In the real estate industry, the great majority of agents are responsible for personally marketing themselves and their business.  That’s the actual reason that most bloggers blog- branding.  We read various blogs on technologies that will help our brand succeed and we learn marketing tips.  I’ve found that to further my own marketing work, I have to look at others’ campaigns and why they have or have not worked.  Part I & II of this series address a number of television campaigns that have NOT worked and Part III and IV will cover campaigns that worked.  Read the italics for the takeaway points!

THE HUH? FACTOR

Royal Bank of Scotland- You’ve all seen the RBS campaign implying that talk is cheap. My favorite is the group of executives in a tram that gets stuck. One guy talks about the seminar he took on positive thought while the dingy chick freaks and brushes her hair and the older, wiser exec simply pushes the emergency release while positive thought dude gets credit. I absolutely love this campaign but it fails because (1) the sound editing is awful. No visual media should leave the audience saying “huh?” or adjusting their sound when the girl screams and it sounds like we’re wearing crappy headphones. (2) This ad needs improvement on the visual editing- it seems choppy. What you should learn is that no matter how amazing your message is, editing can be quite distracting to your audience!

Ovaltine- if you aren’t familiar with the campaign, you’re lucky. It’s a lame ad filmed in the 90s that continues to run today and everyone in the neighborhood likes Ovaltine (eww). The biggest problem with this campaign besides the suckey factor is that the video and sound quality make you say “huh?” If your campaign is overly lame, your point will probably be missed!

THE COPY CAT FACTOR

Orbit gum- the first thing to note is that I confuse the gum for the online travel agency (Orbitz) by calling it “orbits gum.”  Not only does the name of the product sound eerily familiar to a different product, their tagline in their commercials (”brilliant” says the bubbly blonde) replicates Guiness Beer’s cartoony guys’ “brilliant!” exclamation.  It is NEVER good to replicate anothers’ business name OR tagline, even if it is all coincidental.

NON-PRESUMPTION

Dennis the Menace DVD- this winter, commercials launched for the release of the Dennis the Menace DVD (which I didn’t even know was ever in the theaters).  Instead of the standard “buy it today” call to action, the television narrator says that you can have this DVD today “if you want!”  What?  A company not assuming I would want their product plants it in my head that I probably don’t want it.  D’oh!

BRING IN THE MASCOT!

Orville Redenbacker- Okay, the computer revival of Orville Redenbacker is really really creepy.  Really creepy.  The idea of a really old guy who was old then and dead now dancing around is wrong.  Surely there is a better mascot for popcorn than Orville?  Maybe a cartoon of him?  Don’t creep your buyers out because you’re sentimental about your old mascot and assume they are too.

Aflack Duck-We all know and love the Gilbert Godfried duck of Aflac.  We’ve all said “aflac” like a duck before.  But now there’s a goat.  What?  Maybe if they interacted, but you can’t flip the script on me midstream- fire the goat.  Make sure your audience WANTS you to change your mascot or image before you make the plunge.

The Takeaway

The bottom line is that no matter how big the check is that you cut to your advertising team, not every campaign will work. Some of the best laid plans fail for various reasons, but avoiding a flop of your own certainly involves studying the failure of others. Part III will begin the positive examples of marketing campaigns, so stay tuned!

Photo credit: Dabe Murphy