Ads Reach for 'Reality'

WSJ.com - In 2005, Madison Avenue Skipped the Glitz In Favor of Ordinary People, True Events; How the Marketing Maneuvers Measured Up By SUZANNE VRANICA and BRIAN STEINBERG
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


Glitzy television advertising, long the mainstay of marketing, fell out of vogue this year on Madison Avenue. In its place: frill-free commercials. Reflecting the proliferation of reality television, agencies embraced ads that used real people or looked like home videos.

Typical of the trend was an ad for Vonage Holdings Corp., the Internet phone service provider, which used a home movie of a skier leaping off a roof onto a pickup truck. A Toyota Motor Corp. spot was filmed to look like a home movie shot by two slacker dudes partying in the desert when a meteor hits their Tacoma truck. Anheuser-Busch Cos. has lately been running Bud Light ads shot documentary-style, which feature a fictional character named Ted Ferguson who performs daredevil stunts and rewards himself with beer.

The rougher-looking ads are a far cry from the polished commercials of the past that hinged on costly special effects and glamorous celebrities. Ad gurus say consumers are more accustomed to seeing raw footage these days because of the enormous amount of amateur video and unfiltered content available on the Web. "People are tired of commercials that look like commercials," says Ann Hayden, an executive creative director at Publicis Groupe SA's Saatchi & Saatchi. "People are looking for things that are real."

The search for realism extended to settings of commercials. Some creative directors traded exotic palm trees for ordinary filing cabinets, generating a slew of ads for products such as Kraft Food Inc.'s Cheese Nips crackers and Kellogg Co.'s Raisin Bran Crunch cereal set in humdrum offices that people can relate to. "The less formal, the more authentic it feels," adds Ms. Hayden.

The shift comes as traditional formats, such as TV commercials and print ads, are under intense scrutiny by major marketers who worry that customers are increasingly able to ignore their supplications. In some cases, advertisers are taking bolder steps and doing more than running a single ad. And they are increasingly interested in subtle marketing techniques, such as paid-search Web advertising and product placement in movies and TV shows.

In the end, advertisers still want to make some noise. Below is a list of our choices for the best and worst ads and other marketing maneuvers in 2005.

The Best

FULL-BODIED BUZZ

Client: Unilever's Dove

Agency: WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather

Content: Traffic-stopping billboards featured normal-size women striking a pose in their cotton underwear. The headline read: "New Dove Firming. As tested on real curves."

Feedback: Madison Avenue has long been lambasted for depending heavily on waif-like supermodels to hawk products. While Unilever isn't ending its relationship with thin women, the consumer-products company got credit for trying something new. Its ads generated numerous stories in the media; the women in the ads appeared on 85 national TV broadcasts, including talk-shows such as "Ellen." The ad effort even became fodder on late-night talk shows, with Conan O'Brien spoofing the ad showing men in their underwear.


DOMINATION PLAY

Client: Target Corp.

Agencies: Haworth Media and Peterson Milla Hooks

Content: The Minneapolis retailer bought all of the ad pages in the Aug. 22 issue of the venerable New Yorker magazine, owned by Advance Publications Inc. At the same time, Target commissioned various pieces of original artwork, featuring its red and white "bull's-eye" logo, to run as advertising in a periodical famous for its cartoons and clever artwork.

Feedback: Target's gutsy move -- in a medium that other marketers are pulling back from -- put a spotlight on the attention an advertiser can get when it buys up all the advertising in one outlet, instead of placing a single ad across many. Philips Electronics NV took a similar initiative this year, buying all of the network ad time on one episode of "60 Minutes." At least one party thought the New Yorker gambit missed the mark. The American Society of Magazine Editors, a group that monitors the separation between magazine ads and content, found the Condé Nast Publications periodical was in technical violation of guidelines because it failed to make plain to readers in a note from the publisher or editor that Target sponsored the entire issue. To many, however, Target's presence seemed rather obvious.



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Windows Media: HIGH | LOW (Player required)
RealPlayer: HIGH | LOW (Player required)SUPER FLAG WAVING

Client: Anheuser-Busch

Agency: Omnicom Group's DDB

Content: A Super Bowl ad from the maker of Budweiser beer is set in an airport, featuring a group of soldiers walking through an airport. A man begins to clap. Suddenly, everyone in the terminal applauds. The company name and logo appear in small print at the end.

Feedback: Known for its zany and often-sophomoric ads on Super Bowl Sunday, Anheuser-Busch took a chance with an emotional spot. While many companies have avoided flag-waving for fear of being seen as crass, the brewer's poignant ad hit the right chord with viewers by leaving out the hard sell. The ad was a favorite among the countless armchair quarterbacks who rate the ads.

CAUGHT ON FILM

Client: Nike Inc.

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

VIDEO


Download this ad.
Windows Media: HIGH | LOW
RealPlayer: HIGH | LOWContent: When golfer Tiger Woods sunk an amazing chip shot with a ball sporting the Nike logo at the Masters in April, it represented the perfect Madison Avenue moment -- a real-life incident that just happened to have Nike's famous "swoosh" mark as part of the action. Wieden + Kennedy took the footage and incorporated it into an ad, which chided the golfer for not hitting the ball so the logo was more prominent. It ran only for a week or two to avoid overcommercializing the moment, says Hal Curtis, a Wieden creative director.

Feedback: With incidents like these, who needs to make actual ads? Here's proof that real events can be as attention-grabbing as a singing cat or a catchy song. Nike's success makes you wonder if other advertisers might seize upon real-life moments that help promote their abilities.

