Who Needs Knowledge?
February 11 2013, 9:16 am | | 11 Comments
By Simon Veksner,
Head of Ideas,
Naked Communications Australia and NZ
One time I was working on the Budweiser account, and we spent a day getting a tour of the brewery. I learned that Budweiser is made with 30% rice. I learned that the brewmasters crushed up the glass that the pipes in the brewery were made from, turned that into a tea, and drank it, to check it was taste-neutral.
So it was quite an interesting day. But, useless from an advertising point of view. Because I’ve never seen a beer ad that was based on specialist knowledge as to how a beer is made.
11 Comments
Having domain knowledge doesn’t come at the expense of understanding the consumer. In fact audiences are becoming ever more sophisticated so don’t assume you can get away by being ‘a bit thick’ Mr Creative Director.
Well, at the moment I am indeed assuming I can get away with lack of knowledge, because as I said, I don’t know of cases where it’s been useful. Perhaps you can enlighten me with an example, rather than an insult?
How about pretty much any product or service that isn’t FMCG?
Utility Vehicles, Performance Vehicles, Computers, Kitchen Equipment…. Anything that isn’t JUST sold on emotion or status.
http://youtu.be/7LUlO5-MKNg?t=1m21s
@Don Draper That’s fiction…
And even so. Don has domain knowledge… He’s not thick. He has domain knowledge and USES IT to create, he doesn’t play dumb or claim that his lack of knowledge leads to better advertising ideas…
Knowledge does matter. It matters more than ever… Without it, you can’t get sophisticated insights… You only get generalisation, you get background noise.
Scamp I’d have to agree with you there. I don’t drive a car and have sold more than most. My writer doesn’t drink and has sold more beer than most.
The way I see it is, if I can convince myself to buy a product I never would, or educate myself on a product I have no idea about, it’s generally better to be ignorant.
Someone once said the goal of advertising is to take complex problems and jargon language and distill it down to a point where a six year old can understand it. Then, give them a reason to buy it.
Good topic mate, hope all is well.
Simon, there is an ad about a beer, what goes in it, how it’s made and how it’s unique. And interestingly enough, how it should be consumed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-z-BbvlHs
You don’t need to know too much but my latest annoyance is when a client can’t really tell me what their product is. If you can’t tell me in 4 pages of 8 point type, then how can I tell anyone in 8 words.
Hi Scamp.
Holsten Pils – all the sugar turns to alcohol…
Hi Ant. When was that campaign, about 1982?!?! Also to be honest I can’t really remember what relevance the fact had. I think it was just thrown in there. It didn’t form the basis of the idea, did it?
Ha ha, yeah, early ’80s. I don’t know about relevance to the idea…it felt like the Holsten ads were (very funny) comedy sketches specifically designed to drop the fact into. You laughed at the Griff Rhys Jones gag and then somehow the sugar turns to alcohol fact was the thing that stuck in your head. They also did a campaign with Jeff Goldblum monologues based on Holsten being “brewed twice”.
On a more up-to-date tip, there’s a Magners campaign running over here (the UK) based on Magners being “brewed in the dark”.