Excellent ad for erm, not advertising, or…
By Mat Morrison May 17th, 2007
In Stories
(via George Nimeh)
Ok. It’s very funny. But let’s analyse it.
The consumer wants the advertiser to listen. She wants a dialogue. She doesn’t want funny.
So - the format is a two-minute funny video.
Now, the guy at Microsoft who commissioned this, Geert Desager says that “the commercial explicitly challenges the advertisers - our clients - to question themselves and the way they communicate with their target groups.”
Which is just fine and dandy. But I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking that Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions’ clients could level accusations of them not exactly walking the walk.
OK - now having said that, what is it, exactly, that Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions offers?
Advertising, and better demographic targeting. In game advertising. Paid search
Does it, in fact, offer the “conversation” that the consumer claims that she wants?
Not so much.
1 Geert // May 17, 2007 at 10:39 pm
You are right of course, but we do offer a network that advertisers can use to create the dialogue… we have tools and services that can help but you still need great creativity, good mediaplan and good follow through.
2 Mat Morrison // May 18, 2007 at 10:53 am
That’s fair enough, Geert. And - as I say - I do think the creative here is excellent; that you’ve characterised the problem we’re all facing in a way that is memorable, attractive, and funny. It makes me think well of Microsoft, too.
The problem is one of categories, of course. Advertising will always be outbound only. I think your consumer may be demanding too much. She should go out with a marketer instead. Or a brand. But not, perhaps, an advertiser.
There are other channels in the marketing mix, and many of these are well suited both to digital channels, and to encouraging & responding to customer feedback.
Advertising has a clear purpose. I don’t think that it’s no longer needed. And I don’t think that its purpose is to listen.
Is this just semantics? Well, yes, probably. I expect that I’ll be showing your ad to lots of people as well.
Good luck, Geert!
3 Usable Interfaces // May 19, 2007 at 8:34 pm
If you can’t beat them…
There’s an excellent post on RMM about this video ad (I have very little doubt that the word ‘viral’ was harmed in its creation).
The ad is a take off of the movie,”The Break Up“ with the couple discussing divorce repr…