The Credit Expert

A pig called Sophocles, a posh bloke that plays the harpsichord, a Chinese butler, ice from the sea of tranquility. It's a pretty bizarre combo to get people to check their credit rating.

On the one hand, I like the pace and feel of these ads. That, along with their downright weirdness, certainly makes them stand out amongst the frenetic clutter of most commercial breaks. The casting and performances are good and I also like the way that the CreditExpert.co.uk logo is shamelessly incorporated into the ads.

However, I'm less certain about the messaging. These ads don't really give people a reason to visit the site and get their credit checked [a free 30 day trial is offered up in one of the executions but I'm not sure whether this will be the main take-out of that ad].

It almost seems as if the agency has taken the "let's make sure that the one thing people remember from this ad is the brand name" mantra from the insurance comparison website battleground and just simply applied them to this market.

Getting a cheap insurance quote and signing up to a site to get your credit report are two very different things in two very different markets.

I reckon that people need much more of a push and a reason why to engage with the world of credit reports. The line "I know you're curious about your credit rating" is used in one of the ads as if it's some kind a universal truth and that it's something that the entire population are already interested in finding out about.

I think the reality is that there a loads of people who aren't curious about their credit rating. Millions of people probably don't know what one is or how to get one. Or even, more crucially, why they should actually get one.

The campaign might be more effective if the role of advertising was to actually make people curious about their credit rating. And having a good old-fashioned benefit in the ads that explained why it might be important or useful to check your credit rating would have undoubtedly helped.

I'm sure that triggers like how to improve your credit score, how to find out what information companies can see about you, how to help prevent ID fraud, how to see who's been checking your credit could all be motivating things to talk about that would get people clicking.

"Nice execution, shame about the message" seems to be a bit of a recurring theme at the moment. Can't help thinking that this is symptomatic of many creative departments being marginalised into simply focusing on how something is being said, rather than what is being said in the first place.

Newer readers to this blog [and planner-bashers] might like to find out a bit more about this topic in an earlier post here. Or indeed another one here.

Please, please, please

Spotted last week. Perhaps an innocuous slip lead to a face plant into a freshly laid, still steaming, slightly wet mound of doggy doo. It must have been something pretty nasty to lead this poor person to write such a desperate poster.

Self Delusional Salesmen

If you don't already read the blog of ace marketing man Dave Knockles, I Am The Client, then I heartily recommend that you do. I couldn't agree more with his observations of the lunacy of the advertising world, and his latest post Things I Don't Understand About Agencies is a perfect example. I particularly enjoyed this part:

"The industry-wide self-delusion that they aren't salespeople.
Come on, folks. Let's the two of us have a heart-to-heart here. Nobody else - just us. Let me be honest, because I like you / you buy me beerz.

The only difference between you and a car salesman is an ironic T-shirt."

It's something that I think is very true, very sad, but very funny about the most of the ad industry. Maybe it's a distaste for the idea of selling among the oxbridge graduates and precious, business illiterate creatives that find their way into advertising? Maybe it's a result of agencies trying to guarantee their role at the top table of business by hawking the nebulous role of Brand Builder? Whatever the reason, it's a delusion that has confused the ad industry in a state of perpetual denial crossed with verbal diarrhoea.

The real irony is that business valued advertising agencies much more when they accepted (and moreover enjoyed) that they were in effect, highly skilled, creative salesmen.

Bob (The Ad Contrarian) Hoffman has written brilliantly on this strange and damaging phenomenon here, I've wittered on about it too, most recently here.

Self delusion.

You never quite know that you suffer from it.

Confused New TV ads

Confused.com's new advertising campaign kindly informs me that any money I save by using their insurance comparison website can be spent on items like a pair of jeans, a guitar or a tennis racket. Thanks Confused.com!

Without that helpful reminder I would have been putting any savings I made towards a barium enema or a job lot of Andrews Liver Salts.

Now, there's nowt really wrong with these executions [as you would expect from BMB they're well put together]. It's the strategy behind them and core message that will limit their effectiveness as pieces of advertising.

