Introductory Advertising

The first lesson in advertising is that you must be different to succeed. There is no reason for consumers to spend time with advertising they have already seen a lot of.

Eighmey’s First Law of Advertising is “For any piece of advertising to work, it first must be seen, and to be seen it must be different.”

This explains why some American beer makers spend so much on advertising. They keep showing us the same old approaches and therefore they have to overspend on media to be noticed.

Success in advertising comes when you have the courage to try something really new.

My students know another of my Laws of Advertising: “When in doubt, rock it out.”

This points to rock music as a highly productive source of metaphors and narratives to capture attention and establish feelings so as to deliver selling propositions with inspiration and immediacy.

When it comes to what people seek and share in mass media and social media today, Tap King clearly understands both my philosophy of advertising and their own core consumers.

Lionel Richie is welcome everywhere, even in refrigerators (you could say he is one cool dude).

Everyone recognizes his rock ballad, but Richie’s performance turns the song around as the solution to the consumer problem.  We watch the commercial, we enjoy the surprise, we instantly appreciate the product.

This is one great commercial, and Tap King did not have to overspend on media to break through the clutter.

    Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.