Great advertising is about message, not product

March 6, 2011 in Consumer marketing with 9 Comments

Many of my readers are not from the the USA, so may not have seen this advert (unless they happen to love American Football) but take 2 minutes and 3 seconds to watch this Superbowl advert:

Now, think back about how often the logo, the car itself or anything recognisable as “the product” were shown. They were there (so you see them the 2nd, 3rd … 22nd time you watch the ad), but they are NOT the message. The message is bigger than that, and the clever thing is that a strong, emotional message can be associated with the product with good advertising. In fact sometimes it actually makes it more likely if the product is not shown (think perfume ads).

How many businesses in the wine industry dare to advertise like this? Think, in particular, of “generic adverts” promoting regions such as Bordeaux, Alsace, etc. Or the battle to be the packaging and closure (screwcap, cork, ..) of choice. More often than not, they focus on the bottle of wine … and fail.

I’ve seen a few decent wine “Country” adverts promoting the wine alongside food & tourism, but they hardly break any mould.

I should point out that although I like the advert, it has little effect on me. This is a good advert for someone for whom “luxury” is a reason to buy a car. I personally think that Detroit has failed so massively because they failed to understand that more people are after practical cars with a much reduced impact on the environment (and not just modified versions of the same old stuff). Just as an advert for a wine, or wine product, I have tried and know I dislike would not appeal to me. However, it is a good way of communicating their message and helps you to change how you think about it even if you don’t buy it.

Oh, and an unexpected celebrity endorsement also works too

Is anyone doing something similar in wine? There must be some good adverts out there in print or video

UPDATE: of course, one thing leads to another and I start to see relevant content everywhere (though not wine yet). I LOVED this advert too:

About Robert: Robert McIntosh is a wine blogger and online communicator on WineConversation.com, a prolific twitterer (@thirstforwine) and an occasional contributor to wine magazines as well as speaking at wine events. Robert is co-organiser of the annual European Wine Bloggers Conference and Born Digital Wine Awards, promotes international online wine communication, and advises companies about how to engage through social media. Robert also has some trouble communicating in the third person.

All Posts by Robert | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Share By Email

http://blog.edwardes.org Warren EDWARDES

Must say I thought the video was eerie and disconcerting. And I didn’t recognise the “celebrity” endorser and I would been left none the wiser if his name wasn’t on the YouTube title. Now Shakira in the car would have got my credit card out.

Have a look at my own made computer-generated commercial. “Matching Wine with Spicy Food” http://goo.gl/R9aCV

There is also a non-commercial edited version. “Pairing Wine with Spicy Food” http://goo.gl/uLq9I
http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/ Tom Lewis

Some interesting thoughts here, but cars are not an artisan product with subtle, nuanced differences, so car marketing techniques will not work for wines – unless they are mass-produced, standardised, volume-driven wines such as certain New World countries produce (stand up, Australia).

One of the biggest issues for artisan wine producers right now is how to tap into the economies of scale on the marketing side without compromising individuality on the production side.

For more thoughts on wine marketing, check out this article:

http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/2011/01/marketing-new-world-and-old.html
- http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine
  
  I do know what you mean, but one of the worst sins the wine trade is guilty of is self-importance. “Wine is Different” is everyone’s mantra and in the interim, wineries close, other businesses in the value chain make the profits, and consumers remain confused. I’m not saying this is a solution for all wineries (it was aimed more at the generic bodies, I admit) but for heavens’ sake, lets stop going on about details that no-one cares about or understands, then blaming them for not understanding.
  
  Once the bigger picture is established (that wine is a thing worth thinking about and enjoying in a broader sense than getting you slightly drunk) THEN the nuanced stories of artisan producers will make more sense.
  - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/ Tom Lewis
    
    Hmmm, you’re talking about marketing to different sectors – on the one hand very broad, generic communications to non-wine drinkers to encourage them to try wine instead of beer etc and on the other much more specific messages about subtle differences between different terroirs and vintages.
    
    To me, the business of mass-market wines is a mug’s game; the supermarkets are far too canny and powerful to let wineries make decent profits – even Coke does not make much profit selling through supermarkets.
    
    By contrast, there are an increasing number of trade or marketing associations which are providing marketing expertise across a number of smaller-scale producers selling through independent wine merchants.
    
    Here’s an example of a dynamic one working in Austria:
    
    http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.com/2011/03/premium-estates-of-austria-wines-from.html
    - http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine
      
      not really – I’m not talking about converting non-drinkers. Much of my time is spent pointing out that wine consumers are not the same at all as “engaged consumers”. Just because someone buys a bottle doesn’t mean they bother to think about it before, during or after the purchase … and most times not even as they consume it!
      
      That is not necessarily ALL bad, but if we want to have more engagement, so that stories of small differences matter to more consumers more of the time, then we have to go beyond the very bland communications (including adverts) we have at the moment.
      
      Yes, supermarkets are an issue. The concentration of power in the distribution chain means that wines there are unlikely to squeeze much more profit out of it, but generic advertising isn’t ALL about supermarkets. There’s the on-trade to consider for a start, plus the growing potential of online retailers at the more premium level.
      
      Marketing associations will work IF they think outside the box (like the Douro Boys for example) but it is all too rare that they lead to genuinely interesting and different marketing propositions and not just a cost-saving exercise. That’s the challenge I’m hoping to address.
The Sediment Blog

So, we observe “how often the logo, the car itself or anything recognisable as “the product” were shown.” Then apply that to…Bordeaux? Which doesn’t have a logo, and whose bottle and product do not differentiate it from a thousand other wines?

Look, just buying the airtime for that ad during the Superbowl will have cost more than any winery’s entire marketing budget. And that’s before the money that is spent on producing a car ad like that, along with buying a celebrity endorsement. If wines spent those kinds of sums with advertising agencies, then they would get similarly successful ads.
- http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine
  
  I don’t think I ever suggested that wine companies would suddenly find the money to advertise during the superbowl or get Eminem on board. The point was about the creative process taken to share a message.
  
  In answer to your first paragraph … that is EXACTLY the point. Bordeaux advertising IS a picture of an undifferentiated bottle with a logo of some sort, and something about “men offering a chateau” … simultaneously sexist, dull and ineffective. They need to do something to rethink their message, give it an emotional element, and then communicate it effectively.
Guest

The first wine type label that ever stuck in my mind was Pouilly-Fumé and it was not because I drank it. It had to do with the seafood restaurant and the manner in which it was presented. It seemed to be the main event for the adults and I was much younger at that time. It is so vivid in my mind that I cannot delete it. Later on when I was older I tried the Loire Valley wine only because I had seen it served previously in a way that made me curious about it.
http://vinosambiz.blogspot.com Fabio (Vinos Ambiz)

Very interesting post and comments. As a small (tiny) wine-maker. my advertising and promotion budget is exactly ‘zero’. The only promotion I (can) do is via Twitter, FB, my blog etc, and even then, it’s inefficient and a mess, as I do it myself in my spare time, and have no time to learn how to do it properly! I even let my content be stolen by those awful paper.li publications because in my case ‘any promotion is better than none’ – that’s how bad things are promotion-wise for me and, I’m sure, hundreds of other small wineries.
So what’s a solution? All small wineries have interesting and unique stories to tell, but how to use that? We have to spend time growing grapes and making wine (and hold down a day-job and spend time with the family!!!)
There’s nothing I’d like better than to participate in some kind of marketing/promotion activity, but there’ no way I could organized it and execute it myself; someone would have to do that AND be willing to be paid for it in something other than cash (eg, wine, copyrights, or whatever).
Aye, it’s a sair ficht, innit?