Where are the New Great Campaigns?

A strong execution of course was and is a wonderful thing but a campaign is to coin a phrase not just for Christmas A campaign lasts a campaign adds layers and depth to the original ideaA campaign has the potential to become an asset in more ways than one It can mean you need to spend less during each burst there39s no need to introduce the idea or concept there39s the added value you get from noncommercial messages like PR or word of mouth and there39s the opportunity to manage a sense of anticipation amongst consumersGreat marketers understand this and the best are able to subsume their natural wish to do something entirely new and different in the knowledge that they39re building an asset for the businessThey also know that ads very rarely wear out except amongst brand managers and so replacing them constantly is not necessaryIt may be a consequence of getting older and the inevitable decline into a mindset where the default is that everything was better way back when but I do think that campaigns are rarer these daysCampaign the magazine carried an excellent piece by the writeramp160Walter Campbell who worked on one of the most famous TV ads of recent times amp160Guinness39 quotSurferquotamp160How it came to be How it linked the thought that waiting for something adds to the eventual enjoyment to be had when it arrives with the famous Guinness Is Good for You line Hence quotGood things come to those who waitquot And how it ignored the original brief not to mention the length of time it takes to pour a GuinnessGuinness believes in great advertising that lasts as anyone who has visited the brand39s Guinness Storehouse in Dublin which devotes a floor to the brand39s advertising heritage will knowCampaigns can be created around lasting lines Audi39s Vorsprung Durch Technik famously copied by Sir John Hegarty from a poster on an Audi factory wall in the 198039s jokes Perrier39s clever quotEauquotamp160puns characters Leo Burnett39s quotcrittersquot the Jolly Green Giant Tony the Tiger minidramas Nescafe Gold Blend or comedies PG Tips chimpsThey can tie together a disparate series of messages to evoke a common feeling about the brand VW Nike adidas TangoFor some reason they catch and they lastSo how is it that all of the above are old Where are the new great campaignsThere are some of courseamp160Warburtons the John Lewis work getting on a bit Comparethemarket39s Meerkats positively vintage McDonald39s musical sting verging on the classic but they seem to be rarer somehowMaybe we39ve come to believe that all messaging is transitory Nothing lastsamp160from Instagram posts to Twitter threads they flare they disappear Our attention spans are shortening We don39t have the time or the patience for anything that requires us to concentrate or to rememberThis can39t be true though Cinema was riding high prepandemic and seems likely to do so again Book purchasing is apparently booming TV drama series are making the newsI suspect the focus of marketers and therefore their agencies have shifted away from great creative and thus campaignable ideas and towards accountability There39s nothing wrong with that except that quotaccountabilityquotamp160has come to mean quotshortterm accountabilityquotIf the likes of Facebook and Google who stagemanage so much of the industry debate were honest about their desire to influence business outcomes they would see that true outcomes build and need to be assessed over time They would note that great longrunning campaigns can add immensely to a brand39s valueThey would realize that yes as transitory platforms they have a role to play but that role is not at the expense of brandbuilding activities using other channels and other means of communicationamp160That outcomes are not solely about clicks and likes That brands need more than two threeamp160or horror even four seconds to tell their storyamp160That great advertising is additive not exclusive Collaborative not confrontational Longlasting not transitoryCampaigns not adsClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Where are the New Great Campaigns?

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Brian Jacobs

"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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Where are the New Great Campaigns?

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"About That with Carl Mayer": Involved Media Connected Audience Fall 2024 Report (Episode 5) - By Carl Mayer

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