I've spoken previously many times about the importance of getting people to ACT and not just RECEIVE a message. The whole industry has been hijacked by ad agencies flogging 'emotional advertising' ('Lovemark anyone?') for too long. The choice has always been is it emotional or rational advertising (for the record if you're after passive advertising demand both).
That is, connect at an 'emotional' level and that would result in behavioural change (Action). However, there is an alternative I call 'Action Advertising'. This is advertising with a goal of jumping straight to Action. The thinking being, get someone to ACT and they'll then build a stronger emotional connection with your brand anyway (for the reason why see previous blog posts).
There are a number of reasons, we still don't see much of this style of advertising:
a) Arrogance: Advertising encouraging Action is seen by many ad agencies (and clients) as promotional (I remember the head of a multi-national agency in Melbourne telling me once 'Adam we don't do that form of advertising here'.
b) Ignorance: Very few people in advertising agencies have studied behavioural change. They study advertising.
c) Technology: Up until recently we haven't been able to encourage Action so easily. We've showed 'advertising' that was passively received. It seemed futile to encourage someone to ACT at 7.30pm lying in front of the TV after a hard day.
Advertising that asks for action is still only a tiny proportion of all communications created. So things are going to change, but slowly. And the biggest barrier to encouraging action, as a client recently pointed out to me is that it's plain and simple difficult. Relatively, it's not that hard to create a TV ad that interrupts people's enjoyment. However, it's extremely difficult to create something so compelling that people choose to interACT with it. To do this we need bigger and better ideas, and therefore bigger and better human understanding.
Finally, here is an example how not to do it. It's worth noting that now ALL media is interactive. All media can encourage immediate action with a phone number, SMS, QR code, URL, Twitter, etc.
However, just because you should doesn't mean you can! Check out this ad above. It asks you to push a button, I don't know why. I pushed it a few times but nothing happened. Like I said, encouraging ACTION is difficult - but when you get an idea good enough to inspire action it will reward you well.
19 comments:
Action Advertising - just what we need more jargon
Action Advertising ... or a Call To Act? Whatever name you want to put on it, any call/action has to resonate with the audience. In your beverage example, I'm confused as to what the button pushing was to achieve other than have people touching a branded sign in public and looking confused. Begs to ask the question "Please explain".
Hi Adam, I like this. I disagree with ‘anonymous’ in their reference to your opinion being more adland ‘jargon’. As opposed to the multitude of meaningless ‘jargon’ this industry is stifled with, I find your point here to be quite straight forward and pertinent to what’s being discussed. While I agree the notion of what you’re talking about is difficult to achieve, the principle seems quite logical! After all, action speaks louder than words, does it not?
P.S. I find your point about the ‘arrogance and ignorance’ within the industry very amusing and testament to the fact that there really are too many people too concerned with their job ‘title’ rather than job ‘function’! That’s a WHOLE other issue in itself!
I hear ya
I think one thing to ad is that most of us work on commercial brands. has anyone ever worked for a government that is truly trying to make people change their behaviour for no commercial reason.
make people eat better, stop smoking, open a bank account, exercise more, drink less, have safe sex etc. the UK government has a huge amount of programs in play to do exactly this and they are the biggest spender in the country.
Its emotional for the individual but not for the cause. This is an example of what your saying Adam. Who has an emotional attachment to the brand 'change4life' no one cares. What we care about is people eating more fruit, less saturated fats etc. The action not the feeling.
I am a huge fan of Droga5s 'Million' campaign for NY schools. He used technology to truly change kids behaviour. Not trying to sell them an emotional to a brand. But in turn their actions gained reward
problem with our industry is that we have a number of 'techniques' that we have used to years. Problem is those techniques arent as strong as they used to be and the problems we are solving are also changing very rapidly.
nice post adam,its an issue we have had pitching for government business as we go in with brand style thinking which is usually very wrong.
check out the morrisons lets grow IPA effectiveness winner for 2009
http://www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk/Home
in light of yesterdays ramblings... here is something the COI (UK gov comms dept) wrote on changing behaviour. Its pretty bloody good and due to it being for the gov its free to download
http://coi.gov.uk/aboutcoi.php?page=328
enjoy
The question remains, Will action-advertising lead to better marketing? What if the consumer watches an emotional ad of an insurance company and then goes buying insurance from another insurance company?
http://cognitive-emotion.blogspot.com/2010/01/action-advertisement.html
Mike
Its responses like yours (both your opinions and the practicle guide to the COI stuff) that make writing a blog worth while.
Thank you very much.
Ditto @mikej: thanks for the link to that report. bloody useful.
Adam: great post, too.
Nice article. Bookmarked.
I have two comments though.
1) It's well established that action (behaviour) and emotion are connected (perhaps in a different order than that) and so the two shouldn't be seen as mutually exclusive - in fact they are intrinsically tied together.
2) If your ad is successful in making someone feel something, like wanting to buy your product or explore your campaign more, why would you not give them a hook with which to do that?
Adam,
Are you not simply referring to Brand vs Direct Response advertising?
Working on a large financial institution account (all day and every day), alot of what we do aims to incite action.
This is usually using digital technology and analytics coupled with strong creative messaging. Together these can create a true Call To Action.
I agree there is a lot of emotional advertising (eg Schweppes Ballons TVC) which don't incite action.
But most big brands with integrated campaigns and multiple projects on the go target various points in the Funnel (i.e. from Awareness through to Intent to actual Action).
As long as you specify what you want out the brief, action or awareness - it should meet the objectives desired.
@Tim not much more I can say than I agree.
@Marek, at the risk of sounding like a wanker I suggest you re-read the piece. What you are saying is the opposite of what I suggest. Im saying why bother doing the emotive brand building stuff. If you are trying to build an emotional connection - get them to act ALWAYS, just do it in a brand building way. No matter where you are on the purchase funnel interaction with the brand will be a stronger influence on engagement (I think) than simply receiving a message passively.
Thanks for your contribution - it's not fully worked out - but the answers all lead to action always.
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