Посты с тэгом: advertising tools

Marketing Innovation: Chicken and the Absurd Alternative Tool

Published date: March 7, 2016 в 3:00 am

Written by:

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ,,,,

Jacob Goldenberg, in his book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” describes eight creative patterns that are embedded in most innovative, award- winning commercials. The tools are:

  1. Unification
  2. Activation
  3. Metaphor
  4. Subtraction
  5. Extreme Consequence
  6. Absurd Alternative
  7. Inversion
  8. Extreme Effort

One of my favorites is the Absurd Alternative Tool. It works by offering exaggerated alternatives to using the product or service to highlight the benefit. But the key is to make the alternative truly absurd. Otherwise viewers can get confused.
Here’s a great example fromTyson Chicken that is so simple and effective:

To use the Absurd Alternative Tool, first identify the key benefit you want to promote in the advertisement. If your product or brand is already well-understood in the marketplace, you should select a secondary benefit to emphasize instead to get more value for your advertising budget.
With the benefit in mind, think of an exaggerated or ridiculous way the customer could obtain the benefit instead of using your product. Then communicate the message by juxtaposing the two alternatives (yours and the absurd one) in the advertisement. Here’s an another example in a print ad:
Volvo

Marketing Innovation: The Subtraction Tool in Saint Gobain Commercials

Published date: May 20, 2013 в 10:31 am

Written by:

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ,,,,

The Subtraction tool works by removing elements generally considered essential to the situation. The tool can be used in any marketing communications medium (television, print, and so on).  The tool works by drawing your attention to the missing component.  As a result, the ad is more memorable.

Subtraction 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

Here is an example from the French multinational, Saint Gobain, a manufacturer of construction, materials, and packaging products. To highlight the superiority of one of its product lines, it released  a series of commercials including this one:

What makes this example more interesting is the “fusion” of the message and product. The glass is so superior that it seems “subtracted” from the situation.  Only until we see the surprising fog on the glass do we realize the message. The commercial not only has this nice element of humor, but it also has a sense of simplicity and “ideality” – the solution appears only when needed.

To use the Subtraction tool, make a list of the components of the situation. Remove what seems to be an essential one.  Imagine telling the story without this component and test how strongly the viewer’s mind will interpret the situation with the component. Make the message, brand, and missing element fuse together into one memorable visual experience.

Marketing Innovation: The Activation Tool Using Smartphones

Published date: September 12, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by:

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ,,,

The Activation Tool is one of the most effective but underused tools in advertising.  Commercials based on this tool work well because they make your marketing message stand out in the sea of advertising. They engage the viewer to participate, either mentally or physically.  Instead of just reading, watching, or listening to the message, the viewer is required to take an active part.  This causes a dynamic sensory experience so memorable that the viewer is more likely to remember the commercials main message.

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

The Activation Tool is particularly effective when you want to 1. make the target audience aware of a problem, or 2. make the target audience aware of the benefit or solution that your product delivers.  The key is to get the viewer highly involved.  With smart phone technology, advertisers have a whole new medium to do that.  Here is an example:

Super Bowl Innovation

Published date: February 7, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by:

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ,,,

At $3 million dollars for a thirty second spot, Super Bowl advertisers need to create the best, most innovative commercials possible.  How?  Creating innovative TV commercials is more effective when using patterns embedded in other innovative commercials.  Professor Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues discovered that 89% of 200 award winning ads fall into a few simple, well-defined design structures.  Their book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” defines eight of these structures and provides a step-by-step approach to use them.

Here are the eight tools:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort
Let’s see how well 2011 Super Bowl ads fit these patterns.

Marketing Innovation: The Inversion Tool

Published date: November 15, 2010 в 3:00 am

Written by:

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ,,,

Creating innovative TV commercials is more effective when using patterns embedded in other innovative commercials.  Professor Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues discovered that 89% of 200 award winning ads fall into a few simple, well-defined design structures.  Their latest book, "Cracking the Ad Code," defines eight of these structures and provides a step-by-step approach to use them.

Here are the eight tools:
   1. Unification
   2. Activation
   3. Metaphor
   4. Subtraction
   5. Extreme Consequence
   6. Absurd Alternative
   7. Inversion
   8. Extreme Effort

The Inversion Tool conveys what would happen if you didn’t have the product…in an extreme way.  It show the benefits “lost”  by not using the product.  While it produces memorable commercials, it should  be used only when the brand and its benefits are understood by the viewer. 

To use the Inversion Tool, start with the components of the brand promise.  Take each one away one at a time and envision in what ways the consumer would be affected…in an extreme way…if it did not have this aspect of the promise.

Here are two examples of the Inversion Tool:


Get our innovation model that has worked for 1000+ companies.

    No thanks, not now.