How advertisers can stop cats taking their jobs
By Jon Burden, executive creative director, Naked, Sydney
Great advertising crosses over into the cultural mainstream – from guests turning up to fancy dress parties dressed like Captain Risky, to “not happy Jan!” entering the vernacular. I once met a guy who had Diesel’s motto, “for successful living” tattooed on his wrist, and I also heard “Compare The Market” make more money from selling meerkat toys than actual insurance advice. Now, the latter may be apocryphal, but I am certain that while great campaigns can define our industry, bad ones can damn it.
Increasing numbers of people manage to eschew advertising altogether. But if you thought advertising was cynical, then getting away from it all has produced some serious market opportunities of its own. Adblock Plus has just launched its Acceptable Ads Platform, allowing publishers to insert what it calls “acceptable ads” to be served to Adblock users, and apparently close to 1,000 publishers have signed up. YouTube Red – $9.99 a month – gets you ad free subscription to YouTube.
All of this and more highlight a glaring truth currently hovering over the advertising industry – people don’t always like being told what to buy. An organisation that took it upon themselves to explain this to the industry is the Citizen Advertising Takeover Service (CATS). CATS is a brilliant crowdfunded project, which combines internet users’ dual obsessions of adblocking and videos of cats. It partnered with Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, one of the UK’s largest pet rescue centres, and raised enough money to replace standard adverts with pictures of animals. As a result, Clapham Common Tube station currently has 60 cute felines in need of a home plastered all over its walls.
Asked why they did this, CATS said they found it exhausting being asked to buy stuff all the time, explaining, “Wouldn’t it be great not to worry about the holiday we can’t afford, the car we don’t need, or the body we don’t have? Imagine a world where public spaces made you feel good?” The fact people put their hands in their pockets to buy an alternative to advertising says it all when it comes to flipping the bird at the industry. And they don’t just give their money; I’ve lost count of the “name our product” campaigns that have proven PR own goals, as they succumb to fatal levels of trolling by their would-be consumers.
Advertising creates relationships between consumers and brands, and like every relationship you should treat it responsibly, admit your weaknesses and respond to your consumers’ needs and tolerance levels. I’ve talked about polishing the proverbial before, and sometimes a product or project is beyond redemption before it arrives on your desk. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t let our standards be determined by the lowest common denominator.
We need to make the worst ads a little bit better.
In a post-truth society, ethics are the new (and old) Platonic ideal; we need to write better, satirize the straw men, diversify our casting, and find the truth that speaks to our audience. These small things can be big wins for your brand and the industry in general, because if you can prompt as much as a wry smile, it can shift you from having a negative impact on someone’s day to neutral or even positive. So even if you’re working on a creatively barren account, try pushing the envelope. Let’s put the cats back into the memes where they belong!
13 Comments
“Advertising creates relationships between consumers and brands, and like every relationship you should treat it responsibly, admit your weaknesses and respond to your consumers’ needs and tolerance levels.”
There are still people peddling this myth that people have relationships with brands! It makes my job easier when there are others out there still peddling this.
Do we also need to make the worst ads a little better? Coles – anyone? Bunnings – anyone?
Regardless though great to see a strong POV expressed here, and I love CATS!
Or just buy a famous song and rewrite the lyrics
This is going to sound more critical than it is meant to, but I don’t understand your comments.
I think you think you’re making a valid point. And maybe you are.
It’s just really hard to understand what you’re saying.
Please elucidate:
1. If advertising doesn’t create a relationship between consumers and brands, what does it do? (Bearing in mind that selling to a person is a relationship…)
2. What is your job that is made easier and why is it made easier?
3. Are you suggesting that Coles and Bunnings et al be left to produce garbage despite the fact that we can all make better work for them? If so, why should we not try to improve the creative output?
What makes you think Coles and Bunnings ads are ‘bad’?
Hi @Be Sharp said:
Here’s some further articulation….
This is going to sound more critical than it is meant to, but I don’t understand your comments.
Not at all – your questions are great.
I think you think you’re making a valid point. And maybe you are.
It’s just really hard to understand what you’re saying.
