As I said earlier, a lot of (or most) communicators believe that the name of the game is to get an audience’s attention. But I believe that the real key to success lies in capturing an audience’s imagination.
Big difference.
The legendary ad man, Hal Riney, the genius behind the famous Bartles & Jaymes commercials and the iconic Saturn campaigns, was asked what differentiated his television commercials from everyone else’s. His response was that most other advertising people approached a commercial as if they were filling a four-sided box … like a television screen. His secret, Riney said, was that his “box” had only three sides. He left the bottom open, he explained, “to let the viewers’ emotions in.”
That’s a pretty good explanation. When you capture an audience’s imagination, you make an emotional connection. By contrast, when you simply get an audience’s attention, you make a sensory connection – often in the form of fast-paced visuals, loud music, shocking imagery, etc.
Think back to this year’s Super Bowl commercials. Which one do you remember most? Why? Was it because they provoked some kind of emotional response? Did it make you laugh? Did it “give you chills?” Did it come at you from an unexpected place in an unexpected way? My favorite was the VW “Darth Vader” spot.
I had no idea where it was going, and when the kid’s father started the car with the remote it just knocked me out. Now, did it sell any Volkswagen Jettas? Hell if I know. This blog’s about innovation. And that spot was pretty damn innovative.
So, too, was the Chrysler commercial with Eminem.
Since I live in Detroit, it made a distinct emotional connection. From what I read, it provoked the same reaction from people who’ve never even been to the Motor City.
As I mentioned in previous posts, my company used to be in the business of creating and producing automotive press events at major auto shows around the world. This is one of the most competitive stages in marketing – 35 or 40 brands, all competing for essentially the same headlines and the same news stories. A front page story was a win. A page 4 story was a fail. A lead story on the TV news was a major victory. A quick cut in a video montage was the pits.
You get the picture. High stakes. High stress. And every brand has a specified time slot in which they get to trot out their stuff for the same audience of international media.
We didn’t always win … but we won often enough to regularly piss off the competition. We made emotional connections by coming at this jaded audience from places … and in ways … they didn’t expect.
We had a Jeep escape to the great outdoors from the confines of the convention center by crashing – live – through a huge plate glass window.
With the president of the company in the passenger’s seat.
We stampeded over 100 Texas longhorn steers through the streets to introduce a pickup truck that was “separating itself from the herd.”
We celebrated a client’s “blizzard” of new products by creating a snowstorm and burying 6,000 journalists under four inches of paper snow.
You get the picture.
Most of the time it worked. In upcoming posts I’ll share some (pretty funny) behind-the-scenes stories of things that didn’t work.
We clearly pushed the creative envelope. One highly-respected news outlet said of our client’s press events: “Sometimes they’re over the top, but no one ever wants to miss one – because if you do, you’re going to hear about it within the hour from someone else.”
Does that constitute capturing an audience’s imagination? I think it’s pretty close.
Until next time …
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