By: Marjie the Intern
There are more choices in advertising placement today than ever before. Newspapers, billboards, Internet ads, sign spinners, dry cleaning bags, coffee cup sleeves, radio, TV, airplane banners… and the list goes on. A big part of creating a successful ad campaign is choosing the right ad vehicle for your demographic. I’m an intern here at AdEase and am in the under 25 demographic. Typically, I don’t read the newspaper, I don’t subscribe to any magazines, and for some reason I don’t seem to notice or remember billboards that I pass on the road. The advertisements that hit me hard and stay in my mind are the ones I watch on TV.
I grew up in a time when a lot of new technology launched and old technology made major advancements. While listening to my parents talk about how computers and cell phones were a thing of science fiction rather than reality, I had a computer in my household at the age of four and I got my first cell phone when I was nine years old. We got a DVR when I started high school. With all this technology in my world I watched TV like crazy rather than going outside to play catch or hide and go seek. Friends would come over and we would watch premiere nights together of our favorite shows. Television would be the only place I would find out about a new product or a sale going on at my favorite store. Today as a young adult, TV is still the place where advertisements really catch my eye.
However, it’s not just the visual ad that catches my eye; it’s the music playing along with it that really grabs my attention. Not only does it make me actually pay attention to the commercial, but also the tune stays in my head through the day having me constantly think about the commercial. Some commercials use everyday songs we hear on the radio like Dentyne Ice, AT&T, Verizon, and the famous iPod commercials. (I especially liked the recent one with “1234” by Feist.) Other commercials incorporate lyrics or have catchy jingles to go along with what they’re advertising. For instance, Chris Brown’s remix of “Forever” for Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, Bumblebee Tuna, creditreport.com, and Pepto Bismol. These commercials have a lasting effect and they’re not something I’m going to forget easily. I even find myself using my DVR to rewind and watch them again and again instead of fast-forwarding through the commercials. I’ll even admit that I wanted to learn all the words to the commercials so I even went the length of looking them up on YouTube. By now I’d be surprised if someone didn’t know all the symptoms Pepto Bismol could help with. The song on the commercial will have that burned in my memory.
Sometimes my parents will complain about how many commercials there are. I don’t mind. I skip the boring ones and watch the fun ones. If you want me to see and remember your ad, make an entertaining TV commercial. Then to really make it stick– add a catchy tune.
Watch and enjoy 🙂