Please elucidate:
1. If advertising doesn’t create a relationship between consumers and brands, what does it do? (Bearing in mind that selling to a person is a relationship…)
it sells things and people buy what is easy to buy and whats in their head when they go to buy it – i.e. i need toilet paper – i go and buy brand x toilet paper. There’s pretty good evidence to suggest brand loyalty is over-rated, and the objective should never be to build a relationship with a brand (IMO)
2. What is your job that is made easier and why is it made easier?
My job is to advertise stuff. It’s made easier because lots of people in advertising believe they are in the business of building relationships between brands and consumers – not building value for our clients.
3. Are you suggesting that Coles and Bunnings et al be left to produce garbage despite the fact that we can all make better work for them? If so, why should we not try to improve the creative output?
The answer isn’t always to be more creative. Sometimes a ‘shit’ ad is really really effective and doesn’t need to be ‘better’ or more creative. The clients at Westfarmers would love the Coles and Bunnings ads. Consumers don’t – but it doesn’t matter as they appear to be pretty effective.
Just to clarify for those that didn’t get it, B Sharp appears to be a Byron Sharp ‘Laws of growth’ disciple. Good for you. I’d recommend all creatives read it, especially if you have boss ambitions.
To oversimplify it, this is Byron’s theory – get people who don’t buy your product to buy your product (reach strategy). This is a different strategy to what the Naked bloke is getting at (I think) which is to encourage existing customers to buy more of your product (loyalty strategy), by evolving the brand to appear more socially progressive.
Although, to be fair to Naked bloke, I couldn’t really put my finger on his exact point.
Regardless, both a reach strategy and a loyalty strategy require campaigns and assets that cut through and are memorable – that’s why the creatively genius Snickers stuff works, and I guess that’s why the creatively terrible Coles stuff works too.
And where do the buyers of Snickers hand over their cash?
Coles.
Why?
They’re on sale for $1 next to the self checkout.
Oh yeah… forgot to mention that Coles made $1.86bn profit last year.
I agree that relationships between brand and consumer are overestimated. Especially by some brand managers, especially in social media. I also agree we don’t provide enough value for consumers. That’s how relationships can become stronger.
You can’t deny that consumers have a strong relationship with some brands. Imagine your iPhone and Macbook and all Apple products suddenly went away. And you couldn’t get them back. Ever. You’d be devastated.
1. In a competitive industry, why do all these people and agencies want to help the industry in general by educating their competition? Is it for clients to see how smart you are and come to your agency? To build your “personal brand” so people will poach you? When was the last time you read a post from Droga5 or Wieden wanting to educate the industry? Exactly.
2. Everyone keeps on talking about building relationships for brands. I, for one, don’t want a relationship with my string cheese or toilet paper. I just want a good product. When is the last time you saw Nike or Apple make a gimmicky social campaign to build a following? A great product creates a following naturally.
Dave Droga does nothing to build his personal brand – just lets his work do the talking. Yeah right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This sort of thread shows why the whole industry is doomed.
Naked guy, interesting observations, having seen the work from Naked in the last year. You flog FMCG products with TV promos, not sure that Red Rooster, Taubmans or L’Or have created a relationship with anyone.
Overall, relationship is the wrong word. Advertisers like using it because clients like it, but its BS..
Everyone gets confused here because the ad industry is so retail driven in Australia.. But there is a huge difference between FMCG purchases and everything else we all buy..
People have connections with brands they value, in most cases driven by superior product or service, rather than some crap marketing layer. It’s been proven that people don’t value most FMCG purposes. Hence why FMCG marketing is starting to fail, the cost of promoting is higher than the margin will be. This is where Byron starts to fall apart, because this thinking and books were written in a time when there was forced attention, today, none of that exists (or is diminishing quickly).
It’s not a digital v traditional problem, its advertising v audience problem.
Have you ever seen a Cannes seminar featuring Dan Wieden? Read anything by Jean-Marie Dru about disruption? They spend vast amounts of time educating the industry. It’s called thought leadership. It’s how they attract business.
As for the relationship/connection issue. Yes, connection is a better word. And it is driven by value. By that I don’t mean savings. You need to know if your audience really cares about your product. Eg. I am fiercely loyal to my deodorant brand but seriously doubt anyone else is.
Droga have an internai PR dept dedicated solely to agency and dave Droga’s PR.