—Leo Burnett Bernbach said, “Execution becomes content in a work of genius.”
It is never more true than out here, where concepts can some- times be all execution without the traditional sales message. To have such an execution succeed, you’re going to need to know your cus- tomers better than the competition. You’re going to need to know what they like, how they think, and how they move through their world. If your idea reflects these inner realities, you’ll succeed, because your viewer’s going to think, “This company knows me.”
Here’s a good example of how keen awareness of the customer, an intuition, and incredible production values colluded to make advertising history.
Consider the following TV script. There is no music.
BANKER: “There’s a lot of paperwork here. There’s always paperwork when you buy a house. First one says that you lose
Figure 9.2 Nobody’s broken more rules than Nike.
the house if you don’t make your payments. You probably don’t want to think about that but . . . you do have to sign it. Next says the property is insured for the amount of the note. And you sign that in the lower left corner. This pretty much says that nobody’s got a gun to your head . . . that you’re entering the agreement freely. Next is the house is free of termites. Last one says that the house will be your primary residence and that you won’t be relying on rental income to make the payments. I hope you brought your checkbook. This is the fun part. I say that all the time, though most people don’t think so. (Chuckle.)”
This was one of the TV spots for John Hancock Financial Services that swept every awards show at the time. Accompanying this voice-over were images of a young married couple buying their first house as they sat in front of a loan officer’s desk. The scenes were cut with quick shots of type listing different investment ser- vices offered by John Hancock.
I’m sure that, on paper, the board looked a little flat. In fact, it probably still looks flat here. But this is precisely my point. In the hands of a director other than Pytka or a less seasoned creative team, this little vignette could have been flat.
But what made this storyboard work was the gut feeling the cre- atives had for the cotton-mouthed, shallow-breathing tension some people have upon buying a first home. They successfully brought the full force of this emotion alive and kicking onto the TV screen.
There were no special effects, no comic exaggerations, no visual puns, nor any other device I may have touched on in this book. Just an intuition two guys had, successfully captured on film. Check it out. It may be hard to find online, but it’s worth a viewing.
While you’re in the archives, look also for a spot called
“Interview” for United Airlines, done by Bob Barrie and Stuart D’Rozario (Figure 9.3). Nothing “clever” happens in this spot, either. It just shows a guy shave, put on a suit, and fly to some far- away city for a job interview. There’s no dialogue, and if there’s any drama to the spot it’s when he realizes he put on mismatching shoes. But the interview goes well, and he gets a call that makes him do a small jump for joy in the street. As we see him sleep in the plane on his way home, the voice-over says, “Where you go in life is up to you. There’s one airline that can take you there. United. It’s time to fly.”
If none of this exactly blows your socks off, again, that’s the point.
What makes this spot so different and so good is the understated
illustration style used in place of film. Go online somewhere, find the spot, and watch it. Like Bernbach said, “Execution can become con- tent.” How you say something can become much more important than what you say.
Mark Fenske told me, “You cannot logic your way to an audi- ence’s heart.” People are not rational. We like to think we are, but we’re not. If you look unflinchingly at your own behavior, you may agree that few of the things you do, you do for purely rational rea- sons. Consumers, being people, are no different. Few purchases are made for purely logical reasons. Most people buy things for emo- tional reasons and then, after the fact, figure out a logical explana- tion for their purchase decision.
So that’s the other piece of advice: Trust your intuitions. Trust your feelings. As you try to figure out what would sell your product to somebody else, consider what would make you buy it. Dig inside.
If you have to, write the damn strategy after you do the ad. Forget about the stinkin’ focus groups and explore the feelings you have about the product.
If an idea based on these feelings makes sense to you, it’ll proba- bly make sense to others. So sort out the feelings you have about
Figure 9.3 Set to Gershwin’s classic “Rhapsody in Blue,” the United campaign was all in the execution. This frame’s from a spot called “Rose.”
the product and then articulate them in the most memorable way you can. Someone once told me that the things about myself that are the most personal are also the most universal. Trust your instincts. They are valid.