Month: November 2010

With reference to Jackie’s recent post featuring the suggestive Axe commercial, I did a bit of research as to the purpose of utilizing the “shock” factor in advertising, and whether or not it is effective.

UTalkMarketing’s Melinda Varley had a good write up of several recent ads containing graphic and otherwise provoking material, as well as society’s response to them. The majority of the ads she mentions have come under intense scrutiny, and in some cases – like the Women’s Aid ad with Keira Knightly – the ads have even been banned from being aired. Melinda asks the question if “shock” factor goes too far and “undermine[s] the actual product.” New Zealand Air’s past stint in which they had air crew walk around the airport and airplane in nothing but body paint took “years … [for] the airline industry … to lose its sexual connotations.” As far as getting noticed in the saturated world of advertising, shocking society certainly gets the job done.

Melinda never gave a definitive “yes/no” answer as to the question of whether the “shock” factor has a place in advertising, though that’s likely because there isn’t an answer. My take on the strategy is that it’s simply something that has its rightful time and place; like most everything else. One certainly has to consider the nature of their product as well as the segment they’re trying to target before going overboard – seniors likely wouldn’t respond well to a company using violence and sexuality to get their new denture adhesive noticed.

Sasktel makes some of my favourite commercials, and while at home I saw another one and thought I should post a link to one. They all feature ‘little red riding hood’ and they get quite creative with the fairly tail theme. They also play on Saskatchewan’s loyalties by incorporating the Roughriders from to time in the ads.

Little Red Riding Hood
Max HD

Movies.

Would you compare a movies to a can of Coke, or would you compare it to beverages in general? I would argue that “beverages” would be a better match. Just like the word “beverage” refers to coke, water, wine, coffee, milk, and many more, the word “movies” refers to a whole host of genres; two of which are included in the title “for your convenience and delight” – Prof Gateman. Why have all these various types of movies come to be? Why not just make one type of movie that appeals to everyone? Ask yourself this: would you like to drink only one type of beverage for the rest of your life? Even if you did (and if you did I hope your choice was either water or milk), do you think everyone else would enjoy the same life-long choice as you?

Likely not.

Movie studios know that people like a variety of movies, but how do they choose which ones to make? Perhaps they use a positioning map to find gaps in current or upcoming blockbusters. Moving past this stage and assuming that studios know what movie to produce, how will they market it to the public? First, in assuming the studio knows what sort of film to make, the assumption is also made that they have already targeted a specific segment – audience in this case –for their film, be it men, women or children, action lovers or romance junkies. Now all that remains is to market the movie, but how do they do this? Well, to market movies they obviously use movie-ads. What do you call movie-ads?

Trailers.

Trailers are short clips about movies, much like commercials about products, designed both to give the viewer enough information about the movie, and to try and influence the viewer to go see it. In most cases, trailers are targeted specifically at certain segments, and are often strategically placed in time-slots when the target segment will likely see them; again, very similar to commercials.

Ads, no matter how brief, convey a lot of important information about the product they are advertising. Not paying attention to ads can have consequences…