Yesterday, I was taking a leisurely stroll through the ever-busy streets of social media, Instagram precisely, when a video ad-freshly released from the stables of financial giants, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, grabbed my attention. It was an advertisement for its pension subsidiary, IBTC Pension Managers, posted on its handle.
Building on the strategy that every journey-like the journey of securing the future- can be easier with simple directions, the ‘two-man’ cast commercial leveraged sheer simplicity and excellent audio-visual delivery to sell its message.
The commercial begins with a lady seeking direction to one ‘No. 2, Johnson Street’ from a stranger jogging on a lonely street. The helpful stranger, perhaps to give her a detailed and vivid description to where the street is, gave the following directions:
“You just go straight on longitude 155. Now take a 360 degrees’ turn and turn left, then turn right on latitude 379. Are you following? Face the south and transverse the trajectory. At that point, you will notice a newly old turning, take the sharp turn and at that turn, turn at angle 90, and boom, you are in Johnson street. You can’t miss it,” he told the now completely bamboozled lady.
The key message to the commercial now followed: “At Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers, we believe that the journey ahead should be simple. Let our experienced Pension Managers support you.” This is followed by an apt call-to-action: “Switch to IBTC Pension Mangers today.” Tapping into the momentum of the commercial, the handle adds: “Visit http://bit.ly/StanbicIBTCPensionDirections let’s show you the simple way.”
The commercial was regrammed by Brand Communicator on its official handle and has garnered views, reactions and comments from its organic followers comprising experts and professionals across the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) spectrum. Instagram user @lifestylehues’s reaction indicates that the commercial did not break the bank to pass its message: “…looks budget friendly too, relatively. Nice!” Another user, @akaoma who readily identifies with the message noted: “Wahala for who no carry atlas dey find No 2 Johnson street o. Longitude 155 and latitude 379 indeed. Lovely ad, engaging and conveyed the message aptly.”
Now, the feelings I got from just watching the commercial, the tingling sensation of wonder is reminiscent of that of two years ago, watching the best of ads across Africa and the Middle East showcased at the Durban International Conference Center (ICC), in South Africa, at the 41st Loeries Awards. Indeed, the Stanbic Commercial possesses the ‘wow factor,’ the pizzaz, that global award-winning works are made of.
The commercial rode on the back of simplicity to achieve its wow effect. This simplicity has always been a point of emphasis for one of my lecturers, Dr. Edith Ohaja, back then in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), whenever she poses the rhetoric question, “why ‘purchase’ when you can simply ‘buy’?” Her question reinforces Thomas Jefferson position that the most valuable of all talents is, “that of never using two words when one will do.”
Also, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said of simplicity, “In all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” Apple’s first marketing brochure in 1977 quoted Leonardo da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Simplicity was more than a slogan to Apple’s Steve Jobs. It was a requirement. Years later, when he was overseeing the design of the iPod, Jobs insisted that each prototype pass a strict test. If he wanted to access a song or a function, he wanted to get there in no more than three clicks.
Asides its simplicity, relatability and the fact that the minute-long Stanbic Pension Managers commercial passes its message quite effortlessly without ambiguity, it easily passes the three tests of memorability, simplicity and consistence for a great ad. Definitely, it builds or refreshes a memory in the minds of whoever sees it. It is also very easy to understand and its message is consistent with the bank brand’s messages across boards. Almost everyone can relate to having to rely on a total stranger for directions at one point or the other despite the availability of mobile apps like Google Maps. Many can also relate to descriptions that have led them far off their sought locations or veered them completely off their course. This commercial scores very highly on tapping into this supposed insignificant brouhaha in people’s everyday lives to pass its brand message. Also, seeing that ad and remembering how my own father struggled with the complexities for his pension and gratuity years back, makes it relatable for me.
Research has shown that ads make more of an impact when they are simple and easy for viewers to comprehend. Simple ads should be effective across media types and carry their message clearly whether on a billboard, a television ad, or a website. I remember coming across a foreign radio spot that featured the sound of a car with a dead battery. For 25 seconds, listeners heard the groaning “err errr errrr” of a battery that was fading. The only words were in the voiceover at the end: “This wouldn’t have happened with a DieHard battery.” Additional words would have killed the drama. The message was simple and clear!
Another great example is the Nike slogan, created in the late ’80s and still wielding power today. Widely recognized as one of the best advertisements of all time, “Just do it” is simple and powerful. It speaks to the core issue that Nike is trying to solve for its customers: No matter what it is you are doing, just do it. Push beyond your limits, whether those limits are one flight of stairs or an ultramarathon.
Simplicity is important because advertisers have a fraction of a second to gain the target audience’s attention. In today’s hectic and cluttered online environment, you have only milliseconds to get consumers to see and comprehend your ads. That’s why basic and straightforward ads make a bigger impact than clever, visually complex ads. Eye-tracking research has shown that people actively try to avoid ads, according Michel Wedel, a leader in eye-tracking data research and a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Of particular interest is a study in this area carried out at the University of Maryland and co-authored by Millie Elsen and Rik Pieters of Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Here, researchers tested reactions to ads over periods as short as 100 milliseconds, which is less than a full glance. The authors divided the ads into three categories: upfront ads, which present a product in a straightforward, expected and typical way; mystery ads, whose visual complexity requires work on the part of the viewer to decipher; and false-front ads, which use a clear image of one thing to sell something else.
The researchers tested the different ad types in experiments involving 1,360 test subjects and 50 advertisements. The experiments looked at the participants’ reactions 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, two seconds, five seconds, and 30 seconds after they viewed an ad. A final experiment let the participants look at ads as long as they wanted.
The study’s authors found that upfront ads, such as a photo of a bottle of orange soda to sell orange soda, were understood and received positively by viewers in 100 milliseconds. The participants continued to view these ads positively over five, 10 and 30 seconds.
The mystery ads weren’t viewed as positively as upfront ads in the initial glimpse, but they gained in approval over time. One mystery ad used in the research was an ad for apple juice. The ad showed a ninja severing a rope holding a refrigerator, which was about to crush apples to make the juice.
The false-front ads, such as one that used a headshot of a blond woman to sell wheat beer and ads that take the form of news articles, were initially received positively because they appeared logical. However, the longer the participants looked at these ads, the less favorably they viewed them, because viewers had enough time to reorient themselves to the correct interpretation. The study also found that a viewer’s familiarity with the brand being advertised didn’t affect which type of ads they preferred.
The research, as this article isn’t trying to tell advertisers or creative agencies to stop being creative. It is simply a call to look at the simpler ways of passing messages that help brands win in the marketplace. Of importance is that fact that the Stanbic Pension Managers #Direction commercial may not win at local awards like the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF), or make it to continental showcases like the Loeries or African Cristals or even get a mention at prestigious global stages like the Cannes or New York festivals but it will definitely resonate where it matters the most-the mind of the consumer.
