This week’s smackdown isn’t as cruel as you might expect. First, here’s the commercial….
The Good Thing To Notice In That Commercial: Your attention automatically is drawn to the singer, and — surprisingly unusual in radio advertising — she is communicating the sales message: “It’s easy to open a WAMU checking account online in under 7 minutes.”
All too often, it’s the announcer who delivers the sales message, while the singer “entertains”…and the message never is heard.
The Bad News (I mean, aside from the fact that they since have gone bankrupt): “Opening an online checking account in under 7 minutes” is hardly a Unique Selling Proposition. About as shocking as “now with ATM machines!”
What the heck was this commercial trying to accomplish? Can you imagine even one person opening a new account with WAMU as a result of hearing this spot?
But….Notice how you did hear that lame message. Why? Because your attention was drawn to the singer, and the singer delivered the (lame) message.
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Maybe it’s because I’m not from the good ol’ USofA but I had no idea what WAMU was so my interested was piqued to at the very least Google the name… that is, until I found out it was a cheque account. I already have one (which I’m sure most people have) so I decided not to. I also wonder how many responded. Creative advertising? Yes. Effective advertising? …. I think Judge Judy’s Jury’s still out on that one
The concept works for “Real Men of Genius”, but it does not work for WAMU. Great concept, misapplied. I agree with Rob Holding–the ad writer should have taken a step outside of herself/himself and thought about it from the listener’s perspective, starting with “What is a WAMU?” Oh yes, I’ve been to Seaworld…isn’t that the big whale that splashed me?!