One of my favorite examples of effective advertising is finally getting some credit in an article in AdAge. HeadOn; You know the ads. An incredibly annoying voice-over repeats incessantly, "Head On...apply directly to the forehead!" while a woman wipes a mondo-ChapStik on her forehead. It makes you want to scream. But I noticed something amazing one time at the gym; when the ad came on, virtually everyone on the treadmills around me looked up at the TVs and stared at it. I couldn't believe it! There is something hypnotic about it's ability to annoy. Equally amazing is that at no time does the ad really tell you what it does, but it doesn't have to. By the end, they've completely captured your attention and you have an almost insatiable desire to go buy it to find out. Even if you don't buy it, and you assuredly hate the ad, you have still completely internalized their brand message. Mmmm....take stick....rub on head...person smiles...urrrrr....HeadOn good.
Gotta love simplicity!
And, it works. HeadOn racked up 234% growth in 2006 and is on track to double sales in '07. NICE! But as they say in infomercials, "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!" The same approach has produced another hit in ActivOn for joint pain which now outsells HeadOn.
Look fancy ads are great fun, but most of time they simply don't work. The next time your ad agency brings you a concept, if it doesn't CLEARLY, CONCISELY, and perhaps ANNOYINGLY communicate your key value and positioning, send them away. Or, just lock them in a room with the HeadOn ad on a continuous loop until they learn something.
1 comment:
If annoying is the new yardstick by which we should measure great advertising, then why do the new Microsoft ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates just seem to plain "suck". I thought at first they were going for the "annoying is cool factor" but after the first two, I think they've totally missed the boat and should just fire their ad agency (and maybe hire Chiat/Day like Apple did).
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