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.
(Has there even been one, N.B. that relied on real specialist knowledge? I have heard about a campaign for Schlitz beer that claimed the bottles were "washed with live steam" - but that was in the early 1900's.)
We would have been better off spending that day thinking of ideas, rather than traipsing round a brewery in west London.
The agency where I've recently become the creative director has a car account, and they were pleased to have me on board because I've done a lot of car advertising over the years. But you know what? I actually have no idea how an internal combustion engine works.
And although I kind of hope my car client doesn't read this, I contend that it doesn't matter.
What matters is understanding what matters to people, and how to communicate that.
Here's my favourite ad from this year's Super Bowl. It's for a Hyundai that has a turbo engine. And I don't know if the creative team that made the ad have any understanding at all that a turbo engine works by a type of forced induction system, which compresses the air flowing into the engine. (Nor did I! I just googled it!)
But what they've understood brilliantly is the benefit to the ordinary driver of having a turbo engine - you won't get stuck behind the car in front - and how to communicate that in an engaging way (see ad below).
That's what matters.
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.
(Has there even been one, N.B. that relied on real specialist knowledge? I have heard about a campaign for Schlitz beer that claimed the bottles were "washed with live steam" - but that was in the early 1900's.)
We would have been better off spending that day thinking of ideas, rather than traipsing round a brewery in west London.
The agency where I've recently become the creative director has a car account, and they were pleased to have me on board because I've done a lot of car advertising over the years. But you know what? I actually have no idea how an internal combustion engine works.
And although I kind of hope my car client doesn't read this, I contend that it doesn't matter.
What matters is understanding what matters to people, and how to communicate that.
Here's my favourite ad from this year's Super Bowl. It's for a Hyundai that has a turbo engine. And I don't know if the creative team that made the ad have any understanding at all that a turbo engine works by a type of forced induction system, which compresses the air flowing into the engine. (Nor did I! I just googled it!)
But what they've understood brilliantly is the benefit to the ordinary driver of having a turbo engine - you won't get stuck behind the car in front - and how to communicate that in an engaging way (see ad below).
That's what matters.
19 comments:
While I completely agree with you about what really needs to be understood I thought you might appreciate this bit of knowledge about how an internal combustion engine works. It was taught to me by my driving instructor more than 30 years ago.
"There are 4 strokes to a cycle. They are; suck, squeeze, bang, blow."
Now if I had a car account I'd at least try and work that one in.
Every car sucks, squeezes, bangs and then blows. It's generic to all cars, Bernie. Which is why you'd be hopeless on a car account. And demonstrates that you completely missed the whole point of Simon's piece.
But 'Anonymous', thinking that every car is the same is why you're the hopeless one. And by assuming that Bernie was talking about the piece as opposed to how a car works demonstrates that you missed the point of his sarcastic comment.
So Suck it up, Squeeze your big head back into its place, Bang out some better comments that contribute, you Blower.
Good article, but built on a strange premise: "..I've never seen a beer ad that was based on specialist knowledge as to how beer is made."
There are sooo many beer ads that fit that description. Ads that talk about the quality of the water, the double or triple brewing process, the barrels it's stored in etc, etc
There are plenty of car ads that talk about the technical side of things too.
Sure some ads choose to dumb things down but that's not the only way.
I totally agree with you, we need to understand the core benefit that our customer is going to derive from the product.
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
Brewsky, thank you. Finally I have the facts I've been longing for all these years!
I am CD on a big car account. I went to the autoshow two years ago and a company rep gave us a walk around of a vehicle. She said an interesting line about the company's design philosophy that stuck with me and I just built a campaign around it which is launching next month. So you never know where you will find a tidbit that you can use. I have some third party examples too. However, all my really big, award monster campaigns weren't really founded on any insight a teenage boy doesn't already know. So you can decide whether or not my post is proving your point.
Surely a little knowledge doesn't hurt? Intellectual curiosity and all that. Didn't David Ogilvy once spend weeks learning about Rolls Royce to come up with the famous 'clock' headline? I know it's unrealistic to spend weeks learning everything there is to know, but a day or two learning and talking to experts is not a bad thing.....
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?
I think the obvious example to point out here is Hegarty's "Vorsprung durch Technik" discovery for Audi on an old poster during his tour of an Audi factory.
Post a Comment