Redundancy in Advertising? Redundancy in Advertising? Or Advertising in Redundancy…
You know what’s annoying? Advertising. At this day in age marketers know more about their consumer than they ever have. It can feel like the marketing agencies mine more information out of you than miners mined gold during the gold rush!
This is why I do not understand why we constantly get hit with the same ad, with the same message, all the freakin time. But with a few quick strokes of the keyboard and a handful of Google queries later I found some interesting statistics about repetition patterns of and marketing messages!
But first, why does every 7 year old know all of these catch phrases? Are they going to buy Nyquil at the store or is the mom? Check out this list to see just how many ring a bell…
What happens here, stays here. (used for 10 over years, starting in 2004)
Good to the last drop. (used for over 97 years, starting in 1917)
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (used for over 60 years, since 1954)
Breakfast of Champions. (used for over 87 years, starting in 1927)
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is. (used for over 43 years, starting in 1971)
The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching head, fever so you can get rest medicine.
We know these messages because companies present the facts from different angles. They use messages from different platforms. For example, a televisions spot is going to have a much different message than a simple tweet. In fact, social media is often the buzz creator and it is not uncommon to have three to five tweets all linking to the same landing page!
In essence, different platforms require brands to hit their target markets with more messages! But what if brands could talk directly to an individual? Well, they try to, but you always delete them! I am referring to emails that come directly from brands! Email is still very much a relevant way to reach consumers, and now more than ever marketers can tailor information for each customer. Even Constant Contact is a platform that enables personalized headlines and product suggestions. Did you know that customers are 200% more likely to click a call to action if the email is personalized to their individual characteristics?
Social media is a two-way street for some companies, they take the time to thoughtfully respond to post and to #Hashtags of their brand. But this takes manpower, and some of the biggest brands in the retail industry have ignored the underlying rules of social media and ignore customer comments. They just keep pushing new post, new deals, or call to actions and expect their customers to just click on them! I would suggest trying to solve the customer's problem by interacting with them to get to the room of the problem instead of glossing over the real issue.
Repetition has given marketing a bad reputation, but maybe in the near future it can be part of the solution as we adapt to better optimize marketing messages and target individual needs.
Thomas Smith, in his book “Successful Advertising,” makes the following reflection on effective frequency:
The 1st time people look at ad, they don’t see it. The 2nd time, they don’t notice it. The 3rd time, they are aware that it is there. The 4th time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it before. The 5th time, they actually read the ad. The 6th time, they thumb their nose at it. The 7th time, they get a little irritated with it. The 8th time, they think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.” The 9th time, they wonder if they’re missing out on something. The 10th time, they ask their friends or neighbors if they’ve tried it. The 11th time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads. The 12th time, they start to think that it must be a good product. The 13th time, they start to feel the product has value. The 14th time, they start to feel like they’ve wanted a product like this for a long time. The 15th time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it. The 16th time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future. The 17th time, they make a commitment to buy the product. The 18th time, they curse their poverty because they can’t buy this terrific product. The 19th time, they count their money very carefully. The 20th time prospects see the ad, they buy what it is offering.
Now consider this: Mr. Smith wrote this insight in 1885 — over 130 years ago! It is amazing how little things can change. BUT it is also amazing how fast things change; seems like yesterday we were designing full page Delta Airline ads for the New York Times but now we are creating ity-bity little banner ads on smartphones to impress ourselves!
