Tony Attwood’s Blog

I had an email from Drayton Bird recently which really had me worried    Here is the opening

Do you recall an old TV campaign for Barclays? It must have cost millions, and featured Samuel L. Jackson walking though the country accompanied by a most appealing pig.

Being a bit thick, I didn’t see what this had to do with banking.

So I asked an audience of 1,500 salespeople if they thought it would persuade a single person to switch to Barclays. One person did. Most of the rest thought it would do nothing - or actually lose customers.

Then I asked a class of marketing students what they thought. Not one could even understand it - and even if they had, the most lucrative customers for any bank are middle-aged or older.

Now I remember seeing the ads, and particularly remember the first time I saw final one in that series, in the cinema.  Samuel L Jackson says to his wife, “Honey its your birthday.  What do you want.  Name it you can have it.  Do you want a diamond ring?”  She says no.  “Do you want a gold necklace?”  She says, no.  “Well how about a world cruise?”  She says, no.  “So what do you want?”   She says, “A Divorce.”  He says, “Hell I wasn’t thinking of spending that much.”

Half the cinema audience collapsed on the floor - hoots of laughter.  Cheers, clapping.   the other half sat stony faced. 

So what does that tell us?   That Drayton Bird and I have a different sense of humour?   Yes, but more than that.  No advert appeals to everyone.  Although Drayton Bird and the other gurus love to give long chats and analogies about ads, it always seems to come down  to the same thing - “these are the golden rules of marketing”.

I admit I have done the same on the site www.theory.bz - but the first rule that we came up with was that you have to get inside the head of the audience you want to communicate with.   Barclays clearly has customers from all walks of life, and those cinema / TV adverts were aimed at one group.  Maybe they had done some work and found that they were under-reaching people with a sense of humour.   Or people who had been divorced.  Or even people with quite a bit of money.  Whatever it was, they made those ads to reach one group, and that means that other groups would not get the ad.

It’s an area I feel quite strongly about because I use a direct mail technique which does make some people send me anonymous letters saying that they will never ever use my company, and that I am a total idiot, and that no one will ever buy anything from me because I don’t know how to sell.    Fortunately for me I have not aimed my adverts at people who would send anonymous letters.

I don’t think Barclays are the idiots Drayton Bird thinks they are.   I would suggest no ad appeals to everyone, and the prime rule of advertising is, know what your audience wants to see and read.  You have to get inside the head of your intended audience.

Which leads me back to the most worrying thing in Drayton Bird’s piece: Then I asked a class of marketing students what they thought. Not one could even understand it - and even if they had, the most lucrative customers for any bank are middle-aged or older.

What the hell does that mean?  The middle aged or older people don’t have a sense of humour?  Or that we don’t have the intellect to understand a piece of surreal advertising?

I am starting to get very insulted here.

If you’d like to discuss the point, call me on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood