I usually avoid talking about advertisements here but I could not help putting this one up. I have not seen any television advertising for the Accord 2009, but what I saw in print really caught my attention.
Imagine what perhaps would have been the brief for this piece of communication?
Accord is a well-known brand from Honda and has a history of more than 15 years or so. Thus with a new 2009 Accord coming to the market – the objective was not as much to talk about Accord as it was to talk about the 2009 version. It is not very difficult to imagine that, with one new version of Accord coming to the market almost every 18 months, the new features would be more incremental than transformational. The twin challenge could thus have been
1. How to make incremental changes, from a well-known brand, look interesting
2. How not to leave everything just to the looks of the car?
This is the beauty of this magazine advertisement. Here is how it addresses the above among other challenges, effectively:
1. Make a well labeled diagram but give it a story: The cross section of the car is more than just that – it uses a visual compartment with miniature people in it to demonstrate each feature. It makes each new feature personal and thoughtful and visually arresting. You will definitely stop and read more.
2. Talk about many things and yet give one message: The care has many new features – but the one message that it gives is that the new Accord is loaded much more than ever before
3. Do not just get stuck with the inside: The advertisement still shows the car from outside – looks take care of the rest of the concerns about “is the new Accord looking any different after all?”
4. Tell people what they want to know: Everybody knows Accord is good. Everybody also perhaps knows that the new Accord would be having something new. The question would be - what? This is exactly what this advertisement tells the reader.
Accord 2009 is a winning product. And if I were to go with this example, I would say that the communication also does full justice to make everybody understand that.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Introducing the well-known
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7 comments:
incisive. insightful. thats how i will describe your writing.
Thanks again for your kind words Amit.
Thanks again for your kind words Amit.
I have loved all your articles so far but i didn't enjoy this one. You have a certain novelty - a certain way of looking at things, i didn't see it come across in this post. I've always looked at you as the R K Narayan of advertising bloggers :)
Big fan nevertheless!
Hi Harshil, thank you for your candid feedback. I hope to keep up the standard. Would you like to write a little more about what disappointed you about this post.
The only thing is that i'v seen ads like these more than a couple of times and in my mind it seems like a tried and tested creative route.
You are right Harshil, the well-labelled diagram is an old approach. But this one goes a little further. I do not know if the picture that I have put up with the post is clear enough - but what it does is that it showcases each part/feature of the car as a special 'unit/department'. Something similar to what one sees in a big space ship, it even has miniature being manning each unit/department.
I thought it was new way to say something that was not that interesting after all. But then again, may be people can miss that detail.
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