This ad offers almost no sales message at all
Setting aside four words, the ad above offers nothing in terms of a sales argument.
So can it be true that people are running this advert (and others like it) to try to sell more stuff?
Apparently so. Because, as I learned in my lecture that fateful day, advertising is a signal.
Advertising is a signal
Here’s how the ‘signalling’ theory of advertising goes:
Advertising is expensive.
So brands that pay to advertise probably believe in the quality of their product.
People (or, in marketing talk, ‘consumers’) realise the above. So when they stand in a shop wondering whether to buy Tovaritch! vodka or a non-branded equivalent, they understand Tovaritch! is probably not completely terrible. The brand runs expensive ads, after all.
They deliberate. Then they pick up a premium-priced bottle of Tovaritch!, just to be on the safe side.
If you remain unconvinced, ask yourself (UK-folk) if you’d prefer to buy Tovaritch! vodka or Absolut.
Tovaritch! – the world’s most awarded vodka – isn’t advertised here in the UK… and that’s why we prefer Absolut.
Plus, brands that advertise can charge a premium
As an added benefit, brands that run expensive ads can usually charge a premium and still make sales, just because they’re advertising.
Their ads require no sales argument whatsoever.
There are no shackles.
You can go ahead and run an advert depicting a cartoon astronaut drinking vodka on the moon.
You’re still advertising. So you’re still OK.
So long as advertising is expensive.
Cheap, online advertising is not a signal
Of course, in the digital realm, advertising isn’t particularly expensive.
In fact, you can get started for just a few pence.
So online advertising is not a signal.
And that means the mere act of running online ads is not enough to change people’s behaviour.
It’s not enough to convince people to buy.
Online advertising must try to sell
So to be of any real use, online ads (that are unsupported by offline advertising) must try to sell.
That probably explains why people like Eric Visser believe online ads are typically less ‘creative’ than TV or print ads.
Online ads can’t just be branded entertainment.
Instead, online ads usually attempt to get people to buy.
No astronauts drinking vodka on the moon. Just sales messages attempting to get people to do something.
Online advertising unsupported by offline advertising cannot simply be branded entertainment. It must get people to do something.
Can ads build brands and sell at the same time?
Now – here’s where things get really interesting.
Is it possible to create ads that build a brand (so you can charge a premium) and that sell stuff at the same time?
Again, apparently so.
Here’s an ad from a (D&AD award-winning) campaign that did neither: