The Culture of Communications

[The Culture of Communications]

Way to go Ogilvy UK. Great concept and fantastic copywriting. More brands should use the real estate and not be afraid of longer messaging. And congrats to Hellman’s for not asking that their logo be huge.

[The Culture of Communications]

Compelling ads with precious little copy…but what is there is powerful.

[The Culture of Communications]

[The Culture of Communications]

There appears to be only one layout in print advertising these days. A big, bold and hopefully clever image. Product name or logo in lower right. Ultra-minimalist copy. Could be the same product in each.

Agencies have taken the insight that consumers are busy and have short attention spans too much to heart (and to art and copy). You glance at these and they are instantly forgotten. The irony is agencies are training consumers to expect less and do not credit them with the intelligence to absorb and desire real information.

[The Culture of Communications]

How do you like to be marketed to?

Rich, relevant & not necessarily short communications are working. We want more content to make better decisions.

There is evidence that people enjoy a series of articles versus an advertisement. In fact, 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% believe it helps them make better product decisions (Roper Public Affairs). This has given rise to “content marketing”. According to The Content Marketing Institute it is “an approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

What is amazing about content marketing is the impression that it is new. Apparently, content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing their behaviour. That has been the intention of good, old plain marketing since mankind first traded.

If you look at one page advertisements from the early 20th century, content marketing was in great evidence. Marketers told stories in that space. Often these were a series of how-to’s exclaiming the benefits of a product or service. Both Heinz and Jell-O put out groundbreaking recipe books that instructed consumers how to integrate their products into meals.

Read the rest here and find out how Arcade Fire, American Express, Callaway, Random House and others are doing this so well.