The Unification Tool is a tricky but effective advertising tool. Unification recruits an existing resource and forces it to carry the advertising message. That resource can come from within the medium itself or within the environment of the medium. In other words, the tool uses an existing component of the medium or of its environment in a way that demonstrates the problem or the promise to be delivered.
The tool is one of eight patterns embedded in most innovative commercials. Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe these simple, well-defined design structures in their book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” and provide a step-by-step approach to using them. The tools are:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort
There are two ways to use Unification. First, take the medium (television, billboard, radio, and so on) and manipulate it so that some feature or aspect of the medium carries the message in a unique way. The second approach works in the other direction – start with the message, then look at the components in the consumer’s environment and recruit one to carry the message in a clever way.
Great television commercials deliver the right message in a creative way. Great commercials are memorable. The longer customers remember your commercial, the more cost effective the campaign.
One way to make memorable ads is to make them funny and vivid. The Vividness Effect causes people to recall experiences and images that stand out in their minds. Images of wild creatures like sharks, for example, tend to be good choices to create vividness. But just showing sharks in a commercial is not enough. They have to be fused to the core marketing message – the value proposition. That is where you need a structured innovation method to channel the creativity process and regulate your thinking.
Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe eight such tools in their book, "Cracking the Ad Code," and provide a step-by-step approach to using them. The tools are 1. Unification 2. Activation 3. Metaphor 4. Subtraction 5. Extreme Consequence 6. Absurd Alternative 7. Inversion and 8.Extreme Effort.
Let's look at two examples. The first uses the EXTREME CONSEQUENCE tool. This tool conveys the absurd result of using the product or service. By over exaggerating the brand promise, the ad is viewed as clever and credible versus traditional exaggeration. It is particularly useful when the product is well-understood. These ads can help viewers see secondary attributes in new ways. Snickers does this well in this 2011 commercial. The exaggeration here is: "Snickers is so good that sharks prefer to eat humans who have eaten a Snickers bar."