If you’re interested in learning about the art of advertising I can recommend no book more than ‘The Advertising Concept Book’, which is not only something nice to put on your coffee table, but is also chockers full of sage advise, beautiful pencil illustrations and campaign deconstructions from author ex-Ogilvy adman Pete Barry.
The byline of the book ‘Think Now, Design Later’ sets out Barry’s stall; that great advertising is only great if its roots are in insight-led ideas. I was reminded of one of the lessons in the book recently when hearing and seeing some recent Irish ad campaigns. Barry talks about the difference between having an overall concept which leads to lots of different ideas and having one idea which gets spun out into lots of different versions. The latter circumstance is common in short-lived advertising campaigns, but it is a route which is often taken as the easy way out of generating overarching brand strategies. And there is a risk that repeating the same old ideas, even if in different ways makes a campaign run out of steam fast.
Firstly there’s the radio ads for the Television License Inspectorate where each ad describes a scenario where forgetfulness has led to disastrous circumstances. Then there’s the TV ads for the Lotto which sees different characters answering the question ‘What would you do for a million euro?’. Both are humorous if in an unremarkable, middle-of-the-road sort of way. My favourite of the Lotto ads is the one with the guy in high heels, mostly because men in drag are funny.
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Anyways, back to my point, because there is one brand which can offer a masterclass in how to avoid a repeated advertising idea from wearing thin. ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’ is a campaign which has been running for the best part of a decade without showing any sign of flagging.
You know you’ve come up with a successful ad campaign when your slogan is used by the average punter. Much of the reason the Specsavers idea has been so successful is because the ads are funny. And the idea still has legs because of the vastly different treatments it has been given over the years; from Mr Men to Edith Piaf to Postman Pat to The Lynx Effect, there has been a deliberate decision to vary the style of the ad execution so that the essential idea that ‘bad things happen if you don’t go to Specsavers’ keeps fresh.
