Spot the difference: why is everyone making the same ads?
Brands continue to serve up the same content as their competitors and wonder why it doesn’t cut through. 3rdspace Communications’ Rob Logan shares the worst offenders.
Take few moments to watch the two videos below. What do you notice about them?
What would be better for jewelry? An unattractive model, and the product left out of the creative?
What about something with an idea?
We used to call it Isomorphism, the tendency for all structures to be in so many ways similar.
Today we have created an environment which is perfect for isomorphism, it is driven by the mono culture and the deep seated fear of expressing an idea, any idea which risks running foul of the supposed acceptable norm, the politically correct view, or the brand new and ever tightening status quo.
Creative means being free to express ideas, so called “blue sky thinking” ( I hate that expression) or risk taking, the golden rule of the no rules associated with Creativity, is that there must be a certain amount of reckless abandon. We have cloistered ourselves in socio – political bullshit, and lost sight of real ideas and real expression.
The only time I see a video ad now is in the cinema if I’m paying attention. Occasionally the odd add on a commercial tv steaming service. I imagine a lot of people are the same and see very few commercials. So showing the product simply and what it does is a lot more interesting to me than trying to create an emotional attachment. Honestly most ads now should be a web address and a brief explanation of the product begging us to look it up if we are interested.
Oh, well perhaps we should just go monochrome and have a line drawing and a description like the original newspapers. I fear that the brain will seize up, and become more like a bar code scanner, requiring only subliminal flashes if we follow the road you suggest.