DARING THEFT

Client: Volkswagen AG's Audi

Agency: Havas SA's McKinney + Silver

Content: To catch the interest of younger consumers who rely heavily on the Internet and mobile devices such as BlackBerrys, Audi set up a unique "viral" mystery on the Web that centered on a stolen A3 vehicle. To get people to play along, Audi sprinkled allusions to the theft in TV and print ads, billboards and anonymous newspaper classified ads. The references directed the curious to Audi's Web sites, where the drama played out.

Feedback: This sort of viral advertising relies on word-of-mouth to spread its message. It's a marketing technique that is likely to become even more popular in the months ahead as advertisers seize on the idea that consumers pay more attention to ads they have to make an effort to find. The campaign sparked chatter on blogs and Web sites. Audi estimated that about 500,000 people tried to solve the mystery. It sold more than 500 A3s in the first two weeks of the effort.

The Worst

HEARTWARMING TUNE, COLD RECEPTION

Client: Coca-Cola Co.

Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Content: The Atlanta beverage giant had the shop remake its legendary "I'd like to teach the world to sing" commercial from 1971. The new spot, intended to hype new Coke Zero, showed a youngster on a rooftop singing a hip-hop version of the old tune.

Feedback: The ad, which failed to describe Coke Zero, left consumers confused. The misstep was even used as fodder by rival PepsiCo Inc., which poked fun at the consumers' confusion in its own ad. Coke seems to come up with ads that fizzle rather than refresh. The soda giant has long struggled with marketing schizophrenia: It tries to appeal to younger consumers, but its executives demand that its marketing play well with the older crowd. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman says: "Strong year-to-date results for Coca-Cola Zero indicate that our continuous advertising and marketing is creating one of our most successful brand launches in recent years."



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Windows MediaDOMINO'S TRUMPED

Client: Domino's Pizza Inc.

Agency: WPP Group's JWT

Content: Domino's Pizza was the main sponsor of an episode of NBC's "The Apprentice," and cooked up a deal to have its brand featured into the show's plotline. The program centered on contestants creating a meatball pizza. Oddly enough, however, Domino's ads during the program showed Mr. Trump hyping Domino's new American Classic Cheeseburger Pizza -- not meatball. Domino's said it decided to promote a cheeseburger pie in the ad because meatball pizza "doesn't test as well with consumers." Meanwhile, rival Papa John's International, unable to buy ads during the national broadcast because of Domino's deal with General Electric Co.'s NBC, outmaneuvered its rival by buying lots of local ad time during the program in 64 markets around the country. Papa John's ad promoted a meatball pizza.

Feedback: Companies are spending millions of dollars weaving their products into programming, but Papa John's clever scheme points to the pitfalls in this technique. For the month during which the ad appeared, Papa John's reported an 8.6% increase in sales at U.S. stores opened more than a year. A Domino's spokeswoman said sales, profits and the company's stock price rose in the first three quarters of 2005. "We think that puts us on the best list, not the worst list, and our investors agree," she says.



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Windows Media: HIGH | LOW
RealPlayer: HIGH | LOWLUNCH WITH PARIS

Client: CKE Restaurants Inc.'s Carl's Jr.

Agency: Mendelsohn/Zien

Content: Famous-for-nothing gossip-column habitue Paris Hilton, clad in a revealing one-piece bathing suit, washes a sports car (and herself). Oh, yeah, she bites into a burger, too.

Feedback: It's disheartening to see advertisers hitch their wagon to lowest-common-denominator ideas such as these to generate attention, especially when others find success by avoiding the trend. But what attention: This ad never aired in certain parts of the country, and yet it garnered a national following and plenty of controversy. Despite the tawdry display, ads that generate buzz are likely to be repeated as advertisers seek ways to get people to watch ads rather than skip them. "We're not looking to be highbrow or artistic. We are looking to have ads that sell our products," says Andy Puzder, CKE's chief executive, who notes same-store sales increased when the ads were on the air.

AD ROADKILL

Client: Ford Motor Co.

Agency: WPP's Young & Rubicam

Content: A Super Bowl ad for Lincoln Mercury's Mark LT truck showed a clergyman lusting over one of the vehicles in the parking lot after finding the keys in the collection plate. He resists temptation by returning the keys to a man and his daughter when they arrive. The spot ends with the clergyman posting "Lust" as the theme of his next sermon.

Feedback: After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this spot, Ford pulled it just days before the big game. The trouble? A victims' rights group protested, linking the spot with scandals involving priests and children. "We wanted to make sure we were focused on launching our new vehicle and not being distracted by a controversy," says Sara Tatchio, a Ford spokeswoman. "We maintain the ad was a good ad but we had to make a hard decision."

PLANTED STORIES

Client: U.S. Department of Education

Agency: Omnicom Group's Ketchum

Content: In early January, it was revealed that conservative pundit Armstrong Williams had been approached by public-relations firm Ketchum on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education to plug the "No Child Left Behind" school-standards law. As part of the pact, Mr. Williams ran some ads during his TV program in 2004. During the time he was being paid, however, he also wrote some columns on the topic for Tribune Co.'s Tribune Media Services, which subsequently canceled his column. He also discussed the topic as a commentator in other media venues.

Feedback: The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the Education Department's pacts with Ketchum and Mr. Williams "amounted to covert propaganda," because his agreement was not disclosed when the commentator made his remarks. A Ketchum spokeswoman says the firm never intended to mislead anyone and has implemented new procedures. "No pundit or commentator should ever be involved with taking payments from the government," Mr. Williams says. "There will always be an inherent conflict. Always." A DOE spokesman says the maneuver was "stupid, wrong and ill-advised."