Using your advertising to communicate that you can make savings by going online and using a comparison website is hardly a revelation or new news for people. It's a generic benefit in a relatively mature market that's already widely understood by anyone with half a brain.

The question isn't why would you go to a comparison website. It's which one are you going to use when it's time to switch on your computer and renew your insurance.

This market is all about a battle for front of mind. Salience is king in the insurance game.

That's why the Meerkat was born. That's why that fat bastard opera singer was inflicted upon us. That's why we had to endure Michael Winner. That's why a big red telephone with wheels came racing onto our screen. Oh yes! that's why a nodding Geordie bulldog was used. That's why some Aussie gals in pink spangly clothes and a big pink car sang a little ditty. You get the picture.

You know the brands I'm talking about even though I haven't actually mentioned them by name. That's because their advertising has burnt them into our memories.

I doubt whether this new campaign for Confused will do the same thing or have the same staying power [It's a big shame really, as their brand name is such a gift].

Keith Davis Young

Keith Davis Young's got some really cracking photos on his site. This Texan photographer has a keen eye for a composition and captures scenes beautifully. 

We particularly like the food stuff shots. Mmmm. Pancakes and meat. What's not to like?

You can check out more of his smashing snaps here.

New Visa Ad

Continuing our theme of featuring high budget, technique based credit card commercials that fleetingly feature a glimpse of what they're supposed to be advertising, here's the latest magnum opus from Visa. As a piece of film it's undeniably really well shot and entertaining. As a well branded commercial that contains a truly motivating, meaningful and differentiating message for Visa? Hmmm, I'm not so sure. A penny for your thoughts, dear readers?

This Is The Truth About People Who Work In Advertising

I read this great story from Drayton Bird over on his blog:

It is now over 50 years since I read the famous conversation between Max Hart of Hart, Shaffner and Marx and his ad agent,

Hart said he would never read long copy.

His agent said, "I'll just give you the headline of a full page all-copy ad. You would read every word."

"What is it?" asked Hart.

"This is the truth about Max Hart," his agent replied.

It reminded me of one of my favourite quotes, from Howard Gossage: "People read what interests them, sometimes it's an ad".

The thing is, these days people are always saying that people don't read or pay attention to advertising, I've met plenty of people myself who say that they never watch adverts or pay attention to them (although it always transpires later in the conversation that they can trip off a few recent ads or strapline, so go figure).

Indeed, within our own industry it's rife. But the basic human truth is this, people will read or watch, or pay attention to something that interests them. People are selfish like that, but that's just human nature.

But what happens a lot in the ad business these days is that agency folks just say people aren't interested in chocolate/cars/detergent/bottled water/insert other product here, and off they then pop to create some piece of barely related entertainment to stick the logo of the product on the end of.

As I've banged on about before, making good advertising is a simple business, but it takes hard work. One of the things that requires real smart thinking and insight is when you have a low-interest product (and let's face it, most products fall into this category to normal people), finding the thing about it that people will find interesting. And this doesn't mean interesting like a documentary about weird sexual habits, or interesting like Joe Pesci doing a robot dance naked in silver paint. But interesting in the context of the product and the potential customer's relationship to it.

These days, most ad people don't bother. The work either comes out workmanlike and uninteresting to the customer and goes unnoticed, or is entertaining but that entertainment does a poor job of communicating anything of interest that moves the prospect closer to buying your product.

If you're a client, how many times have you been made to feel like your product is uninteresting, and been presented with advertising that is just barely disguised sponsored entertainment? How many times have you felt that your ad people aren't really interested in finding something to say about your product that will interest your prospective customer?

It's just because the thinking is lazy. The truth is, if you find something genuinely interesting to say about your product or service, people will listen. Or read. Even if there are quite a few words.

The title of this post.

The title of this post is a bit naughty, because the information promised in the headline isn't delivered. That's not something I'd suggest you do in your advertising. But I'd bet fifty pence of someone else's money that if you work in advertising, you wanted to read on and find out what it said.

Which I guess was Max Hart's ad agent's point.

And Gossage's, come to that.