Mar
I believe in the power of variety
Andrew Berthoff
They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result. The Vancouver Winter Olympics benefitted from perhaps the best media coverage in history, with major TV networks in the US (NBC) and Canada (CTV) bringing terrific live reporting, often in gloriously creative ways.
The great thing for television advertisers about live, must-watch sports is that viewers are far less inclined to change the channel. Watching past events via PVR is just not the same, so there probably weren’t many instances of folks fast-forwarding commercials.
But after a few days of watching live Olympics coverage I started to get irritated. The same commercials from the same sponsors with the same segues and the same network theme-song were played again and again and again. And again.
And again.
That definition of insanity-by-repetition was now two-way: I thought that the sponsors were crazy not to have developed a wider variety of commercials, and I thought that the relentless repetition I subjected myself to was making me insane. (Warning: click link with caution.) That power-ballad theme-song still reverberates in my head.
There were some commercials that were so incessant that I may have sworn that I would boycott the product and/or the sponsor – just to spite them.
No doubt there’s ample research that proves the efficacy of relentlessly repeating advertising, and that you must run a campaign for a few months, stop it for four, and then restart it for another two. But I’d love to see post-Olympics audience research.
One of the great aspects of working in public relations is that every day is different and new, and that just about every example of success is different from another. PR resonates through creative variety, subtly tweaking things for specific audiences.
In this career, the more things change the more they stay the same. And, to me, that’s the definition of marketing wisdom.
I agree. I know there is a thing to be said for repetition to get your message across but, advertisers could have changed it up a bit. And, that theme song was so overplayed. You know it’s overkill when even CTV’s Lisa Laflamme said she was “tired” of hearing the Games’ theme song, “I Believe.”
I also concur – seeing the same commercial again and again is extremely irksome in every instance, but the Olympics were horrific for that…
Their argument might be that it would be too expensive to create and film multiple commercials, but to that I would’ve suggested:
- create a Youtube contest for videos about their product a few months in advance.
Entrants earn points by the number and rankings their Youtube gets in views/votes/etc (which *can* be manipulated, but even that would result in additional brand exposure from entrants promoting their own videos to get views).
Winners chosen by those factors (50% of total points) and the other 50% of points earned by a panel of professional judges, ala “Dancing w. the Stars” (don’t watch it but believe it works that way).
Air the winners as commercials during the Olympics.
Cheap to get (vs the price of whipping up a traditional ad) and results in even more exposure than just the Olympics audience alone.
OR
- Company addresses this issue (seeing same commercials repeatedly) by showing their new commercials, but also have other commercials where they poke fun of the fact people get peeved by this problem…
These “new” commercials have a few seconds of introduction (ie “Since we know viewers get sick of seeing the same commercials again and again during the Olympics, please enjoy this blast from the past from Coca-Cola…”) and then show some of their very oldest commercials from the 50s, 60s, and 70s…
That would be nostalgic for older viewers (ie the “I’d like to buy a world a coke” musical commercial) and young viewers might get a kick out of seeing what commercials looked like in the earlier days of TV.
I think THOSE ads will probably be looked at – and viewed with a more favorable eye – than the one or two ads by other companies who are repeating them again and again.
My 2 cents. Great post.
I wonder if the repetition is a result of ad budgets being cut (costs less to produce one ad than three) even by the big brands. Of course, the cost-cutting isn’t worth it if your audience becomes that irritated. For me, the repetition of Bob Costas’ over sentimental voice-overs makes watching the Olympics difficult, but perhaps I’m straying too far from the marketing/PR lesson there
I agree, the ads were incredibly repetitive and I did change channels when I saw one starting yet again. Another nice aspect of the broadcast coverage for the Vancouver games were the options between CTV, TSN, Omni and APTN, plus NBC from the American perspective. In other words, lots of choices for people avoiding commercials. Plus, the split screen feature of my Panasonic TV (client) was handy to watch two channels at once. My vote for best ad was the the Tim Hortons “welcome to Canada” spot. I know the immigrant to Canada story is not always as rosy as the ad portrays, but we are still a nation that has been chosen by millions of people to pursue a new, free and bright future.