Those of you in the UK may have noticed that, hot on the heels of my last post, I can now also be found in the Adwatch section of this week's Marketing Magazine...waxing lyrical about...Volvic.
Hey, I never said I was consistent!
Anyway, you can read it here, complete with the heavy hand of Marketing's sub-editor, their dodgy title, and my name wrong (ah, journalists - gotta love 'em).
Or as God (or my good self) intended...
Rules are good. They’re there for a reason. We wouldn’t have them otherwise. And the rules of mineral water advertising, probably say things like ‘snow capped mountains’, ‘flowing streams’, ‘healthy’, ‘natural’, ‘beautiful models’.
What are we to make of the new Volvic work then? If you’re anything like me, the first response is probably ‘what the…?!’. A talking puppet volcano and camp t-rex: it’s just not right. But then maybe that’s the whole point. Not right…not what you expect…gets you noticed; gets a response. And for many brands, that’s the most important thing advertising can offer.
Lessons we can learn? Here’s my 5 tips…
- be true to yourself; celebrate why you’re great (no one else can be you after all) – Volvic is filtered through volcanic rock, ergo a talking volcano. Makes perfect sense.
- find your voice – obvious but easily forgotten. If you know who are you’ll know if George and Alan are the voice you want.
- don’t be bland; stand for something; have a point of view – though not explicitly stated, Volvic is clearly saying ‘bottled water needn’t be serious and po-faced’.
- be executionally bold and different if you want to cut through – you remember puppet volcanoes. I can’t say the same for any other water advertising.
- give people a hook; a nugget to (post) justify their choice – ‘volcano filtered so it’s full of volcanicity’, whatever it might mean, does this (but then I’m a sucker for a good, old fashioned end-line).
Obviously if you’re Danone you can let those crazy ad guys go and play with their puppets, because you’ve got big old Evian for all the sensible stuff. But what if Volvic were your only brand. Would you play a variation on Evian’s tune, or go with George? Sadly, I think most businesses would do the former. But for everyone who hates the Volvic ads, there will be someone who loves them. And that has to be a better basis for business success than studied indifference.
Oh, and the reason for having rules? To keep things exactly as they are. Is that what you really want?
Oh, and a big thank you to Tony Harris, COO over at Y&R, for this case of Volvic that's just arrived.
