Until recently, consumers have been satisfied by brands simply telling them why their brand is great. “Buy our product, and your life will be better for it.” This is the basic underlying promise of every advertisement or creative campaign. If you don’t believe me, just pick up your phone or turn on your TV. Sure they may hide their underlying intention with engaging imagery, but most brand’s messaging follows this premise.
The lack of transparency given by brands today isn’t entirely their fault. A lot of it has to do with the restrictions of ad platforms. The fact of the matter is that you can only tell so much of your story in a television ad spot. In addition, ad spots are expensive! In 2019, the average price of a 30 second broadcast spot was $115,000. Think about that for a second. Imagine paying $115k for someone’s half hearted attention for 30 seconds. That has been the best case scenario for brands and a reality any growing business had to face.
It is unfortunate that video has been restricted to this format for so long. The amount of money wasted is sad to think about. I personally can think of several things that $115k would be better spent on. Yet every year, commercials get more grandiose in order to grab their audience’s attention. Meanwhile, people like you and I get more numb to advertisements.
Despite the internet becoming the new frontier of entertainment and therefore advertising, ads have not changed for the most part. In fact, a lot of creative is just reformatted and republished no matter the platform. In other words, the abundance of platforms has not increased creativity, but rather increased waste. Don’t believe me? Alright bet! I’m going to open my Instagram right now, if I see mostly product images and a landscape video – you owe my newsletter a follow. Ready?
What did I tell you! By the way, I don’t ride motorcycles and I hate wearing watches. Pay up!
Jokes aside, the reality of digital advertising is quite dire. Technology has only improved the volume of ads, not the creativity. I’ve worked with hundreds of brands and agency partners and if there is one thing I’ve learned it’s this. It doesn’t matter how creative my strategy was, they just wanted eyes on the ads they already created. But just because you disguise an ad as an Instagram post or YouTube video doesn’t mean you’re telling a compelling story. Rather, you’re wasting your money, numbing your audience’s perception, and above all wasting resources.
In the upcoming weeks, I will provide the ingredients each platform requires for a successful digital campaign. These insights follow social platforms guidelines but are first and foremost rooted in the art of storytelling. My hope is that this series will help you identify a strategy that will allow your unique story to thrive. At the end of the day, that’s what good marketing is – telling a great story directly to the people who would care to hear it.