So what's the big deal about creating ads that go viral?
A while back I learned the advertising axiom “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative” attributed
to David Ogilvy. I also learned at DDB that “Word
of mouth is the best medium of all” – from our beloved founder Bill
Bernbach. In today’s digital age
content sharing has taken that notion to a new level.
But what are 20 million views of a funny ad worth on You
Tube if they don’t help sell?
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| Christopher Walken and Amy Poehler from SNL. |
K-Mart’s “Ship My Pants” uses the time-tested
approach of saying something over and over that sounds like an off-color word.
K Mart agency draftFCB Chicago was wise to follow Saturday Night Live’s classic
“Colonel Angus” skit gag along with their “CorkSoakers” skit. This kind of humor works.
K Mart followed with “Big Gas Savings” and “Show Your Joe”(16 million views) that went viral as well. So K Mart should be thrilled? Well not so fast. Their
important same-store sales metric is off 2.1% in 3 Q 13, which isn’t helping
the cause with parent Sears Holdings. Sears lost $ 534 million compared with a
year-earlier loss for the same period of $ 498 million.
K-Mart’s bright spot was a 17% jump in online and
multichannel sales, so maybe people are shipping their pants (and other stuff)
after all.
Mashable had a great write up on this whole issue “So Your Ad Went Viral – big deal” citing the “Advertising Bench Index” that supports
the idea that ads should pitch a product above all else.
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| Legendary Ad Man Bill Bernbach. |
This whole argument boils down to the simple fact that advertising
is part art and part science. I’ve worked that places that placed great
credence on the “art” or creativity side like DDB foster by founder Bill Bernbach, and other agencies where it was all
science (or spend optimization) all the time like Grey Direct / G2 / Geometry Global.
Some firms like video agency Unruly push the value of the
social sharing agenda by publishing a list of the most shared ads in 2013, as a metric.
"Shares are the currency of social success and for leading brand marketers
discovering how to create and distribute highly shareable content repeatedly
and at scale is now at the top of their wish list," Unruly U.S. President
Richard Kosinski said in a statement.
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| "And Your Reason for the 17.7% share loss was..?" |
I'd bet these social sharing advocates never worked a client-side marketing job - and had to
explain a falling market share and missed revenue target to senior management
by countering “Gee – lots of people really seem to like our ads these days.”
That argument never made senior management warm and fuzzy, usually followed by a
disappointing incentive comp payout.
I still like watching “The most shared ads of 2013” – but taking
the marketing process downstream to a profitable end with boring marketing
effectiveness metrics
still has its place in an increasingly accountable world.
After all when marketing helps drive long-term profitable
growth – doesn’t that give senior management something to talk about at the
quarterly earnings call? And often it is growth that drives upward movement in
equity valuations, or the real value creation for a business. I’m glad I
learned that lesson in business school.
