Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

I enjoy "the heck" out of the commercials. Seinfeld and Gates are great. However, it doesn't make me want to buy one. I look forward to seeing if this thread can explain the disconnect.

BTW, I find the Mac ads with the guy "sorta looking like Bill Gates" are great and they underscore my preference for Macs.

Don't have a clue what the perfect ad would be for them - one that would make me consider changing.

Thanks for the thread - just thinking about those ads this morning and wondering what happened to a previous thread on the subject.

CVN

OK - it's Friday and since no one came out directly and said it - I will - those two commercials sucked.

The only laughter was Seinfeld at the bank cashing the check. And Phil - you're right - Seinfeld isn't funny - he sets them up for someone else to hit the joke home run.

They hit 2 out of 4
Noticed
(Not) Liked
(Not) Believed
Remembered (as visual pollution- but it did create a buzz)

There was an article on CNN this morning indicating that they didn't pull the ad because of poor response - it was scheduled weeks ago to only run to weeks.

I have had more success with ads that fit none of the advertising "rules." In fact, the more i break advertising rules, the better the ad does.

I once ran a commercial for an event that our in-house team shot. This portion of the team was inexperienced and shot a poor commercial. The quality of film was okay, but they cut off the heads of the people in the ad quite a bit. When I went to edit the commercial, I was furious. I had nothing to work with, then I slapped some pieces together and had an idea: why not produce a commercial that is no wrong people would pay attention.

The whole commercial cut off the heads of the actors, and we used the B-roll that had them laughing. They kept saying over and over what the event was, where it was, and who would be there, but they kept laughing.

That event drew 500% increase in visitors to our event averages. The network execs told us we were wasting our money running such a "wrong" commercial. This just goes to show that a perfect commercial is only relative to your audience and what you want to accomplish.

The Gates/Seinfeld commercial is wrong because it doesn't say anything about what they want me to do. They assume that I really care about Seinfeld, and I know what Bill Gates looks like.

Nate:

It's sounds like you did follow the rules:

Noticed
Liked
Believed
Remembered

Quality does not necessarily make an effective spot, for example:

In every market in America there is that one furniture salesman or car dealer who uses those god awful commercials that hit the mark--they wouldn't all be doing them if they didn't work. They work because they're memorable, they drive home the message (usually low, low prices) and they sure get noticed. Not sure about the "liked" part.

BL