“When it comes to design, a product is not beautiful because it looks so. A product is beautiful because it is right.”
Let’s add to this and say that the product will only look right if it has been advertised correctly.
For designers, this is the gospel truth. We tend to fall in love with products not for their visual charm but because they perform a function so seamlessly that it is hard not to see the beauty in them. But consumers, first fall in love with the product by the way it has been advertised or portrayed to them and not with the product itself. Yes, we don’t realize this as consumers and we may say that we love the the iPhone X; it’s 7.7 mm sleek design, 5.8 inch all-screen OLED Multi-Touch Retina screen display and the new body and face detection has blown our minds. Well of course, it definitely has, but have you ever stopped to wonder how do we know all these specifications? Did we actually sit with a scale and measure the screen? NO! We’ve seen this in the ads of the product. Bazinga!
The previous post I wrote glorified the user as the number one determinant of a product’s life cycle. This one is a corollary describing how that power is exercised and the factors that contribute to the success of a particular design/product. Media Planning and advertising on the right platforms is crucial in this digital age. For the past several years, it has become a popular opinion that TV advertising, like a lot of other traditional forms of advertising (ex. Radio Advertising, Digital Billboard Advertising, and other forms of print advertising, such as Newspapers and Magazines) are on their way to being extinct. But this is far from the truth! If anything, TV is redefining its importance to audiences and advertisers with massive reach and familiarity as a trustful source to obtain information, news, and entertainment.
Television has held the title of the largest mass medium used for advertising for more than 60 years, and that designation has not been overtaken even with the growth of the internet. Television is an important component of a media plan because of its pervasiveness, impact and targeting abilities.Advertising on TV offers a number of benefits to businesses by incorporating sound, images and movement to make the whole package interesting for consumers. Ads that capture the attention of the audience can start consumers talking, effectively reaffirming the advertising message. In addition, cable advertising allows businesses to target very specific geographic areas at a lower cost than major network advertising.
But, the actual impact of an individual television ad depends on the kind of product being advertised. Some product categories are just naturally more interesting than others. More important is the creativity of the message itself.
This is where specialists in television advertising truly earn their paychecks as it is their job to create ads that break through the clutter of television advertising, get attention, communicate its unique selling proposition and so position the product for a sale. Television advertising has established a pantheon of highly regarded brands and brand icons like the Pillsbury Doughboy, Michelin Tire Man and Tony the Tiger.
So, why does Television Advertising work today even though social media has taken over the world. Firstly, the REACH. One of the benefits of TV advertising is its ability to communicate with a very large audience. Considered a form of mass media, TV ads work well to attract attention, generate awareness and establish preference for products and services. Because of the broad audience they target-particularly through major TV networks-TV ads tend to provide general, rather than very specific, messages.
Secondly, THE GROWING ABILITY TO DIFFERENTIATE. Despite the large audience reach of television, it’s important to note that the ability to target market segments has grown significantly over the years. Even network TV offers a wide range of programming options where ads are most likely to be viewed by specific target audience segments. With cable television advertising, advertisers can narrowly target specific market segments not only by placing their ads in specific programs but also choose specific zip-code areas for broadcasting the ads.
And thirdly, the MULTI-SENSORY DISPLAY. TV has always been able to appeal to multiple senses through its combination of text, images, sound and motion. While the development of effective TV spots require significant planning and the use of experienced, and often expensive, production experts, the value can be significant as well. It is its multi-sensory appeal that allows TV advertising to remain a viable option for many advertisers.
The main task at hand is to decide the what and the how. What kind of products gain engagement by TV ads and how do they do that? Asking the right question is the most important step to achieving life-changing media design solutions. Elon Musk, CEO of everything that this world needs, catapulted his way to success by asking himself –
What things would have a great impact on the future of humanity’s destiny?
He learned that the most difficult thing was to be able to come up with the right questions and the day he began to do that, the rest was obtained quite simply. Today his company, Tesla Motors, claims to bring about an electric car revolution that will free customers from oil burden. SpaceX, another one of his ventures, is in the thick of working on plans to colonize Mars in the event that Earth may not be habitable. And with Hyperloop, he plans to revolutionize the transport industry by introducing an altogether new form of travel. Elon Musk is the ideal designer of the digital age and it is his perspective on the world that allows him to change it.
Thus, it is important for media professionals to look at things differently. Since I have had a background in design, the first few examples that pop into my mind relate to, well, design. Said this, I also think that a media planner and a designer’s role might be different but both go by the same motto- ‘Uniquely Effective’. We both want to be different, but most of us lose the effectiveness of the campaign or the product in the greed to appear different.
When we see the FedEx logo, we don’t think of courier services, we think of the brilliant use of negative space between the E and X that forms an arrow. The Toblerone logo delights us not because of the nougat flavored chocolate, but because we smirk at the hidden bear in the mountain. Amazon doesn’t mean e-commerce to us, it means a website with an excellent interface coupled with a smooth experience. Uber just isn’t a cab service, it’s the company that developed a cohesive style guide for its brand. And Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) from The Devil wears Prada isn’t just another Hollywood character, she’s our spirit animal! Now that you know this, please forgive us for sometimes pointing out that the sweater you’re wearing isn’t just blue, it’s cerulean.
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