The concept of storytelling in advertising is a concept as old as advertising itself! Yet so many TV Commercials produced today ignore this wondrous and entertaining approach to communicating a message. Lately I came across two very good TV commercials that tell a story about a brand and do so beautifully! One is for Jameson Whiskey and the other is for Topline Kiss Chewing Gum. Have a look!
What can we learn from this? As a planner I would say the Topline Kiss is genius at multiple levels! I think the idea that someone thought of a gum for kissing is brilliant in itself. It is unique and puts everything in a whole new space. The second leap comes at the strategy level. The task here was to simplify and focus on the benefit. I think somewhere in the creative brief there must have been a key insight which went something like this, ‘A great kiss is long, intense, never-ending!’ and thus the idea of “for unbreakable kisses” must have been born! Kudos to all those involved! It would be great to get the creative brief from the team behind this!
As for the Jameson Whiskey ad! I think it is a very simple ad based on the “Taste” benefit. Something which we have seen in at least a million other commercials. What makes it stand out is the dramatization of this benefit in 30 seconds and doing so in a way unique to the brand. The characterization of the John Jameson! I wonder what the brief would have been like. I believe all the credit here goes to the creative team to crack an over-used benefit of taste in an interesting way!
great examples. its so true when you mention that we have so easily forgotten the power of storytelling in our ads… specially to make things simpler for us. i was sold on the idea of storytelling when i first saw the toyota camry viral http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmD4xZCMRao
I just saw the Toyota Camry Viral! It is awesome! It is unbelievable to see what they have done in 2 minutes! WOW! Thanks for sharing this!
The fascination for stories will never fade. Story telling sells in literature, media, advertising, politics, diplomacy and even in science. A layman will only find a science research interesting if the scientist tells it like a story. I wrote several posts on story telling, the latest is on the following link:
http://disciplinedcreativity.blogspot.com/2010/01/rose-tears-and-marketing.html