After talking about clear communications, it got me to thinking about how often companies advertise without focusing on the product. I asked myself, what commercials am I familiar with yet have no idea what they are advertising?
It made me flashback to being at a party recently where the DJ played a song that made everyone get up and dance. Mid boogie I remembered that the song is famous for being in a commercial with dancing rodents.
So I turned to a friend and said "this is that dancing hamster commercial!". He asked, "what's that commercial for anyway?". Wow, I had never thought of it.
I picked my brain but still no clue. It's days later and I decided to text a few friends to see if anyone knew the point of the advertisement. "You know that dancing giant rodent commercial? What are they trying to sell?". These were the responses:
1. No idea
2. A car? to which I responded, which car? Her answer, "Hmm... no idea. Are you buying a car or something?"
3. A Scion?
It's a classic example of a company disregarding their audience as well as unclear communication. Young drivers are being targeted here, but we are people who walk away during commercials, (or worse, fast forward our DVR's). If we're in another room and we hear this commercial come on, we'll pay attention due to the catchiness of the song. But the company is losing a great opportunity to burn its brand into our psyches. Yes, the logo, car price, and car features are displayed visually at the end, but these are completely lost on us. With not a single voice over, it may as well be a music video. The smart approach is simple. Speak these important details out loud! "2012 Kia Soul, under $16,000".
I mean, I still know every word to the Mentos commercial, (fresh goes better with Mentos fresh and full of life! Mentos, the fresh maker). And that commercial aired around 1995! The song is not only etched into my brain, the folks at Mentos were strategic enough to use it in the form of product placement in the popular film Clueless. The music is catchy, the brand is mentioned, it works.
Yet, a Kia can pass me on the street and I would never think, "that's the car from the commercial" and start doing the hamster shuffle. The two are simply not connected.
Kia has said that the "2012 Kia Soul has started a craze". They are wrong. What was achieved here is very strong promotion for the song, which is too bad because the mice have become a pop culture phenomenon. Unfortunately, the car will not.
It made me flashback to being at a party recently where the DJ played a song that made everyone get up and dance. Mid boogie I remembered that the song is famous for being in a commercial with dancing rodents.
So I turned to a friend and said "this is that dancing hamster commercial!". He asked, "what's that commercial for anyway?". Wow, I had never thought of it.
I picked my brain but still no clue. It's days later and I decided to text a few friends to see if anyone knew the point of the advertisement. "You know that dancing giant rodent commercial? What are they trying to sell?". These were the responses:
1. No idea
2. A car? to which I responded, which car? Her answer, "Hmm... no idea. Are you buying a car or something?"
3. A Scion?
It's a classic example of a company disregarding their audience as well as unclear communication. Young drivers are being targeted here, but we are people who walk away during commercials, (or worse, fast forward our DVR's). If we're in another room and we hear this commercial come on, we'll pay attention due to the catchiness of the song. But the company is losing a great opportunity to burn its brand into our psyches. Yes, the logo, car price, and car features are displayed visually at the end, but these are completely lost on us. With not a single voice over, it may as well be a music video. The smart approach is simple. Speak these important details out loud! "2012 Kia Soul, under $16,000".
I mean, I still know every word to the Mentos commercial, (fresh goes better with Mentos fresh and full of life! Mentos, the fresh maker). And that commercial aired around 1995! The song is not only etched into my brain, the folks at Mentos were strategic enough to use it in the form of product placement in the popular film Clueless. The music is catchy, the brand is mentioned, it works.
Kia has said that the "2012 Kia Soul has started a craze". They are wrong. What was achieved here is very strong promotion for the song, which is too bad because the mice have become a pop culture phenomenon. Unfortunately, the car will not.
I'm so glad that you cleared that up for me because I had no idea what those things were trying to sell! I have seen that commercial so many times but I failed to pay attention to the product being sold. The first time I saw the commercial I thought they were advertising another Alvin and the Chipmunks remake so I changed the channel (you shouldn't mess with the classics ;-).
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