Ad Winds Will Shift in 1994 Campaigns to Stress Buying on the Spot
Madison Avenue’s top commercial creations have historically been catchy entertainment vehicles like dancing raisins and drum-beating bunnies.
But the talk of the ad world in 1994 probably won’t be rhythmic raisins or invincible rabbits. Beleaguered advertisers--hankering for product sales--know that snappy images may bring smiles, but they don’t always elicit sales. Brand-awareness campaigns can sometimes take years to show results. So in 1994--and perhaps for years to come--the focus of the ad industry is likely to be much more single-minded: coaxing consumers to buy on the spot.
The rousing success of the “infomercial” industry--whose advertisers now sell several billion dollars’ worth of goods annually through the targeted use of high-pressure TV messages--has combined with the effects of a sluggish economy to prompt this shift.
Many ad agencies that built their reputations crafting clever commercial images--tigers that roar and ketchup that won’t pour--may have to leave brand-building themes behind. Instead, they will increasingly create messages that prod consumers to act right away.
In 1994, many 30-second image-building spots will be replaced by mini infomercials--60- to 90-second TV spots that press consumers to send for information or to buy at that moment.
A growing number of infomercials will also entice viewers to order products via toll-free numbers. More top consumer product makers will flash 800 numbers on TV and include them in print ads. And some of the biggest names in advertising--particularly car makers--will test interactive technology that allows consumers to order with the push of a button.
“Next year, you’ll see 800 numbers on ads for everything from pantyhose to cake mixes,” said Steve Hayden, chairman of BBDO/Los Angeles. “The problem is, in a world of information overload, how many of these numbers will people actually call?”
Perhaps to help answer that question, BBDO in 1994 will combine two teams that may seem to be opposites: One will specialize in creating image-building ads and one will consist of ad people who have made their mark getting consumers to act immediately.
Experts from BBDO’s new Minneapolis-based sales promotion and direct marketing division will join employees in its San Francisco office who specialize in more conventional advertising. One of their first projects will be to help devise new strategies for Apple Computer.
Makers of big-ticket items like cars are hunting especially hard for ways to more closely target their likely customers. Several--such as Volvo and Lexus--have already discovered that infomercials aired at select times can do a better job of reaching their audiences than millions of dollars spent on mass-market advertising.
“We’re not just in the business of producing TV commercials anymore,” said Tom Patty, executive vice president at the Venice ad agency Chiat/Day.
“We’re in the business of helping clients persuade consumers to do something,” said Patty, who oversees the firm’s Nissan and Infiniti ad accounts.
Just a handful of years ago, such statements might have been creative suicide at Chiat/Day, an agency whose reputation was built on creating some of the most talked-about campaigns on television, from “Planet Reebok” to Eveready’s rambling rabbit. But Chiat/Day is now forming an infomercial division. It is also developing new ads for Nissan to be tested next year on a new cable station in Orlando. The station, a Time-Warner venture, will make it possible for 4,000 consumers to push buttons on home remote controls to see in-depth product information.
“It’s all about allowing people to self-select,” said Brad Bradshaw, director of marketing communications at Nissan. “They will be able to get information on their own schedules instead of someone else’s.
There is no turning back. Even the top executive at the San Francisco agency that created the highly regarded “Got Milk?” campaign--featuring luckless folks who run out of milk at the wrong time--said many of his biggest clients are asking for ads linked to immediate action.
“Some are reacting out of fear,” said Jeffrey Goodby, chairman of Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein. “They say, ‘Everyone else is doing it, so how can we become part of this?’ ”
Others, he said, are simply taking solid measures to stay a step ahead of the competition. Goodby said his agency is creating a one-minute infomercial to promote a pay-to-play video game system from Sega of America that will be available through cable TV systems in 1994.
Next year will also be the year in which consumer product firms, in particular, bend over backward to reach out to customers--if only to find out who their customers are.
Last week, for example, Pepsi-Cola for the first time named a direct-marketing agency, Rapp Collins Worldwide, which will be in charge of helping Pepsi continue to build a database of frequent customers. Pepsi can then prompt the customers to take action by sending them coupons or alerting them to special sales.
At the New York ad agency Wells Rich Green, client Oil of Olay recently began flashing toll-free phone numbers in its TV spots, said Kenneth Olshan, chairman of the agency. “The object is to start any kind of dialogue with the consumer--if only to get their names,” he said.
Briefly . . .
Jay Chiat, chairman of Venice-based Chiat/Day, denies a report in the Dec. 13 issue of the trade magazine Advertising Age that he is in discussions with Paris-based RSCG about selling 49% of his agency in order to reduce debt. “There is absolutely no truth to it,” an angry Chiat said Monday. . . . Costa Mesa ad agency Salvati Montgomery Sakoda has merged with the Los Angeles office of the New York ad agency Bozell. The combined agency will be called Bozell/Salvati Montgomery Sakoda. . . . Los Angeles-based Dailey & Associates has picked up the ad business for the newly formed baked goods division of Sara Lee Bakery. . . . The $50-million-plus media-buying business that went to BBDO/Los Angeles last week will not result in layoffs at Bozell/Los Angeles because the majority of the business was handled out of Bozell’s New York office. . . . Anheuser-Busch has signed on as the first national sponsor of the Southern California Gay and Lesbian Exposition 1994, to be held Jan. 28-30.
