Lately for Saudi Day (September 19) Heinz went brandless and coloured itself with the colours of the Saudi flag. The purpose was to specific “our irrational act of affection to affix our Saudi shoppers in celebrating the Kingdom with its wealthy tradition, heritage, and unity,” in line with Passant El Ghannam, Head of Advertising at Kraft Heinz MEA. I can already see the case introduced to promoting awards – “we allowed shoppers to scan QR codes to share their very own messages of pleasure, we employed in situ calligraphers to personalize the bottles in order for shoppers to maintain one-of-a-kind mementos, and gross sales grew by (insert spectacular quantity right here)”. The entire thing reeks of promoting awards somewhat than a traditional marketing campaign focused in the direction of shoppers.
A protracted very long time in the past (2003 to be particular), an company in KSA I used to be working in was contacted by newspapers telling them that GMC was launching an enormous marketing campaign the subsequent day. Since we represented Toyota they needed to know if we have been going to launch something ourselves. That very same day – a statistic fell into our lap: KSA was the second worldwide proprietor of Toyota Landcruiser per capita on the earth after Japan. The consumer servicing threw it at us and actually gave us about ten minutes to get an advert accomplished as he was off to go to the consumer. I raked my brains and got here up with the Al Mutanabi verse:
وتصغر في عين العظيم العظائم
And the higher issues appear insignificant within the eye of the mighty.
I requested if there was a photograph of a Landcruiser within the Saudi desert at evening and slapped a textual content that went that went – we had nothing to do with it, it was all due to you (the buyer) and went on profusely thanking Toyota Landcruiser house owners for his or her loyalty, good style, religion and many others, and many others.
To say that the advert took the dominion by storm the subsequent day was promoting it quick. The GMC marketing campaign was merely not talked about whereas each Saudi was congratulating themselves for selecting a Landcruiser. Perhaps, it in the present day’s world this may be an “award-winning” advert. However who cares? The tip purchasers liked it, felt pleasure in it, in fact it doesn’t harm that the company consumer (Toyota) authorised it swiftly and was additionally extremely happy with it.
However that is what is occurring as of late – each different advert is regarded as an award-winning contestant somewhat than one aimed on the finish consumer, who will purchase, take pleasure, be devoted to the model, and hopefully will propagate by phrase of mouth to individuals he/she is aware of or cares about. As a result of awards shouldn’t be the purpose of an advert, or any advert marketing campaign. Certain, if it does produce awards a lot the higher, however focusing solely on adverts above the priority of concentrating on the buyer is really like placing the cart earlier than the horse.
I stated it once more and can say it as soon as extra, each advert has three functions it doesn’t matter what model it represents: to introduce a product, to entice the buyer to need it, and to inform the buyer that the product is offered out there.
Successful awards will not be a part of the preliminary plan.
