I recently came across Maggie’s post about a cool Honda ad and gave the ad more thought. As cool as it may be, it doesn’t actually tell you that much about Honda’s Accord, except maybe for the fact that it works. Obviously, that wouldn’t be Honda’s sustainable competitive advantage, so what’s the point behind the ad?
Well, while I was watching the Honda ad, I thought about another ad:
This Doritos ad doesn’t even tell you anything about the product! However, it has 2.8 million views on youtube and I believe it was a very successful ad campaign. It was broadcasted during the superbowl in 2010, which meant a lot of people watched it on TV as well.
In both of these ads, it’s clear that the companies want to differentiate their ads from other ads. People are going to get bored watching another car ad that shows a slick vehicle driving through the empty, dark streets at midnight while the commentator talks about its style and fuel efficiency. Their ads needs to stand out.
After all, what did you get from the Honda ad and the Doritos ad? Most likely that they’re cool and awesome brands. Furthermore, for a low level of involvement and low risk good like Doritos, I don’t think people are going to spend a lot of time considering which brand to buy, which means the next time they step up to the chips aisle, they will see the bags of Doritos and link that to “keep your hands off my momma, keep your hands off my Doritos.”