proof that gullible clients can green-light marketing projects that have nothing to do with their brand, and will produce no sales whatsoever.
b) Proof that ad-agency creative people are intent on creating film-school projects.
c) What you get for wasting more than a million dollars in video-production effort, talent fees, rights and the like.
d) All of the above.
If your answer was anything but "all of the above," you must be new here. Welcome.
What this is not
In spite of a fawning ad-of-the-day review by Adweek (linked below), one thing of which we're certain: this Coors Light film is not advertising.
Real advertising tells viewers some salient fact about the brand. There is no product fact here, only a quick logo visual (no audio mention), and a couple of seconds showing bottles of beer, many of which could easily be Bud Light since the stage lighting is so poor.
Real advertising connects the brand to viewers' lives. The "connection" here to the recently unveiled "Climb on" Coors Light tagline is so thin as to be virtually non-existent.
Real advertising, if it employs entertainment, story-telling, humor and other artistic constructs, uses them to dramatize a product selling point. There is no selling point for Coors Light here. None.
It's "branded content!"
If Adweek were being awarded points for accurate reporting, they'd have called this their "non-ad of the day." See, this is what today's marketing hipsters call "branded content" to differentiate it from what they see as old-fashioned advertising. You know, the kind that actually sells stuff. But "content" like this with next to no branding and absolutely no selling is pointless, wasteful, and insipid.
Still, the new-age Mad Men would have you believe that slapping a logo on some bit of independent-film-style video that might be seen by a few thousand Instagram or Facebook viewers has real marketing value. "We need to own the digital space," they hawk. What they don't tell their clients, is that the value in this accrues to the hipsters at ad agencies who make these little films (and most certainly enter them in self-serving awards competitions). When they're supposed to be selling beer, they're playing Hollywood. Insecure clients, fearing they'll be seen as un-hip, acquiesce.
Where's the harm, you ask?
The waste of at least a million dollars and who-knows-how-many hours of staff time that should have been spent driving Coors Light sales is a crime. Telling beer distributors this nonsense is in their interest is a lie. And patting yourself on the back for being avant-garde when you're supposed to be a grownup selling beer, is childish.
Here's some HeyBeerDan branded content: If you're a child in marketing, you really are a babe in the woods.
Real advertising connects the brand to viewers' lives. The "connection" here to the recently unveiled "Climb on" Coors Light tagline is so thin as to be virtually non-existent.
Real advertising, if it employs entertainment, story-telling, humor and other artistic constructs, uses them to dramatize a product selling point. There is no selling point for Coors Light here. None.
It's "branded content!"
If Adweek were being awarded points for accurate reporting, they'd have called this their "non-ad of the day." See, this is what today's marketing hipsters call "branded content" to differentiate it from what they see as old-fashioned advertising. You know, the kind that actually sells stuff. But "content" like this with next to no branding and absolutely no selling is pointless, wasteful, and insipid.
Still, the new-age Mad Men would have you believe that slapping a logo on some bit of independent-film-style video that might be seen by a few thousand Instagram or Facebook viewers has real marketing value. "We need to own the digital space," they hawk. What they don't tell their clients, is that the value in this accrues to the hipsters at ad agencies who make these little films (and most certainly enter them in self-serving awards competitions). When they're supposed to be selling beer, they're playing Hollywood. Insecure clients, fearing they'll be seen as un-hip, acquiesce.
Where's the harm, you ask?
The waste of at least a million dollars and who-knows-how-many hours of staff time that should have been spent driving Coors Light sales is a crime. Telling beer distributors this nonsense is in their interest is a lie. And patting yourself on the back for being avant-garde when you're supposed to be a grownup selling beer, is childish.
Here's some HeyBeerDan branded content: If you're a child in marketing, you really are a babe in the woods.
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