I’m not a big advocate of TV ads. Generally, I believe that they are a downright waste of money. In fact, I believe you could be just as effective as throwing handfuls of company literature out of an airplane over a big city, with the hopes that the pamphlet will glide into the hands of the perfect consumer.
It used to work a little better when there were less choices and attention spans were much longer, but interrupting people’s lives has just never been a good strategy. Today the list of factors that must line up before a TV ad can be an effective form of advertising is longer than ever, making it very rare for an ad to rise above the clutter, and keep from being skipped by Tivo.
Nevertheless, every great once and a while a TV ad, or series of ads, will come along and defy gravity by maintaining the attention of the consumer, communicating effectively and producing results.
CareerBuilder.com’s new series of TV ads have peaked my interest. I find them quite humorous, which is usually a red flag in TV commercials. Many ads use unrelated humor to get noticed, but in doing so the messaging and branding is overshadowed. That’s why you can often remember a funny scene from a commercial, but then you have no idea who or what the ad was for. However, I found the humor in these ads to be very relevant and on target, depicting scenes that America’s workforce can immediately relate to.
I don’t want to say too much more about the commercials because I want to see if you can remember them when all you have been provided is the companies name, CareerBuilder.com, and my short vague description above.
Could you recall anything about the commercials?
Here are a few of the CareerBuilder spots:
Performance Evaluation
Training Seminar
Trap Meetings
Promotion Pit
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Did you remember the commercials?
Do you think these ads are effective or merely entertaining?
Hi Chris, I reviewed all four of the ads. The first two, I have seen many times. Here are my observations:
1. They are funny
2. They are relevant
3. They are highly entertaining
4. If you had not told me up front that they were from CareerBuilder.com, I would not have been able to recall the company’s name despite seeing the ads many times.
Bottom line for me is that I remember the ad but not the advertiser. Not sure what their objective was with the series, but I would raising brand awareness was on the list.
Doug
Doug,
Thanks for sharing your observations.
I think you are right. The CareerBuilder.com has done a lot right with the ad series, but were not able to make their company name memorable.
It’s a hard thing to do. With so many 15 and 30 second spots fighting for attention, they all get lost, not matter how entertaining they are. And lets face it, to many commercials are a good excuse to get a snack or use their brand new Tivo remote.
I’m no marketing guy, so my observations are strictly from the gut. I discussed the CareerBuilder series with a friend who is a marketing guy and he pointed out that a typical 30 sec spot has to be viewed repetitively before the message gets through. In addition to heavy frequency, it also helps if the campaign reinforces the message with vehicles in other channels (billboards, print, internet). All of this costs $$$. Companies that aren’t willing to spend that much money probably won’t get the response rate they were hoping for.