Course Preview | Advertising and Marketing Communication Strategy from Kellogg Executive Education
5:24 min
31
In the 1970s, it was estimated that people saw between 500 and 1,600 ads a day across TV, radio, prints, and out-of-home. Today, with digital, that number is over 5,000 ads a day that we see. Now, how many ads do you remember from yesterday? One? None? Marketers have spent the last 20 years finding ways to show more ads and much less time on the strategy that makes ads that actually work. That is why we are here.
So, when we talked about this program and why we wanted to create this program, it really comes from a shared passion that we have.
Because we do not want to see bad advertising. We actually want to see great advertising. By great advertising, we mean advertising that moves brands, moves consumers, moves customers. To do that, we want to make you great strategists. We want to help you cut through all these demands on consumer's time.
And make advertisements that actually do matter. It's a hard task, it is not easy, and a lot of people can't do it, but we're going to accomplish this by giving you tools and cases that give you insight into effective communications, and the way Kevin and I like to think about this is if we were to take a random draw of everyone, you know, who is part of this program, and we said go develop an ad. That is a hard ask. Because it is a hard ask, what we'd probably see is a lot of what we'd call mixed results like, you know, maybe it moves the needle a little bit, maybe it has a little bit of effectiveness, but it doesn't do much.
Most ads. A few of you might say I'm swinging for the fences. You think outside the box, but you think so far outside the box that it is a disaster. It is a lot like a Nationwide ad, for example, that we kicked off this program with, right, where it really, really hurts your brand. And then a few of you swing for those fences might actually hit something that is really good. It sticks.
It is powerful, it is successful. But if it is anything like the data we have seen in the marketplace, it will be a small number. In fact, not only is it anecdotal examples from the marketplace, but academic researchers have cataloged advertising, looking at its effectiveness, and they find something that looks very much like a normal distribution where most ads fall flat. So, that might sound like a case of despair, but despair not. What we have found, through our course at teaching at Kellogg, is we are able to shift this curve. We are able to transform our students from having mixed to unsuccessful ads to primarily successful ads. Indeed, in our time together, you are going to see examples of where the advertising came from our students.
They did it, and it was massively successful. Now, you might see this current slide, and say what is this? This, if you are not familiar with it, is a Rorschach test. It is an inkblot. It is meant to be a projective test. So, I could ask Kevin, what do you think? I see two moths riding on horses.
Right. So, he sees two moths riding on horses. You might be seeing this, and say I have no idea how he got that. I see something very different. That is the beauty of the test is that it was meant to be a test for psychologists to evaluate what was on people's minds. Now, you might be saying okay, so, it is a Rorschach test. Okay. It is an inkblot. Why is this of relevance to this program? Kevin, why is this relevant to us as strategists?
Well, here is the problem. A lot of times when we are reviewing advertising, the creative team will show the ad. They will go around the room, say hey, what do you think of this ad? And you are like, oh, I like it. The next person says oh, I do not like it. The next person says I kind of like it. That is not very helpful. There is way too much ambiguity in that.
Now, I think like that ambiguity persists even when you say well, let us evaluate it then. Right. So, I go, okay, let me go ahead and collect some metrics.
So, several likes. That could be successful, or maybe it got picked up by a local news station. And here is the problem. If you do not approach advertising the right way, it seems like a projective test, which means there are no right or wrong answers, and therefore, you can never be accountable for failure.
That is not the position you want to be in. If you are actually responsible for governing the advertising, so, that is to say, you're developing the strategic plan, you want to know when you succeed or fail. If you are talking to people who are reporting to you and they are developing a plan, you want to know whether it is successful or whether it failed. And the beauty of the program is that is what we are going to do. We are going to solve for this. We are going to help you become strategists. You will hear us and use that term a lot. By strategists, we mean people who really think about the high-level strategy as opposed to the tactics of advertising, and we are going to make you effective in that capacity.
So, when we talked about this program and why we wanted to create this program, it really comes from a shared passion that we have.
Because we do not want to see bad advertising. We actually want to see great advertising. By great advertising, we mean advertising that moves brands, moves consumers, moves customers. To do that, we want to make you great strategists. We want to help you cut through all these demands on consumer's time.
And make advertisements that actually do matter. It's a hard task, it is not easy, and a lot of people can't do it, but we're going to accomplish this by giving you tools and cases that give you insight into effective communications, and the way Kevin and I like to think about this is if we were to take a random draw of everyone, you know, who is part of this program, and we said go develop an ad. That is a hard ask. Because it is a hard ask, what we'd probably see is a lot of what we'd call mixed results like, you know, maybe it moves the needle a little bit, maybe it has a little bit of effectiveness, but it doesn't do much.
Most ads. A few of you might say I'm swinging for the fences. You think outside the box, but you think so far outside the box that it is a disaster. It is a lot like a Nationwide ad, for example, that we kicked off this program with, right, where it really, really hurts your brand. And then a few of you swing for those fences might actually hit something that is really good. It sticks.
It is powerful, it is successful. But if it is anything like the data we have seen in the marketplace, it will be a small number. In fact, not only is it anecdotal examples from the marketplace, but academic researchers have cataloged advertising, looking at its effectiveness, and they find something that looks very much like a normal distribution where most ads fall flat. So, that might sound like a case of despair, but despair not. What we have found, through our course at teaching at Kellogg, is we are able to shift this curve. We are able to transform our students from having mixed to unsuccessful ads to primarily successful ads. Indeed, in our time together, you are going to see examples of where the advertising came from our students.
They did it, and it was massively successful. Now, you might see this current slide, and say what is this? This, if you are not familiar with it, is a Rorschach test. It is an inkblot. It is meant to be a projective test. So, I could ask Kevin, what do you think? I see two moths riding on horses.
Right. So, he sees two moths riding on horses. You might be seeing this, and say I have no idea how he got that. I see something very different. That is the beauty of the test is that it was meant to be a test for psychologists to evaluate what was on people's minds. Now, you might be saying okay, so, it is a Rorschach test. Okay. It is an inkblot. Why is this of relevance to this program? Kevin, why is this relevant to us as strategists?
Well, here is the problem. A lot of times when we are reviewing advertising, the creative team will show the ad. They will go around the room, say hey, what do you think of this ad? And you are like, oh, I like it. The next person says oh, I do not like it. The next person says I kind of like it. That is not very helpful. There is way too much ambiguity in that.
Now, I think like that ambiguity persists even when you say well, let us evaluate it then. Right. So, I go, okay, let me go ahead and collect some metrics.
So, several likes. That could be successful, or maybe it got picked up by a local news station. And here is the problem. If you do not approach advertising the right way, it seems like a projective test, which means there are no right or wrong answers, and therefore, you can never be accountable for failure.
That is not the position you want to be in. If you are actually responsible for governing the advertising, so, that is to say, you're developing the strategic plan, you want to know when you succeed or fail. If you are talking to people who are reporting to you and they are developing a plan, you want to know whether it is successful or whether it failed. And the beauty of the program is that is what we are going to do. We are going to solve for this. We are going to help you become strategists. You will hear us and use that term a lot. By strategists, we mean people who really think about the high-level strategy as opposed to the tactics of advertising, and we are going to make you effective in that capacity.
