Posted by Seth Godin on August 30, 2016
American Airlines doesn't know
what to say.
And they're having a lot of
trouble saying it.
They're making a fortune this
year due to low oil prices, and one way to manage shareholder expectations for
the future is to put some of that profit into brand advertising. And so,
they hired a fancy ad agency and started to run full-page, two-sided,
glossy inserts in newspapers. The single ad I'm looking at cost at
least $100,000. And I might be one of a hundred people who are actually reading
it.
The copy-dense ad
includes references to babies, red-eyes, noise, middle seats, lessons
learned, 'relinquish', making the best of the situation and the ability to
sleep anywhere. All told in an odd third-person, referring to the hero as
"they" not "you."
With a layout that's so
confusing that there's a big arrow that says "start here".
Some
things worth remembering:
Ads can still work, especially
ads with consistent budgets, excellent copywriting, smart frequency and a
thoughtful strategy. Easier said than done.
Great products work far better
than great ads do. And the key part of a great service-based product is
service, which is totally up to you, the marketer.
Direct marketing is measured,
brand marketing is long-term and aspirational.
Simple test for brand
marketing: If I can substitute one company for another and have the ad still
make sense, it's not a good ad.
For thirty years, the airlines
have relentlessly trained travelers to spend as little as possible on a seat,
offering generic alternatives and contemptuous, confusing pricing policies. To
blame the state of travel on the passenger ("Let's move that conversation
from us and turn it onto them..." said Fernand Fernandez, VP of global
marketing at AA) doesn't feel like the foundation for a great marketing
campaign, does it?
The lesson for anyone spending
money on ads: it pays to be consistent, generous and thoughtful when you build
an ad campaign.
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