Meerkats and moustaches equal marketing magic – seemples!
When it comes to marketing, some products immediately get advertising agency creative juices bubbling and others – well, don’t. Does that mean that mundane products should always be accompanied by mundane marketing? Hell no.
Comparethemarket.com insurance might not be the sexiest of subjects, but thanks to Aleksandr Orlov and camparethemeerkat.com they are the talk of the town.
According to The Sun (August 13th 2009)
“I [Aleksandr] owe my success to [Papa's] sense of discipline. And his lucrative investment in Ural diamond mines…”
Sorry: right article, wrong quote!
“Since the advert’s launch in January, Compare the Market has had an increase in internet traffic of 80 per cent, receiving 3.6 million hits and counting. Head of marketing, Mark Vile says, “We knew Aleksandr would help us be remembered in a market that has never been considered interesting.”
It’s a love / hate thing
The point is, love it or hate it, everyone has heard of it – and in the saturated world of marketing, brand awareness can be an elusive goal. Another example of amazing brand awareness is the men with moustaches. I know they’re not the cheapest directory enquiry company out there, but when I’m in a fix, their number is the only one I can think of.
Their power lies in their ability to get under your skin, having you repeat bits of their advert or sing their jingle – even though you don’t notice yourself doing it.
The mistake a lot of advertisers make is to try to please everyone all of the time. This is not possible. All you achieve is blandness. Recently advertising agency, Silvester Wyatt-Nicolle broke the mold and ventured into the world of ‘Marmite Marketing’. Not content to blend in with the crowd, their full page ad in September’s GBG magazine, certainly grabs your attention. Some will love its joyful abandonment of convention. For others the edginess will be totally lost.
Whatever your opinion, breaking out from the blandness leaves an impression. Job done.
Stick to your guns
That is not to say every ad has to use a gimmick or shock tactic. Here at the SWN advertising agency, we know the value of straight talking direct response – but even then, the best results come from single-minded and specific concepts. “loans for any purpose” works okay, but “loans for consolidation” works better.
So perhaps the real answer is, decide who you are talking to and speak their language – oh and be true to your concept. All too often your advertising agency comes up with an idea. “The group” agrees to it – then everyone makes a tweak…amend…change. The result is an ad designed by a committee – and that results in a boring campaign.
