Ed Cotton of Butler Shine & Stern is asking some pertinent questions.
- Can people stand watching a campaign evolve over time or do you have to have a quick hit?
- Surely, the ever- shrinking window of personal communication must be having an impact of broad scale communication?
- Can we even be bothered to see phases of a campaign build and roll out over a two-month period from tease to reveal and on?
I think there’s still penty of room for sustained campaigns to evolve, as long as each new execution delivers a tangible new discovery. For instance, last night I happened to see Gwen Stefani’s HP spot. The big idea–that HP gives creative people the tools they need to do their best work–has been established. But each new character HP brings to the table deepens that idea and makes it all the more real. It seems to me that something solid that you can keep coming back to stands out from the pack in our click-click-click-consume-as-much-media-as-you-can world.
I think we have to create each of our ads with the thought in mind that our customer is only going to see it once, ever. Teasing-and-revealing may work with your brand believers, but that falls under the “preaching to the choir” category. Not something you can count on to attract new customers.
Each ad needs to compellingly communicate your message.
As long as that’s accomplished, then by all means, feel free to develop, evolve, and roll out. I think it’s super if interested consumers continually have new reasons to interact with the brand.
Althought interest may wane as people get used to these similarly themed ads starring the same people, the upside is that we are learning how to read them better and can get the message more quickly because we’re referencing earlier spots from the same campaign.