The return to creative?
Hello! Hope you all had as peaceful of a weekend as possible.
When it comes to advertising in the coronavirus era, companies are caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to figure out the right tone, let alone the right time, to get back on the messaging wagon.
On the one hand, they should be spending ad money. As we talked about the other week, spending during economic uncertainty (if not economic calamity) is a pretty good long term bet.
On the other hand, however, choosing the wrong message or the wrong placement, the wrong ad can backfire.
The delta between spending and the idea on which to spend depends on the point of the ad.
Kantar’s global head of creative, Daren Poole, writes:
In most cases, we’ve found that emotional support ads fall flat with people. They’re unlikely to be noticed and remembered as they lack distinctiveness and often, the brand’s role is limited to a super right at the end. And while the intention is good, people do need the help to be tangible, or they simply don’t want to hear messages of hope that draw attention to the obvious and seem inauthentic coming from brands that have never spoken in that way before. As such, there is little to land a lasting impression that will help the brand in the long term.
We have hit a “in this together” wall. (Let alone the weirdness of that phrase; we are not all in this together.) And as folks start to view Zoom meetings like any other meeting (which is to say: most can be eliminated and put into an email), we’re seeing a particular kind of repetitiveness.
Talking to Business of Fashion last month, Kevin Agee, a marketing professional in Springfield, Mo. said: “It’s hard to think of Covid-related ads that have felt sincere. Everything I’ve seen has seemed like it’s copying everything else.”
For creatives self-isolating, one of the few tools available for creating ads is Zoom. So throw in the ubiquity of the product due to incredible circumstances, add a dash of Brady Bunch imagery, and it’s not hard to see why many companies are using a Zoom-type format for their ads.
But it looks like ~the brands~ are coming back. And interestingly, Sam Adams, seems to be one of the first to turn the corner.
First, though, a little backstory on Sam Adams advertising.
The company arguably changed the nature of beer advertising in 2003 when it started highlighting the ingredients of the beer, leaning into the values of what the company wanted to stand for: freshness, wholesomeness, etc. At the time, beer spots were the typical masculine fantasy, filled with scantily clad women, fast and powerful cars, and parties. Lots of parties. Remember Spuds MacKenzie?
But don’t mistake Sam Adams’s pivot to purity as a Don Draper-esque creative masterstroke. They were a leader of the raucous pack, but made the messaging switch after sponsoring a puerile radio contest called “Sex for Sam” on the Opie & Anthony show, a nationally syndicated radio show, where contestants ran around New York City having sex in public spaces. Particular places and particular sex acts yielded rewards.
It was all fun and games until a couple decided to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, earning them a visit to the local police precinct. But also a $3.5 million fine that Viacom, the parent of CBS Radio/Infinity-owned, which broadcasted the show, had to pay.
As a result, Sam Adams yanked its sponsorship, and tried to whitewash its partying days by introducing spots in 2004 “to focus on product quality.” And for the last 16 years, Sam Adams commercials have basically been just that: focus on the beer, and its brewer.
When the coronavirus hit, Sam Adams, according to an AdAge piece from Friday, was about to introduce a series of humorous spots. AdAge writes:
“The creative approach marks a significant tone change for the brand, which had typically run spots focusing on beer quality and craftsmanship, often featuring founder Jim Koch. “It’s definitely a big pivot—it’s louder and … doesn’t take ourselves too seriously,” [CMO Lesya] Lysyj said in an interview in March, before the brand decided to delay the campaign.”
But the company put those spots on hold, instead running a :30-second ad about giving back to bars and restaurants. This week, however, the company is running those humorous ads, hoping to bring a vitality to both the brand and the viewer.
Sam Adams isn’t the only company inching its way from the “b-roll,” or “recycled material”, if not Zoom-focused creative to getting back into the game.
Nissan has a new spot out today. Instead of the Zoom format, it’s using UGC to push the message “stay close while you stay away.” The ad isn’t about the car company, instead homes in on the lives we lead now, isolated in our own worlds, and uses a new Randy Newman song as the backing track. According to TBWA NY’s CEO, Rob Schwartz, “the team heard Randy Newman’s new song, ‘Stay Away’ on Colbert and within 24 hours had a rough cut.”
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola, which cut back its ad spend last month (even freezing in certain markets) after saying during its Q1 earnings report that “there is limited effectiveness to broad-based brand marketing” has ended its 7-week TV ad hiatus. The campaign, which also includes this spot, whiffs, as the company is trying to put out a positive message to uplift our souls, but instead makes the commercial about them. It’s a classic example of a brand glomming onto a concept as opposed, to use the cliche, speaking from the heart.
Of course, the economics of all this can be a positive signal: more ads means more spend means more money for publishers. Hopefully.
The Kinks “Think Visual”
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Some interesting links:
A great piece showing how easy it is to commit ad fraud based on plagiarism (CNBC)
Doordash and pizza arbitrage (The Margins)
Omnicom's Three-Phase Return To Office Plan (MediaPost)
Busted: Pentagon Contractors’ Report on ‘Wuhan Lab’ Origins of Virus Is Bogus (Daily Beast)
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says he was 'foolish' to invest $18.5 billion in WeWork (Business Insider)
Boston Globe Reaches A Long-Sought Goal: 200,000 Digital Subscribers (WGBH News)