Last week CTV sold me a Creedence Clearwater Revival CD (Chronicle, it was, in case you’re interested). CTV wasn’t intending to sell me the CD, and they get none of the profits, but they sold it to me nonetheless.
What they were trying to sell me is a new show called Cold Case, Jerry Bruckheimer’s homage to Canada’s successful Cold Squad. The thing is, the moody promo CTV happens to be running for the show is set to ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain?’ a CCR chestnut I hadn’t heard in ages. And as soon as I heard it, I had to satisfy my sudden craving for some soulful ‘cottage music.’
Now I bring this up because I think it’s a common occurrence. Dirty Vegas CDs experienced a bump in sales thanks to Mitsubishi’s trippy ‘Days Go By’ spot, Quebec’s Milk Marketing Board was almost single-handedly responsible for reviving the career of Belgian crooner Adamo in Quebec, and who knows how much Moby owes to commercials (although I think he eventually found the limits of just how far musicians can co-opt advertising).
What I find most interesting about all of this is the idea that spots are selling stuff they aren’t intending to sell at all. That a carefully crafted commercial could actually send quite a different message to consumers than the one intended.
It happens because broadcasting a spot is only half the battle. After the message has lingered in the ether for a nanosecond, it’s time to worry about reception.
And worry you should. Because consumers hear snippets of the dialogue while they’re in the kitchen, they catch a two-second glimpse of your spot when they look up from a magazine. They see your transit ad go by at 50 kilometres an hour as the subway pulls out of the station.
Pharmaceutical companies, which have recently moved a step closer to getting Canada’s stringent direct-to-consumer advertising regulations reviewed (see ‘Counter Strategy,’ p. 2) should be particularly concerned. Everyone’s seen the U.S. ads with their long lists of side effects, and there are some indications that the dire warnings of upset stomach, dry mouth (and much worse) leave a stronger impression than the benefits touted up front. Not the message intended, of course, but it’s the message received that counts.
Luckily, there’s a whole new type of media planner coming to agencies across Canada to help solve this problem.
These planners have many names – consumer contact planners (CCPs), contact innovators, connection strategists – but all have the same basic function: to ensure that the right people get the right message (see ‘Meet the CCP’ on the cover of Strategy MEDIA).
How do they do this? Well as Esther Franklin, CCP at Starcom Worldwide in Chicago, relates on page 10 of the MEDIA section, it can be as simple as sitting down for ‘girlfriend group’ with both African-American and Caucasian women and realizing that almost all of the women in the first group rate themselves a 10 on the beauty scale, whereas their white counterparts feel themselves to be more like fives. It’s about delving into preconceptions and cultural influences that shade how any advertising message is received and interpreted.
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Finally, I’d like to take a moment to shamelessly promote a special upcoming article that’s all about how marketers can get the right message to the right people…even when their hands are tied behind their backs.
I’m speaking, of course, about the tobacco marketers, and the fact that one of their last refuges of communication, sponsorship, will be pinched off on Oct. 1 (whether Bernie Ecclestone drops Montreal from the Formula One circuit or not, by the looks of it).
The result of a month-long investigation by associate editor Lisa D’Innocenzo, the story finds that while frustrated at every turn, big tobacco hasn’t quite given up on marketing yet. Look for it in the next issue of Strategy.
Duncan Hood
Editor
dhood@brunico.com
