Don't snicker at eye catching labels...

If you've had a successful product for years and everyone knows its name you might need to plan for marketing before you start to blend in. Even after a successful campaign or shelf life, ads still need to catch your eye in the middle of a crowded street or store.

New and funny or moving messages need to be incorporated into every aspect of your business so they always stand out.

If you see a red cross stamped on a folder, a bald muscular guy cleaning tile, or a gecko dancing across a billboard, you immediately recognize the companies. If you see a Toucan lurking around in the cereal aisle you’ll remember Fruit Loops and if you see yellow arches down the street you know what’s there.

Snickers doesn’t have a mascot or ubiquitous storefront symbol and it always relied on its plain brown wrapper and large label name. It worked for years, decades, and it was always easy to spot a Snickers candy bar in the small displays. Years later the internet and mass advertising in stores and streets has shrouded the world in 24/7 moving color and image. Add a saturated candy market with a zillion options and longer aisles and Snickers had to rethink their labels.

It’s a rule of marketing to engage your audience and feed their needs. Whet the ego’s appetite and you can win an audience that wants to engage, feel part of the game, the joke, the experience. Snickers started a line of new labels that at first were different names so just like choosing yourself on a keychain you could choose yourself in a candy bar. Then they added to the fun and made choosing a cheap candy bar a sharing experience so you could buy your friend a bar that said either your state of mind or his.

The labels match their ad campaign that insists you will feel better after eating a Snickers bar. The before and after TV ads are funny and eye catching and the product labels, while simpler, are just as effective. Grumpy? Whiny? Confused? Eat this and you won’t be. Chew on that the next time you think about marketing messages…What does your message do?

Morty Silber, CEO

Mad Strategies Inc.
a Wizard of Ads Partner

There’s a reason people who don’t even like cats watch cat videos. They’re cute. They take us away from the daily grind and make us smile over something innocent and sweet—which is in short supply today. With cat or dog videos we just smile instinctively a natural child-like smile...and we don’t feel provoked or manipulated into thinking or feeling. But are we? We all care more when we see an animal in a movie get hurt versus yet another bleeding human because the animal is the innocent bystander of our crazy lives.

Companies use animals in all sorts of ads because they know people love to watch animals doing goofy things, interact with humans, and display those pure emotions. Every day we see or interact with hundreds of people either through mass transit commuting, working in an office or building, or even interacting online. Nowadays not seeing a human is the rarity and seeing animals still surprising.

Ads that feature cute or unusual animal faces – especially ones that express almost human emotion -- catch our attention and speak to us in a light hearted way. Panasonic’s close-up of a gorilla is not only hilarious it catches our attention because he’s staring right at us...and in a goofy way. The gorilla is trying to focus but we are “so close” that it goes cross-eyed or we are so close that we see its crazy expression. How close can you get with a Panasonic lens? Apparently very close. As kids we all crossed our eyes to make our friends laugh so we are also subtly reminded to be silly and smile...which is what taking pictures and making memories is all about.

Clearly, animal ads don’t have to be about pet products. They just need to use the 'irresistibility' factor to speak where a human message would be dull.  The wide-eyed dog promoting turkey is doing what dogs do best—beg adorably. No one can resist cute or funny pets and these ads prove that we will listen if an animal speaks.  

Morty Silber, CEO

Mad Strategies Inc.
a Wizard of Ads Partner

Re-focus your message…

In film, switching point of view is used to get the audience’s attention. When the camera moves from one perspective to another your focus changes to what’s important. The switch can surprise you which helps keep your brain engaged. Those first few minutes are critical to ensuring you don’t change the channel on a commercial or turn the page of a magazine while looking at an ad.

Gerber mastered the art of point of view and maximizing focus in their series of baby food commercials that featured taste testers and a “Chew University” in 2015. Their ads continue to run because they captivate everyone. They play endlessly on Youtube because who doesn’t love looking at smiling babies?

They not only use a changing POV they are very clever in their choice of initial focus. First they show  a woman who is seemingly talking to us- the audience- so we listen as we would to a teacher…but then the focus shifts to a room full of giggling babies (Giggling babies according to Fast Company is one of the 10 most addictive sounds in the world!)

We thought she was talking to a taste panel but we don’t realize who the panel is until the cute surprise. Gerber also chose their panel leader perfectly. Her wide, round, blue eyes and big smile look like a baby’s so right away we are already subconsciously thinking about babies even before the reveal.

Ads need to catch you or surprise you, make you feel something or call you to act...all in a clear message that gets your attention and keeps it. Gerber knows the challenges parents face and chose their tone of ad well. Babies elicit a positive response no matter what…and even at one of their most frustrating times—feeding time—they can be adorable but feeding a baby can be tough. Gerber makes sure we associate their baby food with a joyful meal time so we are all happy…because no one wants to see a baby unhappy.

Does your ad make us want to watch it over and over?

Morty Silber, CEO

Mad Strategies Inc.
a Wizard of Ads Partner