rethinking the commercial
Fellow voice over talent Roy Bunales introduced me to something on his Facebook page that I thought was very interesting. It was a video that I guess has been around for over a year and has had close to 2 million views. The video is below, it’s four minutes long and I’d like you to STOP reading now watch it and then return back here for a second for a brief discussion below the video.
Let me ask you honestly…did you see that ending coming? I didn’t see it coming but on Roy’s feed, their was no title. If you were watching on TV, you wouldn’t have seen that coming either.
What a story.
Were you bothered by the length? I wasn’t at all, I was engaged, yet its payoff very much made it a commercial.
What a story.
And that’s the message for you today: story.
We went through a time and place where if an image was on a screen for a half second, that was too long. Then it couldn’t be just one image, it had to be multiple images.
Now we are an audience in throes of on-going sensory overload. We tune out advertising more than we tune in.
How, then, do you make an actual impression in the viewer or listener’s mind: story.
Share a story (not tell).
Offer a message (not promote).
Develop a relationship (don’t talk down).
Create a community (not build an audience).
It will resonate with the viewer and they will bond with the message, the product or service. I will not soon forget this brand…nor will you I think.
Not all stories are great but a great story will fill an enormous void. When was the last time your advertising or marketing shared a story? Funny or dramatic?
What’s your reaction to this? Am I being unrealistic? Or did this message find you more deeply engaged than most advertising?
P.S. So a bit after I published this, I came across the following video that I think illustrates my point even more…by helping shift the way consumers might think about a company…German engineering made “fun”.
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