Careful, Your Strategy Is Showing.

I'm a sucker for a good strategy. Any great campaign has, at its core, a single compelling idea that's born from killer strategic thinking. But never forget that a great campaign is essentially the marriage of two things: strategy and creativity.

The current Bud Lite campaign, while well done, is essentially a regurgitated strategy statement: The Difference Is Drinkability. How often, when deciding on what beer to buy, have you said to yourself, "You know what I like about a good beer? It's drinkable." Know what else is drinkable? Water. I would think being drinkable would be the price of entry for anything people are supposed to, you know, drink.

Just like I touched on in Wendy's New Flavor Of The Month Is... Flavor, most attempts to simply reflect a marketing strategy to your audience tend to fall flat.

Think also about the cold-weather campaigns for products like Mucinex. Before three years ago, no one ever discussed mucus in TV ads. Can't imagine why. All it took was a few focus groups, hearing folks say how much they don't like mucus (really? really?) and BAM-- Mucinex has this tagline: Mucinex in. Mucus out. Stirring, isn't it? Nike should take another look at Just Do It. Imagine if Charmin ran ads that said "The difference is wipability" or "Charmin in, poopy out."

Bottom line, there's a difference between what an ad says and how it says it. A big difference. You can convey drinkability, or mucus removal (gross), in a way that people actually relate to.

The strategy is for you, the marketer. The advertising is for your customers.

Comments

[Kevin Combs]

Were you implying 'Just Dookie It" with that poopy line? Either way... poopy out is funny stuff. So, did bud give you a call about fixing their campaign?