How to Watch TV for Your Brand. You Can Learn a Lot. 2005 Qtr 2
Everyone likes to be a critic when it comes to evaluating television advertising. The ads that run around the Super Bowl are particularly fair game. But if you take a step back and think about what you’re viewing, you can really learn a lot from your daily TV watching.
The point is to be actively engaged in what you’re watching. Rather than passively watching the commercials that surround your favorite evening program, what if as you watched, you asked yourself these types of questions:
- Who is the intended target audience for an ad message? — Think about who an ad is trying to target and why you may or may not be the intended audience. As a result, do you think that determines your personal reaction to an ad?
- How did they do that? — Keep track of interesting messages and techniques employed in the ads you view, and tabulate how these could possibly translate to your branding efforts.
- Do you like the production values? — Pretend you’re in a focus group and have been asked to react to the commercials as a consumer. Make your own assessments about the voice overs, how the commercials were filmed and consider your findings when producing your own company’s marketing materials.
- Are there any underlying correlations to your own branding efforts? — Even if an ad’s subject matter is 180° different from your own brand, consider how you could relate it to your own brand. For example, Target’s advertising recently moved from ads that visualize multiple red targets from scene to scene to a spot featuring interesting segues between various branded products. Upon reflection, should you consider moving your brand’s marketing in a new direction?
When you are actively aware of and engaged in the marketing and communications that surrounds you on a daily basis, you can be open to new ideas that can enhance your brand. Don’t ignore some of the more obscure forms of communication as well — from the signs that greet you when you enter the grocery store to product packaging, even the want ads posted near intersections. Think about what works and what doesn’t. You’d be surprised what you can learn when you open your eyes and your mind.
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