Clichés, not coronavirus, can make your ads sick
It’s not popular to admit it, but some amount of cliché is necessary in advertising. You’re trying to communicate, in just 30 seconds, a message that the greatest number of people will understand, and clichés are shorthand for experiences we are all familiar with. Ads need to be quick and relatable, and human beings tend to “get” things that in some way resemble what they’ve seen or experienced before, and which strike a chord.
But when the same words, visuals, music and even insights are adopted by many brands at the same time, as happens with the ads aired during the coronavirus lockdown, the messages start looking the same and lose impact.
On top of all the threats coronavirus poses to our health and the health of our businesses, it’s also making our advertising a little weak. But what to do? Your brand needs to be out there, or you risk handing share of mind to the competition, if not on a silver platter, then on a petri dish.
To distance yourself from the look-and-sound-alikes out there, the first and most obvious things to avoid are those cookie-cutter phrases: “we are committed to…”, “our promise to you is…”, “together we will…”, “now more than ever…” . You’ve heard them before. A lot. To quote the cliché itself: In these uncertain times, make certain that you don’t say “in these uncertain times”.
The second solution might be trickier, since the lockdown has made on-set commercial productions almost impossible. Stock footage, which has come to the rescue of many brand messages, needs to be carefully chosen and edited to avoid that “generic” look. Try filming, even if it’s on an i-phone and done by non-professionals. Take a chance, and then get a very, very good editor. A fast-paced edit can help hide shortcomings, not just of home videos but also stock footage.
Third: careful with the soulful piano stock music! It’s a staple of coronavirus era advertising. If you’re not budgeting in music rights for popular songs or a custom made composition, there are many alternatives, such as these stock music sites that don’t suck, that can give you non-generic sounding tunes. A tip: consider stock music that has vocals; the human voice adds personality to a composition.
Last, and most important: don’t be afraid if a creative idea seems a bit strange or unusual. Remember what George Lucas said about Stars Wars, way in the very beginning: “I thought it was too wacky for the general public”. Then look what happened.