The Eight Greatest Lies

1. You must have a unique selling proposition.

There was a time when products did have a unique difference, and had a USP.

However today research is shared and companies have come together due to economical reasons. With great quality, brands have fewer differences, and it is not easy to have a USP.

This is where Unique Emotional Proposition (UEP) comes in. Give your product a certain perspective. Have a unique style, flavour or attitude to your product. This will enable Top of mind recall.

2. You must offer a rational benefit.

In advertising rational proposition, have been thought to have substance, that it will be believable and effective.

This is not true. Take the classic Volkswagen Campaign, “It’s ugly but it works”. The campaign is plays with the audience on an emotional level, rather than of a rational one.

Humans are not rational being. The best way to do advertisement is to have a balance between rational and emotional arguments.

3. Humour doesn’t sell.

Humour is best used in a campaign format, and it is used selectively for brands. For example if IBM came out with the funniest campaign in the world, it would not feel right with the audience.

French says that humour sells. Most door to door sales tend to use humour on their audience. Advertising is about entertaining people. Humour is able to stimulate and amuse the audience.

4. You must have a memorable slogan.

Slogans are traditionally meant to deliver the final clincher to the advertisement. However many have become meaningless wordplay.

Oberlander believes that consumers hate taglines and jingles.

Warsop’s advice is to use a strap line if it makes a powerful, distinctive brand statement. Straplines which appear under logo’s is a way to promote a brand positioning line. A strapline and a brand proposition line- a hybrid is effective- example Tag Heuer’s “Success. It’s a mind game.”

5. You must have a logo in the AD.

According to French, a logo is like signing letter and people should know through the writing style, handwriting and content, who the writer is.

Removing the logo, makes ad look much less than an ad.

Logo’s have some history. For example BMW has a white propeller against a blue sky, symbolizing its aircraft engine origins. So why bury them….

Warsop points out that an ad does not become more effective by inclusion of a logo.

6. You must show the product in the Ad.

According to Guido Heffels, “We are not paid to put a product in an ad, but in the consumer’s mind”

The style of the advertisement should portray the style of the product. An ad showing a rainstorm of cigarettes beating down on gold umbrellas, everyone knew it was Benson & Hedges.

French believes that if the product is to be bought off the shelf, pack recognition is important and should be shown in the ad. However there is an exception when you are selling something that is different from anything else.

According to Bildsten you are selling a promise, not a product.

7. Every ad in a campaign must look the same.

According to Fishlock ads rather than looking the same, should feel the same.

A new ad gives the campaign a new look every time, keeping it fresh and with surprises. There should be some elements that should be consistent, elements of a visual turf which includes the kind of photography, colour, and typography. However the format should be flexible, so that the ad looks like a step-brother and not a twin in an ad campaign.

Abbot says that you can also mix visual and long copy ad and it bring a spontaneity in the campaign.

8. Creative ad don’t sell.

According to French, the word creative has been abused. It means finding an interesting thing to say about a boring thing, and the more interesting it is the creative it becomes.

The One Creative Truth: Every Ad Must Have an Idea in it.

According to Heffels, every ad should have an idea and an execution cann’t be an idea.

French believes execution sets the tone of voice, but does not replace the idea.

David Droga states that execution makes fifty or more percent of the ad, but there is a danger of being over executed and the idea may get hidden below the surface.

According to Delaney, execution signals to people a kind of craft in the execution, which signals the conviction about the product.

French’s logic is that he cannot think if any famous ad that was produced only using execution, and if he cann’t then it does not work.