Five Things Marketing Execs Need to Know About Making Commercials
Posted in: UncategorizedA commercial production is the meeting point between a wide range of philosophies, personalities and entities in the marketing and advertising universe. The best end product –funny, engaging, beloved and talked-about TV ads — are the result of a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. A group of folks are thrown together for a relatively short period of time and tasked with creating something meaningful, effective and compelling. As I reflect on years of directing commercials and to a lesser extent, music videos, there are five fundamental truths about making commercials that all marketers and ad execs should keep in mind.
Ideas can always be value-engineered. Let the director find the most effective way to execute the commercial idea creatively while staying within budget. Every single choice they make impacts the bottom line. Some executives tend to knee-jerk towards ‘cutting’ line items down to make the budget work. That may be a recipe for disaster, resulting in the spot falling flat or just missing the mark. I always try to get a sense of the rough budgetary limitations early on. This way I can search for streamlined choices which maximize effectiveness of the idea and save on costs in one stroke. I want to find those creative choices which can help the budget work while simultaneously positively impacting the idea’s effectiveness and the client’s results. One example that comes to mind of this in action is the now iconic “The Most Interesting Man in the World” spots for Dos Equis, which include budget-conscious, but successful, table-side imparting of wisdom from the character that are as memorable and effective as the more expensive flashback montage commercials in the same series. That’s value engineering, my friends!
Point of view is everything. It takes a ton of contemplation and focus to drill down good creative and find the most effective point of view. Often times, the point of view determines whether the idea lives or dies on screen, or whether it’s funny or not. Audiences are sophisticated in ways they don’t even realize. They have acute sensors and are hyper sensitive to point of view and the rules of comedy. They immediately know when something works and when it doesn’t, even if they don’t know why. Can you imagine, for example, those frenetic, campy, tongue-in-cheek and wildly popular Old Spice commercials being approached any other way? Me either.
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